Borrowing the closing line from King Kong and morphing it a little “Oh no, it wasn’t Giteau that killed Garfield, it was the doctors!”, makes it fit Book Number 3 of 2013 Destiny of the Repbulic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard. The subject of the book is the assassination of the 20th President of the United States, James A. Garfield. Considering the mass of information that most history classes cover about all you ever hear is that Garfield was shot by a disgruntled person who wanted a civil service appointment. What we weren’t told was the appointment Charles Giteau wanted was Ambassador to France, or what an amazing man and beloved President, Garfield was,if only for a short period. The tale of the assassination involves obviously Garfield, and Charles Giteau his assailant, but also includes the theories of Joseph Lister and the inventions of Alexander Graham Bell! Millard has taken these pieces and woven a fine and easy reading and enjoyable book!
A little about the characters. First James A Garfield. Garfield was born into extreme poverty his father was killed when he was to and his family was left with nothing, but through hard work and education Garfield rose to become a graduate of Williams College, a Union General and eventuallly the Republican nominee for President, When on the 34th ballot at the Republican Convention, Garfield’s name was placed in nomination Garfield’s reply was ” I challenge the correctness of the announcement. The announcement contains votes for me. No man has a right, without the consent of the person voted for, to announce that persons name and vote for him, in this convention,. Such consent I have not given….”. The chair refused his objection and eventually Garfield became the nominee. Garfield was a staunch abolitionist and his election was the first time blacks and whites voted along side each other to elect a President. In many ways his election reminded me of Obama’s because of what it meant to African-Americans!
Charles Giteau was insane no question about it his mission in life was to remove the President and save the nation and in the process, he would be loved by the new President Chester Arhtur and Sherman would march to the jail to free him! Giteau was known around the White House and visited often and at one point he even met the President! He stalked him for days before finally deciding on the train station for the execution. He never believed that he was doing anything wrong just removing the President much as if he died of natural causes!!
But the real kicker is that if it wasn’t for the treatment he received after the shooting lead by Dr Willard Bliss, he probably would have survived. Millard comments that if he were a derelict shoot in the Bowery of New York he would have survived. One of the main reasons for this is that the American Doctors did not believe in the antiseptic theories of Joseph Lister! Even though death related to infections were dropping rapidly throughout Europe where Lister’s methods were employed!! The US doctors still wouldn’t believe, so they probe the wounds with fingers and unsterilized instruments and eventually Garfield rotted from within!
National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, DC.
For 11 weeks Garfield endured unsterilized probings, large doses of quinine and a vermin-infested sickroom.
Finally, Alexander Graham Bell was thrust into the story as he rushed feverishly to create an induction machine that would find the bullet! He may have succeeded but Bliss was convinced that the bullet lay on the right side of Garfield’s body and would only allow Bell to search that side of Garfield’s body!
In this book that I think is the key to loving history she focused on the people that made the history and made the time period come alive with her descriptions of the cast of characters that surrounded the assassination!
NY Times Review: The Doctors Who Killed a President
