Plain History Volume 1: Who Killed President James Garfield?

Summary

Plain English with Derek Thompson: Plain History Volume 1 – Who Killed President James Garfield?

Release Date: January 21, 2025

In the inaugural episode of "Plain History," host Derek Thompson engages in a profound discussion with renowned historian Candace Millard about her New York Times bestselling book, Destiny of the Republic. The episode delves deep into the tumultuous period surrounding President James Garfield's assassination, exploring the interplay of politics, medical practices, and the broader societal implications of his untimely death.

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1. Introduction to James Garfield and the 1876 Centennial

The episode opens with a vivid portrayal of the United States' 100th birthday celebrated at the U.S. Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia during the summer of 1876. Amidst displaying groundbreaking inventions like Alexander Graham Bell's early telephone and Joseph Lister's antiseptic theories, James Garfield, then a 44-year-old Congressman, attends the fair with his family. Millard emphasizes Garfield's remarkable journey from humble beginnings to becoming a respected intellectual and future president.

Notable Quote:

"James Garfield was born in a log cabin... by his second year, while he himself is still a student, he's just a sophomore in college. They made him a professor of literature, mathematics and ancient languages."
— Candace Millard [09:25]

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2. Garfield's Rise in Congress and Principles

Derek Thompson and Millard explore Garfield's tenure in Congress, highlighting his advocacy for black suffrage, his staunch belief in hard money backed by gold, and his dedication to the establishment of the Department of Education. Garfield's eloquence and progressive values set him apart from his contemporaries, painting him as a beacon of the American Dream.

Notable Quote:

"There is no horizontal stratification of society in this country... Every individual drop is free to move."
— James Garfield [12:49]
"Garfield himself rose up from the sternest depths of the mighty deep."
— Derek Thompson [13:12]

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3. The 1880 Republican Convention and the Spoils System

The narrative shifts to the 1880 Republican National Convention in Chicago, where Garfield unexpectedly becomes the party's nominee after delivering an impassioned, extemporaneous speech that captivates the crowd. This pivotal moment underscores the tumultuous nature of Washington politics, dominated by the spoils system—a practice of granting government jobs to political allies and supporters.

Millard introduces key figures like Roscoe Conkling, a staunch supporter of the spoils system, and Chester Arthur, who becomes Garfield's running mate as a concession to Conkling's influence.

Notable Quote:

"As I sat in my seat and witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to me a human ocean in tempest."
— James Garfield [17:38]

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4. Charles Guiteau: The Catalyst for Tragedy

Central to the episode is the introduction of Charles Guiteau, a failed lawyer and deranged individual obsessed with Garfield. Believing that his support secured Garfield's presidency, Guiteau becomes fixated on earning a political appointment. Millard paints a stark contrast between Garfield's integrity and Guiteau's madness, setting the stage for the impending tragedy.

Notable Quote:

"Charles Guiteau was really Garfield's opposite in every way... he believed he had these visions of grandeur."
— Candace Millard [26:14]

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5. The Assassination and Medical Mismanagement

On July 2, 1881, Garfield is shot by Guiteau at a Washington D.C. railroad station. Despite surviving the initial attack, Garfield's prolonged suffering is exacerbated by Dr. Willard Bliss, whose negligent medical practices prove fatal. Millard details how Bliss's refusal to adopt antiseptic methods and his obsession with locating the concealed bullet deteriorate Garfield's health, ultimately leading to death from septic infections.

Notable Quotes:

"He writes strangulatis pro republica. Tortured for the republic."
— James Garfield [40:32]

"The immediate cause of Garfield's death was profound septic poisoning."
— Candace Millard [46:21]

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6. The Aftermath: Political Reform and the Pendleton Act

Garfield's death serves as a turning point in American politics, galvanizing public opinion against the rampant corruption of the spoils system. Chester Arthur, initially perceived as a puppet of Conkling, undergoes a transformation, advocating for and successfully implementing the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act. This legislation marked the decline of the spoils system, promoting a merit-based approach to government appointments.

Notable Quote:

"He never became a great president, but he became an honest president."
— Candace Millard [51:28]

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7. Legacy and Lessons Learned

In concluding the episode, Millard reflects on the irony that advancements in medical technology, such as X-rays and antiseptic surgery, which emerged shortly after Garfield's death, could have saved his life. The episode underscores the dangers of ignorance and arrogance, both on a personal level with Guiteau and systemically within the political framework of the time.

Notable Quotes:

"Ignorance and arrogance always go hand in hand and they are always the most dangerous foe that we face."
— Candace Millard [53:00]

"He [Garfield] came into this not owing anything to anyone... he had to express what he believes."
— Candace Millard [47:55]

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8. Reflective Quotes from Garfield

The episode wraps with poignant reflections from Garfield himself, encapsulating his character and the themes explored throughout the discussion.

Notable Quotes:

"I sometimes think that we cannot know any man thoroughly while he is in perfect health."
— James Garfield [54:56]

"I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute."
— James Garfield [55:40]

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Conclusion

Derek Thompson and Candace Millard present a compelling exploration of President James Garfield's life, assassination, and the consequential reforms that reshaped American politics. Through meticulous historical analysis and engaging dialogue, the episode highlights the intricate connections between individual agency, systemic corruption, and the evolution of medical and political practices in the late 19th century.

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For further insights and detailed narratives, listeners are encouraged to delve into Candace Millard's Destiny of the Republic.

Transcript

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[Narrator]

Summer of 1876, the United States celebrated its 100th birthday at the U.S. centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Even at the ripe old age of 100, the American Project at this moment was unfinished and unstable. The Civil War had ended hardly a decade earlier, and freed slaves still lived in fear and poverty. In the west, settlers in infamous frontier towns like Deadwood were being terrorized by the likes of Jesse James and Billy the kid. Of the 50 countries represented at the 1876 fair, the host, the United States, was the only one to not yet have a national anthem. But in Philadelphia, the mood was joyous. Of the millions of people who walked through the grounds, one was James Garfield, who attended the centennial with his wife and six children. In four years time, he would be elected president at a shocking and chaotic Republican convention. But for now, he was just a 44 year old Congressman known in Washington for being a Bit of a rags to riches genius. Born in a log cabin, he had become a professor, an expert in ancient languages, and even published an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem which ran in the New England Journal of Medicine while he served in Congress. Sort of funny to imagine by comparison AOC Mike Johnson publishing science papers in Nature. In between cable news hits. Garfield was a perfect match for the centennial grounds, which were themselves this gaudy showcase of genius. In the machinery hall, visitors could pay for a machine to embroider their suspenders with their initials. They could gaze at one of the world's first internal combustion engines, a technology which would in the next 50 years remake the world by powering millions of cars, tractors, tanks. They could see the first Remington typewriter and Edison telegraph system in the main exhibition building. A little known teacher for the deaf caused a riot at this centennial with a little science experiment. In one room, this teacher held up a little metal piece to his mouth and read Hamlet's soliloquy into a little transmitter. In a separate room, the Emperor of Brazil, sitting with an iron box receiver pressed against his ear, heard every word to be or not to be reverberating against his eardrum. The teacher's name was Alexander Graham Bell, and the instrument in question had three months earlier received a patent for the world's first working telephone. A few yards away from Bell, a scientist named Joseph Lister was having much less success trying to explain his own theories of antisepsis to a crowd of skeptical American doctors. Lister claimed that the same little organisms that Pasteur had said turn grape juice into wine also turned our wounds into infestations. Lister encouraged the doctors around him to sterilize wounds and to treat their surgical instruments with carbolic acid. But American doctors laughed him off. Dr. Samuel Gross, the president of the Medical Congress and the most famous surgeon in America in the 1870s, said, quote, little if any faith is placed by enlightened or experienced surgeons on this side of the Atlantic. In the so called carbolic acid treatment of Professor Lister. American surgeons instead believed in open air treatment, which is exactly what it sounds like. So here are three characters of a story. James Garfield, Alexander Graham Bell, Lister's theory of antisepsis. They were united at the 1876 Centennial and they would be united again in five years under much more gruesome circumstances, brought together by a medical horror show that would end with a dead president. And that is the subject of today's episode. It's also the subject of the New York Times bestselling history, Destiny of the Republic. By the historian Candice Millard. Today's guest is Candace Millard in the first episode of a little experiment we're doing this year, a podcast within a podcast on history, which we're calling, simply enough, plain history. There are, I am very well aware, a great number of history podcasts out there, but one thing that I wanted to do with this show is to pay special attention to how the past worked. How does the life and death of James Garfield teach us about what medicine was like in the 1870s? How healthcare functioned 150 years ago? What assumptions did experts make about the body and health and life and disease? And how can their assumptions, their sometimes disastrously overconfidentassumptionsinspire us to reevaluate our own sometimes overconfident assumptions about how the world works in 2025. James Garfield once wrote beautifully of his faith in progress. Quote, the scientific spearmint has cast out the demons that presented us with nature. He said, it has given us, for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of chemistry, for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths of astronomy, for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental laws of geology, for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God. Garfield believed in science above all things, which only deepens the irony and the tragedy that in the end, he was killed not by a madman's bullet, but by the hubris of doctors and of science. I'm Derek Thompson. This is Plain History.

[Derek Thompson]

Candace Millard.

[Candice Millard]

Welcome to the podcast.

Hi. Thanks for having me.

[Derek Thompson]

It is an honor to talk to you.

[Candice Millard]

Your book, Destiny of the Republic, is absolutely splendid.

[Derek Thompson]

Let's start here. You're a historian. You have written books about Winston Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, giants in history, two of the most famous men maybe of the last 200 years.

[Candice Millard]

Why James Garfield? What drew you initially to this story?

Well, it wasn't the fact that he was president, and it wasn't even the fact that I knew anything about him. Like most Americans, unfortunately, all I knew about him was the fact that he had been assassinated so early in his presidency. I was actually doing research on Alexander Graham Bell, and I wanted another book that had a lot of science in it. I was just doing general research and I stumbled upon the story of him trying to save Garfield's life after he was shot. And I thought, why would he do that? I mean, obviously Garfield was president, but Bell was young. He had all this attention for the first time. He had a little bit of money for the first time. He had so many ideas and he dropped absolutely everything he was doing to try to save Garfield. And I thought, huh, I wonder what Garfield was like. So I started researching him and I was just blown away. You know, he was just an extraordinary human being who's been almost completely forgotten. And it just captured my heart and my mind and my imagination and I really wanted to try to tell the story.

[Derek Thompson]

In addition to being an extraordinary figure.

[Candice Millard]

Garfield is a beautiful writer.

[Derek Thompson]

And each of your chapters begin with an excerpt from his papers, his diaries, his letters as you collected them and read them. And I'm going to try to do my best as we lead listeners through this story of James Garfield to seed.

[Candice Millard]

This story with little quotes from your book.

[Derek Thompson]

So we can hear from Garfield himself because he really is an incredibly poetic, lyrical writer.

[Candice Millard]

Let's start at the very beginning. Tell me about James Garfield's birth, his.

[Derek Thompson]

Rise to prominence from his childhood in Ohio.

[Candice Millard]

So he was incredibly poor. He was our last president, born in a log cabin. His father died before he was 2 years old. He didn't have shoes until he was 4 years old in Ohio. And so he had an older brother and his mother who just saw very early on that he had a very unusual mind. And they worked really, really hard to save a little bit of money to try to send him to college, but he went. So he went to what was then called the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, it's now Hiram University in Ohio, but to still to help pay his tuition. His first year, he was a janitor and a carpenter. But he was so brilliant that by his second year, while he himself is still a student, he's just a sophomore in college. They made him a professor of literature, mathematics and ancient languages. He was an incredible classicist. He knew huge parts of the Aeneid by heart in Latin. By the time he was 26, he was a university president in Congress. While he was in Congress, he wrote an original proof of the Pythagorean theorem. So, I mean, I don't know if you can name a congressman today who could do that. I can't. But he was addressed a genius. He really was just a brilliant, brilliant. He was also, I mean, as you said, he was an incredible writer. He was also an incredibly magnetic and persuasive and powerful speaker. And he was known early on in Congress for being that. But to me, what makes him more interesting even than his mind was his heart. You know, he was really a decent, kind human being. You know, he wasn't. You mentioned. I wrote about Theodore Roosevelt. He wasn't like Roosevelt. He was sort of the hero of every drama, right? Garfield was sort of the calmest, wisest man in the room. So he hit a runaway slave. He was instrumental in bringing about black suffrage. He was a hero in the union army. When he gave his inaugural address, Frederick Douglass was standing next to him. So he was an incredibly progressive, Again, just a decent human being.

[Derek Thompson]

And the rags to riches story is.

[Candice Millard]

Almost a cliche in american history. And the concept of the American dream.

[Derek Thompson]

Is dutifully controversial today. But garfield's story is an incredible example of the american dream. And in fact, he wrote about the concept of social mobility in a way.

[Candice Millard]

That I found absolutely gorgeous. He wrote, quote, there is no horizontal.

[Derek Thompson]

Stratification of society in this country like.

[Candice Millard]

The rocks in the earth that hold one class below forevermore and let another come to the surface to stay there forevermore.

[Derek Thompson]

Our stratification is like the ocean where.

[Candice Millard]

Every individual drop is free to move and where from the sternest depths of.

[Derek Thompson]

The mighty deep, any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls.

[Candice Millard]

I mean, that is lovely.

[Derek Thompson]

And clearly, Garfield himself rose up from.

[Candice Millard]

The sternest depths of the mighty deep.

[Derek Thompson]

I mean, no shoes in Ohio Winters at 4 years old, 22 years later, he is the president of a college. So to your point, he makes his way to congress. Briefly, before we go to this famous moment at the Republican Convention in 1880, what was he like as a congressman?

[Candice Millard]

What did he fight for in congress?

Well, as I mentioned, he was instrumental in bringing about black suffrage. And, you know, you just quoted something he wrote. If you have a chance and your listeners have a chance to read the speech that he gave on the floor of congress on behalf of black suffrage, I strongly encourage you to do that. It's so moving and powerful. And you, I mean, today we think, you know, of course, who would be against that. But as we know, unfortunately, many people were against it. And it's just so powerful. He was a very, very strong abolitionist. He was also. He was a big finance guy. He believed very strongly in hard money, believing should always have gold to back up paper money. He was very, very, very invested in the creation of the department of education because education had obviously been his own salvation. And he knew that it was the hope and promise of this young country. So those were the kind of things that he was involved in as a congressman.

[Derek Thompson]

Let's bring the story to 1880 at.

[Candice Millard]

The Republican national convention.

[Derek Thompson]

You write that James Garfield never had.

[Candice Millard]

The presidential fever, not even for a day.

[Derek Thompson]

And it wasn't because he was afraid.

[Candice Millard]

Of being killed in office.

[Derek Thompson]

Like his fellow Republican, Abraham Lincoln, but.

[Candice Millard]

Rather because he had seen how the presidency had submerged many great men like.

[Derek Thompson]

Ulysses S. Grant, the Union General, whose.

[Candice Millard]

Presidency was filled with accusations of corruption and facts of corruption.

[Derek Thompson]

So he's there at the Republican national convention of 1880, not as a potential.

[Candice Millard]

Nominee initially, but as a speaker on behalf of a nominee.

[Derek Thompson]

Take us inside this room, inside this hall, and tell us how Garfield went from essentially being an endorser to becoming the Republican nominee for president.

[Candice Millard]

Right. So as you mentioned, so John Sherman, who was William Tecumseh Sherman's younger brother, he did have that sort of presidential fever that you mentioned and that Garfield always talked about and was worried about Garfield because everyone was interested in Garfield and thought, wow, he would be a great candidate. So Sherman, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, thought, okay, I'll have Garfield give my nominating speech. Then he's not really going to be a threat. So they go to this huge convention hall in Chicago. There are 15,000 people there, and everyone believes that the person who's going to win again is Grant, and he's going to run for a third term. He's hoping to run for a third term. And everybody believes he's absolutely going to get it. And so this man, Roscoe Conkling, gets up to give Grant's nominating address. And Roscoe Conkling is famous. He's sort of flamboyant, and he also an incredibly powerful speaker, but in a very different way from Garfield. And so he gets everybody worked up. So everybody in this huge hall is chanting, grant, Grant, Grant. And so now it's Garfield's turn to give up, to go up and nominate Sherman. And so he goes up and he begins to speak. And this speech that he gives is largely extemporaneous. You know, he was sort of worrying about it the night before. He never really fully wrote it. So he's just up there speaking from his heart.

[Derek Thompson]

And you know what? I can actually read from the opening of that speech.

[Candice Millard]

It's printed in your book.

[Derek Thompson]

And I pulled it into my notes here.

[Candice Millard]

This is how James Garfield begins his.

[Derek Thompson]

Speech to the Chicago convention, extemporaneously, as I said. And this is, I guess, the context here, and I'm taking from your book, is that Garfield is following up on this incredibly boisterous crowd that's been screaming.

[Candice Millard]

About the previous speech.

[Derek Thompson]

And he says, quote, as I sat.

[Candice Millard]

In my seat and witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to me a human ocean in tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into.

[Derek Thompson]

Fury and Tossed into spray and its.

[Candice Millard]

Grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows but the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm is past and the hour of calm settles on the ocean when the sunlight bathes its peaceful surface, Then the astronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths.

[Derek Thompson]

So he just pulls from out of nowhere this absolutely gorgeous. Almost like Herman Melvillian description or metaphor for how the tempests of human nature.

[Candice Millard]

Are like the sea. And we have to make our most important decisions not during the tempest itself, but rather when the tempest is passed.

[Derek Thompson]

And you can measure the distance from sea to land. It's a wonderful way, I think, of hearing how someone could take a rollicking.

[Candice Millard]

Crowd that's just heard, like a rock.

[Derek Thompson]

Star speech and juxtapose that with an eloquent demonstration of sober sensibility, which people, I think, attached to James Garfield. So tell me what the effect of this speech was.

[Candice Millard]

Well said. So even just listening to you recite, it just gives me chills. I mean, it really is just so powerful. And you can just picture this hall. And so what happened is just what you're describing. So everyone had been screaming and stamping. And it's just these guys are really rowdy. And they slowly become more and more quiet until they're just absolutely still. And they're sort of mesmerized by this beautiful speech and this powerful speaker. And at one point he says, so, gentlemen, I ask you, what do we want? And someone in the crowd shouts, we want Garfield. And again, he wasn't a candidate. He didn't want to be one. He was on there to give nominating address for someone else. But everybody goes crazy again. And so he has to. And you can read it in the speech. He's says, please, please be still so I can finish. So I can explain to you what I'm trying to tell you. And trying to get everybody to calm down. But. So then he finishes and he sits down and the balloting begins. And it goes round after round. It ends up being the most ballots ever for Republican nomination, 36 ballots. But suddenly someone stands up and gives their ballot to Garfield. And he's shocked and appalled. And he stands up and he says, absolutely not. I'm not a candidate. But he sort of shouted down. He has to sit down. And another round comes, more votes, more votes. And sort of what begins as a trickle comes a stream and a river. And suddenly this flood of votes and before he knows it, Garfield finds himself the Republican nominee for President of the United States.

[Derek Thompson]

So Garfield wins the Republican nomination to skip through the end of this election.

[Candice Millard]

He goes up against another union general.

[Derek Thompson]

Hancock wins a election with 9 million.

[Candice Millard]

Votes cast by a margin of 2,000 votes.

[Derek Thompson]

I believe it is the closest election.

[Candice Millard]

In American history by popular vote margin.

[Derek Thompson]

So he wins by just a whisker and he enters Washington. And at this point, I think we have to introduce the second major character of the story, except this character is.

[Candice Millard]

Not a person, but a system.

[Derek Thompson]

What was the spoils system and how central was it to Washington politics and say, the 1870s and 1880s?

[Candice Millard]

So it ran everything. At that time, the Republican Party was divided. There were the stalwarts who believed very much in the spoil system. Giving jobs to your friends or to people who had done favors for you, basically giving away government positions. And then there were what they called the half breeds, the reformers. Garfield was among the reformers. But this man, Roscoe Conkling I had mentioned earlier, who gave the nomination address for Ulysses S. Grant, he was like the president of the stalwarts. I mean, he was king of the stalwarts, right? And he was a very, very powerful man. He was a senior senator from New York and he controlled the New York customs and which is, you know, it brought in more money than really anything else. And so he was incredibly powerful. And so. And he was going to be kind of the man behind the throne if he, as he believed and most people did if Grant were to get nomination. And so he was not just angry, he was apoplectic that Garfield had been given the nomination instead. And he made himself, he decided at that moment to make himself Garfield's enemy. And he had a person in place to help him do that. And that person was Chester Arthur. So Chester Arthur was also a stalwart because he was completely Conkling's creation. So the only job that he had ever had was given to him by Grant because of Conkling. And so right after Garfield's given the nomination, he's told, guess what? Chester Arthur is going to be your running mate. He didn't have any say in the matter, but they knew that they needed Conkling's help to win. And they obviously they were right. They needed that. And to make Conkling happy, they said, okay, Chester Arthur will be your running mate. And so they win and they, they get into power. And so from the very beginning, Garfield's own running mate is his very open adversary.

So there's this marriage of convenience that Creates the ticket.

[Derek Thompson]

And in office, maybe just go a little bit deeper on how the spoils system worked as it related to Garfield staffing his administration. For someone who's more familiar with the. We're in an interesting moment right now. But the somewhat more meritocratic way that positions like, you know, Secretary of State or Secretary of Health and Human Services, the more meritocratic way it's typically been done in the previous 50, 100 years. How did the spoils system create government in the late 19th century?

[Candice Millard]

So, for instance, when Garfield was trying to make his own administration, he, you know, every person he would go to would eventually back out because they were afraid of. Of angering Conkling. So, yeah, usually it was just a new administration would come in, they would fire everybody. They would put their friends in place. I mean, we, as you mentioned, and for reasons that we'll find later on, we're used to, okay, you get someone who's actually qualified. Crazy idea. Someone who is actually. They have the education, they have the experience for the job. Depending on the job, maybe they'll take the test to prove that they're qualified for the job. And it's not just a political appointment. But the Spoils system was obviously all about, okay, to the victor goes the spoils, right? So you get all of your people in place and you run it that way.

[Derek Thompson]

I believe to the victor goes to spoils is a quote from a legislature from the 1820s or 1830s, because it was with Andrew Jackson becoming president that the spoils system really blossomed into view in American politics. There is one gentleman who's hoping to take advantage of the spoils system, and that's a man who's absolutely crucial to.

[Candice Millard]

The story, named Charles Guiteau.

[Derek Thompson]

Who was Charles Guiteau?

[Candice Millard]

Charles Guiteau was really Garfield's opposite in every way. While Garfield sort of worked hard and was educated and succeeded, succeeded, succeeded in his life, Guiteau failed everywhere he went. He tried to be a lawyer, and he failed at that. He tried to be a journalist, and he failed at that. He even joined a Free Love Commune, and he was rejected by the women at the Free Love commune. They nicknamed him Charles get out. So nothing really worked for him, but he believed he had sort of these visions of grandeur, right? He was very, very delusional, and he was mentally ill. And at one point, he became obsessed with Garfield. And so it was during the. Right before actually the Republican Convention. He believes another man is going to win. He believes Grant is going to win. And so he writes a speech and he believes that he can give this speech and it's going to put the President in the White House and the President will be grateful to him and then we'll give him a high office. So he had his sights on being the ambassador to France even again, he had no experience, no education in that way, but he didn't think he needed it because it was the spoil system. So instead of Grant, Garfield wins and Guiteau becomes obsessed with him. And he again believes, genuinely believes that because he wrote the speech and he was able to give it one time and then kind of fled the stage and then Garfield wins. He believes that he had put Garfield in the White House. And so Garfield owes him this position and he starts stalking him.

And if I'm not mistaken, Guiteau meets with Garfield at least once, maybe more.

[Derek Thompson]

Than once, which is remarkable when you think that some fundamentally unemployed person who might be suffering from what we today.

[Candice Millard]

Would call, you know, schizophrenia, certainly delusions.

[Derek Thompson]

Of grandeur, is meeting with the President to talk about a potential position.

[Candice Millard]

The job of the presidency in the.

[Derek Thompson]

1870S, 1880s, is very different than it is today because you don't have this meritocratic buffering around you, this seat of cabinets who all have their own bureaucracies around them. It's a very different job where the.

[Candice Millard]

President is meeting directly or responding directly to hundreds of petitions for jobs a day. Before we get into this fateful day.

[Derek Thompson]

On July 2, 1881, can we just.

[Candice Millard]

Pause here on what was the job.

[Derek Thompson]

Of the American president like in 1880?

[Candice Millard]

What was a day in the life.

[Derek Thompson]

Of James Garfield in, say, April of 1881, as he's just beginning to staff his administration?

[Candice Millard]

So it's really extraordinary. I mean, it's hard for us to imagine, but Garfield had to meet with office seekers from 9am to 1pm Absolutely every single day. So anybody coming in like, hey, I'd really love to run the post office, you know, they would have a right to come meet with the President and make their case directly to the President of the United States. And it drove Garfield crazy. You know, as you said, I mean, he never really wanted this position, but now that he had it, he wanted to do something serious with it. He needed time to think and to work. And he said he wondered why anyone would ever want to be president. It just made him miserable. But this was a big part of the job. And another reason, I mean, obviously the spoil system was part of the problem, but another reason was the fact that Americans were very proud of the fact that we had chosen we choose our own leaders. Right. And so, you know, in Europe there were a lot of assassinations going on, but the idea in the United States was, well, that's because those leaders are foisted on those people and they're unhappy. But we get to choose our own leaders. And guess what? He's not a king. He worked for us, so we should have access to him. There shouldn't be a buffer between us and the President of the United States. And there was no one to protect the President and there was no one to tell him, no, you don't have to spend your time this way.

[Derek Thompson]

Yeah.

[Candice Millard]

It should be noted before we get to this next chapter of the story.

[Derek Thompson]

That there is no Secret Service in existence. And as I understand it, there won't.

[Candice Millard]

Be anything like the Secret service until.

[Derek Thompson]

About 20 years later when the next president, William McKinley, is assassinated. So it took us a few assassinations.

[Candice Millard]

Once every 20 years to recognize that maybe we should surround the most important.

[Derek Thompson]

Person in the United States with one.

[Candice Millard]

Or two armed guards.

[Derek Thompson]

But in any case, that's a part of McKinley's story in the 20th century. The date is July 2, 1881. We're just months into Garfield's tenure.

[Candice Millard]

And this man, Charles Guiteau, who as.

[Derek Thompson]

You said, has been stalking President garfield around Washington D.C. for weeks, follows him.

[Candice Millard]

Into a railroad station at the southern.

[Derek Thompson]

Corner of 6th Street Northwest and what is now Constitution Avenue, which is where the National Gallery of Art is currently located.

[Candice Millard]

At the time, it was a grand railroad station.

[Derek Thompson]

Garfield walks into this railroad station with.

[Candice Millard]

I believe, one of his cabinet members.

[Derek Thompson]

He's fully exposed to the riff raff around him.

[Candice Millard]

Again, he's a democratically elected man of the people.

[Derek Thompson]

And tell me what happens when Guiteau and Garfield are united inside this Washington D.C. railroad station.

[Candice Millard]

So just really quickly to follow up on what you said. So Guiteau has been stalking the President for weeks. I mean, at one point he even followed the President. Garfield left the White House, he walked down the street to his Secretary of State's house by himself. And the two men walked through the streets of Washington D.C. with Guiteau following them the entire way, holding a loaded gun. So Guiteau had been thinking at different points, he even thought about shooting Garfield in church. He followed him to his church. So he'd been finding different ways and sort of considering what would be the best place. And so he finds out that Garfield's going to go on this trip and he follows him, or he's waiting for him at the Baltimore and Potomac train station. As you said in Washington D.C. and he watches as Garfield walks in and he steps out of the shadows and he immediately shoots him twice. He shoots him once in the arm and then he shoots him a second time in the back. And what's incredible here is this bullet, it goes through his back, but it doesn't hit any vital organs. It doesn't hit his spinal cord. It goes to the left and behind his pancreas and it stops there. But he is in this train station, obviously. It erupts into screams and Guiteau is immediately captured. And the President falls to the ground at this train station. And you think like, I mean, I can't imagine a more germ infested environment than a train station. But that's where he's lying. And he has with him, as you say, his Secretary of State is with him and they're calling for help. And there are several doctors who come to his aid and they put him on this old horse hair and hay mattress and they take him upstairs to this, a quieter room just above the train station.

[Derek Thompson]

He doesn't die, he doesn't lose consciousness. He is transported on this bed of hay to the top of the train station.

[Candice Millard]

And fortunately, at least it seems to.

[Derek Thompson]

Garfield and his backers, there's an experienced doctor who is available to take over his care. Doctor, Dr. Willard Bliss. And when I say doctor, doctor, that's because the man's name is Doctor, his first name is Doctor, so you'd think he would know what he's doing. Before we answer the question of whether or not he knew what he was doing, just give us a little bit of background. Who is Dr. Bliss?

[Candice Millard]

So Dr. Bliss was actually a well respected doctor. The reason he ends up being there is Robert Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln's son was also there. He was in Garfield's cabinet. And he thinks of this doctor, Dr. Willard Bliss immediately because Bliss had been at his father's deathbed. So, and he had known Bliss. And so he, so he calls him to come help. But Bliss himself is a very interesting character. I mean, he had both been sort of on the cutting edge at one point with medicine, but then he had also come up. He used to sell something called Kundurongo, which he claimed could cure anything. It could cure cancer, it could cure syphilis, whatever is ailing you, Kundurongo could fix it. He was actually in prison for a short time for taking bribes. So he was a little bit of a controversial character. But Robert Hud Lincoln trusted him and believed that he would be the right man to come. And so what he does, though, Bliss steps in and he immediately takes over and he starts probing the wound in Garfield's back with unsterilized fingers and instruments. And obviously there's no painkiller or anything for Garfield as he's lying in this germ infested environment.

[Derek Thompson]

Before we get to the treatment that Garfield receives at the hands of Dr. Bliss, I do just want to pause.

[Candice Millard]

And dilate on the character of Robert.

[Derek Thompson]

Lincoln because your book makes the unbelievable observation that not only was Robert, who was Abraham Lincoln's, I believe, oldest son and only surviving son after the 1860s, present at his father's assassination, present at James Garfield's shooting inside this D.C. railroad station, and then 21 years later or two decades later, a member of McKinley's.

[Candice Millard]

Cabinet when McKinley is shot.

[Derek Thompson]

So this is one of those situations where if you wanted to be president between 1860 and 1910, you wanted Robert Lincoln as far away from you as possible. This poor guy was the angel of death. No going back to Garfield. So he's been shot twice.

[Candice Millard]

One bullet is still inside of him. Go into a little bit more detail.

[Derek Thompson]

And feel free to be as gross.

[Candice Millard]

As necessary when describing how over the.

[Derek Thompson]

Next few weeks, Dr. Bliss applies his so called expertise.

[Candice Millard]

So first of all, they decide to take Garfield to the White House because at that time, the last place you'd want to be if you were sick, if you could afford it at all, would be the hospital because they're so overcrowded, they're just disgusting, they're just places to go to die. So they take him back to the White House, but the White House is actually not that much better. At that point, it was falling apart, there were rats everywhere. But they put him in his bedroom at the White House and Bliss immediately, completely isolate. He sends every other doctor, including Garfield's own doctor who had been out of town and came racing back. He dismisses him without any. I mean, he just takes over. No one's given him that responsibility, but he takes over. He won't let Garfield see anyone, even his own Secretary of State. So he totally isolates him in this room in the White House. And what he does to Garfield over the next several weeks, just unbelievable. I mean, it just, it's just heartbreaking. He believes so he's sort of afraid of anything that's new and he believes is controversial, including antisepsis. So Joseph Lister, you know, we know Listerine, it was named for him. So he was a very highly respected surgeon in England who discovered antisepsis. And he Went around the world everywhere he could, explaining the importance of it. He used carbolic acid at that time to sterilize instruments and hands. And he even came. He was invited to the United States before Garfield became President, to 1876, this big symposium in Philadelphia to explain to doctors that if you don't sterilize your hands and instruments, you run the very real risk of killing your patients. But nobody was really listening to him, at least in the United States, even though in other parts of the world, especially Europe, the death rates had just plummeted after using antisepsis. So Bliss especially, doesn't really believe it, and he believes that he must find this bullet. So day after day after day, he's inserting unsterilized fingers and instruments in this bullet, probing in this wound, probing for the bullet. He's also giving Garfield a gunshot victim. Rich foods and alcohol. So he's not giving him nearly enough water. So he's horribly dehydrated, and he's just unbelievably sick, and he's starving to death. He's losing so much weight. I mean, if you can see if any of your listeners ever have a chance to go to the Garfield home, they have his death, and it would break your heart. I mean, he's so thin, and he was basically being tortured to death. In fact, Garfield himself, at one point, when he could still write, wrote strangulatis pro republica. Tortured for the republic.

[Derek Thompson]

I really do want to dilate on this, as horrifying as it is, because this part of the book was among the most moving parts.

[Candice Millard]

I want people to imagine. Don't imagine being shot. That's too ghoulish. Just imagine being sick in the environment.

[Derek Thompson]

That James Garfield was sick he's brought.

[Candice Millard]

Back to the White House because, as.

[Derek Thompson]

You said, the situation in the late.

[Candice Millard]

19Th century is the inverse of today.

[Derek Thompson]

You don't go to hospitals to be cured. You go to hospitals to die.

[Candice Millard]

And if you're a member of the elite, you stay home and you let.

[Derek Thompson]

The doctors come to you.

[Candice Millard]

But the White House is a disaster. There are rats everywhere. The home is falling apart. The walls are peeling. The sewage system is a disaster.

[Derek Thompson]

It smells horrendous throughout the residence.

[Candice Millard]

And it's July in Washington in the swamp, and it's super hot, right?

[Derek Thompson]

It's 95 degrees on some days.

[Candice Millard]

I think they experiment with some early use of air conditioning technology by putting.

[Derek Thompson]

A bunch of ice around his home.

[Candice Millard]

Or around his room and blowing air over it.

[Derek Thompson]

But it's not until, I think, about.

[Candice Millard]

15 years later, that carrier patents the first working air conditioning service. So you are just talking about one.

[Derek Thompson]

Of the most miserable places to possibly be sick.

[Candice Millard]

95 degrees. And what is your doctor feeding you like rich creamy French foods? And he's pouring brandy down your mouth.

[Derek Thompson]

While he's probing his disgusting dirty hands.

[Candice Millard]

Inside of your wound and not understanding.

[Derek Thompson]

What part of your body the bullet is in. I mean, truly torture. And I believe, tell me if this is wrong.

[Candice Millard]

Garfield, before being shot, weighed 220 pounds. By the time he finally passes, he weighs under 130 pounds.

[Derek Thompson]

He loses 90 pounds in a matter of months. There is a noble last ditch effort here to save the President. And it comes from the person who.

[Candice Millard]

Inspired this entire book for you, Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone.

[Derek Thompson]

What did Bell build in the 11th hour to try to save the President?

[Candice Millard]

Bell is just 34 years old at this time. He had just invented the telephone five years earlier. And he happens to have a little laboratory there in Washington D.C. and so he knows right away what's happened. And he gets this idea right away because he says to himself, you know, Bell, interestingly, Bell just wanted to help people. So both of his brothers had died before he was 24 years old. Both his mother and his wife were deaf. In fact, he was a teacher of the deaf. And he thought that science should be able to do better than what he knew Bliss was doing, torturing the President in the White House at this time. And so he has this idea. He had invented something before called an induction balance. And it was try to keep the static off of the telegraph line and of the static caused by telegraph lines creating static in telephones. And so it's basically the first metal detector. And you know, this is 15 years before the invention of the medical X ray. So nobody knows where the bullet is, but the bullet, all they know is the bullet went in the right side of the President's back. And so he starts testing this induction ballots and he does everything, you know, he goes to this veterans home and because this is after the Civil War, right, not long after the Civil War. So all these people walking around with bullets in them doing just fine. In fact, the man who captured Guko at the train station had a bullet in his head still. And he's doing this. So he would go to this veterans home and he would test it out on these people who had bullets in them. And he would buy huge slabs of meat and bury bullets in them and test it out. And it was working. Everything was working. And so he contacted the White House, and he talked to Bliss, and Bliss invited him to the White House to test it out. And. And he tested out. But it doesn't work. And the reason it doesn't work isn't because the machine itself was not capable of finding the bullet. It absolutely was. There are two reasons. One seems very obvious to us, but at that time, it was very unusual for someone to have a mattress with metal coils in it. But this was the President of the United States. He had a mattress with metal coils. Of course that's going to affect a metal detector. And the second reason, though, is really heartbreaking because Bliss, who saw in this national tragedy sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity for himself for fame and recognition, had openly said to the American people that the bullet was in the right side. So he would only let Bell run the metal detector, the induction bounce over the right side of the President's body, but the bullet, in fact, had gone to the left.

[Derek Thompson]

So on top of all these mistakes that Bliss has made, he also essentially bullies Alexander Graham Bell into not testing.

[Candice Millard]

Out his early metal detection technology on.

[Derek Thompson]

The part of Garfield's body that actually.

[Candice Millard]

Has the piece of metal lodged into it.

[Derek Thompson]

It's just such an incredible and tragic irony. So Garfield is moved to the New Jersey beach in his final days. He's withering away. He is starving to death. He finally dies in front of an open window looking out at the Atlantic Ocean. And after his death, doctors finally cut.

[Candice Millard]

Him open and look at what's inside.

[Derek Thompson]

Performing an autopsy. And I just want to read before I throw it to you here from your work. This is page 268 of the paperback version of your book. This is describing Garfield's body. What was perhaps as stunning to the.

[Candice Millard]

Doctors as the location of the bullet was the infection that had ravaged Garfield's body. Evidence of the proximate cause of his.

[Derek Thompson]

Death, profound septic poisoning, was nearly everywhere they looked. There were collections of abscesses below his right ear, in the middle of his back, across his shoulders, and near his left kidney.

[Candice Millard]

He had infection induced pneumonia in both of his lungs. And there was an enormous abscess measuring half a foot in diameter near his liver. The immediate cause of Garfield's death was.

[Derek Thompson]

More difficult to determine.

[Candice Millard]

They removed most of his organs, as.

[Derek Thompson]

You say, but they finally find it.

[Candice Millard]

The hemorrhage that flooded Garfield's abdominal cavity with a pint of blood had coagulated into an irregular form nearly as large as a man's fist.

[Derek Thompson]

This, they realized, had been the cause.

[Candice Millard]

Of the terrible pain that forced him.

[Derek Thompson]

To cry out to his assistant just before his death, end quote. At a higher level, what kind of a president do you think James Garfield would have been? I mean, this is an era of, to be honest, extremely forgettable names. Garfield's brief presidency is bookended by Rutherford.

[Candice Millard]

B. Hayes and Chester Arthur.

[Derek Thompson]

One term presidents who are among the.

[Candice Millard]

Least celebrated men to ever hold that office.

Right.

[Derek Thompson]

Do you think Garfield would have distinguished himself?

[Candice Millard]

I do. I mean, it's impossible to say. But again, if you think about the things that were important to him at the time and the things that he was able to accomplish in his long period in Congress, in his short time as president, again bringing about black suffrage, fighting for the Freedmen's Bureau, believing in the importance of education and trying to have that available to as many Americans as possible. He was also thinking very much about the wider world. And so I think that he would have been one of our great presidents. And one of the main reasons though I think that he would have been great is that he came into this not owing anything to anyone. And I think that it's obviously very, very rare, but he may be really our only president to have been in that position because he didn't want the presidency. It was sort of foisted on him. So he hadn't. I mean, usually, I think when presidents get to where they are, they've had to make compromises whether they want to or whether they think that they ever will have to. They end up making compromises that they maybe didn't want to make. And Garfield didn't have to. You know, he. So he came saying, this is what I believe, this is what I want to do. And he was made president. So I think that's a very, very powerful, very rare position to be in. I think he could have accomplished a lot had he been able to serve at his term.

And even in death he accomplished something.

[Derek Thompson]

I mean, Garfield's death really did change the country.

[Candice Millard]

At the top of page 289 in.

[Derek Thompson]

The paperback, you write that quote to Americans in 1881. The principal danger the President faced was not from assassins but from political corruption, end quote. There really was truly a sense that what had killed Garfield maybe before the dirty fingers of his quack doctor was the excesses of the spoil system. And you know, Guiteau was a manifestation of those excesses. Tell us a little bit about how the death of Garfield and the obvious.

[Candice Millard]

Blame put on the man who shot.

[Derek Thompson]

Him, Charles Guiteau, led us to the end of the spoil system with the Pendleton Act.

[Candice Millard]

So I mentioned Chester Arthur earlier being sort of a creation of Conklings, being very much a stalwart, being a creation of the Spoil System himself. Every position he had gotten was because of, of the Spoil System. I mean, really quickly, like, you know, he would show up for work around noon. He loved dinner parties and fine wine. He even pretended his birth date was a year later than it actually was to seem more youthful. So this is the kind of person he was. And so when Garfield was dying, everyone was horrified at the thought that Chester Arthur would become president and believed that that's what he wanted and that Conkling then would control the White House. What happened was actually very, very different from that. Chester Arthur sort of became the man that he never thought he would be. He was horrified by what had happened to Garfield. He refused to go to Washington. He stayed in New York. He didn't want it to look like he was waiting in the wings. He was absolutely grief stricken. And when Garfield did die, Chester Arthur really stepped up. And he never became a great president, but he became an honest president. He tried to become kind of president that Garfield would have been had he lived. And he passed the Pendleton act, which was the beginning of the end of the Spoils System, the system that had created him.

[Derek Thompson]

I want to end this discussion close to where I began it in my open with the Centennial. I'm totally dazed and dazzled by the 19th century and the speed with which the world changed. And not just the fact that you see in this 25 year period the invention of practically everything that we see.

[Candice Millard]

When we look outside at a major city.

[Derek Thompson]

I mean, the internal combustion engine, elevators.

[Candice Millard]

Skyscrapers, all of it comes from this.

[Derek Thompson]

Like 40 year stretch of ingenuity in the late 19th century. But that ingenuity also extends to medicine.

[Candice Millard]

And it is so rich and ironic and even tragic that had Garfield been.

[Derek Thompson]

Shot 15 years later, the bullet in his back would have been discoverable by X ray. An invention of the 1890s and cured by antiseptic surgery, which if not invented the 1890s. Because you mentioned that James Lister, Joseph Lister, was having these technical breakthroughs in antiseptic technology in the 1870s, 1880s, was.

[Candice Millard]

Nonetheless implemented much more in the 1890s.

[Derek Thompson]

And so even if Garfield had been left alone, he almost certainly would have survived. Like.

[Candice Millard]

That's right.

[Derek Thompson]

That to me is like this really interesting thing and it contains within it.

[Candice Millard]

A lesson maybe about technology and science.

[Derek Thompson]

It's like his death was this little window of critical ignorance in which doctors were prideful enough to try to Cure Garfield, but ignorant enough to understand exactly.

[Candice Millard]

How to do it.

[Derek Thompson]

I guess I would just love you as both a political historian and a science historian.

[Candice Millard]

Just dilate a bit on what you.

[Derek Thompson]

Think are the most interesting scientific and technological conclusions of this episode of American history.

[Candice Millard]

Well, actually, to me, what's most striking is something that you mentioned. It's the fact that ignorance and arrogance always go hand in hand and they are always the most dangerous foe that we face. And that's absolutely what happened here. It was a combination of one man's madness, Charles Guiteau, but really another man's ignorance, chosen ignorance and arrogance that led to the death of one of our most promising leaders. And it is heartbreaking. And I think at the time, people knew not only was it just this horrible sorrow for them as a country, although it did bring the country. That's another thing that came out of it. It brought the country together for the first time since the Civil War, really, because Lincoln's death, the north obviously blamed the south, but Garfield was president of everyone, right? North and south, freedman, former slave owner, pioneer, immigrant. And really his death really brought the country together for the first time since the Civil War. And so there was that good that came out of it. And I do think as heartbreaking as Garfield's death was, and as needless as it was, as tragic as it was, it did bring about so much good for our country for a huge number. I mean, it obviously, without question, saved countless lives simply with the invention or the acceptance of antisepsis and the invention of the induction balance before the medical X ray.

[Derek Thompson]

I want to end this conversation with Garfield's words.

[Candice Millard]

Two quotes that you begin two different.

[Derek Thompson]

Chapters with in the book. And both of the quotes, I think, really beautifully echo the themes that you helped to land us on. Here's the first one. Quote. I sometimes think that we cannot know.

[Candice Millard]

Any man thoroughly while he is in perfect health.

[Derek Thompson]

As the ebb tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the bed of the sea. So feebleness, sickness and pain bring out.

[Candice Millard]

The character of a man.

[Derek Thompson]

End quote. And you talk in the book about what a gentleman and even a comedian. James Garfield was on his deathbed very much retaining the spirit that he carried through his life. And one last quote on I think that very spirit. Quote.

[Candice Millard]

I never meet a ragged boy in.

[Derek Thompson]

The street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities might be unbuttoned under his coat.

[Candice Millard]

End quote.

[Derek Thompson]

James Garfield was a really extraordinary man and I was very, very glad to meet him in your book. So, Candice Millard, thank you so much for writing the book and for talking.

[Narrator]

To me about it.

[Candice Millard]

Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed our.