Encore: Presidential Assassinations | Murder for Spoils | 2

The deep divides within the Republican Party over the spoils system and the tension between factions set the stage for James Garfield's nomination and presidency.

The Republican Party was deeply divided over the spoils system, with conservatives supporting the status quo and liberals pushing for civil service reform.

The spoils system, which awarded government jobs to political supporters, was at the heart of the division within the Republican Party in the 1880 presidential election. Conservatives within the party, known as Stalwarts, steadfastly defended this traditional practice against a growing chorus of critics who argued the system bred corruption and incompetence in government roles. On the other side, Liberal Republicans called for a merit-based civil service system to replace the spoils system.

James Garfield, a liberal Republican, was nominated as a compromise candidate at the 1880 Republican National Convention after a contentious battle between the two factions.

At the Republican National Convention of 1880, the split between conservatives and liberals was glaringly evident. Neither Stalwart candidate Ulysses S. Grant nor Liberal candidate James Blaine could secure a majority of votes for the nomination. James Garfield, an Ohio Congressman and a liberal Republican who maintained cordial ties with the Stalwarts, became a compromise candidate. His ascent to nomination was a reluctant affair but was solidified after thirty-six rounds of voting. To pacify the Stalwarts post-nomination, Garfield's vice-presidential running mate was Chester Arthur, a Stalwart ally of Senator Roscoe Conkling.

Garfield's conflict with powerful Stalwart leader Roscoe Conkling over the New York Customs House appointment highlighted the ongoing tension over the spoils system.

Garfield's nomination of a reform-minded collector to the lucrative position infuriated Conkling, who saw it as an attack on his power.

The Garfield administration sparked controversy when the president nominated William Robertson, a judge known for his reformist views, for the collector of the New York Customs House. This nomination was a deliberate challenge to Roscoe Conkling's longstanding dominance over patronage appointments in New York, partic ...

Charles Guiteau, a delusional and unstable man, believed he deserved a diplomatic appointment for helping Garfield's campaign and hatched a plan to assassinate the president.

Guiteau stalked Garfield relentlessly and shot him at a train station in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 1881.

Charles Guiteau, consumed by an obsession with politics and the spoils system, fixated on the idea of being appointed as a U.S. ambassador to France after convincing himself that his speech had secured President James Garfield’s election victory. Despite his persistent harassment of the Secretary of State for an appointment and being clearly told he had no prospects, Guiteau escalated his delusion to planning the assassination of President Garfield. Guiteau prepared by practicing with a gun, stalking Garfield, and gathering letters that explained his motive for assassination as a political necessity.

On the morning of July 2, 1881, as President Garfield headed to the Baltimore and Potomac train station in Washington D.C. with his two sons and Secretary Blaine, Guiteau struck. Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln was also present to see the President off. Guiteau stepped forward in the station waiting room and fired at the President, after having hesitated the previous night. His first shot grazed Garfield's arm, but the second bullet struck Garfield in the back. Garfield was carried upstairs as Dr. Willard Bliss was called to the scene, beginning a long and painful ordeal for the wounded President.

Garfield survived the initial gunshot wound, but the lack of proper medical care and the doctors' inability to locate the bullet led to a painful, drawn-out death.

Despite being shot, Garfield was not immediately written off as dying. Dr. Willard Bliss, who had previously tended to Abraham Lincoln, undertook Garfield's medical care. Garfield endured constant excruciating pain, vomiting from inappropriate diet choices given his condition, and infection set in due to unhygienic medical interventions. Alexander Graham Bell attempted to locate the bullet using an induction balance, to no avail. Ultimately, infections and septicemia proved impossible to control. The President grew sicker during the late summer of 1881, expressing his desire to see the ocean before his growing weak. Garfield cried out in pain on the night of September 19th ...

The treatment of President Garfield after his shooting and his eventual death led to significant changes in the medical establishment and spurred on civil service reform.

Dr. Bliss, the lead physician, repeatedly misdiagnosed Garfield's condition and refused to allow other doctors to assist, leading to disastrous consequences.

Dr. Willard Bliss's treatment of President Garfield was characterized by a series of medical errors and egotistical decisions. Known for disregarding European medical theories on sterilization, Bliss tried to control all aspects of Garfield's care and ousted his competitors, even blocking the President's personal physician, Dr. Jedediah Hyde Baxter, from seeing him. Bliss established himself firmly as the singular voice for the President's treatment, isolating Garfield and mismanaging his medical care with an array of unsterilized interventions and ineffective treatments.

Bliss's insistence on using unsterile procedures and his failure to locate the bullet contributed to Garfield's drawn-out and ultimately fatal illness.

Bliss's approach to treating Garfield involved unsterilized probing and a firm, mistaken belief that the bullet had lodged near the liver, on the right side of the President's body. As he continued to provide public updates, the medical interventions administered by Bliss and his team persisted without locating the bullet and successfully addressing the President's infection.

The autopsy revealed that Garfield's doctors had been mistaken about the location of the bullet, further undermining public confidence in the medical establishment.

The shocking discovery during Garfield's autopsy was that the fatal bullet lay behind his pancreas on the left side, contrary to Bliss's insistence. The autopsy revealed severe septic poisoning and abscesses, indicating the President had suffered extensive infections, and the ultimate cause of death being a ruptured splenic artery caused by infection-induced complications.

This revelation, along with the growing outcry over Garfield's death, helped build momentum for civil service reform.

Garfield's death, which many saw as a result of medical malpractice rather than the bullet itself, amplified the calls for civil service reform. The outcry ...