Terabith Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 Happy birthday to President Garfield! James Garfield, our 20th president, was a brilliant man who was assassinated all too soon after his inauguration. He’s the only president who was also a pastor; Garfield was a minister in the Disciples of Christ denomination. He served as a major general (the youngest to reach that rank) in the Union Army during the Civil War and served with distinction. He was disgusted with how he saw former slaves treated. He believed strongly in civil rights for the recently freed slaves, and in his inaugural address he said, “The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect on our institutions and people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relationship which enfeebled both." Garfield was ambidextrous. Not only could he write with both hands, if you asked him a question in English, he could write the answer in Greek with one hand while simultaneously writing the answer in Latin with the other. He used his skill with languages on the campaign trail, becoming the first president to campaign in a language other than English. He gave speeches in German along the campaign trail. He enjoyed mathematics and wrote a unique proof of the Pythagorean Theorem utilizing a trapezoid. He juggled Indian clubs to stay fit. (They look like bowling pins but weigh fifty pounds each.). He was a true academic, who loved to hang out with writers, engineers, and intellectuals and listen. A senator he met in his 20’s said that Garfield could easily be a great success in English, math, science, public speaking, or the presidency. He did not seek the presidency. He was campaigning for John Sherman at the 1880 Republican Convention, when he was unexpectedly written in and won the nomination. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, by an insane drifter named Charles Guiteau, who believed he was responsible for Garfield’s election. He claimed at his trial that he didn’t kill Garfield; he just shot him, and honestly, he was almost certainly correct. The first bullet literally just grazed Garfield’s arm. The second one was the best-case scenario for a gunshot. It didn’t hit any major organs, and today, it would just be left there and he would have been released from the hospital in a couple of days. Unfortunately, the doctors were determined to get the bullet out, but they had no idea where it was. They thought it was on the right side of his body, but it was on the left. They brought in Alexander Graham Bell, with the first metal detector, to scan Garfield’s right side, but he couldn’t find it. (Probably would have if they’d done a whole-body scan.) They made an incision that was like two feet long, and stuck their unwashed hands in there and kept poking around. They also refused to feed him, since they thought the bullet might have hit his intestines. But they knew he couldn’t survive indefinitely without nourishment, so they stuck beef bouillon, egg yolks, milk, and bourbon up his butt. Garfield survived eighty more days, before eventually succumbing to sepsis. It was the second assassination in American history. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 Holy cow, even for that day, it seems that was seriously messed up malpractice! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted November 19, 2022 Author Share Posted November 19, 2022 6 minutes ago, Faith-manor said: Holy cow, even for that day, it seems that was seriously messed up malpractice! Hand washing/ sterilizing and X-rays both came into usage very shortly after this, but they weren't widely accepted practice at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eos Posted November 19, 2022 Share Posted November 19, 2022 Wow, another great installment - such a sad end. Thank you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faith-manor Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 2 hours ago, Terabith said: Hand washing/ sterilizing and X-rays both came into usage very shortly after this, but they weren't widely accepted practice at the time. I was just thinking in terms of having no idea where the bullet was so hey why not open up a two foot section and go rooting around. That one just seemed pretty darn illogical. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted November 20, 2022 Author Share Posted November 20, 2022 2 minutes ago, Faith-manor said: I was just thinking in terms of having no idea where the bullet was so hey why not open up a two foot section and go rooting around. That one just seemed pretty darn illogical. Yeah, they believed that leaving the bullet in would result in poisoning. Which is fair, except it would probably have been preferable to the septic poisoning that did kill him as a result of all that rooting around. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 The book written about him was fascinating and interesting. “Destiny of the Republic” by Candice Millard. A friend recommended it otherwise I probably never would have checked it out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beth S Posted November 20, 2022 Share Posted November 20, 2022 Thank you, @Terabith, for another insightful summary! I love these. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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