DEAD!: Simple Warren Mail headline announces President Garfield’s death | News, Sports, Jobs

The interior of the Garfield Memorial at Lake View Cemetery outside Cleveland.

“We now have three saints on the national calendar – Washington – Lincoln – Garfield.”

You can find some basic details about his life in James Garfield’s biography on whitehouse.gov.

Garfield was the last US president to be born in a log cabin.

“He was born in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, in 1831,” this biography explains it. “Fatherless at age two, he later drove canal boat teams and somehow earned enough money for an education. In 1856 he graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts and returned to the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (later Hiram College) in Ohio as a professor of classics. Within a year he was named president.”

He was elected to the Ohio State Senate in 1859 before entering military service during the Civil War.

Times Observer photos by Josh Cotton. James Garfield and his wife Lucretia were buried in the crypt after the Garfield Memorial outside Cleveland was completed in 1890.

“In 1862, when the Union had won few military victories, he successfully led a brigade against Confederate forces at Middle Creek, Kentucky.” says the biography. “At the age of 31, Garfield was promoted to brigadier general, and two years later, major general of volunteers.”

He was elected to Congress in 1862, and Lincoln convinced him to resign and serve in Congress instead. He would serve in the House of Representatives for the next 18 years.

He was selected as the Republican candidate on the 36th ballot of the 1880 convention, defeating the Democratic candidate, General Winfield Scott Hancock (best known for his service as a general in the Civil War) by only 10,000 votes.

As president, Garfield strengthened the federal government’s authority over the New York Custom House, a stronghold of Senator Roscoe Conkling, leader of the Stalwart Republicans and promoter of protectionism in New York. When Garfield presented the Senate with a list of appointments that included many of Conkling’s friends, he appointed Conkling’s archrival William H. Robertson to head the Custom House. Conkling contested the nomination, tried to persuade the Senate to block it, and appealed to the Republican caucus to force the proposal’s withdrawal.

But Garfield would not give in: “This … settles the question whether the President is the registrar of the Senate or of the Executive Branch of the United States … the principal port of entry … shall be under the control of the Government or under the local control of a caucus Senator.”

The exterior of the Garfield Memorial.

Given that this era was known for political corruption (it was the Gilded Age, after all), Garfield’s behavior in this context is particularly noteworthy.

In the area of ​​foreign policy, Garfield’s Secretary of State invited all American republics to a conference in Washington in 1882. However, the conference never took place.

It did not take place because Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881.

He stayed until September 19th.

The Warren Mail published a report in its September 20 edition with the headline: “DEAD! The end of the battle! The nation in tears over its terrible loss.”

“This (Tuesday) morning, just before the deadline, we receive the painful news that President Garfield died on Monday evening, September 19, 1881, at 10:35 p.m.” The report began: “This sad end to the terrible struggle was not unexpected. On Saturday and Sunday he had another relapse. Chills and fever were followed by great exhaustion, from which he never recovered.

“About 30 minutes before his death and during his sleep, his pulse rate rose to 1:20 and was somewhat weak. Ten minutes after 10 a.m. he awoke complaining of severe pain in the region of his heart. He lost consciousness almost immediately and stopped breathing at 10:35 p.m.”

The original article included some details about the reactions on the ground.

“Immediately, many business premises were covered in black and signs of general mourning were visible on almost every face,” the report says. “Everyone seemed to feel the grief of a personal loss.”

“The President — our President — is dead at last after a heroic struggle. A noble life is ending. A great and good man and chief official of a great nation, respected by all men and nations, lies cold and silent in death. … Like the beloved Lincoln, he was struck down in his office by a wretched villain. Although he held the head of state for only six months, he did much, very much to help the country and to place the name of James A. Garfield high among the greatest and noblest rulers of the earth.”

Most of the following issue (September 27) was devoted to reporting on Garfield and also his successor, Chester Arthur. The Mail made the following claim: “All in all, this edition of the Mail is worth keeping.”

What appears to be an editorial criticized the president’s medical care.

“From the perspective of modern trauma care, President Garfield’s wounds are considered entirely survivable,” according to a 2018 article from the American College of Surgeons. “From the day of the shooting and for the nine weeks that followed, (doctors) examined the president’s wound with unwashed fingers or metal probes, with no regard for sterility.”

“We have no intention of criticising the President’s doctors,” said the editors of the Mail. “They are without doubt among the most skilled and learned in their field and of course they did everything they could for the patient.”

“But isn’t it a little shocking to see how badly the best doctors treated him? The autopsy, which has been published elsewhere, shows that the doctors’ diagnosis was completely wrong.”

They included a quote from Garfield that seems prescient: “Individuals may carry the glory of our institutions for a time, but they do not take it with them to the grave. Like raindrops from heaven, they may pass through the circle of the shining arch and add to its brilliance, but when they have sunk again into the earth, the proud arch still spans the sky and shines gloriously on.”

“The fund for Mrs. (Lucretia) Garfield reached the impressive sum of $287,000 on Friday and will hardly fall below $300,000,” another tidbit, he said. “The generosity and sympathy of the people are aroused in this matter and refuse to recognize any narrow limits in their expression.

According to the National Park Service, the fund totaled $360,000, equivalent to $9 million today.

“So she could educate her children and continue living” on the farm in Mentor. “It also gave her the income to build an addition to the back of the farmhouse that her husband knew and loved.”

This extension is by far the most magnificent room in the house and gives the impression of a shrine or monument that she had built in memory of her husband.

Garfield is buried in Lake View Cemetery on a hill outside Cleveland. His grave is open to the public.

According to the cemetery, Garfield was initially enclosed in a temporary crypt during construction of the monument, which was completed in 1890.

He and his wife were buried in the basement of the building.

President Harrison, along with other national dignitaries, attended the dedication ceremony at the end of May.

The Warren Mail picked up a news story about the dedication: “The monument to the memory of James Abram Garfield was dedicated with appropriate pomp and pageantry. Citizens and veterans from all parts of the country thronged the streets. The city was adorned with decorations. Eloquent speakers paid tribute to the memory of the martyr.

Garfield holds a warm place in the hearts of his countrymen, not only because of the high position he held, but also because of the services he rendered to his country on the battlefield, in Congress, and in the presidential chair.

Garfield’s death was a stroke of luck for his fame. His prolonged illness won him the sympathy and affection of the American people in a way that his own great deeds could never have done.

The accident of his death helped to link his name with that of Lincoln in the popular mind, and the affection of a united people will always be for the two martyred presidents of the Republic.