inauguration, except that they had not the courage to shoot. I saw them
some two months or six weeks after. They were mad enough to do it. I saw
it in their eyes.

They killed two other Presidents, William Henry Harrison and Zachary
Taylor. I know the physicians called the disease congestion of the lungs
or liver, but the plain truth was that they were worried to death; they
were trampled out of life by place-hunters. Three Presidents sacrificed
to this one demon are enough. I urged Congress at the next session to
start a work of presidential emancipation. Four Presidents have
recommended civil service reform, and it has amounted to little or
nothing. But this assassination I hoped would compel speedy and decisive
action.

James A. Garfield was prepared for eternity. He often preached the
Gospel. "I heard him preach, he preached for me in my pulpit," a
minister told me. He preached once in Wall Street to an excited throng,
after Lincoln was shot. He preached to the wounded soldiers at
Chickamauga. He preached in the United States Senate, in speeches of
great nobility. When a college boy, camped on the mountains, he read the
Scriptures aloud to his companions. After he was shot, he declared that
he trusted all in the Lord's hand--was ready to live or die.

"If the President die, what of his successor?" was the great question of
the hour. I did not know Mr. Arthur at that time, but I prophesied that
Mr. Garfield's policies would be carried out by his successor.

I consider President Garfield was a man with the most brilliant mind
who ever occupied the White House. He had strong health, a splendid
physique, a fine intellect. If Guiteau's bullet had killed the President