From the first, President Garfield set his face sternly against the bad
practice of rewarding political adherents by allowing them to nominate
officials in the public service--a species of covert corruption
sanctioned by long usage in the United States. This honest and
independent conduct raised up for him at once a host of enemies among
his own party. The talk which they indulged in against the President
produced a deep effect upon a half-crazy and wildly egotistic French-
Canadian of the name of Guiteau, who had emigrated to the States and
become an American citizen. General Garfield had arranged a trip to New
England in the summer of 1881, to attend the annual festival at his old
school, the Williams College, Massachusetts; and for that purpose he
left the White House (the President's official residence at Washington)
on July 2. As he stood in the station of the Baltimore and Potomac
Railway, arm in arm with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, Guiteau
approached him casually, and, drawing out a pistol, fired two shots in
rapid succession, one of which took effect on the President above the
third rib. The assassin was at once secured, and the wounded President
was carried back carefully to the White House.

Almost everybody who reads this book will remember the long suspense,
while the President lay stretched upon his bed for weeks and weeks
together, with all Europe and America watching anxiously for any sign of
recovery, and sympathizing deeply with the wounded statesman and his
devoted wife. Every effort that was possible was made to save him, but
the wound was past all surgical skill. After lingering long with the
stored-up force of a good constitution, James Garfield passed away at
last of blood-poisoning, more deeply regretted perhaps than any other
man whom the present generation can remember.

It is only in America that precisely such a success as Garfield's is