Destiny of the Republic (41 page)

Chapter 13: “It’s True”

1
Lucretia was packing her bags: Peskin,
Garfield
, 146.

2
“The President wishes me to say”:
Harper’s Weekly
25 (1881); “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881; Rockwell, “Garfield’s Assassination.”

3
“Tell me the truth”: Shaw,
Lucretia
, 103.

4
still nursing a grudge: A few days later, Grant made a late and extremely brief appearance at a reception that was held for Garfield. He kept his wife waiting in their carriage while he stepped into the hall, shook Garfield’s hand, and quickly made his exit.

5
“I do not think he can afford”: Garfield,
Diary
, June 24, 1881, 4:615.

6
“so overcome with emotion”: “Sending for Mrs. Garfield,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

7
Finally, he was able to tell Lucretia: Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 387.

8
Hurriedly finishing her packing: “Mrs. Garfield’s Narrow Escape,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

9
By the time they reached the station: “Sending for Mrs. Garfield,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

10
“All along the route”:
The Attempted Assassination of President Garfield
, 45.

11
“Conductors passed quietly”: Comer,
Harry Garfield’s First Forty Years
, 57.

12
“We have not said a word”: “At the President’s House,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

13
In the second-story room: Reyburn,
Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield
, 12.

14
“The crowd about the depot”:
The Attempted Assassination of President Garfield
, 43.

15
Within ten minutes of the shooting:
Chicago Tribune
, July 3, 1881.

16
As soon as Garfield appeared: “Removal of Mr. Garfield,”
Washington Post
, July 3, 1881.

17
“I think I can see now”: Reyburn,
Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield
, 11.

18
Hoping to spare the president: Seale,
The President’s House
, 521.

19
“sufferings must have been intense”:
Chicago Tribune
, July 3, 1881.

20
“haltingly and timidly”: Stanley-Brown, “My Friend Garfield.”

21
“Oh, Mr. Secretary”: Ibid.

22
“Even in moments of greatest misery”: Ibid.

23
“temporary but adequate”: Stanley-Brown, “Memorandum Concerning Joseph Stanley-Brown’s Relations with General Garfield,” 12.

24
“full and accurate information”: Stanley-Brown, “My Friend Garfield.”

25
“miniature hospital”: Ibid.

26
“abounding in health”: Stanley-Brown, “Memorandum Concerning Joseph Stanley-Brown’s Relations with General Garfield,” 13.

27
A dozen men lifted above their heads the mattress: Seale,
The President’s House
, 522.

28
“The upper story is alright”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

29
“the Pullman car”: “Mrs. Garfield’s Narrow Escape,”
New York Times
, July 5, 1881.

30
“That’s my wife!”: Brown,
The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield
, 220.

31
“Mrs. Garfield came, frail, fatigued”: Blaine,
Letters of Mrs. James G. Blaine
, 211.

32
“evidently … making a strong effort”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

33
“will not probably live”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

34
“I am here to nurse you”: Seale,
The President’s House
, 522.

Chapter 14: All Evil Consequences

1
While most of the country heard: Tainter, “The Talking Machine and Some Little Known Facts in Connection with Its Early Development,” 17. (Hereafter “The Talking Machine.”)

2
“President Garfield,” the caller said: Ibid.

3
“belonged to us”: Eliza Bell to Alexander Graham Bell, July 8, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

4
“Everybody ran hither and thither”: McCabe,
Our Martyred President
, 535.

5
Determined to find out for himself: Tainter, “The Talking Machine,” 17.

6
“no one could venture to predict”: Bell,
Upon the Electrical Experiments
, 1.

7
“Nature did all she could”: Girdner, “The Death of President Garfield,”
Munsey’s Magazine
, 548.

8
“none the worse for it”: “What Surgeon J. F. May Says,”
New York Times
, July 8, 1881.

9
“had been a ‘tough’ ”: Girdner, “The Death of President Garfield,” 547.

10
“the crowds were rapidly increasing”: “A Great Nation in Grief,”
New York Times
, July 3, 1881.

11
Inside the White House: Seale,
The President’s House
, 522.

12
“President Garfield was shot and killed”: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 64.

13
At the top of his list of potential competitors: “The President’s Physicians,”
New York Times
, July 13, 1881.

14
When Baxter arrived at the White House: Bliss,
Statement of the Services Rendered by the Surgeons in the Case of the Late President Garfield
, 19.

15
“Why, doctor”: Ibid., 19.

16
“He is my patient”: Bliss’s wife to her brother, August 28, 1881.

17
“I know your game”: “The President’s Physicians,”
New York Times
, July 13, 1881.

18
“Dear Doctor”: D. W. Bliss to doctors, July 3, 1881.

19
“He just took charge of it”: “President Garfield’s Case,”
American Observer
, 494.

20
“select such counsel”: Reyburn,
Clinical History of the Case of President James Abram Garfield
, 15.

21
To his mortification, however: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 99.

22
Lucretia, in fact, had taken matters: Dr. Edson was a homeopathic physician. Like other homeopaths, her philosophy was in direct opposition to that of allopathy, the type of medicine that Bliss, Baxter, and the vast majority of American doctors then practiced. In medical school, she had been taught that “like cures like.” When treating a patient, she tried to prescribe medicines that produced the same symptoms in her patients as the diseases from which they were suffering. More important, she believed in the “law of infinitesimals”—the smaller the dose, the more effective the treatment. Although homeopathic medicine did little good, neither did it cause much harm, certainly in comparison to allopathy. In the late nineteenth century, American allopathic doctors still relied heavily on “heroic measures”—not as a last resort, but as a first step. They vigorously argued the benefits of bleeding, blistering, and scarification. Purging was also considered highly therapeutic, brought on by doses so toxic that they caused violent vomiting and, occasionally, death.

23
The stout, bespectacled doctor: Feis,
Mollie Garfield in the White House
, p. 70.

24
“Mrs. Dr. Edson”: Balston,
Life of President Garfield
, Supplementary Chapter by Edson, 612.

25
Dr. Silas Boynton: Garfield had an especially high regard for Boynton because the doctor had “burst the narrow barriers of homeopathy.”

26
“Please to have you come”: Deppisch, “Homeopathic Medicine and Presidential Health,” 6.

27
“I had a taste of what has been”: Pasteur and Lister,
Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine
, 144.

28
“all evil consequences”: Bankston, 35.

29
“In order to successfully practice”: Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 72.

30
“Judging the future by the past”: Ibid.

31
“good old surgical stink”: Ibid., 70; Guthrie,
From Witchcraft to Antisepsis
, 32.

32
Some physicians felt that Lister’s: Rutkow,
James A. Garfield
, 110.

33
They preferred, moreover: Haller,
American Medicine in Transition, 1840–1910
, ix.

34
Even those doctors willing to try: Rothstein,
American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century
, 256; Clark,
The Murder of James A. Garfield
, 73.

35
“had the physician in charge abstained”: Gerster,
Recollections of a New York Surgeon
, 206.

36
“Do not allow probing”: Dr. E. L. Patee to Lucretia Garfield, July 3, 1881, James A. Garfield Papers, Library of Congress. Patee understood gunshot wounds as well as any of the doctors circling the White House, and better than most. Just a few years after graduating from Ohio’s Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, which he had attended at the same time as Garfield, and the Starling Medical College in Columbus, Patee had moved to western Kansas. A devoted abolitionist, he had been among the first to enlist in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. During the war, he had established a hospital on the front lines and, afterward, had devoted much of his time to treating the freed slaves who flooded into Kansas.

37
“old men”: Girdner, “The Death of President Garfield,”
Munsey Magazine
, 547.

38
Both men had attended Lister’s talk: Paulson, “Death of a President and His Assassin,” 81.

39
“these gentlemen used no buttons”: Godlee,
Lord Lister
, 391.

40
“would in many cases sacrifice”: Pasteur and Lister,
Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine
, 136.

41
“bear the severest scrutiny”: “Dr. Hamilton Much Pleased,”
New York Times
, July 6, 1881.

42
“I think that we have”: “A Medical View of the Case,”
New York Times
, July 8, 1881.

43
As Bliss spoke, smoke from his cigar: “Still Brighter Prospects,”
New York Times
, July 8, 1881.

44
“the most admirable patient”: “A Medical View of the Case,”
New York Times
, July 8, 1881.

45
“If I can’t save him”: Quoted in Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, 403.

46
“I cannot possibly persuade him to sit”: Mabel Bell to her mother, July 8, 1881, Bell Family Papers.

47
“like a Chinese lantern”: Bell,
Upon the Electrical Experiments
, 47.

48
Deciding to run a few quick tests: Bruce,
Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude
, 344; Tainter, “The Talking Machine,” 18.

49
In a simplistic way, the technique anticipated: In November 1895, Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen took an X-ray of his wife’s hand, which showed her bones and wedding ring.

50
The problem was that: Bell,
Upon the Electrical Experiments
, 47–48.

51
“returned vividly to my mind”: Ibid., 4.

52
“The currents induced”: Ibid., 2–3.

53
“When a position of silence”: Ibid., 3.

54
“brooding over the problem”: Ibid., 4.

55
“great personal convenience”: Ibid.

56
“received an urgent request”: Tainter, “The Talking Machine,” 18.