How Was the Plot to Kill President Garfield Created and Carried Out - Essay Example

How Was the Plot to Kill President Garfield Created and Carried Out? James A. Garfield, the 20th president of United States was the second president of United States to be assassinated after Abraham Lincoln. Other US presidents who were assassinated after him include William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. He was assassinated by Charles J. Guiteau in the morning of July 2, 1881 and he died eleven weeks later in the evening of September 19, 1881. Charles Guiteau had plotted to kill him several days before the day of assassination due to his own political reasons, and he shamelessly talked about his intentions to murder Garfield during his trial. He had a very high means of opining about himself. He felt that he deserved to get a very powerful job in United States, and James Garfield was in the best position to offer him that job (Millard 2012). However, the president did not offer him his wish; so he plotted to assassinate him. Charles Guiteau was a republican like James Garfield and Ulysses Grant. Prior to the elections of 1880, James Garfield and Ulysses Grant were running for the presidency and James Garfield won the Republican nomination to face Democrat Winfield S. Hancock in the general elections. Guiteau had engaged in several ventures before joining politics. He then supported the Republican presidential candidate James Garfield after his favourite Stalwart candidate Ulysses Grant lost in the nomination. Stalwart was a Republican faction allied to the former president Ulysses Grant. The other faction was Half-Breeds led by President Garfield. The vice president Arthur who later took over as president after the assassination of President Grant was a Stalwart. Guiteau wrote a speech called Grant vs. Hancock which he later changed to Garfield vs. Hancock in support of Garfield (Millard 2012). He later said that his intention was to unite the two factions of the Republican Party; and one of the reasons why he murdered the president is because he thought it was the best way to resolve the divisions in the Republican Party which, according to him, were caused by President Garfield. With these political sacrifices he made, Charles Guiteau hoped that the Republican government would offer him a good job. He aimed at a diplomatic post in Vienna, and later asked for the same position in Paris. During the 1880 campaign he was all over the Republican headquarters in New York City seeking rewards for his efforts which he believed to have caused the narrow win of Garfield over Hancock. Later after the inauguration of Garfield in March 5, 1881, he went to the White House in Washington and approached various Cabinet members and other republicans to seek for support. When he failed in his mission completely, he plotted to kill the president. Guiteau had previously been alleged to have mental issues, his family claiming that he was institutionalized for mental illness in 1875. Guiteau considered that God had ordained him to kill the president. He said, “I leave my justification to God.” According to him, there was a divine inspiration for him to kill the president. So he borrowed $15 and purchased a firearm in early June 1881. Guiteau did not know a lot about guns, but he knew that in his mission he needed a high caliber gun. He chose a British Bulldog Revolver with an ivory handle (Millard 2012). The choice of ivory-handled over wooden-handled revolver was motivated by his belief that it would appear to be good in a museum as exhibit after he accomplishes his mission. He then started to stalk the president. In fact, he is said to have once checked out the jail where he would be jailed after his mission to ensure the place was suitable for him. He practiced how to aim and target using the revolver for the next few weeks. He even wrote to the US president telling him to fire the secretary of state James G. Blaine who had banned him from entering the White House when he was seeking for job as a diplomatic convoy in Paris, or he and the Republican Party would grief. Just like other speeches and letters that he had presented in White House, his letter was ignored. Throughout the month of June 1881, Charles Guiteau spent a significant amount of time trailing Garfield around Washington, DC. In fact, he followed him on one occasion when he was escorting his wife to a beach resort in Long Branch, New Jersey (Millard 2012). On that occasion, he did not shoot him because his wife Mrs. Garfield was not in good health so he did not want to upset her. All his time throughout June was devoted to seeing all the moves of the president as he sought the best time that he would kill him. Charles Guiteau explained in his plot to kill the president in his address to the people of America. In his address which had not been published, he said that he had conceived the idea of killing the president four weeks before he wrote the address. The letter was written in June 16, 1881. He argued that he came up with the idea of killing the president himself and no one else knew about his plot (Millard 2012). He argued that according to the criticisms of Garfield’s administration, he was convicted that killing the president was a political necessity because he betrayed the people who supported him to become president. Apart from the betrayal, Guiteau also claims that Garfield had wrecked the Republican Party. On July 2, 1881, the president was scheduled to leave Washington for his summer holiday. Guiteau was aware of this and he waited for the president at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad station. He positioned himself at the corner of the present day Constitution Avenue and Six Street, Washington. The president was heading to the Williams College through the Six Street where he was to deliver a speech before leaving for his vacation. On that morning of July 2, 1881, Guiteau went to edge of the river at Seventeenth Street to practice shooting (Millard 2012). President Garfield was scheduled to leave town around 9:30 AM, much to his awareness. He was to board a train leaving for Massachusetts. Before the train left, Garfield walked through the depot’s waiting room a few minutes before his departure time. It was at this point that President Garfield encountered Guiteau. Without a bodyguard or any other security agent, it was a great opportunity for the assassin to accomplish his mission. As the president walked through the waiting room, Guiteau stepped forward, coming from the back of the president. He then shot him at a close range. Garfield cried out saying, “My God, what is that?” (Millard 2012, p.334) and then he flung up his arms. Guiteau fired for the second time and Garfield collapsed. The first bullet got President Garfield on the shoulder while the second one hit him on the back and settled in near his pancreas. This plot to kill President Garfield shows that Guiteau planned for his revenge-assassination against the president wholeheartedly. He had really committed his life to murdering he president, and nothing except jail would deter him. He was willing to go to jail as long as he killed him. Although he considers that he killed the president for two reasons, it seems that his main reason was because the president did not offer him a job. However, it is interesting that a lot of warning signs about the president’s assassinations had been shown but the president and his cabinet never took any precautions. In fact, during his plot Guiteau had written a letter to the president warning him of his predicament, but the president neglected. Works cited Millard, Candice. The Destiny of the Republic: A tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President. 2012. Internet Source. ISBN 978-0-7679-2971-4. Read More