Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into almost unimaginable poverty in rural Ohio, by dint of his brilliance and work ethic he became a wunderkind scholar. He enlisted in the Union Army at the outset of the Civil War, was rapidly promoted to general, won a crucial battle, and was elected to Congress. He was a passionate advocate of freed slaves, a reformer at odds with the Republican power brokers, a devoted father, and a man who gave spellbinding speeches. In 1880, a deadlocked Republican Convention turned to him as its nominee—against his will.

When he ascended to the presidency, he brought a whole new dimension to American politics. His vision and integrity stood in stark relief against the machine politics that dominated the national scene, personified by the colorful and powerful New York senator Roscoe Conkling, who became an implacable enemy. Conkling's ally, Vice President Chester A. Arthur, an amicable political hack, worked against Garfield's reform agenda from inside the administration.

Then, four months after Garfield became president, an unhinged office seeker named Charles Guiteau—imbued with a sense of divine mission—intercepted the president in a train station, leveled a pistol, and fired twice.

But the bullets didn’t kill Garfield. The drama of what hap­pened subsequently is a epic story of a nation in tur­moil. Guiteau's half-delivered strike shattered the fragile mood of a country so recently fractured by war and left the wounded president the object of a bitter, behind-the-scenes struggle for power—over his administration, over the nation’s future, and, most disastrously, over his medical care, as a team of physicians administered archaic and unsanitary treatments. As his con­dition worsened, Garfield received help from an extraordinary quarter—Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. Bell worked around the clock to invent a new device capable of finding the bullet. The trial of the delusional assassin became one of the media events of the century, and one of the earliest, and by far most controversial, proceedings in which an insanity defense was asserted. Guiteau continued to maintain not only that he would be fully exonerated but that he'd be elected president himself.

As Garfield fought for his life, the shock of the assassination attempt galvanized the country. The epic battle between the corrupt establishment and the forces of reform turned on the actions of some very unlikely individuals, and its stunning denouement helped usher the United States into the modern age.

Meticulously researched, epic in scope, relentless in narrative drive, and pulsating with an intimate human focus, Destiny of the Republic is a high-velocity account of a crucial turning point in American history.

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