Assassin

James A Garfield National Historic Site

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For some reason, the volunteers giving the tour did not appreciate my ‘Dad joke’ references to the cat from the comics (no relation). James Garfield was a veteran of Shiloh and Chickamauga and an effective General. He was also a large man, a skilled orator and quite intelligent, devising mathematical proofs, etc. At the 1880 Republican Convention, Garfield went to support John Sherman, of the Sherman Antitrust Act, but Sherman couldn’t win the nomination. After over 30 failed ballots, someone proposed Garfield, and he became the nominee. Garfield built a path from the railroad line at the back of his Ohio property to his front porch and invited all comers to hear him speak. This new ‘front porch’ campaign was a hit, and he won.

After only a few months in office, Garfield was fatally shot in the back by a failed applicant for a Civil Service job. It took months for him to die, and a rich friend raised a considerable amount of money to take care of his widow. So, the most significant policy which arose from his brief administration was to reform the Civil Service process, so that the President wouldn’t have to meet anyone who wanted a job and hand them out (often corruptly). They also granted pensions to the widows Garfield and Lincoln.

Garfield’s widow, now rich, added 20 rooms or so to her house and built a private Presidential Library upstairs, a first. The house is mostly filled with authentic items and is remarkably well restored. The room above is the best lit and shows the finery. The library no longer contains Garfield’s papers, but it contains many books, prints and busts of authors, and Garfield’s congressional desk. Based on his Congressional career, one could argue that Garfield would have been a good President, supporting African American suffrage, voting for Johnson’s impeachment, etc., but it’s neither clear nor a flawless record. We’ll never really know.

“I’m feeling down.
Down, down, down.
Down, dooby down-down.”

Garfield

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site

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This is a quirky little site. Even Teddy didn’t spend much time here. He arrived in response to McKinley’s assassination, left when told he would recover, returned upon hearing he would die, and was inaugurated in 30 minutes by a local judge.

One of Teddy’s first official acts here was to invite Booker T. Washington to the White House. Teddy was also famously friends with John Muir, and he also befriended activist Jane Addams—who eventually won a Nobel Peace Prize and deserves a park site of her own. You can tell a lot about a person by his friends.

There are only a handful of rooms to see, but there are interactive exhibits about the Pan American Expo—where McKinley was shot by an anarchist—issues of Teddy’s Presidency, his friends & advisors, his draft first speech, and the room above where he was sworn into office. The tour evokes the hasty events here well. And if you get hungry, there’s a bar down the street that claims to have invented Buffalo Wings.

Ford’s Theatre

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“By God, that will be the last speech that he will ever make!”

John Wilkes Booth

A Shakespearean actor, infuriated by a Lincoln speech about voting rights for African Americans, after learning where the President would be, shot him.