THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT
PART II
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THE PRESIDENT IN LONG BRANCH
After his arrival in the early afternoon, the exhausted President Garfield was transported along the newly constructed rail spur to the Francklyn Cottage (actually a twenty-room mansion) where he was placed in a specially outfitted sickroom with a view of the ocean. Soon after his arrival he could hear the bells of the nearby St. James Chapel ("The Church of the Presidents") ringing and asked, "Why are the bells ringing?" Crete replied, "They are ringing for your recovery." Others in his entourage were not so sure.
At first the sea air and ocean climate seemed to improve the president's condition. On the eighth of September his doctors told the assembled media and nation that he was vastly improved, though he was still feverish and had a high pulse rate. The nation rejoiced and awaited word of his complete recovery. On the same day some of his attending physicians were discharged, obstensively because they were no longer needed by the improving Garfield. However, the hopelessness of the situation may have also played a hand in the decision. On the thirteenth, the president requested that he be placed upright facing the window where he could look at the ocean view. He remarked, "This is delightful; it is such a change. I am myself again!" Although weakened by a night of coughing, he demanded to be placed in the same position the next day. The President exclaimed, "This is good, I like this. I think I ought to have been taken here three weeks ago." But that night the coughing continued and the following morning he was weak and tired.
Garfield was not fooled by the improvement to his spirit. On the fifteenth he told one of his doctors, "Your anxious watching will soon be over." On the sixteenth he asked one of his friends, "Do you think my name will have a place in human history?" When told he should not talk like this for he had more to accomplish, he added, "No, my work is done." The seventeenth saw an increase in temperature and pulse rate, and he could not clear his throat making it impossible for him to eat. He also was wracked with chills every half-hour, and more ominously, chest pains.
At 8:00 o'clock on the morning of September 19, 1881, President Garfield had a fever of 103 degrees, and there were chills, sweating, coughing, pain and more or less unconsciousness. By this time his 200-pound healthy body had been reduced to a 130 pounds of dying flesh. He remained semiconscious until 10:00pm when he exclaimed to his old friend General David G. Swaim while pressing his heart, "How it hurts here! Swain, can't you stop this? O Swain!" The President then collapsed into silence and a general alarm was raised throughout the household. Within minutes Garfield's doctors, family and friends surrounded his bedside, but all they could do was wait for the end. At 10:38pm, the gallant President's breathing ceased, and he was officially declared dead.
The word of President Garfield's death spread quickly from Long Branch, and the public was outraged. They had come to believe by the optimistic reports issued by the attending physicians that the President's recovery was imminent. In their opinion the doctors either had either been lying, or totally incompetent in the President's care. The newspapers and medical journals of the day also questioned the treatment of the President. Months later, when the Senate was present a bill for $85,000 from the doctors, they authorized only $10,000 in payments, privately denouncing them as quacks. Even Charles Jules Guiteau, the assassin, would say at his trial a year after Garfield's death, "I am charged with maliciously and wickedly murdering on James A. Garfield. Nothing could be more absurd, because General Garfield died from malpractice." This defense, though original, was ineffective and he was found guilty and hanged. The autopsy of the President's body at Francklyn Cottage found the official cause of death as a massive heart attack, but the real culprit was blood poisoning. Perhaps it could not have been avoided, but the attending physicians certainly did not help matters.
On the morning of September 21, the people of Long Branch were allowed to view the body of their slain president. They, like the nation, were still in a state of shock. Although Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated sixteen years earlier, he was considered a victim of the Civil War. No one had ever dreamed some maniac would shot a president for no better reason then the lack of an appointment. As the crowd of about 500 filed passed the body of Garfield, dressed in the same black suit in which he was inaugurated just six short months earlier, many openly cried. Later the President's Cabinet and other distinguished guests arrived and a short private service was held. The body was then loaded onto a special train and borne back to the Elberon Station on the same spur which had been constructed with so much hope just 16 days earlier. At around noon the train pulled away from the station accompanied by the sounds of the Church of the President's bells, and began its somber journey to Washington. It laid in state at the Capital for two days, then was transported home to Ohio where it was interred on September 24 in Cleveland.
Little remains today in Long Branch to remind us of the life and death of President James A. Garfield. A statue of the President, dedicated in 1918, has been recently moved by the Long Branch Historical Association to a park commemorating all seven presidents who vacationed there. It faces the ocean he so loved to look at during his last days. The Elberon Railroad Station still stands, though vastly altered. The Francklyn Cottage was torn down at the turn of the century with only a small monument in place to mark its location. The railroad spur was quickly torn up, and there is no official remnant of its tracks or bed today. The railroad ties were purchased by the actor Oliver Byron, and used to construct a small house ("Garfield's Hut") he placed on his estate. It was later moved to other locations in Long Branch and then to the Atlantic Highlands. Eventually it made its way back home and today stands next to St. James Chapel. This chapel, called the Church of the Presidents because of the seven presidents who worshipped there is in deplorable condition and awaits renovation, which hopefully will come while there is still time. It would be a sad commentary on our lack of historical perspective should this national shrine join the long list of other historically significant sites associated with the brave story of President James A. Garfield that have disappeared.
SOURCES:
Down the Jersey Shore
By: Russell Roberts and Rich Youmans
Rutgers University Press, 1997 ---- BUY
THIS BOOK
Entertaining a Nation
By: Writers' Project, WPA, State of NJ
Federal Writers Project, 1940 ---- BUY
THIS BOOK
The Garfield Orbit
By: Margaret Leech and Harry J. Brown
Harper & Row, 1978 ---- BUY
THIS BOOK
Jerseyana, The Underside of New Jersey History
By: Marc Mappen
Rutgers University Press, 1994 ----- BUY
THIS BOOK
The Life of President Garfield
By: William Ralston Balch
Hubbard Bros., 1881
Our Assassinated Presidents
By: Steward M. Brooks
Bell Publishing Co., 1985 ---- BUY
THIS BOOK
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
The Long Branch Public Library
Long Branch, New Jersey
The Long Branch Historical Association
Long Branch, New Jersey