Alexander Graham Bell and the Assassination of President James A. Garfield

While boarding a train in Washington D.C. on July 2^nd, 1881, President James A. Garfield was shot twice, once in the back.  The assassin was Charles Guiteau, a man of questionable sanity whom had repeatedly requested Garfield appoint him to an ambassadorship, only to be rejected.  Garfield had been in office less than four months.  He died on September 19^th, 1881.

During the nearly three months that Garfield lay ill, his case became one of national interest, and caught the attention of one of the United States’ most famous residents: Alexander Graham Bell, the Scotsman from Great Britain by way of Canada, inventor of the telephone.

Bell reasoned that the technology used in his telephone could actually be used in construction of a device that would be able to detect metal and thus find the bullet lodged in Garfield’s chest, a device first proposed by Simon Newcomb.  Although he and Newcomb would succeed in creating the device, he would fail to safe Garfield’s life.

President James A. Garfield

James A. Garfield is one of the lesser known Presidents in American history.  20^th President of the United States, his prior career had been a strong but unspectacular one.  He entered politics in the 1859 as an Ohio Congressman.  During the Civil War he joined the Union Army, then returned to politics afterward.  His election to the Presidency in 1880 was the highpoint of his political career.

His Presidency would be a brief one.  Immediately upon entering office he began being hounded by Charles Guiteau.  Guiteau is an interesting figure, a vagrant living off of money given to him by his parents trying at and failing in a number of endeavors.  He had unofficially campaigned for Garfield’s election in 1880, and saw himself as the sole reason for his success.  In his mind, then, it only served as natural that he should be given a job in payment for his services.