arfield's death was other than a noble and
enviable one. He was cut off suddenly in the very moment of his
brightest success, before the cares and disappointments of office had
begun to dim the pleasure of his first unexpected triumph. He died a
martyr to a good and honest cause, and his death-bed was cheered and
alleviated by the hushed sorrow and sympathy of an entire nation--one
might almost truthfully add, of the whole civilized world.

From the first, President Garfield set his face sternly against the bad
practice of rewarding political adherents by allowing them to nominate
officials in the public service--a species of covert corruption
sanctioned by long usage in the United States. This honest and
independent conduct raised up for him at once a host of enemies among
his own party. The talk which they indulged in against the President
produced a deep effect upon a half-crazy and wildly egotistic
French-Canadian of the name of Guiteau, who had emigrated to the States
and become an American citizen. General Garfield had arranged a trip
to New England in the summer of 1881, to attend the annual festival at
his old school, the Williams College, Massachusetts; and for that
purpose he left the White House (the President's official residence at
Washington) on July 2. As he stood in the station of the Baltimore and
Potomac Railway, arm in arm with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State,
Guiteau approached him casually, and, drawing out a pistol, fired two
shots in rapid succession, one of which took effect on the President
above the third rib. The assassin was at once secured, and the wounded
President was carried back carefully to the White House.

Almost everybody who reads this book will remember the long suspense,
while the President lay stretched upon his bed for weeks and weeks
together, with all Europe and America watching anxiously for any sign
of recovery, and sympathizing deeply with the wounded statesman and his
devoted wife. Every effort that was possible was made to save him, but
the wound was past all surgical skill. After lingering long with the
stored-up force of a good constitution, James Garfield passed away at
last of blood-poisoning, more deeply regretted perhaps than any other
man whom the present generation can remember.

It is only in America that precisely such a success as Garfield's is
possible for people who spring, as he did, from the midst of the
people. In old-settled and wealthy coun