Flashback: Destiny of the Republic
Since reading Candace Millard’s Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President a few years ago (way back in sketchbook #5), it’s the presidential book I recommend most often.
In celebration of the upcoming Netflix miniseries based on the book (Death by Lightening), I compiled some doodles inspired by Millard’s book. And, of course, I’ve jammed in some unnecessary tangents. No spoilers here (I don’t think, anyway) because, seriously, if you haven’t read this book yet you absolutely have to. My favorite parts didn’t even make it into my sketchbook, so really you have no choice but to read it for yourself.
A few quick things about Garfield before we dive in.
He was:
the last president born in a log cabin
2 years old when his father died
(His dad saw a massive wildfire approaching and spent a day clearing brush, digging ditches, and working his ass off to save the their house and farm. He was successful, but became sick soon after leaving the farm and four children for his wife to care for. Garfield’s mom and 11-year-old brother kept the farm going. She managed not to give any of her kid away, despite advice from her family.)extremely poor
brilliant
my favorite
only president for 6 months
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Dedicated his life to opposing the “evil giant” — slavery
Lifelong abolitionist
Knew that if freedman couldn’t vote, they’d be controlled by and at the mercy of those “who have been so reluctantly compelled to take their feet from his neck and their hands from his throat.”
Wrote “servitium esto damnation” (“slavery be damned”) in his diary the day John Brown was executed
America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History, by Ariel Aberg-Riger
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The Ohio Icicle’s plan backfired
John Sherman asked Garfield to nominate him at the convention, which backfired spectacularly as the crowd boomed “WE WANT GARFIELD!”
FUN RELATED FACT!
While trying to find out if John Sherman was related to William Howard Taft’s vice president,* I discovered that he was related to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman.
Gallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation, by Peter Stark
*OK, I lied. I was trying to find out if John Sherman was William Howard Taft’s vice president, because I’m bad at timelines and math and also names (I thought Taft’s VP was named John Sherman; his name was James Sherman). John Sherman was too dead to be VP (if he was alive, he would have been in his late 80s at the start of Taft’s term). To be fair, James Sherman ended up also being too dead to be VP, dying in office — the last VP to do so. And if this source is true, these three Shermans were related. Hooray for unexpected tangents!
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The Republicans put out an amazing pamphlet about their opponent
The cover says it’s a “Record of the Statesmanship and Political Achievements of General Winfield Scott Hancock” but it’s just a smart-assed empty pamphlet and I love it.
If you’re keeping track, that’s now TWO generals named for other military heroes in this post:
General William Tecumseh Sherman, named for the Shawnee chief
General Winfield Scott Hancock, named for General Winfield Scott … a fact that has caused me confusion
Get this: Winfield Scott Hancock (and his twin brother) were born of Valentine’s Day. I thought it would be a fun discovery if General William Tecumseh Sherman was also born on Valentine’s Day. He wasn’t. But he died on Valentine’s Day!
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Garfield loved working from home
He didn’t love the job, but loved the perks of seeing (and hearing!) his kids so much.
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VP Chester Arthur intimidated a cabinet appointee into quitting his post
At the time, Arthur was Roscoe Conkling’s minion. Arthur helped drag one of Garfield’s appointees out of bed to intimidate him into quitting the post.
FULL DISCLOSURE: it appears my impression of Conkling up until this point was a bit hasty. I don’t approve of his methods — but he was staunchly anti-slavery and supported Reconstruction. I need to read more about him at some point. I was spot-on about his sweet, sweet head of hair though.
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Charles Guiteau … all the eye rolls
Lived at a free love commune where the women dubbed him Charles “Gitout”, a fact that will never stop bringing me joy
Tried to secure a job from Garfield’s administration, citing (I shit you not) “the principle of first come first served”
Garfield declared that “assassination can no more be guarded against than death by lightening, and it’s best not to worry about either.”
Guiteau yelled at his lawyer in court: “Now, don’t spoil the matter on cross-examination. You are a jackass on the question of cross-examination. I must tell you that right in public, to your face.” His lawyer was a patent lawyer. And his brother-in-law.
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Dr. Charles Purvis was the first Black doctor to treat a president
Purvis was surgeon-in-chief at the Freeman’s Hospital.
Unfortunately, Secretary Robert Todd Lincoln was there
…as he tended to be during assassinations.
Not there there, but, like, kinda there.*
In any case, Lincoln called Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss, the dirty fingers of whom (in collaboration with the dirty fingers of his team) finished Guiteau’s attempt.
*Robert Todd Lincoln wasn’t there when his dad was shot, but he was there when he died. He was walking toward Garfield when Garfield was shot. And he had just arrived in Buffalo when McKinley was shot. This isn’t a case of he-just-happened-to-be-in-Buffalo — he was there at McKinley’s request. Of the four presidential assassinations, he missed just one. I assume he only because he’d been dead for nearly four decades. While we’re talking about Robert Todd Lincoln, I need to add that the brother of his father’s assassin saved his life when he was a teenager. I’m not kidding. Verify it yourself directly from the National Archives!
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Spirit of selfishness
Maybe it wasn’t Guiteau’s fault or even Dr. Doctor Bliss’s filthy fingers’ fault…
As the Cleveland Herald put it, “It was not the hands of this miserable office-seeker that armed the deadly blow at the life of Garfield, but the embodied spirit of selfishness, of love of rule, of all that is implied by ‘the machine’ and the ‘one man of power’, in a word of Conklingism and its teachings.”
FOR MORE
Listen to this fantastic Throughline episode for more about Conklingism and the spoils system. (It also features Scott S. Greenberger, author of the book I read about Arthur: The Unexpected President: The Life and Times of Chester A. Arthur. Maybe I need to do a flashback post with that book, too?)
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Beef bouillon, warm milk, egg yolk, opium, charcoal, and whiskey
What do they have in common?
They’re all ingredients in Dr. Doctor Bliss’s “enematas” — that he shoved up Garfield’s butt. Garfield lost a third of his weight, going down to just 130 pounds.
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“United, as if by magic”
The nation came together after Garfield was shot. Even Jefferson Davis — the Confederate president Garfield voted to have charged as a war criminal! — said it made “the whole nation kin.”
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Flip through the rest of my sketchbook:
The cast
Here are a few of the characters in Death by Lightening; click on any of the doodles to learn more. Or check out the actual cast of the show here.
If you haven’t read Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard yet, do yourself a favor and get to it. Let me know what you think!
More posts with references to TV shows:
More books I’ve doodled my way through:
“WE WANT GARFIELD!”