A sad little group returned to Washington with the body of James Abram Garfield. This consisted of Chester A. Arthur, who had become President; General Grant, to whom the dead man owed deep obligations for his valiant support in the campaign; also a delegation of the Freemasons, and many important people. A hearse drawn by six white horses conveyed the casket to the Capitol, where it lay in state beneath the great dome, and where for two days a procession of thousands of citizens filed past to take a last look upon the face of another martyred President, whom they had come to love and admire.
After the family had taken their farewell, the funeral ceremonies began. The military, with their flags shrouded, their arms reversed, and their bands pouring forth a dirge, escorted the body to the same station where the shooting had occurred, to be conveyed to Cleveland for interment. The funeral party arrived at Cleveland on September 24th, and on the 26th the body of James A. Garfield was placed in its final resting place, while the entire nation attended in spirit and sympathy. During the funeral services, the sympathy of the world was with the family. Bells tolled in all big cities, mourning was displayed, and appropriate services were held throughout the country.
Party differences were forgotten or laid aside and criticism stilled in the presence of death.
Secretary Blaine loved Garfield, and his oration at the funeral was an evidence of this fact.
Guiteau, the assassin, had a sensational trial in the old City Hall. This attracted a great deal of attention, particularly on the part of the morbid curiosity-seekers who assembled daily to see the prisoner go to and from the jail to the City Hall. He paid for his act with his life. Although of good family, educated and clever, he had always been queer—a religious fanatic, who took nothing in halfway fashion. He was an extremist upon all things that interested him at all, and after years of travel abroad, imbibing all sorts of radical ideas, he came back with tendencies that found expression in opposition to all regularity of action. He had followed President Garfield about, he said, for weeks. Because of his political activity and his mad act, it was alleged that the shooting was due to factional resentment over the total eclipse of Conkling and Platt.
Guiteau’s sister and her husband, the latter reluctantly, at his wife’s request, serving as the prisoner’s counsel, won the pity and respect of everyone by their own demeanour.
Mrs. Garfield was just at her best when she came to the White House. Just beginning her forties, she had a background of culture and breeding from ancestry and education that made her a welcome addition to the best circles, brief though her régime proved to be.
Although she was well known in Washington society during her husband’s long service in Congress, when it became known that she was to be the successor of Mrs. Hayes, public attention was centred upon her and created a great demand for information about the incoming mistress of the White House.
People who claimed intimacy with this family say that she was fully as conversant with politics as her husband, and that he found in his wife intelligent and understanding companionship; that it was she who aided him in working out his political problems, and that is why he consulted none of his party associates.
The General had this to say of Mrs. Garfield: