“I have been wonderfully blessed in the discretion of my wife. She is one of the coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw. She is unstampedable. There has not been one solitary instance of my public career where I suffered in the smallest degree for any remark she ever made. It would have been perfectly natural for a woman often to say something that could be misinterpreted; but without any design, and with the intelligence and coolness of her character, she has never made the slightest mistake that I ever heard of. With the competition that has been against me, many times such discretion has been a real blessing.”
Mrs. Garfield survived her husband many years, living to see among other memorials that bear his name a huge hospital in the Capitol City, which must have held for her a peculiar appeal.
CHAPTER VI
ADMINISTRATION OF CHESTER ALAN
ARTHUR
September 20, 1881, to March 4, 1885
VICE PRESIDENT CHESTER A. ARTHUR was not in Washington at the time of the shooting of President Garfield. He had been to Albany, and was horror stricken upon landing in New York to be greeted at the dock with the news. He left immediately for Washington, going directly to the Ben Butler house south of the Capitol, occupied at the time by Senator Jones, of Nevada, where he remained until the injured President was taken to Elberon, N. J.
Although the White House patient was conscious a large part of the time, his condition grew more critical, and his sufferings were increased by the midsummer heat, and on July 4th his death was predicted hourly. James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, called upon the Vice President to acquaint him with the fact that the President’s death was imminent and to prepare him to assume control. Mr. Blaine said:
“The President is dying! You must prepare to assume the responsibilities which the Constitution places upon you in such an event.”
Vice President Arthur was greatly distressed over the situation. He believed the prediction and stated that, when the Cabinet would call upon him, he would be ready to take the oath of office. The pall of approaching death and the depression of the great calamity had the entire nation bowed in sorrow and anxiety.
While Mr. Arthur thus waited with his friends in great suspense, expecting every moment the worst, they were notified by an orderly sent by Secretary Blaine to the effect that the change in the weather, bringing relief from the exhausting heat, had brought a decided improvement in the President’s condition, and immediate death was not anticipated. Mr. Arthur was fervent in his expressions of relief and joy. Already papers were carrying stories connecting the names of Arthur and Conkling with Guiteau’s crime. This was a severe shock to Mr. Arthur’s sensibilities, and caused him such profound distress over the injustice and cruelty of such a slander that he never quite recovered from it. Throughout his administration, this barbed shaft was often flung at him and never failed to wound him. When his attention was first called to the statements, he exclaimed: