Charles J. Guiteau was a troubled man with a difficult upbringing. His mother and 4 of his 6 siblings all died when he was still a child, and his father instilled religious beliefs into him through physical abuse. Guiteau grew up to be an incredibly unstable man due to his upbringing.
When Guiteau came of age, he became a tax collector, and used this to his advantage by constantly evading taxes. Once a tax collector was sent to him, he began moving across state lines to avoid paying them. Guiteau was a troubled man and never truly lived a stable lifestyle, even when he joined a commune, he was constantly berated because no one liked him.
When all else failed him, Guiteau became interested in politics. Eventually, Guiteau wrote a passage dedicated to Horace Greely, a presidential candidate in 1872, about why Greely should’ve become president. Guiteau believed that if Greely won, he would be indebted to him, and become the “Minister of Chile”, which obviously never came of anything, and Greely lost to Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1880, Guiteau switched his political ideology, and became a stalwart, a faction of the republican party. Again, Guiteau wrote a passage for a presidential candidate, but this time favored for Ulysses S. Grant, still hoping for a consulship. However, James A. Garfield took over the candidacy, and beat both factions, the stalwarts and the half-breeds by a landslide. Realizing this, Guiteau changed his passage to favor Garfield, and read it out to the public, handing out copies whenever and wherever he could.
James A. Garfield of course won this election. In the grand scheme of things, Guiteau had absolutely nothing to do with Garfield’s victory, but he believed that he was the main reason Garfield even won, and believed Garfield was now indebted to him and owed him a consulship. So Guiteau began to write many letters to Garfield about it, trying to get this consulship. When he was ignored, he began to stalk Garfield and the secretary of state James Blaine. He’d intercept the two constantly, continuing to ask about his owed debt. Eventually James Blaine snaps at Garfield, screaming “Never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live!” (referring to the fact that, other than Chile and Vienna, Guiteau also wanted a consulship in Paris.)
Blaine’s remark enrages Guiteau, causing him to plan an assassination against Garfield. He goes to buy a gun, and gets a gun he thinks would look better in a museum, an ivory grip. He shoots Garfield, who died later of an infection in a hospital. It’s theorized Garfield could have easily survived the incident easily in modern medicine.
Guiteau was sentenced to death, and was hanged 5 months later. During his trial he constantly insulted everyone there, including his own defense team. At his hanging Guiteau recited a written poem beforehand called “I am Going to the Lordy,” which cites God as the reason for the assassination. Guiteau describes himself as the savior of both his party and his land, but laments that his country has murdered him for it, which is told from the perspective of a child. During the hanging the crowd spectating booed and jeered at Guiteau as he read the poem.
As well as many other people in the sources I reviewed, I believe that this man was deranged. It’s likely that he had some sort of mental illness, likely from his abuse from his father. But that’s not an excuse for acting as crazy as this guy did, and it’s especially not an excuse to assassinate a president.
What do you think about this story?
Do you know any interesting facts about Charles J. Guiteau or about James A. Garfield’s presidency?
Replies
I agree with you that this could never happen today. This was a very strange occurence, and was very strange, even for the time that it happened. It was very unusual. I'm also glad you found this interesting, becuase I've been interesting in this story for a while, and I've wanted to share the story for a while.
I think this story is very intresting as everybody in the courtroom was yelling at him including his defence team as thats not aloud in todays court hearings and the fact that his defence team was insulting him makes it even worse. I do not know any facts about President Garfield.
I agree with you! That sort of behavior is unheard of in courtrooms in today's world. And it was still shocking to most people even then. Guiteau was still considered pretty strange to the general public.
James A. Garfield was the last president to be born in a log cabin. His father died when he was 18 months old. he had 6 siblings and 4 of them died when they where still children. After his father died him and his sibling helped his mom work on the farm to make ends meet.
That's intresting irony considering how Charles J. Guiteau had similar things happen to his family, 4 of his 6 siblings died, and his mother died, both while he was still very young.
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