Analysis Of The Assassination Of James Garfield's Address

1229 Words3 Pages

Kevin Moriarty 9th Grade Literature Mr.Cheney 13 November 2017 The Official Final Draft on the Analysis of the Assassination of James Garfield James Garfield is one of the lesser known presidents of the 45 that have successfully been inaugurated. Yet, he is significant along with three presidents: Abraham Lincoln, WIlliam McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. They were all assassinated while in office. This list doesn’t include Theodore Roosevelt because he survived the attempted assassination and was out of office by then. James Garfield was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, but the bullet didn’t kill him. The lack of medical support given to Garfield after the accident is what led to his death on September 19th, 1881, in Elberon NJ, 80 days …show more content…

The definition of justified is “having, done for, or marked by a good or legitimate reason.” This is something that the situation lacked. Charles Guiteau had a mental illness driving him to murder James Garfield. This was odd, because Garfield and Guiteau were both Republicans. What mainly drove Guiteau to murder Garfield was his ignorance. Guiteau was expecting a position after Garfield was elected even though Charles Guiteau wasn’t even qualified to hold a position in the government. Without many messages ignored, Charles Guiteau decided to confront James Blaine about the issue and was told never to return. Charles Guiteau was now raged by this confrontation and came up with the idea from his religious beliefs along with his mental illness which was as strong as ever. Guiteau believed from God that shooting Garfield would restore power to the Republican party. This was easy for him to accomplish, because even though president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated only 16 years, 2 months, and 17 days before, the presidents in power still didn’t have any protection in case of an attack. Based on research articles, Charles Guiteau was ready. He was just sitting there gun ready for James Garfield to go onto the train July 2nd, …show more content…

Throughout Guiteau’s life, he had a developing mental disorder. He followed a religious pathway, but his mental disorder which was in full swing at this point. Making speeches which somewhat helped Garfield elected, gave Guiteau the idea that even though he was unqualified in every way, he deserved a spot in the government. He was rejected by the secretary of state and told never to return, This was Guiteau’s breaking point. His mental disorder plus this new rage that gave him the idea that this would save the Republican party and that God told him to shoot the

Open Document