"Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" by Candace Millard ****

• Book Club Selection, August 2014
• Non-Fiction, Biography
• US author
• Originally published 2011
• Vocabulary:
• Chapter Epigraphs:
• "The life and light of a nation are inseparable."
• "I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat."
• "Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety.  Trees may flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while silently the trickling rain-drops are filling the deep cavern behind its rocky barriers, which, by and by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild ruin its treacherous peace."
• "Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material universe and...demonstrated the power, wisdom, and goodness of God; but we know of no one who has demonstrated the same attributes from the history of the human race."
• "To a young man who has in himself the magnificent possibilities of life, it is not fitting that he should be permanently commanded.  He should be a commander."
• "Tonight, I am a private citizen.  To-morrow I shall be called to assume new responsibilities, and on the day after, the broadside of the world's wrath will strike.  It will strike hard.  I know it, and you will know it."
• "There are times in the history of men and nations, when they stand so near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that they can almost hear their breathings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the infinite."
• "It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow that it finds solace in unselfish thought."
• "I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the characters of men are moulded and inspired by what their fathers have done."
• "There is no horizontal Stratification of society in this country like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and let another come to the surface to stay there forever.  Our Stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls."
• "If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart.  The spirit should not grow old."
• "Light itself is a great corrective.  A thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown in darkness disappear like owls and bats before the light of day."
• "I have sometimes thought that we cannot know any man thoroughly well while he is in perfect health.  As the ebb-tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the bed of the sea, so feebleness, sickness, and pain bring out the real character of a man."
• "If a man murders you without provocation, your soul bears no burden of the wrong; but all the angels of the universe will weep for the misguided man who committed the murder."
• Key people:
• James Garfield
• Charles Guiteau:  mentally ill, assassin
• Quotes:
• p.32..."I have so long and so often seen the evil effects of the presidential fever upon my associates and friends that I am determined it shall not seize me.......in almost every case it impairs if it does not destroy the usefulness of its victim.".....some things never change
• p.44..."I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows but the calm level of the sea, from which all heights and depths are measured."...speech given at convention to calm frenzied crowd and encourage more thoughtful candidate selection
• p.56....""If you say that this is impossible, I answer that I know it is possible--nay, that it is easy."  "It was like rowing a boat,.....if you stay near the shore, you'll be fine.  It's only when you row too near a waterfall that you find yourself in danger."....the withdrawal method of birth control
• p.60..."Is there a hell?  Fifty deceived people are of the opinion that there ought to be>"...headline in Newark Daily Journal after Guiteau spoke at the Opera House
• p.69..."...it is not enough for one to know that his heart and motives are pure, if he is not sure but that good men.....who do not know him, will set him down among the list of men of doubtful morality."...Garfield's response to the opposition party trying to slander his name during presidential election
• p.80..."Of all the men who didn't invent the telephone, Gray was the nearest"....LOL
• p.92..."The Capital building, where Garfield had spent seventeen years of his life, suddenly seemed a snake pit, a place where vicious, small-minded men lay in wait, ready to attack at the first sign of weakness."...just like "House of Cards"....some things never change
• p.98..."Of course I deprecate war," he wrote, "but if it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at home."
• p.103..."Four years of this kind of intellectual dissipation may cripple me for the remainder of my life.  What might not a vigorous thinker do, if he could be allowed to use the opportunities of a Presidential term in vital, useful activity?"....Same thing is true now, 100 years later
• "....ignorance is Bliss".....reference to the physician who basically killed Garfield
• Notes:
• Primary biographical notes:
• Born in rural Ohio
• Extreme poverty
• Fatherless by age 2
• didn't campaign for himself
• gifted, if long-winded orator
• survived a fall into Erie Canal, thought it meant he had a purpose
• 1854...Williams College
• Frederick Douglass campaigned for him
• John Phillip Sousa led the Marine Corps Band on the day of inauguration
• Garfield was "a poor hater" but "a good fighter"
• first time there were armed guards at the White House
• Grief at his death first major unifying moment for North and South since Civil War
• Amazing train ride from White House to Elburon on the ocean...track laid to the house door!
• Lucretia created the first presidential library with funds donated by American people
• 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia:
• Edison's telegraph
• Remington typewriter
• Statue of Liberty's hand all that had been assembled
• Alexander Graham Bell first telephone exhibit
• Joseph Lister.....anti sepsis procedure in medical treatment
• Wife:  Lucretia
• Had an affair, repented and was forgiven
• Republican Party consisted of the "Half-Breeds" and the "Stalwarts"
• Chicago Fire stats:
• 1871
• destroyed thousands of buildings
• more than 70 miles of streets, killed 300+, 100,000 homeless
• Oneida Community:
• home of Guiteau's family
• his madness became apparent there
• The Oneida Community was a religious commune founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1848 in Oneida, New York. The community believed that Jesus had already returned in AD 70, making it possible for them to bring about Jesus's millennial kingdom themselves, and be free of sin and perfect in this world, not just Heaven (a belief called Perfectionism). The Oneida Community practiced Communalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), Complex Marriage, Male Continence, Mutual Criticism and Ascending Fellowship. There were smaller Noyesian communities in Wallingford, Connecticut; Newark, New Jersey; Putney and Cambridge, Vermont.^[1] The community's original 87 members grew to 172 by February 1850, 208 by 1852, and 306 by 1878. The branches were closed in 1854 except for the Wallingford branch, which operated until devastated by a tornadoin 1878. The Oneida Community dissolved in 1881, and eventually became the giant silverware company Oneida Limited.^[2]
• Review:  I would like to have known James Garfield.  He sounds like a marvelous human being, statesman, father, and husband.  Ms. Millard's book is non-fiction that reads like a well-constructed novel.  In fact, it is the combination of fascinating peripheral events occurring simultaneously in time with the details of President Garfield's election and death which make this book so very interesting. The reader gets a glimpse into the mind of this gentle intellectual man as well as into the sociopolitical and scientific advances of the times.  Excellent read!