Destiny of the Republic - By Candice Millard Page 0,124

Ruth Feis, Mollie Garfield’s daughter, author of Mollie Garfield in the White House, for their beautifully written books, which give the kind of insight into Garfield’s life that could come only from the members of his family. Finally, I am especially grateful to Alan Peskin, who, with his book Garfield, wrote what is, in my opinion, the definitive Garfield biography. I had the great pleasure to meet Alan in Cleveland, and he generously shared with me his own impressions of Garfield, after having spent a quarter of a century studying him.

Among the most enjoyable experiences I had while researching this book was the time I spent with several of Garfield’s descendants. There is no doubt in my mind that James Garfield would have been exceptionally proud of the fine family that grew out of his marriage to Lucretia. The president’s descendants—from great-grandchildren to great-great-great-grandchildren—were every bit as warm and kind as their famous forefather is remembered to have been. I would especially like to thank James A. Garfield III, known as Jay, who, along with his mother, Sally, and brother, Tom, generously invited me to a delicious, fascinating, and very fun family dinner. I will never forget their kindness and hospitality, or the wonderful stories they told. I am also very grateful to Rudolph Garfield, known as Bob, who shared with me details of his family’s history as well as memories of his grandfather James, who had been in the train station with his father, President Garfield, on that fateful day. I would also like to thank Wyatt Garfield, whom I interviewed over the phone, and Jill Driscoll, Mollie Garfield’s great-great-granddaughter, who kindly sent me a copy of the treatise that her father, a physician, wrote about the medical care Garfield received after the shooting.

For help with tracking down elusive newspaper articles, many thanks go to my very smart, resourceful friend Stacy Benson. I am grateful to Lora Uhlig for spending several painful weekends copying the nearly three thousand pages of the trial record of United States v. Guiteau. Thanks too to David Uhlig and Clif Wiens for helping me to understand and navigate the world of social media. I am grateful to Michelle Harris for applying her impressive and abundant research skills toward fact-checking this book. For stirring in me an early interest in history and the world outside our hometown, I would like to thank my lifelong friend Jodi Lewis. For her great warmth and kindness to my family, I will always be grateful to Betty Jacobs.

As a writer, I am extremely fortunate to have a brilliant editor in Bill Thomas, an extraordinary agent in Suzanne Gluck, and an incredibly talented publicist in Todd Doughty. I would like to thank them not only for the time and talent they have devoted to this book, but for their kindness and encouragement.

Many thanks and much love to my parents, Lawrence and Constance Millard, to whom this book is dedicated; my sisters, Kelly Sandvig, Anna Shaffer, and Nichole Millard; my mother-in-law, Doris Uhlig; and my bright, sweet, funny, precious-beyond-words children, Emery Millard Uhlig, Petra Tihen Uhlig, and Conrad Adams Uhlig.

My husband, Mark Uhlig, has been a constant source of encouragement, inspiration, and pure happiness for the past nearly twenty years of my life. He deserves more thanks than I could possibly fit into a thousand books, much less one, so I carry them all in my heart. A tu lado.

Finally, over the years I spent writing this book, my family and I have learned firsthand how fortunate we are to live in a time when medical science has advanced in the treatment not just of bullet wounds and infections, but of diseases as mysterious and insidious as cancer. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Gerald Woods, Cathy Burks, Dr. Brian Kushner, Dr. Margaret Smith, Lynn Hathaway, and Dr. Edward Belzer, as well as the many exceptional men and women at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. From the bottom of this mother’s heart, and on behalf of every member of my family, thank you, thank you, thank you.

NOTES

Prologue: Chosen

1 Crossing the Long Island Sound: New York Times, June 13, 1880.

2 Although most of the passengers: Report of the Proceedings in the Case of the United States v. Charles J. Guiteau, Tried in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, Holding a Criminal Term, and Beginning November 14, 1881 (1882), 583–84. (Hereafter United States v.