July 2nd, 1881 - A Second Assassination

Abraham Lincoln

Alexander Gardner (Photographer)
Public Domain
Created: 8 November 1863

Abraham Lincoln and James A. Garfield were the first and second presidents to be assassinated.

This was one among the many attributes they shared, as well as being socially linked to one another. Both men were born in log cabins on what was considered the American frontier at the time – Garfield in Ohio and Lincoln in Kentucky. Lincoln worked on a flatboat on the Mississippi River in his youth while Garfield worked on a canal boat in the Erie Canal. Both men were well-read lawyers with strong faiths and abolitionist views. They were both very tall – Lincoln standing at six foot four and Garfield at six feet even – and described as having good senses of humor. They also both loved their children deeply and experienced intense grief over the loss of multiple children. Both men ran as Republicans and sought to heal political rifts. Their respective assassins – John Wilkes Booth and Charles J. Guiteau - also shared a grandiose sense of self-worth and importance.

Lincoln and Garfield also knew each other professionally and were connected socially. When Garfield was first elected to congress, he was serving as a Union brigadier general. He continued his military campaigning and had to be directly told by Lincoln to take his seat in congress. Garfield also initially wanted John Hays, Lincoln’s assistant private secretary, to act as his own private secretary. Lincoln’s son, Robert, was Garfield’s Secretary of War and it was Robert who sent for Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss after Garfield was shot by Guiteau. Dr. Bliss had also been present after Lincoln’s assassination.

James A. Garfield

Unknown; part of Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division.
Public Domain
Created: Picture taken circa 1870–1880.

Attitudes towards Lincoln’s assassination were also a contributing factor to Guiteau’s ability to assassinate Garfield.

The general idea among Americans was that Abraham Lincoln had been killed as a result of the Civil War, not because the United States president was a particularly vulnerable target. The secret service, while briefly working in the realm of law enforcement, had been relegated to once again fighting counterfeiting. The general opinion at the time was that, even if someone wanted to assassinate the president, there wasn’t much that could be done to prevent them from doing so. As a result, the president was left largely unprotected and his movements and plans were often publicized. When Garfield was shot, he was accompanied only by his two sons and Secretary of State James Blaine. Lincoln’s assassination was still within living memory and Garfield’s attack on July 2nd, 1881, drew immediate comparisons in the minds of the American People. However, it was not until a third president – McKinley – was assassinated in 1901 that the president’s safety from attacks became a serious concern.