January 20, 1881
- The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii as a naval base.
March 4, 1881
- James A. Garfield inaugurated as 20th president.
March 13, 1881
- Czar Alexander II, the ruler of Russia since 1855, is killed in
the streets of St. Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a member of the
revolutionary "People's Will" group. The People's Will, organized
in 1879, employed terrorism and assassination in their attempt to
overthrow Russia's czarist autocracy. They murdered officials and
made several attempts on the czar's life before finally
assassinating him on March 13, 1881. On the day he was killed, he
signed a proclamation--the so-called Loris-Melikov
constitution--that would have created two legislative commissions
made up of indirectly elected representatives. He was succeeded by
his 36-year-old son, Alexander III, who rejected the Loris-Melikov
constitution. Alexander II's assassins were arrested and hanged,
and the People's Will was thoroughly suppressed. The peasant
revolution advocated by the People's Will was achieved by Vladimir
Lenin's Bolshevik revolutionaries in 1917.
September 19, 1881
- the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died
of wounds inflicted by an assassin, 80 days being shot. On July 2,
1881, only four months into his administration, President Garfield
was shot as he walked through a railroad waiting room in
Washington. His assailant, Charles J. Guiteau, was a disgruntled
and possibly insane man who had unsuccessfully sought an
appointment to the U.S. consul in Paris. The president was shot in
the back and the arm, and Guiteau immediately surrendered. Vice
President Chester A. Arthur generally served as acting president,
but there was confusion over whether he had the authority to do
so, as the Constitution was ambiguous on the matter of
presidential succession.
November 14, 1881 -
Charles J. Guiteau went on trial for assassinating President James
A. Garfield.
Kenneth D. Ackerman (2003).
Dark Horse: The Surprise
Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield.
(New York, NY: Carroll & Graf, 551 p.). Garfield, James A. (James
Abram), 1831-1881; Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881
--Assassination; Guiteau, Charles Julius, 1841-1882;
Presidents--United States--Election--1880; Presidents--United
States--Biography; United States--Politics and
government--1881-1885.
Horatio Alger (1881). From Canal Boy to President : or, The
Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield. (New York, NY: J.R.
Anderson, 334 p.). Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881
--Childhood and youth; Presidents--United States--Biography.
Hendrik Booraem (1988).
The Road to Respectability: James A.
Garfield and His World, 1844-1852. (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell
University Press, 301 p.). Garfield, James A. (James Abram),
1831-1881 --Childhood and youth; Presidents--United
States--Biography. Series: A Western Reserve Historical Society
publication.
Margaret Leech and Harry J. Brown (1978).
The Garfield Orbit.
(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 369 p.). Garfield, James A. (James
Abram), 1831-1881; Presidents--United States--Biography; United
States--Politics and government--1861-1865; United
States--Politics and government--1865-1883.
Allan Peskin (1978).
Garfield: A Biography. (Kent, OH:
Kent State University Press, 716 p.). Garfield, James A. (James
Abram), 1831-1881; Presidents -- United States -- Biography;
United States -- Politics and government -- 1849-1877; United
States -- Politics and government -- 1877-1881.
Compiled by
Robert O. Rupp (1997).
James A. Garfield: A Bibliography. (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 185 p.). Garfield, James A. (James Abram),
1831-1881 --Bibliography.
Ira Rutkow
(2006).
James A. Garfield. (New York, NY: Times Books, 181 p.).
Clinical Professor of Surgery (University of Medicine and
Dentistry of New Jersey). Garfield, James A. (James Abram),
1831-1881; Presidents--United States--Biography.
Garfield’s bad luck
was to have his fate placed in the care of arrogant physicians who
did not accept the new theory of antisepsis. Probing the wound
with unwashed and occasionally manure-laden hands, Garfield’s
doctors introduced terrible infections and brought about his death
two months later.
John M. Taylor
(1970).
Garfield of Ohio, the Available Man. (New York, NY:
Norton, 336 p.). Garfield, James A. (James Abram), 1831-1881.
_____________________________________________
Links
Media in America, 1881: Garfield, Guiteau, Bell, Whitman
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CI/journal/issues/v31n3/ 310304/
310304.html
This article discusses the effect of technological advances on the
responses to President James A. Garfield being shot in 1881 by
Charles Guiteau. Describes how the era's new media including the
telegraph and telephone created reactions, such as the use of a
metal detector developed by Alexander Graham Bell to search for
the lodged bullet, and Walt Whitman's poem about Garfield. From
Critical Inquiry, a journal published by the University of
Chicago.
