On This Day: Nation prays for her president

The nation prayed for her president On This Day in 1881. Just three days prior, President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau at the Baltimore & Potomac depot. He would die 11 weeks later, just four months after taking office, on 19 September 1881.

Despite the President still holding on, Guiteau is already referred to as the “assassin.” 

 

Telegrams and notes of sympathies poured into the White House from across the nation and the world. 

 

Source:

Lancaster daily intelligencer. (Lancaster, PA), 5 July 1801. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.  

Photo:

"Garfield assassination engraving cropped" by A. Berghaus and C. Upham, published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. - Image obtained from the Images of American Political History  

 

On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

                

© Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015