On July 2, 1881, James A. Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, was shot at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., resulting in his death in Elberon, New Jersey, two and a half months later on September 19, 1881.

Guiteau was an American man who had distributed copies of a speech he wrote aimed at promoting Garfield in the 1880 United States presidential election.

His treatment in part consisted of doctors trying in vain to find the bullet still lodged in his body; by doing so, they likely aggravated his existing wounds and introduced new sources of infection, decreasing his chances of survival.

Guiteau had turned to politics after failing in several ventures, including theology, a law practice, bill collecting, and spending time in the utopian Oneida Community.

[9] Guiteau believed he should be awarded a diplomatic post for his supposedly vital assistance, first asking for a consulship in Vienna, then expressing a willingness to "settle" for one in Paris.

[12] He obtained entrance to the White House and saw the President on March 8, 1881, dropping off a copy of his speech as a reminder of the campaign work which he had done on Garfield's behalf.

[15] In addition, he spent time shuffling back and forth between the State Department and the White House and approaching various Cabinet members and prominent Republicans to press his claim, all without success.

[9] Guiteau was destitute and increasingly slovenly because he was wearing the same clothes every day,[16] and would walk through the cold, snowy city without overcoat, hat, gloves, or boots.

[22][23] He favored ivory because he thought that it would look better as a museum exhibit after the assassination, but could not afford the extra dollar, so the store owner dropped the price for him.

)[26] Guiteau spent the next few weeks stalking Garfield and in target practice; the recoil "kick" from the gun almost knocked him over the first time that he fired it.

[39] The first bullet grazed the President's shoulder, and the other struck him in the back, passing the first lumbar vertebra but missing the spinal cord before coming to rest behind his pancreas.

Kearney apprehended Guiteau and was so excited at having arrested the man who had shot the president that he neglected to take the gun from him until after they arrived at the police station.

"[42] This statement briefly led to unfounded suspicions that either Vice President Chester A. Arthur or his supporters had put Guiteau up to the crime.

[43] The Stalwarts were a Republican faction loyal to Senator Roscoe Conkling; they supported Grant for a third term in 1880 and strongly opposed Blaine's Half-Breeds.

"[47] He would again be near a presidential assassination 20 years later, when President William McKinley was killed at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, which Robert was attending.

Fans blew air over a large box of ice and into the President's sickroom, and the device worked well enough to lower the temperature 20 degrees (Fahrenheit).

[56] Bell's subsequent tests indicated his metal detector was in good working order and that he would have found the bullet had he been allowed to use the device on Garfield's left side.

[63] On September 6, Garfield was taken by train to Elberon (then part of Long Branch) at the Jersey Shore, where volunteers built a spur line, overnight, from the station to the Francklyn Cottage, a seaside mansion given over to his use.

The intent was to help the President escape the Washington heat and humidity, in the vain hope that the fresh air and quiet might aid his recovery.

Garfield died of a ruptured splenic artery aneurysm,[64] following sepsis and bronchial pneumonia at 10:35 pm on Monday, September 19, 1881, in Elberon, New Jersey, two months before his 50th birthday.

During the 79 days between his shooting and death, Garfield's only official act was to sign a request for the extradition of a forger who had escaped and was apprehended after he fled to Canada.

[70] The conventional narrative regarding Garfield's post-shooting medical condition was challenged by Theodore Pappas and Shahrzad Joharifard in a 2013 article in The American Journal of Surgery, in which they argued that the President died from a late rupture of a splenic artery pseudoaneurysm, which developed secondary to the path of the bullet adjacent to the splenic artery.

Arthur was inaugurated early in the morning on September 20, and he took the presidential oath of office from John R. Brady, a New York Supreme Court judge.

He received ample media attention during his trial for his bizarre behavior, including constantly insulting his defense team, formatting his testimony in epic poems which he recited at length, and soliciting legal advice from random spectators in the audience via passed notes.

Guiteau was actively making plans to start a lecture tour after his release and to run for president himself in 1884; at the same time, he delighted in the media circus surrounding his trial.

Guiteau famously danced his way up to the gallows and waved at the audience, shook hands with his executioner, and, as a last request, recited a poem that he had written called "I am Going to the Lordy".

[83] Guiteau's bones and more of his brain, along with Garfield's backbone and a few ribs, are kept at the National Museum of Health and Medicine,[84] at the Army's Forest Glen Annex in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Garfield himself had called for civil service reform in his inaugural address[85] and supported it as president in the belief that it would make government more efficient.

Garfield had lain on his sickbed for 79 days without performing any of the duties of his office except for the signing of an extradition paper, but this did not prove to be a difficulty because in the 19th century the federal government effectively shut down for the summer regardless.

[91] It would not be until the assassination of William McKinley some twenty years later that Congress would finally task the United States Secret Service (founded to prevent counterfeiting) with the responsibility of ensuring the president's personal safety.