First, it must be admitted that President James A. Garfield was of little historical significance, though having died just 200 days into his presidency surely has something to do with that. And, it should be added, the lack of significance in his tenure does not preclude his being an admirable and eminently likable man. Destiny of the Republic makes clear he was both.

Garfield had a distinguished career as a college professor, lawyer, and Civil War general. He was an exceptional orator, and he was elected to the U.S. Congress before he became president, the last man in U.S. history to move directly from the House to the Presidency.

He was at a train station about to travel with his boys to the Jersey Shore where his wife was recovering from a bout of malaria when the madman Charles J. Guiteau shot him in the back. Speculation is that Garfield might have survived had he not been turned over to the care of doctors who basically tortured him to death over the next eleven weeks.

Millard covers all this, of course, but concedes the definitive biography has already been published by Allan Peskin (Garfield), so her concerns spread into the political, economic, and technological landscape of the time. The struggle to save Garfield’s life, Millard explains, was inextricably bound up with larger, fiery contests over America’s post-Civil Warn future and over the trajectory of modern science and medicine.

The Kirkus Review describes Destiny of the Republic as “compulsive reading” and “Superb American history.”

The descriptions Millard offers are excellent, but I felt the want of pictures. Google to the rescue!  Here’s a photo of Charles Guiteau:

I also got curious about Lucretia. Here’s a nice portrait of her:

The thing that I was most curious about was the “induction balance machine” devised by “Alec” Bell.  This drawing helps a bit:

Then I got curious about Roscoe Conklin.

And, finally, Chester A. Arthur: