The Short, Strange Presidency of James Garfield

I'm reading a book about the assassination of President James Garfield.  Though less than half way through it, I've already learned some strange and fascinating factoids.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:James_Abram_Garfield,_photo_portrait_seated.jpg

First, his election could not make more of a contrast to today's campaigns.  Garfield didn't seek the nomination.  To the contrary, he personally nominated a fellow Ohioan at the Republican convention. When the convention became hopelessly deadlocked, one rogue vote for Garfield by a Pennsylvania delegate gradually grew to a landslide and finally unanimous acclamation.

Second, Garfield's only campaign efforts were occasional speeches to crowds that gathered near his front porch in Mentor, Ohio.

Third, when he became president, he had no body guards.  The Secret Service was pretty much confined to fighting counter fitting.  Typically, he had only his 23-year-old personal secretary and an old cop between him and the lines of office seekers that appeared daily in front of the WHite House at the start of his presidency,  HIs young daughter walker alone to school every day.  And Garfield agreed with a New York Times editorial of the day that argued that there was no way to protect the president from assassination.  Like lightening, there was nothing to be done about it, and it was best not too think of it, he noted in his diary.

Charles Guiteau, a madman and disappointed office, shot Garfield barely three months after he took office. He lingered into September and died just shy of his 50th birthday, having served only 200 days in office.

He joined a growing list of heads of state, including Czar Alexander II of Russia, who were assassinated during this period.