
Charles Julius Guiteau (8 September 1841 – 30 June 1882) was an American writer, lawyer, and Republican office-seeker who, on 2 July 1881, assassinated President James Garfield with the goal of bringing his Stalwart Vice President Chester A. Arthur to power. Guiteau was hanged for the crime in June 1882.
Biography[]
Charles Julius Guiteau was born in Freeport, Illinois in 1841, and he was raised in Ulao, Wisconsin and in Freeport. He dropped out of high school to join a utopian community in Oneida, New York in 1860, but he was rejected during his five years there. In 1872, he moved to New York City and became an active Democrat, backing Horace Greeley for president; he was convinced that Greeley would name him Minister to Chile if he won. In 1874, Guiteau divorced his wife after years of abusing her, hiring a prostitute to have sex with him and then testify to his infidelity in order to grant him the legal grounds for divorce.
After surviving a shipwreck on 11 June 1880, Guiteau became a born-again Christian and convinced himself that he had been spared for a higher purpose, and he campaigned and canvassed for the Republican presidential candidate James Garfield in 1880 and claimed responsibility for Garfield's victory. However, Guiteau became known as a madman, and he stalked James G. Blaine and repeatedly asked him for an appointment, only once having an audience with him. Chester A. Arthur gave Guiteau his attention and listened to his requests, but Guiteau was never offered a job by the administration, and Guiteau came to believe that Garfield was responsible for keeping him out of government, while he believed that Arthur was sympathetic to him. He devised a plot to kill Garfield, which would ingratiate him with Arthur and lead to his appointment as Consul in Paris.
Guiteau convinced a sympathetic relative to loan him $15, and he bought an ivory-handled .442 caliber, five-shooter "British Bulldog" from a Washington DC gun store (believing that it would be suitable for a museum once Garfield was murdered), had his shoes shined, and visited a local jail to inspect its accommodations. Guiteau thrice stalked Garfield, but he refused to shoot the President while he walked with his wife, whom he pitied. He later decided against killing Garfield as he attended church, and, on the third opportunity (on 1 July 1882), as Garfield visited Blaine's home, Guiteau followed the President to Blaine's house (planning to kill him near the site of William H. Seward's near-murder), but he retreated after seeing Mrs. Blaine nearby.
On 2 July 1881, Guiteau followed Garfield to the Baltimore and Potomac Rail Station as Garfield planned to visit his wife on the Jersey Shore in Long Branch, New Jersey. Guiteau shot Garfield twice in the back as he descended from his carriage, arms locked with Blaine, and Robert Todd Lincoln witnessed the second of three assassinations which he would see in his lifetime (the first being his father, Abraham Lincoln). Guiteau yelled, "I did it, and will go to jail for it! I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will by president!" He shot Garfield in the arm and back, and Blaine recognized the assassin as the office-seeker and ran after him before returning to the wounded president. Guiteau - who had initially planned to take a taxicab to the Congressional Cemetery and make his escape - was immediately arrested.
Shortly after Guiteau's arrest, the police found two letters on Guiteau - one of them, to the White House, stated that Garfield's assassination would unite the GOP and save the republic, and that Guiteau was a "Stalwart of Stalwarts"; the second was to Vice President Arthur, notifying Arthur of his ascension to the presidency and providing him with a list of suggestions for cabinet members. These letters served as an indictment of the spoils system, turning the public against machine politics; the American people blamed Arthur - a Stalwart and ally of Roscoe Conkling - for the murder, suggesting that Guiteau's murder of Garfield had been part of a conspiracy. Garfield died two months after the shooting, and Guiteau was hanged in Washington DC on 30 June 1882 at the age of 40.