(Garfield, James Abram), twentieth President

Materials relating to his assassination and the trial of the assassin, including 5 autograph letters and manuscripts signed by the defendant Charles Guiteau, 9 autograph letters by the prosecutor James K. Porter, an autograph album of notables attending the trial including the jury, and other related memorabilia, Washington D.C., New York, and elsewhere, 1859–1883.



18 autograph letters, mostly signed, various sizes 8vo to folio, ca. 50 pages written, 18 secretarial copies of reports on the president's condition by the Secretary and acting Secretary of State, news-clippings and broadside extras, an autograph album with 39 signatures, 1 engraved portrait of Garfield, all contained in a black half-morocco drop-box.

The most celebrated insanity trial of the century.

When Garfield was struck by two of Guiteau's bullets at the train station in Washington, D.C., on 2 July 1881, it was only the beginning of a drama of rising and falling hopes for the president's recovery, and a sensational trial. The present collection begins with letters written by Guiteau to his older sister Frances who raised him after their mother's death, detailing his lonely year at college in Ann Arbor and his time at the Oneida Community in upstate New York. His life proceeded through the desultory occupations of debt collector, newspaperman, lecturer in theology, and politics. As a frequent visitor to the Republican Party's campaign headquarters in New York City, he sought speaking roles but was generally rebuffed. He wrote to the newly elected Garfield to ask for a diplomatic appointment, but was rebuffed by Secretary of State Blaine.

In the weeks following Garfield's shooting, Guiteau took advantage of his notoriety to share his theological views, which only continued during the trial as he fired his attorney (his brother-in-law George Scoville) and handled his own defense. The prosecutor John K. Porter gathered doctors to prove that Guiteau was sane, as Scoville did to offer the opposite viewpoint, with Guiteau regularly demonstrating the point by his behavior in court. The trial ended with his conviction, and he was executed 30 June 1882.

A complete inventory of the collection will be provided upon application to the department.