Destiny of the Republic Essay Example

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According to the encyclopedia Guitaeu had written a speech in hopes that Garfield would use it in a debate with Hancock, but in reality, Garfield never even read it. Garfield won the debate and Guitaeu believed it was because of his speech. Guitaeu then became a bother to Blaine, the Secretary of State, and Blaine pushed him away; Guitaeu was bitter with resentment. As a result of Guitaeu’s insane agenda and resentment, he shot Garfield. Garfield should have survived, recovered, and lived a long life, but that didn’t happen because of medical malpractice.

In this book it seems as if Millard felt more contempt toward the doctors than she felt toward Guitaeu. It’s almost like she was somewhat sympathetic toward Guitaeau, compared to how everyone else felt about him. While telling about Garfield’s time spent in the hospital, Millard also gives you an inside look at the dirty hospitals and the technological advances at the time.

Garfield was shot and Alexander Graham Bell invented a metal detector to try to locate the bullet; ut while he was working on that, Dr. Bliss was trying to dig around in Garfield and locate the bullet himself. If Bliss would have listened Garfield about his back and leg pain they could have located the bullet with no problem. One quote that came to mind while reading this book was: ignorance is bliss. Anesthesia and Lister’s antisepsis method was also available around this time but medical yet. If they would have used these methods, removing the bullet would have been a clean and easy task.

If this shooting would have happened in today’s world,

he wouldn’t have died so soon because medical practices and knowledge have improved. The drama in this book is symbolic for our nation in turmoil. Garfield was a very well-respected man and the shooting happened after the Civil War. The author saw Garfield’s shooting as a healing time and unifying event for our nation. This author was very organized and from the acknowledgements you can tell that she admires Garfield, really enjoys writing about history, and highlighting the important figures in history that have been forgotten.

She researched quite a bit and then told the story of his life and death in heartbreaking detail. This book is more than just a history lesson; we are given a comprehensive description of the events, background information, and the consequences that followed. After reading this book, Millard makes you see that James Garfield was more than just our 20th president, Garfield was an extraordinary man lost prematurely due to carelessness, medical malpractice, and incompetence.