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Summary Of Candice Millard's Destiny Of The Republic

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Candice Millard’s Destiny of the Republic tells the tale of President James Garfield’s life. His tragic childhood led to his mature and intellectual mindset. Inspired by his family, he accomplished many things academically and militarily. He became the last president to go from the House of Representatives to the White House. As president, he fulfilled his duties and fought for equal rights. He was assassinated by Charles Guiteau, but the bullet was not the true cause of his passing. Garfield’s doctors and their lack of caution were to blame for the president’s devastating death. Millard’s novel discussed the hardships of Garfield’s life and solved the mystery of his ultimate demise. The beginning of the novel focused on the childhood …show more content…

He was diagnosed as a psychopath after his death, rating a 37.5 out of 40 on the Psychopathy Checklist. He attempted to imitate Garfield in many ways, but was often left in his shadow. Guiteau failed as a lawyer and evangelist. He searched for love, but he never found it. Even at a free love colony he could not obtain it, gaining the nickname “Charles Gitout”. Despite never achieving what he wanted, Guiteau never stopped believing he was a great man. Desperately, he tried to accomplish all that Garfield did, but was unable to, leaving him extremely and concerningly jealous of Garfield’s accomplishments. He imagined that he was responsible for Garfield’s election and deserved to be made consul general to France. When he was denied this position, Guiteau decided God wanted him to kill the president and stalked him for weeks before the assassination attempt. When Guiteau shot the president, Garfield could have survived. The bullet, much like all Guiteau’s efforts, was a failure, missing Garfield’s spine and vital organs. However, the doctors ensured the president’s death through their unsanitary …show more content…

Over the course of eleven weeks, Garfield was essentially tortured to death by his doctors. They repeatedly probed his wound with unsterilized fingers and instruments because they could not be bothered by Joseph Lister’s theory about infection. They carted him back to the White House on a hay and horsehair mattress and insisted on stuffing Garfield with heavy meals and alcohol. These events caused infections that filled Garfield’s body to the brim with pus. To make his recovery even more improbable, his sickroom was a rotting, vermin-ridden room with broken sewage pipes. The president was eventually diagnosed with malaria, which caused his doctors to further infect and poison him in hopes of preventing a malaria-caused death. Though he endured everything patiently and with utmost kindness, Garfield died from malpractice on September 19,

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