and he was about to run for congress. so he did what many men did at the time and he actually bought a substitute. it cost about $300 to have someone else go in your stead. cleveland actually had done the same thing. it was a very interesting situation that prior to the 1884 campaign, you always had someone in office in the presidency, grant, and hayes and garfield, who had been civil war officers but blaine and cleveland were not. >> so whichever one of them had won, it would have been the break in the generation. >> yes. >> we had a viewer who asked about his death so will you now tell us the story of his death? >> yes. as has been mentioned, he was a man who was prone to illness all through his life.

i think both real and imagined. there was always mentioned that he might have been more hypochondriac than reality. by the same token by 1892, he was exhausted both physically and mentally and in fact the campaign of 1892 was looming and there was some talk of his being nominated for president. he really wasn't up to it. and he bowed out. he gave only one speech during the campaign on behalf of the re-election of harrison and then early in 1893, he died at his home in washington. >> where is he buried? >> buried in augusta originally buried in washington as was his wife and then the state of maine brought mr. and mrs. blaine's remains back to augusta and they reside in a beautiful memorial above the cemetery here in augusta. >> how long did his wife live after him, do you know?

>> until 1903. she lived another ten years. >> we have very little time. we have a local caller. augusta, maine. this is jonathan. >> caller: yes. this question might be answered by earle shettleworth there. what was the relationship of mr. blaine towards the native population of the state? native american population. we know there were natives in the civil war that had their own regiments and what not down in the south. >> thank you, jonathan. i'll jump in because our time is really short. big question but short time. >> yeah. i'm not sure that i have a quick answer for that. >> is that right? any place to go for that? is there material available in maine's historical -- >> i would definitely look to neil's book to start out with. and also the state library. very good reference at the state library. >> i would like to close. we have just really a minute left and ask you the question.

support our thesis. what was the legacy, what's the importance to america today of james g. blaine having been a politician here? >> i think his influence as secretary of state was very important. it's a great legacy. his desire to build some kind of cohesion between the north american and south american and central american states. >> i think there's that and i think also if you look back across his long career in public life it is that he is one of the key builders of the republican party in the 19th century. he's there at the beginning in 1854. and he is still there almost 40 years later as probably their most powerful and most identifiable figure. >> and maine today has a republican governor and two republican senators and congressional delegation here is democrat, correct? >> the congressional democrat. i was thinking our state legislature is all republican, too.

>> we're out of time. i want to thank a number of people as we close here. thank you to the governor for hosting us at the governor's mansion tonight, and the director of the blaine house here and the staff has been fabulous to us as we have been setting up over the past couple of days. we do take over the place. they've been wonderful. maine historic preservation commission, thank you for your help and historic research and also to our cable affiliate here time warner cable of augusta for all of their help and support in bringing c-span to this community. we'll close the program just the same way we opened it by giving you a look at the campaign memorabilia and particularly listening to a group called independent silver band as they sing in 1884 blaine/logan victory song. thanks for being with us tonight. ♪

if you missed any part of this program, we'll air it again tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on c-span3. james garfield served nine terms in the house of representatives and only 200 days as the 20th president of the united states. before he succumbed to gunshot wounds from an 1881 assassination attempt. up next, ralph nurnberger discusses garfield's life and death. we'll hear about garfield's wade ranging entitle elect and about the complicated set of

circumstances that ended in his death. this event from the smithsonian associates is about two hours. >> today, of the four presidential assassinations, the one that i find the most absolutely fascinating and interesting is the one we're going to discuss tonight, james garfield. for quite a number of reasons. first of all, garfield is one of the most intelligent presidents we have ever had. i mean, he is up there in the top half dozen, and when we go through his life, by the end of it or the middle of it, you're going to start laughing because you're just going to say, no, that can't be. he can't that be good in that field, it is just not possible. and then we'll find something else and then, no. he's just incredibly bright. and the hope for his presidency was enormous.

and so we're going to discuss an absolutely brilliant human being. i was chatting with a friend before and he asked me if i thought garfield was the most intelligent. i don't know how you test something like that. it's not as if you give presidents iq tests. it's a lot easier with things that are easy to measure, tall and short. we all know madison was our shortest president, lincoln was our tauest president because that's easy. i don't know how you know the most intelligent. certainly the two adams, jefferson, madison, lincoln. but garfield is right up there. so one of the reasons it's so exciting is because of who he was and how he could have changed america. last week when we discussed lincoln, we were discussing had lincoln not been shot, how america would have been different. would the south be so far behind

the rest of the country to even today in education and health care and so many other areas. would african-americans have suffered for over 100 years the way they did had lincoln been in charge of reconstruction instead of andrew johnson and a congress that wanted to take revenge on the south and didn't really care about the african-americans. so one of the reasons today is so interesting is the brilliance of garfield. and the second is the other main character in our story, charles guiteau, and it shows the failure of our mental health treatment in this country then and today. there is no doubt in my mind that charles guiteau was mentally ill and it was not treated properly then even though they knew. as well discuss, for example, they told his father he needs to

bestutionlized. he's nuts. and the father agreed. but he said you know putting people in sanitariums, you have to pay. and the father said i can't afford it so they didn't institutionalize him. again, the contrast between garfield and his assassin is so astounding. last week when we were discussing lincoln after the talk, a gentleman came up to me and asked me to recommend a book at each of the subsequent talks. i didn't do that last week. my failure. and so i was asked when he said that, i thought that was a very good idea. and obviously when you prepare talks like this, i use lots and lots and lots of sources. secondary sources, books, and primary sources. a lot of the primary sources are now available on the internet. so you can read the letters of garfield and the diaries and so forth.

it's easy to get primary sources. i used a lot of different sources. but if i have to recommend one book, i will do that for garfield, mckinley and kennedy. in the case of garfield, a book called "destiny of the republic, a tale of madness, medicine and the murder of a president," by candace malard. it's a wonderful read. okay, good. she is an excellent writer. if i were to read just one book on this topic, it would be this. obviously i used it, but i used a lot of other its, as well. but that would be the one book, again, there is no blue book exam after this. there's no assignment. a couple members of my book club are here today and we're not going to discuss it, but it would be the one book to take a look at. you don't often talk about garfield or people don't. and i re