THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Garfield: Gunfire Ends a Pres

THE MAKING OF A NATION - James Garfield: Gunfire Ends a Presidency¹ After Only Six Months
By Frank Beardsley

Broadcast: Thursday, September 29, 2005

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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In eighteen eighty, President Rutherford Hayes completed four successful years in the White House. He did not want to serve another term. Hayes was a Republican. His party had great hopes of electing another Republican in the election of eighteen eighty.

I'm Harry² Monroe. Today, Kay Gallant³ and I report on that election.

VOICE TWO:

Many Republicans wanted to nominate former President Ulysses Grant. Grant had been out of office four years. People seemed to have forgotten the political problems that shook his administration.

Other Republicans supported the powerful party leader, Senator James Blaine. A third candidate was John Sherman, the Secretary of the Treasury⁴.

The Republicans had great difficulty choosing among Grant, Blaine, and Sherman. At their national convention, Republican delegates voted again and again. None of the three men received a majority.

VOICE ONE:

 
James Garfield
The delegates voted ten times, twenty times, thirty times. Finally, on the thirty-fourth ballot⁵, seventeen of the delegates voted for a compromise candidate. He was James Garfield, a Republican leader in Congress. Soon, both Sherman and Blaine asked all of their delegates to vote for Garfield. The compromise candidate won the nomination⁶.

James Garfield offered the vice⁷ presidential nomination to Chester Arthur of New York. Arthur's honesty had been questioned when President Hayes removed him as Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. But a powerful party leader there supported him. So delegates gave Arthur the vice presidential nomination to strengthen party unity⁸.

VOICE TWO:

The Democratic Party chose for its presidential candidate a hero of the Civil War -- General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania.

The election campaign of eighteen eighty was not exciting. Democrats¹⁰ charged that Republicans were dishonest. Republicans charged that a Democrat⁹ in the White House would make the south too powerful. Many people at that time still hated the south for starting the Civil War. They wanted to keep southern states weak.

Nine million people voted in the election. James Garfield won. He got only ten thousand more popular votes than Winfield Scott Hancock. But he got a majority of votes in the electoral college. Garfield won two hundred fourteen

electoral votes. Hancock got one hundred fifty-five.

VOICE ONE:

The new president was forty-nine years old. He had served in the House of Representatives for seventeen years. He had been a teacher, a college president, and a general in the Union army during the Civil War.

James Garfield became president of the United States on March fourth, eighteen eighty-one. His choices for a cabinet immediately re-opened the conflicts that had appeared during the party convention.

VOICE TWO:

 
 
The Republican Party had two powerful leaders. One was Senator Roscoe Conkling. The other was Senator James Blaine. Garfield won Blaine's support by naming him Secretary of State. He lost Conkling's support by refusing to name one of Conkling's supporters Secretary of the Treasury.

Garfield denied he had promised anything to Conkling. Then he made Conkling even angrier by appointing one of Conkling's political enemies Collector of Taxes for the port of New York. That was the most important federal job in Conkling's home state.

Conkling refused to accept the appointment. He began a struggle in the Senate to block it.

VOICE ONE:

Conkling charged that President Garfield had failed to observe the policy of "Senatorial Courtesy. " Traditionally, the president does not fill federal jobs in a state until he discusses them with the senators from that state. This long-time policy gave senators firm control over local federal jobs. They were quick to attack any changes in the method.

But many senators were angry at Conkling. They did not like the way he gave orders to everyone. They did not like the way he threatened his opponents. They did not want to support him on this issue.

VOICE TWO:

After several weeks, it became clear that the Senate would approve President Garfield's choice for the tax collector's job. Conkling decided¹¹ to resign in protest. He would ask the New York legislature to show its support by electing him again to the Senate.

Before this could happen, something very unexpected took place. It happened in the train station in Washington, D-C, on July second, eighteen-eighty-one. A man ran up to President Garfield, pulled out a gun, and fired twice. One bullet cut Garfield's arm. The other went into his back.

VOICE ONE:

The assassin was Charles Guiteau. When he fired the gun, he shouted that he supported Roscoe Conkling's political machine.

Charles Guiteau was insane. He believed God had ordered him to kill the president. But the words he shouted caused many people to wonder if others might be involved. After all, the vice president -- Chester Arthur -- supported Roscoe Conkling, too. If James Garfield died, Chester Arthur would become president.

History has provided no evidence that Roscoe Conkling, Chester Arthur, or any other political leader had a part in the shooting. Guiteau is believed to have acted on his own. Yet the situation did cause a great deal of tension while the nation waited to see if Garfield would survive.

VOICE TWO:

The president was carried to the White House. A doctor tried to remove the bullet from his back. He could not find it. Days passed. The president's condition changed from day to day. Doctors pushed their instruments into the wound as they continued to look for the bullet. The wound became infected. Garfield grew worse. Then he grew better. He asked to be taken to the sea shore.

Two months later, the doctors warned the cabinet and Vice President Arthur that Garfield was dying. The end finally came on September nineteenth, eighteen eighty-one.

The president's body was taken back to Washington. Memorial services were held there. And then the body was taken to his home state of Ohio for burial.

VOICE ONE:

Not until after Garfield's death did doctors find the bullet that killed him. It lay only a few centimeters from the wound. Tissue had grown around it. The bullet itself would not have killed the president. What killed him was the effort made by doctors to find the bullet. Their instruments had spread infection throughout his body.

James Garfield had been president for six months. He was the second American President to be assassinated¹². The first -- Abraham Lincoln -- had been shot just sixteen years before.

VOICE TWO:

The man who shot James Garfield -- Charles Guiteau -- was tried by a court in Washington. He was found guilty of murder. Like those found guilty of plotting to kill Abraham Lincoln, he was hanged.

Vice President Chester Arthur was in New York when he received news of President Garfield's death. He quickly sent for a judge to give him the oath of office as President. Arthur was in his early fifties. He would serve one term as leader of the United States.

That will be our story next week.

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VOICE ONE:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley.

THE MAKING OF A NATION is a series of programs that tells the history of the United States. It is broadcast in Special English every Thursday. The Voice of America invites you to listen to this program again next week at this same time.

1 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

2 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

3 gallant   

adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的

参考例句：

• Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。
• These gallant soldiers will protect our country.这些勇敢的士兵会保卫我们的国家的。

4 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

9 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

12 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句