James Garfield Eulogizes Abraham Lincoln: The Second President to Be Assassinated Mourns the Assassination of the First

"It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that struck him down, in the moment of the nation's supremest joy."

On April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth, a well known actor and Confederate sympathizer, fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC.  This was the first time an American President had been assassinated, and the nation grieved the loss of its leader. 

James Garfield received a commission as Lt. Col. in the Union Army in the summer of 1861 and went on to fight at the Battle of Shiloh, Siege of Corinth, and serve as Chief of Staff for General William Rosencrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland. 

Garfield was elected to Congress and began his first term in 1863, in time to serve during Lincoln's reelection, second inauguration, and then his assassination.  Garfield was attending to his business investments on Wall Street when he learned of President Lincoln's assassination.  On April 16, the day after, he spoke to a riotous crowd with an impromptu speech: "Fellow citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens! God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives!" This last sentence became known far and wide.

On April 14, 1866, Garfield addressed Congress with a famous speech in memory of Lincoln on the anniversary of his assassination.  In it, he said, "It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; it was the embodied spirit of treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that struck him down, in the moment of the nation's supremest joy."

Benjamin Butterworth was an aspiring politician in 1866, one who would go on to serve in the US House of Representatives alongside fellow Ohioan Garfield.  Butterworth was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention that nominated Garfield for President. He was in Congress at the time of Garfield's assassination.

Printed document signed, 4 pages, April 14, 1866, year to the day after Lincoln's shooting.  It is entitled "Remarks of Hon. Jas. A. Garfield of Ohio in the House of Representatives in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,"  and Garfield has inscribed it, "To the Mother of Benjamin Butterworth, with the respects of J.A. Garfield."  This is a rare printing and the only one we can find that is signed by the future President . The top of the speech has been ever so slightly trimmed, and Butterworth's first and last name in the inscription have been abbreviated.

Lincoln's would not be the final presidential assassination of the 19th century.  Some 15 years later, on July 2, 1881, then President James Garfield became the second US President to be a victim of an assassin.  He was on his way to Williams College to deliver a speech, accompanied by Robert Todd Lincoln, the former President's son, when he was shot by a rejected office seeker, Charles Guiteau.  He died a couple months later from complications from his wounds.