Beschreibung:

GARFIELD, James A. (1831-1881), President ]. BROWN, J. Stanley, personal secretary to Garfield . Autograph letter signed & a printed letter signed ("J Stanley Brown") to an unidentified correspondent and a Mrs. Davis, Washington, D.C., 8 July 1881 & 18 July 1881. Together 3 pages, 4to, the autograph letter on Executive Mansion stationery with 4 lines text at top of page in an unidentified hand, signed "K," the printed letter mounted, browned, with small paper loss at bottom margin. PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S "PROSPECTS FOR RECOVERY ARE IMPROVING EVERY HOUR" Two letters which document the decline and death of President Garfield. The autograph letter from Garfield's personal secretary was written only six days after the President was shot twice by Charles Guiteau at the Washington train station. In it, Brown reassures the recipient: "In conversation with the physicians I am informed that the President's condition is better this morning than on any previous day...The soreness and tenderness in his feet and legs is greatly decreased and suppuration has commenced in a healthy normal manner. The doctors regard the prospects of his recovery as improving every hour." In the following days the President's health deteriorated rapidly, probably due to infection induced by the doctors' use of unsterilized instruments. As his condition worsened, his wife, Lucretia, began to receive many letters; Brown's second letter is a printed response on behalf of Mrs. Garfield: "Your kind note to Mrs. Garfield has been received. Each mail brings...letters from her many friends expressing their deep sympathy with her in the great calamity...close attention to the President and the necessity of securing much needed rest deprives her of...their perusal..." Garfield lived for a few more weeks, but he eventually succumbed on 19 September 1881. (2)