James Garfield was assassinated only 200 days into his presidency

After only four months in office, Garfield was assassinated on July 2, 1881, by Charles J. Guiteau, a resentful lawyer whom Garfield had rejected an appointment to an ambassadorship. The incident occurred as President Garfield was getting ready to leave for Williams College, where he was supposed to give a speech, at the Washington, D.C. train station. Robert Todd Lincoln, who was present at the station, was visibly distressed as he recalled his father Abraham Lincoln's assassination 16 years prior.

The first shot missed Garfield's arm completely, while the second one grazed him in the back and went behind his pancreas. "Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning and it is not advisable to worry about either," Garfield wrote in a letter dated November 1880. Guiteau calmly declared, "I am a Stalwart, the current president of the United States is Chester Arthur", as he peacefully turned himself into the authorities.

Several doctors evaluated Garfield in a private office after being brought there on a mattress. Garfield was brought back to the White House at his request, and his wife who was at the time in New Jersey was requested. On September 19, 1881, James Garfield passed away in Elberon, New Jersey, after an illness and an abdominal hemorrhage.