It took Dr. Bliss most of the summer to kill Garfield. His incessant probing tortured and infected the president. Garfield finally insisted on being transported to the New Jersey shore in September, and a special train took him there. Dr. Bliss remained confident to the end. Garfield died on the evening of September 19, 1881. James Garfield had been a minor Civil War general, who had become a Republican politician from a major state, Ohio. He had a minor role in a major scandal, the Crédit Mobilier. He died a minor president, whose term in office was short and inconsequential but contained the
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