SPOILER ALERT! This blog post quotes dialogue and describes scenes from “Destiny of the Republic,” episode 4 of the Netflix series Death by Lightning.
Death by Lightning, the 2025 Netflix series that traces James A. Garfield’s rise to the presidency, and his assassination by Charles Guiteau in July 1881, is based on Candice Millard’s 2011 book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President. Millard’s book quotes from archival collections held by the Library of Congress Manuscript Division. The division’s collections also provided indirect inspiration for some of the dialogue in Death by Lightning.
Two scenes involving first lady Lucretia Garfield (played by Betty Gilpin), set during the weeks after President Garfield (Michael Shannon) was shot, contain dialogue based on documents in the Manuscript Division. In one, Vice President Chester A. Arthur (Nick Offerman) races to the White House after learning that President Garfield has been wounded. Arthur bursts in on a conversation between Mrs. Garfield and Secretary of State James G. Blaine (Bradley Whitford). A distraught Arthur repents of his attempts to undermine the president politically and threatens to resign because he feels unworthy of the office. Lucretia Garfield literally slaps some sense into Arthur, and initiates the following dialogue:
Lucretia Garfield (Gilpin): “Great emergencies can rouse, shall we say, generous and long-dormant traits in men. If there was even a shred of real nobility in you, I think now is the time to let it shine. So, what will you do, Chester? Will you resign like a coward in disgrace, or will you step up and reform?”
Chester A. Arthur (Offerman): “Reform. Reform, ma’am. I’ll change my ways. You have my solemn oath. I will change my ways.”
Lucretia Garfield (Gilpin): “Good.”
But did Lucretia Garfield actually say this to Chester Arthur?
Not in these words. Lucretia Garfield and Chester Arthur did meet briefly at the White House shortly after President Garfield was wounded, but their encounter was less dramatic than portrayed on screen. According to the July 4, 1881, issue of the Evening Star, “Mrs. Garfield was greatly affected by the interview, but did not give way to her emotions. The Vice President spoke in earnest terms of his grief and great hope that the President would recover. . . .” Arthur then expressed to several cabinet members his sincere wish for the president’s recovery. “God knows I do not want the place I was never elected to,” he said of the presidency.
But someone else DID express to Chester Arthur the words Death by Lightning writers incorporated into Lucretia Garfield’s dialogue. Julia I. Sand of New York City knew of Arthur’s progressive past, before he became a political crony of Senator Roscoe Conkling (portrayed by Shea Whigham). In a letter dated August 27, 1881, Sand encouraged Arthur to view his likely elevation to the presidency as an opportunity to cease following Conkling’s anti-reform agenda, become his own man, and prove the naysayers wrong about his competency to lead the nation as president. “But making a man President can change him!” Sand explained. “At a time like this, if anything can, that can. Great emergencies awaken generous traits which have lain dormant half a life. If there is a spark of true nobility in you, now is the occasion to let it shine. Faith in your better nature forces me to write to you—but not to beg you to resign. Do what is more difficult & more brave. Reform!” Between 1881 and 1883, Julia Sand wrote twenty-three extraordinary letters to Chester Arthur containing encouragement, humor, criticism, and advice, letters which Arthur read and saved. Julia Sand’s letters are available online as part of the Chester Alan Arthur Papers at the Library of Congress, as is an essay about Sand and her letters to Chester Arthur.
As Death by Lightning suggests in an epilogue, Chester Arthur surprised everyone (except maybe Julia Sand) by doing the “more difficult & more brave” thing by bettering himself. He supported civil service reform legislation, stood up to Roscoe Conkling when making decisions he thought were right, and performed competently during his single term as president.
Later in Death by Lightning, after the president had asked to be moved to the New Jersey seashore so that he could see and hear the ocean in his final days, a bed-ridden and clearly dying James Garfield shares a tender moment with his wife as he contemplates his legacy.
James Garfield (Shannon): “Do you think my name will have some place in human history?”
Lucretia Garfield (Gilpin): “Yes, a grand one.”
James Garfield (Shannon): “Mm.”
Lucretia Garfield (Gilpin): “But a grander place still in human hearts.”
Did James and Lucretia Garfield actually have this conversation? Not exactly. James Garfield’s good friend Almon Rockwell was among those who accompanied the president to New Jersey and spent time with him in his last days. On the reverse of the railroad pass that provided Rockwell admission to the presidential train, he recorded a poignant conversation with Garfield on September 17, 1881, which Lucretia may have overheard. This conversation inspired the dialogue voiced by James and Lucretia Garfield in Death by Lightning. The railroad pass that documents the moment is part of the Almon Ferdinand Rockwell Papers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
“A spasm of pain passing over his face,” Rockwell began his description of the scene. Lucretia asked her husband, “Darling, does it hurt?” “It hurts only to live,” Garfield responded. Rockwell then noted his own interaction with Garfield, but without clarifying if it immediately followed Garfield’s comment to his wife or whether Lucretia remained in the room while Rockwell and Garfield spoke.
Calling Rockwell by his nickname, Jarvis, Garfield asked “will my name have any place in human history?” “Yes, a grand one,” Rockwell replied, “but a grander place in human hearts.” But the exchange between Rockwell and Garfield continued, with Rockwell encouraging the president that “you will have a large work yet to perform.” “I know the situation,” Garfield responded pragmatically. “So, my work is finished.”
And so it was. President James A. Garfield died on September 19, 1881.
The fascinating story of Garfield’s life and death, as dramatized in Death by Lightning, is documented in many Manuscript Division collections, including the papers of James A. Garfield, Lucretia Rudolph Garfield, and Alexander Graham Bell.
Want to help make James A. Garfield’s papers even more accessible? Consider transcribing Garfield’s mail! Volunteers are currently transcribing Garfield’s incoming correspondence through the Library’s By the People crowdsourcing project. See https://crowd.loc.gov/campaigns/garfield-correspondence/ for more information.
Do you want more stories like this? Then subscribe to Unfolding History – it’s free!
Comments
Thank you for highlighting Ms Sands and her correspondence (discussed at https://www.loc.gov/collections/chester-alan-arthur-papers/articles-and-essays/correspondence-of-julia-i-sand/ ) . What a remarkable and interesting individual and unknown aspect of Chester Arthur’s presidency.