Gems of Poetry and Song: on James A. Garfield

The outpouring of grief over the assassination of James Garfield coincided with a Victorian high tide in emotional display about the dear departed, and produced enormous amounts of glassware, statues and other memorabilia to preserve the memory of the martyred president. This not atypical volume includes an eclectic selection of tributes to him, some tearfully maudlin but all a reminder that, after recovering from Lincoln’s murder, the country regretfully went through still another similar trauma just a few years later.