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Lot 93
Garfield Assassination Private Letter One Week After Death of President
Description:

Garfield James

Garfield Assassination Private Letter One Week After Death of President

J. Stanley Brown, autograph letter signed, to De Benneville Randolph Keim, July 12, 1881. On “Executive Mansion” stationery. 1 p., 5.5" x 8.875". Expected folds; residue verso from previous mounting; very good.

This brief letter by Garfield’s private secretary and future son-in-law tells prominent newspaper correspondent De B. Randolph Keim that he will comply with Keim’s wishes expressed in an earlier letter. Keim may have sent the President a copy of his recently published illustrated Guide to the Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay and James River, for what he hoped would be Garfield’s convalescence and recovery.

Charles J. Guiteau shot President Garfield twice at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington one week before Keim sent his letter. Although doctors initially thought the wounds were mortal, Garfield made some improvement over the next few days, relieving the worried nation. However, Garfield’s condition worsened on July 23, and by September 5, he left Washington for the New Jersey shore, where he died on September 19.

Complete Transcript:

      "July 12, 1881.


Dear Sir:


 Your note of the 9th inst., with its inclosures, addressed to the President, was duly received. It will afford me pleasure, at the proper time, to carry out your wishes.


 Thanking you in the name of the President for your kindness,
      I am, Very truly yours,
      J. Stanley Brown / Private Secretary
Mr. De B. Randolph Keim, / Reading, Penna."

Joseph Stanley-Brown (1858-1941) was born in Washington, D.C. From 1876 to 1880, he worked with Major John Wesley Powell, director of the survey of the Rocky Mountain Region. Brown served as James A. Garfield’s private secretary from 1880, when Garfield was an Ohio congressman, through Garfield’s brief presidency. Brown helped control the office-seekers who besieged Garfield due to the spoils system, which Garfield’s successor Chester A. Arthur reformed. After Garfield’s death, Brown spent a year organizing Garfield’s papers. He studied geology at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University from 1885 to 1888, and hyphenated his surname to “Stanley-Brown.” He married President Garfield’s daughter Mary “Mollie” Garfield (1867-1947) in 1888. Stanley-Brown’s later career included service on the Bering Sea Arbitration Commission, as an assistant to two railroad presidents, and in investment banking.

De Benneville Randolph Keim (1841-1914) was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Iowa in 1855. Keim attended Beloit College in Wisconsin but did not graduate. After his father’s death in 1858, the family remained in Iowa until his mother decided to return to Pennsylvania. At the beginning of the Civil War, Keim raised a company of men in Harrisburg but resigned his commission to take a position as a Civil War correspondent for the New York Herald. As a correspondent, he became a close friend and confidante of Ulysses S. Grant, and his dispatches were noted for their accuracy and detail. After the war, he continued reporting from the American Plains but left the newspaper before 1877. In 1870, President Grant appointed him to inspect U.S. consulates in Asia, the Middle East, and South America. Between August 1870 and December 1872, he traveled nearly 48,000 miles to visit diplomatic posts around the world. In June 1872, he married Jane Sumner Owen, and they had two daughters. He continued his writing career from Reading, Pennsylvania, where he lived in the summer, with frequent trips to Washington. He was present when President William McKinley was shot in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, and reported his eyewitness account for the newspapers.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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