Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station held at Platz's Saloon. On July 2, 1881, it was announced in the local newspapers that President James A. Garfield would be leaving for his summer vacation. En route to board a train to New Jersey, he was shot in the back by assassin Charles Guiteau while walking across the lobby of the Baltimore and Potomac station with James G. Blaine. While the president survived the initial shooting, doctors subsequently probed his wounds with non-sterilized objects in a frantic search for the bullet. The bacterial infections they introduced to the wound were the likely cause of his eventual death in
Charles J. Guiteau his claim for a consulship. In the spring, he was still in Washington, and on May 14, 1881, he once more encountered Secretary of State James G. Blaine in person and inquired about a consular appointment; an exasperated Blaine finally snapped "Never speak to me again on the Paris consulship as long as you live!" Guiteau considered himself a loyal Republican and a Stalwart, and his narcissistic personality convinced him that his work for the party was critical to Garfield’s election to the presidency. Later convinced that Garfield was going to destroy the Republican Party by scrapping the patronage system,