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[quote=Anonymous]Really great series and so well acted by al linvolved.  I love how Bradley Whitford plays the cynical idealist (or the idealistic cynic?).

I also went down a Garfield rabbit hole online, as I really didn't remember him from my HS Am History (except the "killed by a disgruntled office seeker" narrative).  It really struck me as such a tragedy that we had two presidents in the 19th century that were perhaps capable of mitigating the awful path that race relations took after the Civil War -- and both were assassinated.  If that bullet had been 6 inches to one side, perhaps it would not have taken 100 years to get basic civil rights for Black Americans?

I specifically looked up the campaign speech in New York because I thought the phrase "equal opportunity" sounded anachronistic.  It turns out that the speech he actually gave is really good -- and pretty different from what they used in the series  (In the series, weirdly, he used the term Negro, and in the actual speech he said Black, interestingly.)  Also, in the series, he was introduced by Frederick Douglass, which did not happen in real life, but Douglass did introduce him for his inaugural speech, which is maybe more significant/important.  Here is the actual campaign speech from the New York event -- also interesting is that he really credits Hamilton with helping create the country, which I found interesting because prior to the Chernow book and the musical, I feel like most Americans had sort of forgotten Hamilton or treated him as a minor footnote with the duel story.
  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/garfield-campaign-speech/

Here's a little excerpt:
Soon after the great struggle [Civil War] began, we looked behind the army of white rebels, and saw 4,000,000 of black people condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies; and we found that the hearts of these 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of Liberty, and that they were all our friends. [Applause.] We have seen the white men betray the flag and fight to kill the Union; but in all that long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin. [Great cheers.] ... In all that period of suffering and danger, no Union soldier was ever betrayed by a black man or woman. [Applause.] And now that we have made them free, so long as we live we will stand by these black allies. [Renewed applause.] We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal ray upon every man, black or white, throughout the Union. [Cheers.] Fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in this there is the beneficence of eternal justice, and by it we will stand forever. [Great applause.]

On the doctor issue, I don't think there's any evidence he was first attended by a Black doctor, but there is pretty good evidence that the doctor who treated him killed him with infection.  Although interestingly some doctors wrote a study about a decade ago suggesting that he would have died even absent the infection, because the bullet passed so close to some organs that it created some problem with the organs that would have been fatal anyway.  There's also some interesting stuff about the Xray machine -- that it would have found the bullet it not for the doctor insisting that they Xray the wrong side.  But it was basically the first use of an Xray machine, and also the first real use of air conditioning to try to cool his fever in the DC summer.[/quote]

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