Extremely rare ALS as president, signed "J. A. Garfield," two pages on two adjoining sheets, 4.5 x 7, Executive Mansion letterhead, May 29, 1881. Handwritten letter to the Hon. George Bancroft, who was then serving as United States Minister to Germany. In full: "Mrs. Garfield asks me to thank you for her, for the beautiful box of roses you were so kind as to send her. She said to me just now, 'Tell Mr. Bancroft that the old song is reversed & I am being carried back to life on flower beds.' She is steadily gaining. With kind regards to Mrs. Bancroft and yourself." In fine condition.
In early May 1881, just two months after moving into the Executive Mansion, First Lady Lucretia Garfield contracted malaria and fell gravely ill. She was later moved to a seaside resort in Long Branch, New Jersey, to recuperate. She was still there on July 2nd, when she received word that her husband had been shot outside the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station. President Garfield lingered for two months before succumbing to infection related to his gunshot wounds. When he finally passed away on September 19th-having been transferred from the White House to Long Branch, where his wife had made her recovery earlier in the summer-Lucretia was by his side.
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