As President Garfield's Condition Grows Hopeless After the Attempt on His Life, Soon-to-be President Chester A. Arthur Is Unable to Attend a Reunion of Civil War Soldiers This is one of only four letters of Arthur as Vice President we have found offered at public sale in many decades, the last being a decade ago

22/08/1881. The same records show only one other letter of Arthur dating from August until the death of Garfield having reached the market, making this a real rarityJames Garfield was president for just four months when he was shot on July 2, 1881, at the Sixth Street Station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad in Washington, by Charles J. Guiteau, a disgruntled office-seeker. In early August Garfield had started to improve, but on August 15 1881, Garfield took a turn for the worse. By late August, the Cabinet had given up hope for his recovery.Letter signed, as Vice President, on his letterhead, August 22, 1881, to J.B. Shaw of Lafayette, Indiana. ""My dear sir, I regret to say that I shall not be able to attend the re-union of the soldiers and sailors of the Northwest at Lafayette on the 22nd-23 of September.""Letters of Arthur as Vice President are very uncommon; he served only a few months in that position. (Inventory #: 23025)