Throughout her life, Mary Baker Eddy was actively interested in the world around her. An avid newspaper reader, she would have been well aware that Charles Guiteau shot US President James A. Garfield on July 2, 1881. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Eddy and her husband, Asa, were in Washington, D.C., the city where Guiteau was imprisoned, the following winter.
Often described in historical reports of the shooting as a "disappointed office seeker," Guiteau had a deluded sense of his qualifications and status. He spent weeks trying to persuade the President and those around him to give him a high post in government. When these attempts proved unsuccessful, in his demented state, he concluded that "removing" the President was an impulse from God and an act of patriotism.
Driven by insane delusions, he shot the President.
