Note 2 — Chapter XIII · SHOT DOWN.

The only farcical thing which has happened in connection with the dark tragedy has been the miserable and ludicrous shuffling of the base crowd of office-holders and office-seekers which clung to General Garfield’s skirts, denouncing and abusing General Arthur and his friends until the possibility of his accession to power dawned on the minds of the patriots. The quickness which they displayed in discovering the latent virtues of the Vice-President and advancing themselves to the rank of his most ardent supporters, even before the illustrious dead was consigned to his grave, was a picture full of the most disgusting subserviency of the place-hunter.