Editing 1979: History
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The article itself references other events that would have been in recent memory at the time of publication and draws some conclusions about which will be considered more important in the future. | The article itself references other events that would have been in recent memory at the time of publication and draws some conclusions about which will be considered more important in the future. | ||
− | For example, it cites the defeat of Roscoe Conkling as a serious event that would fade in importance when compared to Garfield's assassination. Conkling was a senator in Garfield's party who resigned in protest of Garfield's policies | + | For example, it cites the defeat of Roscoe Conkling as a serious event that would fade in importance when compared to Garfield's assassination. Conkling was a senator in Garfield's party who resigned in protest of Garfield's policies, then failed to achieve re-election; interestingly [https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%2Fm%2F03x0cd,%2Fm%2F0b22w a comparison of Google search frequency for the years 2004-2018] shows that Garfield is indeed searched for many times more often than Conkling. Conkling's failure to be re-elected by the New York state legislature, which seemed so vitally important at the time, is summarized by a brief two sentences near the bottom of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Conkling Conkling's Wikipedia article] and not even mentioned in the biography's summary. So the writer does appear to be correct that this is an episode that was of high importance as a current event that in the future was to become not much more than an obscure footnote. |
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The writer speculates that there may not be any event in American history that matches the level of grief caused by Garfield's assassination, not even that of Lincoln. Here the writer is further off the mark, because in current historical memory, the Lincoln assassination is still a towering, defining event, whereas Garfield's is, comparatively speaking, a footnote. | The writer speculates that there may not be any event in American history that matches the level of grief caused by Garfield's assassination, not even that of Lincoln. Here the writer is further off the mark, because in current historical memory, the Lincoln assassination is still a towering, defining event, whereas Garfield's is, comparatively speaking, a footnote. |