Gerald Ford

President Lincoln was shot in Ford's Theater in Washington DC; he was sitting inside the State Box (an enclosed room with an opening facing the stage.) with his wife, Major Henry Rathbone, and the Major's fiancé, Clara Harris.

It was between 10:15 P.M. and 10:30 P.M., and the play was now in its third act. John Wilkes Booth walked through the unguarded and unlocked door to the State box. (John F. Parker. Parker, had been assigned as the President's bodyguard, had abandoned his post, during the play's intermission. Parker had wandered off to have a drink at the saloon, next to Ford's Theatre..) Booth was armed with a single shot, Derringer, and a hunting knife, came up behind the President, and shot him in the back of the head, near point blank range. The President's head inclined toward his chest, and Mrs. Lincoln screamed.

(Booth then yelled "Sic Semper Tyrannis" in the box, or when he landed on the stage.) Booth struggled briefly with Rathbone, stabbed him with the knife, leaped to the stage, breaking his left leg, and escaped from the theater.

Dr. Charles Leale had been in attendance, in the audience, rushed to Mrs. Lincoln who was bravely holding the President upright in his chair. Upon identifying himself, Leale tried to find the President's pulse; he felt no pulse, and placed the President on the floor. Dr. Leale then administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, as well as artificial respiration until the President was able to breathe independently. Raising the President's eyelids, Leale saw indication of brain damage. Running his fingers through Lincoln's blood-matted hair, Leale found the bullet wound behind the President's left ear and probed the wound for the bullet.Dr. Leale's diagnosis was telegraphed to the country: "His wound is mortal; it is impossible for him to recover."

By this time Acting Assistant Surgeons Charles S. Taft, MD, and Albert F. A. King, MD, of the United States Army had arrived to assist. Leale requested that the President be moved from the theater to the nearest house across the street as Lincoln would not be able to survive the carriage ride to the White House. The President was quickly carried out of the theater, and across the street to the Petersen House where one of the boarders at the House; young Henry Safford heard a disturbance in the street, and quickly went out the front door. He saw the President being carried into the street and yelled, "Bring him in here, bring him in here." The invitation was accepted. In a back bedroom, the President was laying diagonally on a bed, and propped with numerous pillows. The president's breathing grew fainter; although the doctors felt an average man with this kind of wound would die within two hours, he remained for 8.5-9 hours, comatose. Nearly every leading doctor in Washington D.C. stopped by to offer help and assistance. A large crowd gathered outside in front of the Petersen House.

. During the President's last hours, the Reverend Dr. Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, the Lincoln family church, prayed with those present. When the end came at 7:22 A.M., the few remaining knelt as Dr. Gurley prayed, "That our Heavenly Father look down in pity upon the bereaved family and preserve our afflicted and sorrow stricken country."

* Did not hesitate to send the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marines to take back the American freighter Mayaguez, illegally seized by Cambodian Communists. * Wielded the power of the Presidential veto 55 times as a major weapon to battle inflation--saving American taxpayers over $9.2 billion in the process as Congress upheld 45 of the vetoes. Betty Ford voiced the sentiments of most Americans in a Parade Magazine interview published on August 15, 1976, when she said she wants her husband:

". . . to be our President for the next four years because he has leadership and honesty and courage. He's already proven himself . . . Why change our leadership when we have a President who's set the country on a good course, who's laid the groundwork for a healthy economy, who's maintaining the peace against formidable odds?"

President Ford's major accomplishments include: 1. Cutting inflation by more than half. * The inflation rate was going up at 12.2 percent a year when President Ford took office. * The inflation rate was down to 4.6 percent for the first half of 1976. 2. Nearly 4 million people have found jobs since the bottom of the recession. * At the recession low in March, 1975, a total of 84.1 million persons had jobs. * In July, 1976, employment had risen to a historic high of 87.9 million, an increase of 3.8 million from the March 1975 low. 3. Unemployment has decreased. * Unemployment reached a high rate of 8.9 percent in May, 1975. * In July, 1976, the unemployment rate was down to 7.8 percent, and the President's economic advisors believe that it will fall below 7 percent before year's end. 4. Key economic indicators are going up steadily. During the past year: * Housing starts have risen by 38 percent. * The Gross National Product has gone up about 10 percent. * Real per capita disposable income has gone up by nearly 5 percent. 5. Farmers are not doing well. * Net farm income reached $26 billion this year, a record high. * Farm exports also are at a record high of $22 billion. 6. Growth of crime has been cut by over 75 percent. * Crime was increasing at a rate of 18 percent a year when President Ford took office. * The rate of increase went down to 9 percent last year. * The growth rate was cut to 4 percent in the first quarter of this year. 7. Dangerous downward trends in defense spending have been reversed. * Congress cut proposed defense budgets by almost $50 billion in the 10 years before President Ford took office. * President Ford reversed that trend this year, persuading Congress to vote a major increase in defense spending. 8. Alliances with the Atlantic Community and Japan have never been stronger. * When President Ford took office, there was great turmoil and uncertainty in the world over the constancy of American will and leadership. * Now the industrialized democracies are carrying forward a program of cooperation in economics, energy, East-West diplomacy, anti-terrorism, arms control and in relations with developing nations. 9. For the first time in over a decade, the U.S. is at peace abroad. * The Nation was still deeply embroiled in Southeast Asia and tensions were high in the Middle East when President Ford took office. * Today, Mr. Ford is the first President since Dwight Eisenhower who can run for election to the Nation's highest office without a single American fighting overseas. 10. The Nation is at peace with itself. * The U.S. was rocked by scandal and inner doubts about its leaders and institutions when President Ford took office. * Today the strain of scandal has been erased from the White House, doubts have been replaced by growing trust and confidence, and the mood of the country has brightened perceptibly. ---- the answer was found at

http://www.ford.utexas.edu/LIBRARY/document/factbook/accompli.htm

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