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A Representative from the State of Tennessee
1897
This volume comprises the Garfield-Arthur term of four years and the first term of Cleveland. The period covered is from March 4, 1881, to March 4, 1889. The death of President Garfield at the hand of an assassin early in his Administration created a vacancy in the office of the Chief Executive, and for the fourth time in our history the Vice-President succeeded to that office. The intense excitement throughout the land brought about by the tragic death of the President, and the succession of the Vice-President, caused no dangerous strain upon our institutions, and once more proof was given, if, indeed, further evidence was required, that our Government was strong enough to quietly and peacefully endure a sudden change of rulers and of administration, no matter how distressing and odious the cause.
During the Administration of President Arthur a treaty between the United States and the Republic of Nicaragua was signed, providing for an interoceanic canal across the territory of that State. An able and learned discussion of this proposition will be found among his papers. This treaty was pending when he retired from office, and was promptly withdrawn by President Cleveland. The act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States was approved by President Arthur, and he put into operation rules and regulations wide in their scope and far-reaching for the enforcement of the measure. In his papers will be found frequent and interesting discussions of this question. His vetoes of “An act to execute certain treaty stipulations relating to Chinese” and of “An act making appropriations for the construction, repair, and preservation of certain works on rivers and harbors, and for other purposes,” are interesting and effective papers.
The latter half of the period comprised in this volume, as already stated, covers the Administration of Cleveland. His accession to the Presidency marked the return of the Democratic party to power. No Democrat who had been chosen by his party had held the office since the retirement of Buchanan, in 1861. President Cleveland’s papers fill 558 pages of this volume, occupying more space than any other Chief Magistrate, Andrew Johnson being next with 457 pages. At an early date after Mr. Cleveland’s inauguration he became involved in an important and rather acrimonious discussion with the Senate on the subject of suspensions from office. The Senate demanded of him and of the heads of some of the Executive Departments the reasons for the suspension of certain officials and the papers and correspondence incident thereto. In an exhaustive and interesting paper he declined to comply with the demand. His annual message
James D. Richardson.
July 4, 1898.
March 4, 1881, to September 19, 1881
James Abram Garfield was born in Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, November 19, 1831. His father, Abram Garfield, was a native of New York, but of Massachusetts ancestry; descended from Edward Garfield, an English Puritan, who in 1630 was one of the founders of Watertown. His mother, Eliza Ballou, was born in New Hampshire, of a Huguenot family that fled from France to New England after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Garfield, therefore, was from lineage well represented in the struggles for civil and religious liberty, both in the Old and in the New World. His father moved to Ohio in 1830 and settled in what was then known as the “Wilderness,” now as the “Western Reserve,” which was occupied by Connecticut people. He died at the age of 33, leaving a widow and four small children, of whom James was the youngest. Mrs. Garfield brought up her family unaided, and impressed upon them a high standard of moral and intellectual worth. James attended school in a log hut at the age of 3 years, learned to read, and began that habit of omnivorous reading which ended only with his life. At 10 years of age was accustomed to manual labor, helping out his mother’s meager income by work at home or on the farms of the neighbors. Attended the district school in the winter months, made good progress, and was conspicuous for his assiduity. At the age of 14 had a fair knowledge of arithmetic and grammar, and was particularly apt in the facts of American history. His imagination was especially kindled by tales of the sea, and he so far yielded to his love of adventure that in 1848 he went to Cleveland and proposed to ship as a sailor on board a lake schooner. Seeing that this life was not the romance he had conceived, he turned promptly from the lake; but loath to return home without adventure and without money, he drove some months for a boat on the Ohio Canal, when he was promoted from the towpath to the boat. Attended the Geauga Seminary at Chester, Ohio, during the winter of 1849-50. In the vacations learned and practiced the trade of a carpenter, helped at harvest, taught—did anything and everything to earn money to pay for his
Fellow-Citizens: We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national life—a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled.
It is now three days more than a hundred years since the adoption of the first written constitution of the United States—the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union. The new Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardianship of the people themselves.
We can not overestimate the fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage, and the sum of common sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead established a National Union, founded directly upon the will of the people, endowed with full power of self-preservation and ample authority for the accomplishment of its great object.
Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under this Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with constitutions and laws, framed and enforced by their own citizens, to secure the manifold blessings of local self-government.
The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States and a population twenty times greater than that of 1780.
The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the beneficent purposes of good government.
And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately reviewed the condition of the nation, passed judgment upon the conduct and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the paramount duty of the Executive.
Even from this brief review it is manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind them all those bitter controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay the onward march.
The supremacy of the nation and its laws should be no longer a subject of debate. That discussion, which for half a century threatened the existence of the Union, was closed at last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal—that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy of the Union.
The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 1776 by proclaiming “liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.”
The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of citizenship is the most important political change we have known since the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and has opened to each one of them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration to the power of self-help in both races by making labor more honorable to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years.
No doubt this great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who resisted the change should remember that under our institutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States. Freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacle in the pathway of any virtuous citizen.
The emancipated race has already made remarkable progress. With unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have “followed the light as God gave them to see the light.” They are rapidly laying the material foundations of self-support, widening their circle of intelligence, and beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.
The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged that in many communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered that in many places honest local government is impossible if the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local government is certainly a great evil, which ought to be prevented; but to violate the freedom and sanctities of the suffrage is more than an evil. It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of the king, it shall be counted no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice.
It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States or to the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law.
But the danger which arises from ignorance in the voter can not be denied. It covers a field far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains of power in every state. We have no standard by which to measure the disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage.
The voters of the Union, who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whose will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme authority to no successors save the coming generation of voters, who are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain and remediless.
The census has already sounded the alarm in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children.
To the South this question is of supreme importance. But the responsibility for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone. The nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has added to the voting population. For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the constitutional power of the nation and of the States and all the volunteer forces of the people should be surrendered to meet this danger by the savory influence of universal education.
It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them.
In this beneficent work sections and races should be forgotten and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new meaning in the divine oracle which declares that “a little child shall lead them,” for our own little children will soon control the destinies of the Republic.
My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They will surely bless their fathers and their fathers’ God that the Union was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we can not prevent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict?
Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material well-being unite us and offer ample employment of our best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battlefields of dead issues, move forward and in their strength of liberty and the restored Union win the grander victories of peace.
The prosperity which now prevails is without parallel in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so successfully attained by the Administration of my predecessors, have enabled our people to secure the blessings which the seasons brought.
By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in the relative value of the two metals, but I confidently believe that arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that the compulsory coinage of silver now required by law may not disturb our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in all the markets of the world.
The chief duty of the National Government in connection with the currency of the country is to coin money and declare its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by the necessities of war; but such paper should depend for its value and currency upon its convenience in use and its prompt redemption in coin at the will of the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These notes are not money, but promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise should be kept.
The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national-bank notes, and thus disturbing the business of the country.
I venture to refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects.
The finances of the Government shall suffer no detriment which it may be possible for my Administration to prevent.
The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the Government than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the largest part of all our exports. As the Government lights our coasts for the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should give to the tillers of the soil the best lights of practical science and experience.
Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of employment. Their steady and healthy growth should still be matured. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways and by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean.
The development of the world’s commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great sea voyage around Cape Horn by constructing ship canals or railways across the isthmus which unites the continents. Various plans to this end have been suggested and will need consideration, but none of them has been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will immediately engage the attention of the Government with a view to a thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow policy nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges in any commercial route; but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the right “and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such supervision and authority over any interoceanic canal across the isthmus that connects North and South America as will protect our national interest.”
The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and hence the General Government is responsible for any violation of the Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the Government that in the most populous of the Territories the constitutional guaranty is not enjoyed by the people and the authority of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of manhood by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through ordinary instrumentalities of law.
In my judgment it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely permitted to usurp in the smallest degree the functions and powers of the National Government.
The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several Executive Departments and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made during the terms for which incumbents have been appointed.
Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my Administration to maintain the authority of the nation in all places within its jurisdiction; to enforce obedience to all the laws of the Union in the interests of the people; to demand rigid economy in all the expenditures of the Government, and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit of incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the Government.
And now, fellow-citizens, I am about to assume the great trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, a government of the people.
I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with me the responsibilities and duties of administration, and, above all, upon our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their Government I reverently invoke the support and blessings of Almighty God.
March 4, 1881.
Executive Mansion, Washington, April 6, 1881. To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith in response to the resolution of the Senate of the 18th ultimo, a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in relation to the capitulations of the Ottoman Empire.
Executive Mansion, Washington, May 20, 1881. To the Senate of the United States:
I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, submitted in response to the Senate resolution of the 12th ultimo, touching the case of Michael P. Boyton.[A]
[Footnote A: Arrested and imprisoned by authorities of Great Britain.]
Executive Mansion,
Washington, May 28, 1881.
Dear Sir:[A] I am directed by the President to inform you that the several Departments of the Government will be closed on Monday, the 30th instant, to enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the soldiers who fell during the rebellion.
Very respectfully,
J. Stanley Brown, Private Secretary.
[Footnote A: Addressed to the heads of the Executive Departments, etc.]
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE ASSASSINATION TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES ABROAD.
[From the Washington Post, July 3, 1881.]
Department of State,
Washington, July 2, 1881.
James Russell Lowell,
Minister, etc., London:
The President of the United States was shot this morning by an assassin named Charles Guiteau. The weapon was a large-sized revolver. The President had just reached the Baltimore and Potomac station, at about 9.20, intending, with a portion of his Cabinet, to leave on the limited express for New York. I rode in the carriage with him from the Executive Mansion and was walking by his side when he was shot. The assassin was immediately arrested, and the President was conveyed to a private room in the station building and surgical aid at once summoned. He has now, at 10.20, been removed to the Executive Mansion. The surgeons, on consultation, regard his wounds as very serious, though not necessarily fatal. His vigorous health gives strong hopes of his recovery. He has not lost consciousness for a moment. Inform our ministers in Europe.
James G. Blaine, Secretary of State.
[From the New York Herald, September 20, 1881.]
Elberon, N.J., September 19—11.30 p.m.
The President died at thirty-five minutes past 10 p.m. After the bulletin was issued at half past 5 this evening the President continued in much the same condition as during the afternoon, the pulse varying from 102 to 106, with rather increased force and volume. After taking nourishment he fell into a quiet sleep about thirty-five minutes before his death, and while asleep his pulse ran to 120 and was somewhat more feeble. At ten minutes after 10 o’clock he awoke, complaining of severe pain over the region of the heart, and almost immediately became unconscious, and ceased to breathe at twenty-five minutes to 11.
D.W. Bliss.
Frank H. Hamilton.
D. Hayes Agnew.
[From the New-York Times, September 20, 1881.]
[Long Branch, N.J., September 19, 1881.]
Hon. Chester A. Arthur,
No. 123 Lexington Avenue, New York:
It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield and to advise you to take the oath of office as President of the United States without delay. If it concur with your judgment, we will be very glad if you will come here on the earliest train to-morrow morning.
William Windom,
Secretary of the Treasury.
WILLIAM H. HUNT,
Secretary of the Navy.
THOMAS L. JAMES,
Postmaster-General.
WAYNE MacVEAGH,
Attorney-General.
S.J. KIRKWOOD,
Secretary of the Interior.
[The Secretaries of State and of War were absent from Long Branch.]
[From the Evening Star, Washington, September 20, 1881.]
New York, September 20, 1881.[A]
I have your message announcing the death of President Garfield. Permit me to renew through you the expression of sorrow and sympathy which I have already telegraphed to Attorney-General MacVeagh. In accordance with your suggestion, I have taken the oath of office as President before the Hon. John R. Brady, justice of the supreme court of the State of New York. I will soon advise you further in regard to the other suggestion in your telegram.
C.A. ARTHUR.
[Footnote A: Addressed to the Cabinet.]
ANNOUNCEMENT TO REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES ABROAD.
[From the Sun, New York, September 21, 1881.]
[Long Branch, N.J., September 20, 1881.]
Lowell, Minister, London:
James A. Garfield, President of the United States, died at Elberon, N.J., last night at ten minutes before 11 o’clock. For nearly eighty days he suffered great pain, and during the entire period exhibited extraordinary patience, fortitude, and Christian resignation. The sorrow throughout the country is deep and universal. Fifty millions of people stand as mourners by his bier. To-day, at his residence in the city of New York, Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President, took the oath of office as President, to which he succeeds by virtue of the Constitution. President Arthur has entered upon the discharge of his duties. You will formally communicate these facts to the British Government and transmit this dispatch by telegraph to the American ministers on the Continent for like communication to the Governments to which they are respectively accredited.
BLAINE, Secretary.
ANNOUNCEMENT TO REPRESENTATIVES OF FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.
[From official records, Department of State.]
Department of State
Washington, September 20, 1881.
Sir: It is my sad duty to announce to you that the illness of the President of the United States, which you have followed with an anxiety similar to our own and a sympathy which you have repeatedly testified to this Department during the sorrowful period that has passed since he was shot by an assassin on the 2d of July, terminated last evening, when he expired at thirty-five minutes past 10 o’clock.
As soon as the order and details of the funeral ceremonies are arranged you will be duly informed thereof.
ROBERT R. HITT,
Acting Secretary.
[From official records, War Department.]
General Orders, No. 71.
Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant-General’s Office,
Washington, September 20, 1881.
I. The following order of the Secretary of War announces to the Army the death of James A. Garfield, President of the United States:
War Department, September 20, 1881.
With profound sorrow the Secretary of War announces to the Army that James A. Garfield, President of the United States, died at Elberon, N.J., at twenty-five minutes before 11 in the evening of September 19, 1881.
The great grief which is felt by the nation at the untimely death of the President will be especially felt by the Army, in whose service he bore so distinguished a part during the War of the Rebellion. In him the Army has lost a beloved Commander in Chief, friend, and former comrade.
Proper honors will be paid to the memory of the late Chief Magistrate of the nation at headquarters of each military department and division and at each military station.
The General of the Army will give the necessary instructions for carrying this order into effect.
ROBT. T. LINCOLN, Secretary of War.
II. On the day after the receipt of this order at the headquarters of military commands in the field, and at each military station, and at the Military Academy at West Point, the troops and cadets will be paraded at 10 o’clock a.m. and the order read to them, after which all labor for the day will cease.
At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired at each military post, and afterwards at intervals of thirty minutes between the rising and setting sun a single gun, and at the close of the day a national salute of thirty-eight guns.
The national flag will be displayed at half-staff at the headquarters of the several military divisions and departments and at all military stations until the remains of the late Chief Magistrate are consigned to their final resting place at Cleveland, Ohio, at 2 p.m. on the 26th instant.
The officers of the Army of the United States will wear the badge of mourning on the left arm and on their swords and the colors of the regiments will be draped in mourning for the period of six months.
III. The following officers of the Army will, with a like number of officers of the Navy selected for the purpose, compose the guard of honor and accompany the remains of their late Commander in Chief from the national capital to Cleveland, Ohio, and continue with them until they are consigned to their final resting place: The General of the Army, Major-General Winfield S. Hancock, Quartermaster-General M.C. Meigs, Adjutant-General R.C. Drum, Inspector-General D.B. Sacket.
By command of General Sherman:
R.C. DRUM, Adjutant-General.
[From official records, War Department.]
General Orders, No. 72.
Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant-General’s Office,
Washington, September 20, 1881.
The following order has been received from the War Department:
The Secretary of War announces to the Army that upon the death of James A. Garfield, President of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President, on the 20th day of September, 1881, at his residence in the city of New York, took the oath of office as President of the United States, to which office he succeeded by virtue of the Constitution. President Arthur has entered upon the discharge of his official duties.
ROBT. T. LINCOLN,
Secretary of War.
By command of General Sherman:
R.C. DRUM, Adjutant-General.
[From official records, Navy Department.]
General Order.
Navy Department,
Washington, September 20, 1881.
The officers and men of the Navy and of the Marine Corps of the United States are hereby notified that President Garfield died at Long Branch on the 19th instant at 10 o’clock and 40 minutes p.m. Under the Constitution and laws of the Government Chester A. Arthur, then Vice-President, duly took the oath as President of the United States, and has entered upon the duties of that office. As President and Commander in Chief of the Navy of the United States he will be obeyed and respected by all persons connected with this Department. It is becoming that at a time when the heart of the nation is heavy with grief a proper expression should be given to the respect and affection so sincerely and universally entertained for the memory of the wise, patriotic, and noble Chief Magistrate who has departed this life under circumstances so distressing. To this end the officers of the Navy will see to it that all honors and ceremonies befitting the occasion are observed by their respective commands in accordance with the regulations of the service.
The offices of the Department will remain closed for all business during the time the remains of the President shall lie in state at the Capitol.
WILLIAM H. HUNT,
Secretary of the Navy.
[From official records, Navy Department.]
Special Order.
Navy Department,
Washington, September 23, 1881.
Struck down by the hand of a cowardly assassin, in the day of his vigor and usefulness, on the eve of departure from the capital in search of much-needed rest from the toils and cares of office, our Chief Magistrate, President, and Commander in Chief, James A. Garfield, after bearing with heroic fortitude untold suffering, succumbed to the dread summons and yielded up his life at Elberon, N.J., on the evening of the 19th instant. The nation mourns its loss. The funeral services will take place at Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, the 26th instant. It is eminently fit and proper that special honors should be paid to the memory of the late President on that day, and the Department therefore directs that at all naval stations and on board all vessels in commission the
ED. T. NICHOLS,
Acting Secretary of the Navy.
ACTION OF SENATORS AND OF REPRESENTATIVES ELECT IN WASHINGTON.
The members of the Senate and members elect of the House of Representatives in Washington held meetings on September 22 and selected the following gentlemen to accompany the remains of the late President to Cleveland, Ohio:
Senators Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island; John Sherman, of Ohio; Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; John J. Ingalls, of Kansas; James L. Pugh, of Alabama; Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire; Johnson N. Camden, of West Virginia, and John T. Morgan, of Alabama.
Representatives elect John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia; John A. Kasson, of Iowa; Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania; Frank Hiscock, of New York; Benjamin Wilson, of West Virginia; John R. Thomas, of Illinois; Amos Townsend, of Ohio, and Charles M. Shelley, of Alabama.
[From the National Republican, Washington, September 21, 1881.]
LONG BRANCH, September 20.[A]
It has been agreed here by all the heads of Departments that the Departments shall remain closed from this time until the conclusion of President Garfield’s funeral ceremonies in Washington, and it is understood that you will notify the acting heads of all Departments of this arrangement. * * *
ROBERT T. LINCOLN,
Secretary of War.
[Footnote A: Sent to the chief clerk of the War Department.]
[From official records, Treasury Department.]
Order.
Treasury Department,
Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D.C., September 20, 1881.
It is ordered, as a mark of respect to the memory of President Garfield, that the Treasury Department be closed during this day.
H.F. FRENCH,
Acting Secretary.
[From official records, Treasury Department.]
Notice.
Treasury Department,
Office Of The Secretary,
Washington, D.C., September 21, 1881.
As a token of respect to the memory of the late President, James A. Garfield, the Treasury Department will be closed to public business to-day at 12 o’clock noon, and remain closed Thursday and Friday, the 22d and 23d instant.
H.F. FRENCH,
Acting Secretary.
[From official records, Treasury Department.]
Order.
Treasury Department,
Office of the Secretary,
Washington, D.C., September 24, 1881.
In accordance with the proclamation of the President[B] appointing Monday, the 26th day of September, as a day of humiliation and mourning, being the day of the burial of the late President, James A. Garfield, it is ordered that this Department be closed during that day.
H.F. FRENCH,
Acting Secretary.
[Footnote B: See p. 34.]
[From official records, Post-Office Department.]
Post-Office Department,
Washington, D.C., September 20, 1881.
Ordered, That, owing to the death of President James A. Garfield, this Department be closed for all public business until after the funeral party shall have left Washington for Ohio.
RICHD. A. ELMER,
Acting Postmaster-General.
[From official records, Post-Office Department.]
POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,
Washington, D.C., September 24, 1881.
Ordered, That, in conformity with the action of other executive branches of the Government, this Department be closed on Monday next, the 26th instant, and that the day be fittingly observed by all persons connected therewith as the occasion of the consignment to their final resting place of the remains of the late beloved and honored Chief Magistrate of the United States, James A. Garfield.
RICHD. A. ELMER, Acting Postmaster-General.
[From official records, Interior Department.]
Order.
Department of the Interior,
Washington, September 20, 1881.
As a token of respect to the memory of the late President, James A. Garfield, the Department of the Interior and the several bureaus and offices thereof will be closed to public business until Saturday, the 24th instant.
A. BELL, Acting Secretary.
[From official records, Interior Department.]
Order.
Department of the Interior,
Washington, September 24, 1881.
In pursuance of the proclamation of the President of the United States[A] appointing Monday, the 26th instant, as a day of humiliation and mourning for the death of the late President, this Department and the several bureaus and offices thereof will be closed to business on that day.
A. BELL, Acting Secretary.
[Footnote A: See p. 34.]
Funeral Announcement to the Public.
[From the New-York Times, September 21, 1881.]
[ELBERON, N.J., September 20, 1881.]
The remains of the late President of the United States will be removed to Washington by special train on Wednesday, September 21, leaving Elberon at 10 a.m. and reaching Washington at 4 p.m. Detachments from the United States Army and from the marines of the Navy will be in attendance on arrival at Washington to perform escort duty. The remains will lie in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol on Thursday and Friday, and will be guarded by deputations from the Executive Departments and by officers of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Religious ceremonies will be observed in the Rotunda at 3 o’clock on Friday afternoon. At 5 o’clock the remains will be transferred to the funeral car and be removed to Cleveland, Ohio, via the Pennsylvania Railroad, arriving there Saturday at 2 p.m. In Cleveland the remains will lie in state until Monday at 2 p.m., and be then interred in Lakeview Cemetery. No ceremonies are expected in the cities and towns along the route of the funeral train beyond the tolling of bells. Detailed arrangements for final sepulture are committed to the municipal authorities of Cleveland, under the direction of the executive of the State of Ohio.
JAMES G. BLAINE,
Secretary of State.
[From official records, War Department.]
Order of Arrangement for the Funeral at Washington
City of James A.
Garfield, Late President of the United States.
The remains of the late President will lie in state in the Rotunda of the Capitol until 3 o’clock p.m. on Friday, the 23d instant, when they will be borne to the depot of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad and thence conveyed to their final resting place at Cleveland, Ohio.
Order of Procession.
FUNERAL ESCORT.
(Under command of Brevet Major-General R.B. Ayres.)
Battalion of District of Columbia Volunteers.
Battalion of marines.
Battalion of foot artillery.
Battery of light artillery.
(Under command of Chief Marshal Colonel Robert Boyd.)
Clergymen in attendance.
Physicians who attended the late President.
Guard of honor.
Guard of honor.
Hearse.
Bearers.
Bearers.
(The officers of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps in the city, and not on duty with the troops forming the escort, in full dress, will form, right in front, on either side of the hearse—the Army on the right and the Navy and Marine Corps on the left—and compose the guard of honor.)
Family of the late President.
Relatives of the late President.
Ex-Presidents of the United States.
The President.
The Cabinet ministers.
The Diplomatic Corps.
The Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme
Court of the
United States.
The Senators of the United States.
Members of the United States House of Representatives.
Governors of States and Territories and Commissioners
of the
District of Columbia.
The judges of the Court of Claims, the judiciary of
the
District of Columbia, and judges of the
United States courts.
The Assistant Secretaries of State, Treasury, and
Interior Departments.
The Assistant Postmasters-General.
The Solicitor-General and the Assistant Attorneys-General.
Organized societies.
Citizens and strangers.
The troops designated to form the escort will assemble on the east side of the Capitol and form line fronting the eastern portico of the Capitol precisely at 2 o’clock p.m. on Friday, the 23d instant.
The procession will move on the conclusion of the religious services at the Capitol (appointed to commence at 3 o’clock), when minute guns will be fired at the navy-yard by the vessels of war which may be in port, at Fort Myer, and by the battery of artillery stationed near the Capitol for that purpose. At the same hour the bells of the several churches, fire-engine houses, and the schoolhouses will be tolled.
The civic procession will form in accordance with directions to be given by the chief marshal.
The officers of the Army and Navy selected to compose the guard of honor and accompany the remains to their final resting place will assemble at 4 p.m. at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad depot, where they will receive the body of the late President and deposit it in the car prepared for the purpose.
ROBERT T. LINCOLN,
Secretary of War.
WILLIAM H. HUNT,
Secretary of the Navy.
J. DENT,
President Board of Commissioners District of Columbia.
[From the Washington Post, September 23, 1881.]
Circular.
Headquarters of the Army,
Adjutant-General’s Office,
Washington, September 22, 1881.
The officers of the Army in this city not otherwise ordered for special duty on this occasion will assemble in full uniform at 3 p.m. on the 23d instant on the east front of the Capitol and form line, right in front, on the right of the hearse, to act as a guard of honor to the remains of the late President of the United States from the Capitol to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad depot.
By command of General Sherman:
R.C. DRUM, Adjutant-General.
[From records in possession of Colonel Amos Webster.]
Orders, No. 22.
Adjutant-General’s Office,
District of Columbia Militia,
September 21, 1881.
Pursuant to orders from the honorable Secretary of War, the troops comprising the militia of the District of Columbia will assemble in full-dress uniform at 3 p.m. on the 21st instant on Sixth street NW., the right resting on Pennsylvania avenue, the left extended south, to take part in and form a portion of the escort to the remains of the late President, and will also hold themselves in readiness to participate at the funeral ceremonies on Friday, the 23d instant, The formation will be as follows on both occasions:
Washington Light Infantry Corps, Captain W.G.
Moore.
Union Veteran Corps, Captain S.E. Thomason.
National Rifles, Captain J.O.P. Burnside.
Washington Light Guards, Lieutenant P.S. Hodgson.
Butler Zouaves, Captain C.B. Fisher.
Capital City Guards, Captain W.S. Kelly.
Washington Cadets, Captain C.A. Dolan.
The officers of Light Battery A, District of Columbia Artillery, will report to adjutant-general District of Columbia Militia for duty as aids on both occasions.
A. WEBSTER,
Adjutant-General District of Columbia Militia.
[From records in possession of Colonel Amos Webster.]
General Order No. 23.
Adjutant-General’s Office,
District of Columbia Militia,
September 22, 1881.
Pursuant to orders from the honorable Secretary of War, and in compliance with general order No. 22 from these headquarters, all the organizations comprising the militia of the District of Columbia will assemble in full-dress uniform at 2 p.m. on the 23d instant on the ground east of the Capitol, right resting on B street N., the left extending south, facing west. The formation will be the same as designated in general order No. 22. Upon their arrival on the ground designated each commanding officer will report in person to the commanding officer of the District Volunteers.
By order of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia:
AMOS WEBSTER,
Adjutant-General District of Columbia Militia,
Commanding.
[From the Washington Post, September 23, 1881.]
Special Order.
Navy Department,
Washington, September 22, 1881.
The officers of the Navy and Marine Corps on duty and resident in Washington will assemble to-morrow, the 23d instant, at 3 o’clock p.m., at the east front of the Capitol, in full dress, to accompany the remains of the late President Garfield to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad depot.
Commander H.L. Howison, United States Navy, is hereby appointed adjutant, and will direct the formation of the officers of the Navy and Marine Corps.
ED. T. NICHOLS,
Acting Secretary of the Navy.
[From the Medical Record, New York, 1881, vol. 20, p. 364.]
OFFICIAL BULLETIN OF THE AUTOPSY ON THE BODY OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.
The following official bulletin was prepared by the surgeons who have been in attendance upon the late President:
By previous Arrangement a post-mortem examination of the body of President Garfield was made this afternoon in the presence and with the assistance of Drs. Hamilton, Agnew, Bliss, Barnes, Woodward, Reyburn, Andrew H. Smith, of Elberon, and Acting Assistant Surgeon D.S. Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, of Washington. The operation was performed by Dr. Lamb. It was found that the ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the spinal cord, fracturing the body of the first lumbar vertebra, driving a number of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging below the pancreas, about 2-1/2 inches to the left of the spine and behind the peritoneum, where it had become completely encysted.
The immediate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of the mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum and nearly a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity. This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in the lower part of the chest complained of just before death. An abscess cavity 6 inches by 4 in dimensions was found in the vicinity of the gall bladder, between the liver and the transverse colon, which were strongly adherent. It did not involve the substance of the liver, and no communication was found between it and the wound.
A long suppurating channel extended from the external wound, between the loin muscles and the right kidney, almost to the right groin. This channel, now known to be due to the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed during life to have been the track of the ball.
On an examination of the organs of the chest evidences of severe bronchitis were found on both sides, with broncho-pneumonia of the lower portions of the right lung, and, though to a much less extent, of the left. The lungs contained no abscesses and the heart no clots. The liver was enlarged and fatty, but not from abscesses. Nor were any found in any other organ except the left kidney, which contained near its surface a small abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter.
In reviewing the history of the case in connection with the autopsy it is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebrae, furnish a sufficient explanation of the septic condition which existed.
D.W. BLISS.
J.K. BARNES.
J.J. WOODWARD.
ROBERT REYBURN.
FRANK H. HAMILTON.
D. HAYES AGNEW.
ANDREW H. SMITH.
D.S. LAMB.
[September 20, 1881.]
FORMAL OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO PRESIDENT ARTHUR.
President Chester A. Arthur took the formal oath of office as President of the United States in the room of the Vice-President, in the Capitol, Thursday, September 22, 1881, at 12.10 o’clock p.m. Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution in the presence of the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, General W.T. Sherman, and a number of Senators and Representatives.
[For Inaugural Address of President Arthur see pp. 33-34.]
President Arthur, in his first annual message to the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress, thus announced the death of his predecessor:
An appalling calamity has befallen the American people since their chosen representatives last met in the halls where you are now assembled. We might else recall with unalloyed content the rare prosperity with which throughout the year the nation has been blessed. Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries have thriven; the health of its people has been preserved; it has maintained with foreign governments the undisturbed relations of amity and peace. For these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him who holds our destiny in His hands the tribute of our grateful devotion.
To that mysterious exercise
of His will which has taken from us the
loved and illustrious citizen
who was but lately the head of the
nation we bow in sorrow and
submission.
The memory of his exalted
character, of his noble achievements, and
of his patriotic life will
be treasured forever as a sacred
possession of the whole people.
The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and peoples tributes of sympathy and sorrow which history will record as signal tokens of the kinship of nations and the federation of mankind.
The Senate on December 6, 1881, adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, That a committee of six Senators be appointed on the part of the Senate to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the House to consider and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of the late President, James A. Garfield, and that so much of the message of the President as relates to that melancholy event be referred to said committee.
The committee on the part of the Senate, having been subsequently increased to eight, comprised the following-named gentlemen:
John Sherman, of Ohio; George H. Pendleton, of Ohio; Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts; Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York; Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Omar D. Conger, of Michigan, and Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia.
The House of Representatives on December 6, 1881, passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That a committee of one member from each State represented in this House be appointed on the part of the House to join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate to consider and report by what token of respect and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of their late President, James Abram Garfield, and that so much of the message of the President as refers to that melancholy event be referred to said committee.
The committee on the part of the House of Representatives comprised the following-named gentlemen:
William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio; Romualdo Pacheco, of California; James B. Belford, of Colorado; John T. Wait, of Connecticut; William H. Forney, of Alabama; Poindexter Dunn, of Arkansas; Edward L Martin, of Delaware; Robert H.M. Davidson, of Florida; Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia; Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois; Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana; John A. Kasson, of Iowa; John A. Anderson, of Kansas; John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky; Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana; Nelson Dingley, jr., of Maine; Robert M. McLane, of Maryland; Benjamin W. Harris, of Massachusetts; Roswell G. Horr, of Michigan; Mark H. Dunnell, of Minnesota; Charles E. Hooker, of Mississippi; Nicholas Ford, of Missouri; Edward K. Valentine, of Nebraska; George W. Cassidy, of Nevada; Joshua G. Hall, of New Hampshire; John Hill, of New Jersey; Samuel S. Cox, of New York; Robert B. Vance, of North Carolina; Melvin C. George, of Oregon; Charles O’Neill, of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Chace, of Rhode Island; D. Wyatt Aiken, of South Carolina; Augustus H. Pettibone, of Tennessee; Roger Q. Mills, of Texas; Charles H. Joyce, of Vermont; J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia; Benjamin Wilson, of West Virginia, and Charles G. Williams, of Wisconsin.
The following concurrent resolutions were adopted by both Houses of Congress on December 21, 1881:
Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of James Abram Garfield, late President of the United States, having occurred during the recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing in the general grief and desiring to manifest their sensibility upon the occasion of the public bereavement: Therefore
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the Hall of the House of Representatives on a day and hour to be fixed and announced by the joint committee, and that in the presence of the two Houses there assembled an address upon the life and character of James Abram Garfield, late President of the United States, be pronounced by Hon. James G. Blaine, and that the President of the Senate pro tempore and the Speaker of the House of Representatives be requested to invite the President and ex-Presidents of the United States, the heads of the several Departments, the judges of the Supreme Court, the representatives of the foreign governments near this Government, the governors of the several States, the General of the Army, and the Admiral of the Navy, and such officers of the Army and Navy as have received the thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of Government to be present on the occasion.
And be it further resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs. Lucretia R. Garfield, and to assure her of the profound sympathy of the two Houses of Congress for her deep personal affliction and of their sincere condolence for the late national bereavement.
February 1, 1882, both Houses of Congress adopted the following resolution:
Resolved by the House of
Representatives (the Senate concurring),
That Monday, the 27th day
of February, 1882, be set apart for the
memorial services upon the
late President, James A. Garfield.
[For proclamation of President Arthur appointing, in consequence of the death of James Abram Garfield, late President of the United States, a day of humiliation and mourning, see p. 34.]