Chapter 2

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.

SPECIAL MESSAGES.

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.

JAMES A. GARFIELD

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]

JAMES A. GARFIELD

[Footnote A: Arrested and imprisoned by authorities of Great Britain.]

EXECUTIVE ORDER.

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.]

DEATH OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD.

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_.

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF DEATH BY THE PHYSICIANS.

[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.

ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE VICE-PRESIDENT.

[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.]

REPLY OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT.

[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._

ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE ARMY.

[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_.

ANNOUNCEMENT TO THE NAVY.

[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 flags shall be at half-mast from sunrise to sunset and a gun fired every half hour during that period. The period of mourning by half-masted colors will cease at sunset. On foreign stations this order will be carried out on the day after its receipt. The navy-yards will be closed and all work suspended during the day. Officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will, as a further mark of respect, wear crape on the left arm and sword hilt for six months from the 20th instant.

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.

ORDERS OF THE HEADS OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

[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._]