CHAPTER LXVIII.

ADMINISTRATIONS OF GARFIELD AND ARTHUR, 1881–1885.

J

AMES A. GARFIELD, twentieth president of the United States, was born at Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, November 19, 1831. He was left in infancy to the sole care of his mother and to the rude surroundings of a backwoods home. Blest with an abundance of physical vigor, the boy gathered from country toil a sound constitution, and from country schools the rudiments of education. In boyhood his services were in frequent demand by the farmers of the neighborhood--for he developed unusual skill as a mechanic. Afterward he served as a driver and pilot of a canal boat plying the Ohio and Pennsylvania canal. At the age of seventeen he attended the High School in Chester, was afterwards a student at Hiram College, and in 1854 entered Williams College, from which he was graduated with honor.

2. In the same year, Garfield returned to Ohio, and was made first a professor and afterwards president of Hiram College. This position he held until the outbreak of the civil war when he left his post to enter the army. In the service he rose to distinction, and while still in the field, was elected by the people of his district to the lower house of Congress. In 1879 he was elected to the United States Senate, and hard upon this followed his nomination and election to the presidency. American history has furnished but few instances of a more steady and brilliant rise from the poverty of an obscure boyhood to the most distinguished elective office in the gift of mankind.

3. On the 4th of March, 1881, President Garfield, according to the custom, delivered his inaugural address, and on the day following the inauguration sent to the Senate for confirmation the names of the members of his cabinet. The nominations were, for secre

tary of state, James G. Blaine, of Maine; for secretary of the treasury, William Windom, of Minnesota; for secretary of war, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois; for secretary of the navy, William H. Hunt, of Louisiana; for secretary of the interior, Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa; for attorney-general, Wayne McVeagh, of

Pennsylvania; for postmaster-general, Thomas L. James, of New York. These nominations were promptly confirmed, and the new administration entered upon its course with omens of an auspicious future.

4. The prospects of the new administration were soon darkened with political difficulties. A division arose in the ranks of the

Republican party. The two wings of the Republicans were nicknamed the "Stalwarts" and the "Half-breeds:" the former, headed by Senator Conkling of New York, the latter, led by Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, and indorsed by the President himself. The Stalwarts claimed the right of dispensing the appointive offices of the Government, after the manner which prevailed for several preceding administrations; the President, supported by his division of the party, insisted on naming the officers in the various States according to his own wishes.

5. The chief clash between the two influences in the party occurred in New York. The collectorship of customs for the port of New York is the best appointive office in the Government. To fill this position the President nominated Judge William Robertson, and the appointment was antagonized by the New York Senators, Conkling and Platt, who, failing to prevent the confirmation of Robertson, resigned their seats, returned to their State, and failed of a re-election.

6. A few days after the adjournment of the Senate in June, the President made arrangements to visit Williams College, where his two sons were to be placed at school, and to pass a short vacation with his sick wife at the sea-side. On the morning of July 2d, in company with Secretary Blaine and a few friends, he entered the Baltimore depot at Washington to take the train for Long Branch, New Jersey. A moment afterward he was approached by a miserable miscreant named Charles Jules Guiteau, who, unperceived, came within a few feet of the company, drew a pistol, and fired upon the Chief Magistrate. The aim of the assassin was too well taken, and the first shot struck the President in the back, inflicting a dreadful wound. The bleeding chieftain was borne away to the executive mansion, and the wretch who had committed the crime was hurried to prison.

7. For a week or two the hearts of the American people vibrated between hope and fear. The best surgical aid was procured, and bulletins were daily issued containing a brief outline of the President's condition. The conviction grew day by day that he would ultimately recover. Two surgical operations were performed with a view of improving his chances for life; but a series of relapses

occurred, and the President gradually weakened under his sufferings. As a last hope he was, on the 6th of September, carefully conveyed from Washington City to Elberon, where he was placed in a cottage only a few yards from the surf. Here, for a brief period, hope again revived; but the symptoms were aggravated at intervals, and the patient sank day by day.

8. At half past ten on the evening of September 19th, the anniversary of the battle of Chickamauga, his vital powers suddenly gave way, and in a few moments death closed the scene. For eighty days he had borne the pain and anguish of his situation with a fortitude and heroism rarely witnessed among men. The dark shadow of the crime which had laid him low heightened the luster and glory of his great and exemplary life.

9. On the day following this deplorable event Vice-President Arthur took the oath of office in New York, and repaired to Washington. The hearts of the people, however, clung for a time to the dead rather than to the living President. The funeral of · Garfield was observed first of all at Washington, whither the body was taken and placed in the rotunda of the Capitol. Here it was viewed by tens of thousands of people during the 22d and 23d of September. In his life-time the illustrious dead had chosen, as his place of burial, Lakeview Cemetery, at Cleveland, Ohio, and thither, on the 24th of the month, the remains were conveyed by way of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. As in the case of the dead Lincoln, the funeral processions and ceremonies were a pageant, exhibiting everywhere the loyal respect and love of the American people for him who had so lately been their pride. On the 26th of September his body was laid in its final resting-place.

10. Chester A. Arthur was born in Vernon, Franklin County, Vermont, October 5, 1830. He is of Irish descent, and was educated at Union College, from which institution he was graduated in 1849. For awhile he taught school in his native State, and then came to New York City to study law. During the civil war he was Quartermaster-General of the State of New York, a very important and trying office. After 1865 he returned to the practice of law, and was in 1871 appointed Collector of Customs for the port of New York. This position he held until July, 1878,

when he was removed by President Hayes. Again he returned to his law practice, but was soon called by the voice of his party to be a standard bearer in the Presidential canvass of 1880.

11. The assumption of the duties of his high office by President Arthur was attended with but little ceremony. On the 22d of September, the oath of office was again administered to him, in the Vice-President's room in the Capitol. After this he delivered a brief and appropriate address, referring in a touching manner to the death of his predecessor. Those present-including General Grant, ex-President Hayes, Senator Sherman, and General Sherman, the head of the army-then paid their respects, and the ceremony was at an end.

12. In accordance with custom, the members of the Cabinet immediately tendered their resignations. These were not at once accepted, the President, instead, inviting all the members to retain their places. For the time all did so, except Mr. Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, who was succeeded by Judge Charles J. Folger, of New York. Mr. MacVeagh, the Attorney-General, also resigned a short time afterwards, and the President appointed as his successor Hon. Benjamin H. Brewster, of Philadelphia. The next to retire from the Garfield Cabinet were Mr. Blaine, Secretary of State, and Mr. James, Postmaster-General, who were succeeded in their respective offices by Hon. F. T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, and Hon. Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin. The people generally, without respect to party lines, were well pleased with the spirit of him who had so suddenly been called to the chief magistracy of the Union.

THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY has thus been traced from the times of the aborigines to the present day. The story is done. The Republic has passed through stormy times, but has at last entered her Second Century in safety and peace. The clouds that were recently so black overhead have broken, and are sinking behind the horizon. The equality of all men before the law has been written with the iron pen of war in the constitution of the Nation. The union of the States has been consecrated anew by