It is conceded by all candid men that the administration of President Hayes was remarkable for the purity of the public service and financial success and prosperity. The public debt at the beginning of his administration was nearly $2,100,000,000; at its close, the public debt had been reduced $209,000,000. Since March 1, 1877, about $850,000,000 of the public debt have been refunded, a portion of it bearing interest at 4 per cent. a year, and the remainder at 4 per cent. This refunding has caused a reduction in the interest charge on the public debt of about $17,000,000. Not many years ago, the Government of the United States found great difficulty in borrowing so small a sum as $25,000,000, and for a considerable portion of it was compelled to pay as high as 12 per cent. a year. In the spring of 1879 the Government found no difficulty in borrowing (otherwise refunding) $225,000,000 at 4 per cent. In one month $500,000,000 was offered at 4 per tent. And so high was the credit of the National Government at the beginning of 1881 that these 4 per cent. bonds were sold at a considerable premium The population of the United States is rapidly increasing. At the census of 1870, the total population of the States and Territories was a little more than 38,558,000, in 1880 it was more than 50,000,000. The tide of emigration to our shores from Europe is continually increasing in volume. At the port of New York alone there arrived during 1880 the enormous number of 320,808 emigrants, the largest number in one year since the Emigration Commission was established in 1847. It is estimated that each emigrant adds to the capital of the country, besides the cash he brings with him, about $800. The products of our agriculture, manufactures, and mines have enormously increased. The project of an inter-oceanic canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, has been powerfully revived by the organization at Paris of an International Company for the construction of such a canal. The chief actor in the movement is M. de Lesseps, who constructed the Suez Canal at a cost of $60,000,000. He came to the United States at the beginning of 1880 to promote the project. He visited Panama, decided that the construction of a canal across the isthmus there was feasible, and has since pushed the enterprise with great vigor. He estimates the entire cost of the work at $102,400,000, and promises that it shall be completed in 1888. The United States Government, as we have seen, have had a similar project under consideration for many years. Surveys of routes across the isthmus have been made and estimates of cost submitted. The movement of Lesseps will probably stimulate the people of the United States to a speedy construction of an inter-oceanic communication across the great isthmus some CHAP. XXXIII. DE LESSEPS AND THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 1793 where, either by a ship-canal or ship-railway. They are unwilling to have such a communication controlled by any foreign government or governments. They are stirred by the spirit of the Monroe doctrine; and the President represented public sentiment in the United States, when, on the 8th of March, 1880, he sent a message to Congress, in which he declared that it is the duty of the United States Government to assert and maintain such supervision and authority over the enterprise as will protect our National interests. On the 29th of February, 1881, President-elect Garfield left his home at Mentor, Ohio, for Washington City. He was accompanied by his familyhis aged mother, eighty years old, his wife, and his two young sons. He made a short, parting address at the railway-station, which he concluded with the words: "What awaits me I cannot now speak of; but I shall carry to the discharge of the duties that lie before me, to the problems and dangers I may meet, a sense of your confidence and your love, which will always be answered by my gratitude. Neighbors, friends, constituents-farewell!" Many friends accompanied General Garfield on his journey. He reached Washington on the morning of March 1st, where he was met by a committee and taken to his quarters. His aged mother was conveyed to the President's house, where the room she was to occupy was assigned her by Mrs. Hayes, whose guest she remained until after the inauguration, which event occurred on Friday, March 4, with imposing ceremonies. Considerable snow had fallen in Washington City on the night of March 3d and 4th; but the sun shone so brightly during the forenoon of the 4th that it was all gone by noon. At the proper hour, General Arthur, the Vice-President elect, was installed in office in the Hall of the United States Senate in the presence of a brilliant assemblage of the National law-makers and foreign ministers. From that room the whole company proceeded to a platform at the eastern front of the Capitol, where the inaugural ceremony was to take place. The President and President-elect walked arm-in-arm to their assigned positions. Near them were seated together Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Garfield. By the side of Mrs. Hayes was the venerable mother of the President-elect, to whom he owed so much for his success through life. At least 50,000 people were gathered to observe the imposing spectacle. In a clear, ringing voice, that might be heard by thousands of the mass of listeners, he delivered his inaugural address to the multitude, and the usual oath of office was administered by Chief-Justice Waite. Then the vast crowd dispersed, and the new President and his family were driven to the "White House," as the Presidential mansion is termed, and took possession. President Hayes had issued a proclamation convening the Senate, in special executive session, on the afternoon of the 4th of March, to receive and act upon the nominations of Cabinet ministers which the new President might make. These were sent in the next day, and the nominations were immediately confirmed without debate. They were as follows: For Secretary 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, son of President Lincoln; for Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt, of Louisiana; for Secretary of the Interior, Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa; for Postmaster-General, Thomas L. James, of New York; for Attorney-General, Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania. Subsequent nominations sent in to the Senate for confirmation were not so well received. With regard to one of them, the nomination of Judge Robertson to the important office of Collector of Customs at New York, great efforts were made by Senator Conkling of New York and the wing of the Republican party which acknowledged him as its leader, to procure its rejection. The cause of this hostility to this particular candidate can be traced back to the events which led to the nomination of Garfield as the Presidential candidate of the Republicans at the Chicago Convention. CHAP. XXXIII. MURDER OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD. 1795 meeting, a powerful and compact body, headed by Conkling of New York, Logan of Illinois, and Cameron of Pennsylvania, voted with unswerving pertinacity for the nomination of General Grant for a third term. In number, the votes given for General Grant far exceeded those given for Mr. Blaine, or for Mr. Sherman, but did not reach the two-thirds which were necessary for a nomination. In the New York delegation there was discord and division. An active minority refused to accept the unit rule, and to follow the lead of Conkling. This defection was chiefly due to the influence and exertions of Judge Robertson. He was, therefore, regarded by the so-called Stalwart wing as a deserter from his party and a traitor to the cause. They argued that if he and the delegates who sympathized with him had voted with the rest of their New York colleagues, the example of the Empire State would have had a powerful effect in silencing hostility elsewhere, that the nomination of Grant would have been assured, and no opportunity could have arisen for the concentration of the Blaine and Sherman votes on the name of Garfield. Judge Robertson may, therefore, be regarded as powerfully contributing to Grant's defeat and to Garfield's triumph. It was natural that the President should seek to place a supporter who had done him such service in a prominent position, and it was equally natural that the Senators whose plans had been baffled and whose ambition had been thwarted by his action should be uncompromising enemies of his appointment to an office of such power as the Collectorship of New York is in our present system of political management. To Senator Conkling the appointment of Judge Robertson was peculiarly unwelcome. He had always held that Federal appointments in a State ought to be made on the recommendation, or at least with the approval of the Senators of the State, and he called upon his fellow Senators to reject the nomination of Judge Robertson, on the ground that the "courtesy of the Senate" had established the principle that the Senate would not confirm any nomination to a Federal office in a State if it were repugnant to the two Senators from the State. A prolonged deadlock in the Senate was the result. The President was reminded that but for the powerful aid given to his canvass by General Grant, Senator Conkling, and the "Stalwarts," his election would have been impossible. He was accused of ingratitude to the men who had really placed him in the Executive Mansion, by rewarding the man who had abandoned them in their struggle. Garfield, however, regarding himself as the President of the whole nation, not of any party in it, or of any wing of a party, steadily refused to withdraw the obnoxious nomination, and the two Senators from New York State, hopeless of carrying their point, adopted the unprecedented step of resigning their seats in the Senate. Senators Conkling and Platt at once appealed to the Legislature of New York for re-election. The conflict between the two factions was now transferred to Albany, and the war was carried on with unexampled bitterness. The Vice-President, Mr. Arthur, did not think it unbecoming his high office to mingle personally in the fray and exert his influence for the cause of his friend Conkling. But it was in vain. The Senators who had resigned did not succeed in gaining the reelection which would have returned them to the Senate with the endorsement of their State. The fierce political struggle was just terminating, when every heart was stricken with horror at the intelligence of a terrible tragedy. For the second time the elected head of this free people was struck down by the hand of an assassin. On the 2d of July the President was leaving Washington for a brief holiday, during which he was to pass the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with Mr. Cyrus W. Field, near New York, and then to visit Williams College, Massachusetts. In the company of Mr. Blaine and other members of his Cabinet, he was taking his ticket at the railroad station, when the assassin Guiteau shot him in the back with a heavy ball from a pistol called an “English Bulldog." The President fell to the ground, and from the nature of the wound death was regarded as imminent. It is impossible for words to describe the excitement produced by this assassination. In every city of the Union, as soon as the telegraph flashed the sad news, crowds poured into the streets and surged around the telegraph offices, waiting for further intelligence. Everywhere threats against the assassin's life were heard. Before the full effect of the deed was realized, Guiteau had been arrested and conveyed to prison, a circumstance fortunate for our national honor by reserving his punishment to the solemn verdict o justice, instead of leaving it to the passions of an infuriated mob. The assassin made no attempt to escape. He had been a lecturer, a lawyer, a persistent seeker for office of any kind, always a swindler. He boasted of his crime, He was a "Stalwart," he said, and believed that the death of Garfield was the only means of saving the Republican party. Meanwhile, the wounded man was removed to the White House, where, in the language of the legal indictment of his murderer, which has a deep pathos in the words, "he did languish, and languishing did live" till the 19th of September. All that our best surgical skill could do was done, but in vain. The magnificent constitution of the sufferer enabled him to linger, not to recover. While thus slowly dying, his demeanor was throughout manly, with that manliness which touches every heart. "Is the wound mortal?" was the first question he addressed to the surgeons who examined him. "There are," was the straightforward answer, "ninety-nine chances to one against your recovery." "Then," was the brave reply, "I will take that one chance." His chief |