Perley's Reminiscences Part 44

The White House, during the short time that General Garfield was permitted to occupy it, was a continued scene of domestic enjoyment.

"Mother" Garfield had an honored place at the family table at her son's right hand, and was always waited on first, whoever else might be present. On the other side of the President sat Jamie, who was his father's pet. Harry, the oldest boy, always sat next his mother, and then Miss Mollie, who was approaching womanhood, Irwin, and little Abram, who was but nine years of age. Mrs.

Garfield was a believer in good fare, and there was always an abundance of wholesome, nutritious food, with good coffee, tea, and milk. Flowers from the conservatory adorned the table at every meal. After dinner President Garfield used to indulge in a game of billiards, having promptly restored to its place the billiard- table banished by Mrs. Hayes. Occasionally he would indulge in a cigar, and he was not averse to a gla.s.s of champagne or Rhine wine or lager beer, although he drank temperately and without hypocrisy.

He liked, as night came on, to take a gallop on horseback, and he was a fearless rider.

General Garfield displayed the advantage of having been regularly "trained" for his Presidential position. He heard the stories of all with a sympathetic manner that inspired confidence. He knew how to free himself from those who attempted to monopolize too much of his time, and he never gave place-hunters reason to believe that their prayers would be granted when he knew that it would not be so. There was not, after all, such a crowd of office-seekers as might have been expected at the commencement of a new Administration.

Some members of the Cabinet had scores of political mortgages out, which they were called upon to redeem, and which gave the President a great deal of trouble. Then came the rejection of a Solicitor- General by the Senate, whose appointment was not acceptable to the pragmatical Attorney-General, New York troubles, the forced exposure of the Star-route scandals, and other antagonisms, rivalries, and dissensions. The Garfield Administration was on the verge of dissolution within four months after its creation.

Mrs. Garfield, familiarly called by her husband "Crete," held four successive receptions of invited guests immediately after the inauguration, at which her deportment and dress met with the heartiest commendation of "society." Lady-like, sweet-voiced, unruffled, well informed, and always appropriately dressed, she was eminently fitted to be "the first lady in the land," and she quietly yet firmly repelled any patronizing attempts to direct her movements. She had a natural aversion to publicity, but was anxious to entertain the thousands who flocked to the White House. To a stranger she appeared reticent and rather too retiring to make him feel at home, but the second and third time he saw her he began to appreciate her sterling, womanlike qualities, and to like her.

During the Presidential campaign Mrs. Garfield had been under a mental strain, and when installed in the White House the struggle between the contending New York factions gave her great uneasiness, for she possessed a complete mastery of politics. At last she was taken ill, and called in a lady physician, a responsible middle- aged woman, h.o.m.oeopathic in practice, who had sometimes attended the children. When she grew worse they summoned Dr. Pope, a h.o.m.oeopath of skill and reputation, and gave the case into his hands, retaining the lady as nurse. Last of all, as the physician wished consultation, they sent for Dr. Boynton, of Cleveland, a cousin of the President and a physician of good local practice.

It was decided that Mrs. Garfield should seek change of air, and she left Washington and her husband for Long Branch, little dreaming that she should never see him again in health.

Then came the fatal morning of Sat.u.r.day, July 2d, when--as we are told by Mr. Blaine, who accompanied him--General Garfield was a happy man, feeling that trouble lay behind him and not before him, that he was soon to meet his beloved wife, recovered from an illness that had disquieted him, and that he was going to his Alma Mater to renew the most cherished a.s.sociation of his early manhood. Thus gladsome, he entered the station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad, strong, healthy, and happy. There was a succession of pistol-shots, and he fell helpless, doomed to weary weeks of torture as he slowly descended through the martyr-gate into his grave.

The nation was inexpressibly shocked as the news of the a.s.sa.s.sination spread over the wires, and the deep anxiety which pervaded the popular mind showed the warm and intense love felt for their President, who was the incarnation of their own inst.i.tutions. A special train carried Mrs. Garfield to Washington, bearing up under the weight of her sorrow with true womanly fort.i.tude, and on her arrival she had the satisfaction of finding her husband alive and able to converse with her. There were hopes that with his heroic and cheerful courage, and his naturally strong const.i.tution, he might struggle back to vigorous life. The bulletins issued twice a day by the physicians in attendance gave hopes, generally, of the ultimate recovery of the suffering patient, but there are good reasons for believing that these bulletins did not give a correct statement of the sufferer's condition. The President's family physician, Dr. J. H. Baxter, was not allowed to see him, and eminent surgeons, while they believed that death was inevitable, a.s.serted that the entire diagnosis of the case was wrong from the beginning to the end. Meanwhile the patient endured pain with the calmness of a martyr, and he gazed on death with the eye of a philosopher.

"I am not afraid to die," said he, "but I will try to live." He was finally taken to the seaside, and there he breathed his last.

His remains were conveyed to Washington, attended by his bereaved family, President Arthur, General Grant, and other distinguished persons, and escorted to the Capitol by the Knights Templar and the military. Twenty-nine weeks previous, when General Garfield had gone in state, in the strength of his manhood, along Pennsylvania Avenue, the _Via Sacra_ of our Republic, to a.s.sume the responsible duties of Chief Magistrate, the bands had played patriotic airs, and he had received the loud acclaims of his fellow-citizens. Now, as his mortal remains pa.s.sed over the same route in a hea.r.s.e drawn by six white horses, the lively music was replaced by the solemn strains of funeral marches, and sorrow appeared to fill every breast.

The casket was laid in state beneath the great dome of the Capitol, within a short distance of the spot where, on the 4th of March previous, the occupant had p.r.o.nounced his inaugural address. For two days thousands of citizens, of all cla.s.ses, conditions, and nationalities, reverentially filed past the coffin and gazed upon the wasted form and pallid lineaments of the deceased. On Friday the afflicted widow took the last look at the face of the dead, and after she had left the impressive funeral ceremonies were performed. The remains were then escorted by the military, their arms reversed, their flags shrouded, and their bands wailing dirges, to the depot where the a.s.sa.s.sination took place, where they were placed on a railroad train to be conveyed to Cleveland with his family and a large number of distinguished mourners.

The funeral train arrived at Cleveland on the afternoon of September 24th, and on the 26th the remains of the nation's second martyr- President were consigned to their last resting-place, amid the flashing lightning and the rolling thunder of a severe storm. The day was consecrated all over the country to manifestation of respect for the memory of the dead, and messages of condolence were flashed beneath the Atlantic from the leading foreign powers of the Old World, expressing their regard for the memory of a ruler who had endeared himself to the wide world by the heroism of humanity. As the m.u.f.fled bells in fifty thousand steeples tolled the burial hour, the hearts of fifty millions of people beat in homage to the deceased President, whose remains were being entombed on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Erie. Public and private edifices were lavishly decorated in black, there were processions in the Northern cities, and funeral services in many congregations, eliciting the remark that the prayers of Christian people in all quarters of the globe "following the sun and keeping company with the hours," had circled the earth with an unbroken strain of mourning and sympathy. Criticism was silenced, faults were forgotten, and nothing but good was spoken of the dead.

Charles Guiteau, the cowardly wretch who a.s.sa.s.sinated General Garfield, was a native of Chicago, thirty-six years of age, short in stature, and with a well-knit, stout frame. He had led a vagabond life, and had come to Washington after the inauguration of General Garfield, seeking appointment to a foreign consulate, and when he found himself disappointed, his morbid imagination sought revenge.

Attorney-General MacVeagh, who was then bent on making political mischief by the Star-route prosecutions, made himself ridiculous when General Garfield died by a.s.serting that the United States had jurisdiction over the cottage in which the President died, and endeavoring to exclude the New Jersey authorities. He then appeared to take no interest in the prosecution of Guiteau, and although he had employed eminent legal talent in the Star-route and Howgate cases, he gave District Attorney Corkhill no aid in the trial of the a.s.sa.s.sin until President Arthur gave peremptory instructions that Messrs. Porter and Davidge should be employed. They came in to the case at a late day, and were forced to depend almost wholly upon the District-Attorney for bearings.

Colonel George A. Corkhill, the District Attorney, was a native of Ohio, then forty-four years of age. After graduating from the Iowa Wesleyan University he entered Harvard Law School, where he remained over a year, when, at the breaking out of the Rebellion, he entered the army, serving faithfully until the close of the war. After having practiced at St. Louis, he married a daughter of Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court, and came to Washington in 1872 as editor of the _Daily Chronicle_. In January, 1880, President Hayes appointed him District Attorney.

From the day on which General Garfield was shot, Colonel Corkhill began industriously to "work up the case." He obtained the evidence, studied precedents, hunted up witnesses, and, unaided by any other counsel, had Guiteau indicted and arraigned. The admirable preparation of the case, the spirit of justice, the fairness so liberally extended to the prisoner and his counsel, and the judicious and effective conduct of the trial to a just and satisfactory conclusion were mainly due to him. His management of the case from the start was beyond all praise. From his opening speech he displayed great good sense, added to a perfect understanding of the facts, a marked talent for criminal practice, thorough judgment of men, and an extraordinary dignity of bearing. With admirable temper and self-control, he submitted to indignity and insult in the court-house, which the judge was unable to restrain, and to unmerited obloquy, without arousing misapprehension and misconstruction.

The trial lasted eleven weeks, but it could not be said to have been a wearying or tiresome exhibition. On the contrary, none of the sensational plays that had been in vogue for years past had been crowded with more dramatic situations and unexpected displays.

This most remarkable of criminal trials came at last to an end, and the prompt.i.tude of the jury in rendering a verdict of "guilty,"

conveyed a sharp rebuke to the lawyers who spent so many wearisome days in summing up the case. In due time atonement for the great crime was made on the scaffold, so far, at least, as human laws can go. The nation then rested easier and breathed freer, happy in the fact that the meanest of cowardly knaves had pa.s.sed to his long account.

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Leut Genl P.H. Sheridan PHILIP HENRY SHERIDAN was born at Somerset, Ohio, March 6th, 1831; was graduated from the Military Academy at West Point, and commissioned as Brevet Second Lieutenant July 1st, 1853; served on the Pacific coast, and at the outbreak of the War for the Suppression of the Rebellion was Chief Quartermaster of the Army of Missouri; distinguished himself as a cavalry commander; he was made Brigadier and then Major-General of Volunteers, and received the commission of Major-General in the regular army for his gallantry at Cedar Creek, October 19th, 1864, when he achieved a brilliant victory for the third time in pitched battle within thirty days; was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General March 4th, 1869, and became Commander of the Army on the retirement of General Sherman, February 8th, 1884.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

VICE-PRESIDENT ARTHUR BECOMES PRESIDENT.

When President Garfield was a.s.sa.s.sinated Vice-President Arthur was on his way from Albany to New York, on a steamboat, and received the intelligence on landing. That night he went to Washington, where he was the guest of Senator Jones, who then occupied the large granite house directly south of the Capitol, erected a few years previously by General Butler. On the evening of July 4th, when the President's death seemed imminent, Secretary Blaine visited Mr. Arthur and said: "The end is at hand; the President is dying; you must prepare to a.s.sume the responsibilities which the Const.i.tution places upon you in such an event."

Mr. Arthur, sick with sorrow, reluctantly accepted as true the statement respecting the President's condition, and replied that when the Cabinet and Justice Field, the senior Justice of the Supreme Court, then in Washington, should call upon him, he would be ready to take the oath of office. Soon afterward, while waiting in sorrowful expectation that the next moment might bring him the sad news that the President had died, the door-bell was rung violently, and an orderly handed in a message from Secretary Blaine, which the Vice-President eagerly s.n.a.t.c.hed, opened, and read. "Thank G.o.d!" he said, handing it to Senator Jones.

It announced that with the rising of the cool breeze, the President's condition had changed for the better. No apprehension of his immediate death was entertained.

The next morning a correspondent who called on the Vice-President alluded to editorials in a Democratic paper at Louisville, and a Republican paper at New York, connecting his name and that of Senator Conkling with Guiteau's crime. The Vice-President seemed deeply moved by these insinuations. "No one," he said, "deplores the calamity more than Senator Conkling and myself. These reports are so base and so unfounded that I cannot believe they will be credited. They do not affect Senator Conkling and myself as much as they do the entire country. They are a slur upon our inst.i.tutions, an attack upon the integrity of republican government. Good G.o.d!

if such a thing were possible, then liberty is impossible. Such a calamity as this should be treated as national, not only by every citizen, but by the entire press of the country. Party and faction should be forgotten in the general grief."

After condemning the perpetrator of the crime in the strongest terms, the Vice-President said: "If it were possible for me to be with the President, I would not only offer him my sympathy, I would ask that I might remain by his bedside. All personal considerations and political views must be merged in the national sorrow. I am an American among millions of Americans grieving for their wounded chief."

The Vice-President remained at Washington until the President was taken to Long Beach. He continued to experience great mental anguish, never even alluding to the chances of his becoming President of the United States. He went from Washington to his own home in New York, where he received news of the President's death on the evening of its occurrence. It had been determined between Vice- President Arthur and the members of the Cabinet that in the event of the President's death his successor should be sworn in without delay. Justice Brady was sent for, and the oath was administered in the presence of eight persons. At its conclusion the President, who had stood with uplifted hand, said, impressively, "So help me, G.o.d, I do!" A few moments afterward his son, Alan, approached, and laying one hand on his father's shoulder, kissed him.

President Arthur repeated the oath of office in the Vice-President's room at the Capitol on the twenty-second of September. The members of General Garfield's Cabinet, who had been requested by his successor to continue for the present in charge of their respective departments, were then present, with General Sherman in full uniform, ex-Presidents Hayes and Grant, and Chief Justice Waite, in his judicial robes, escorted by a.s.sociate Justices Harlan and Matthews.

There were also present Senators Anthony, Sherman, Edmunds, Hale, Blair, Dawes, and Jones, of Nevada, and Representatives Amos Townsend, McCook, Errett, Randall, Hisc.o.c.k, and Thomas. Ex-Vice- President Hamlin, of Maine, and Speaker Sharpe, of New York, were also present.

When President Arthur entered the room, escorted by General Grant and Senator Jones, he advanced to a small table, on which was a Bible, and behind which stood the Chief Justice, who raised the sacred volume, opened it, and presented it to the President, who placed his right hand upon it. Chief Justice Waite then slowly administered the oath, and at its conclusion the President kissed the book, responding "I will, so help me G.o.d!" He then read a brief but eloquent inaugural address.

As President Arthur read his inaugural address his voice trembled, but his manner was impressive, and the eyes of many present were moistened with tears. The first one to congratulate him when he had concluded was Chief Justice Waite, and the next was Secretary Blaine. After shaking him by the hand, those present left the room, which was closed to all except the members of the Cabinet, who there held their first conference with the President. At this Cabinet meeting a proclamation was prepared and signed by President Arthur, designating the following Monday as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.

President Arthur soon showed his appreciation of the responsibilities of his new office. Knowing principles rather than persons, he subordinated individual preferences and prejudices to a well-defined public policy. While he was, as he always had been, a Republican, he had no sympathy for blind devotion to party; he had "no friends to reward, no enemies to punish," and he was governed by those principles of liberty and equality which he inherited. His messages to Congress were universally commended, and even unfriendly critics p.r.o.nounced them careful and well-matured doc.u.ments. Their tone was more frank and direct that was customary in such papers, and their recommendations, extensive and varied as they were, showed that he had patiently reviewed the field of labor so sadly and so unexpectedly opened before him, and that he was not inclined to shirk the const.i.tutional duty of aiding Congress by his suggestions and advice. An honest man, who believed in his own principles, who followed his own convictions, and who never hesitated to avow his sentiments, he gave his views in accordance with his deliberate ideas of right.

The foreign relations of the United States were conducted by Secretary Frelinghuysen, under the President's direction, in a friendly spirit, and, when practicable, with a view to mutual commercial advantages. He took a conservative view of the management of the public debt, approving all the important suggestions of the Secretary of the Treasury and recognizing the proper protection of American industry. He was in favor of the great interests of labor, and opposed to such tinkering with the tariff as would make vain the toil of the industrious farmer, paralyze the arm of the st.u.r.dy mechanic, strike down the hand of the hardy laborer, stop the spindle, hush the loom, extinguish the furnace fires, and degrade all independent toilers to the level of the poor in other lands.

The architect of his own fortune, he had a strong and abiding sympathy for those bread-winners who struggle against poverty.

The reform of the civil service met with President Arthur's earnest support, and his messages showed that every department of the Government had received his careful administration. Following the example of Washington, he had personally visited several sections of the United States, and had especially made himself thoroughly acquainted with the great and complicated problem of Indian civilization.

President Arthur's Administration was characterized by an elevated tone at home and abroad. All important questions were carefully discussed at the council table, at which the President displayed unusual powers of a.n.a.lysis and comprehension. The conflicting claims of applicants for appointments to offices in his gift were carefully weighed, and no action was taken until all parties interested had a hearing. The President had a remarkable insight into men, promptly estimating character with an accuracy that made it a difficult matter to deceive him, or to win his favor either for visionary schemes, corrupt attacks upon the Treasury, or incompetent place-hunters.

Possessing moral firmness and a just self-reliance, President Arthur did not hesitate about vetoing the "Chinese Bill," and the "Bill making Appropriations for Rivers and Harbors," for reasons which he laid before Congress in his veto messages. The wisdom and sagacity which he displayed in his management of national affairs was especially acceptable to the business interests of the country.

They tested his administration by business principles, and they felt that so long as he firmly grasped the helm of the ship of state, she would pursue a course of peace and prosperity.

President Arthur convened the Senate for the transaction of executive business on the 10th of October, 1881. The galleries of the Senate Chamber were filled at an early hour on that day, and those who had the privilege of the floor availed themselves of it. Roscoe Conkling's absence was, of course, noticed by those who had seen him occupying a seat in the very centre of the Senate Chamber during the past fourteen years. That seat was occupied by Angus Cameron, of Wisconsin, a gray-haired, tall, spare man, who lacked only the kilt and plaid to make him a perfect Scotchman. General Burnside's seat was occupied by Eugene Hale, a graceful and ready debater, while in the place of Mr. Blaine was Senator Frye, his successor.

Senator Edmunds returned rejuvenated, and although he appeared to miss his old friend and antagonist, Senator Thurman, he gave potent evidence during the afternoon of his ability as an intellectual gladiator, strong in argument, ready in retort, and displaying great parliamentary keenness and knowledge of affairs.

Senator Anthony, the Republican nominee for the President of the Senate _pro tempore_, sat a quiet observer of the contest, and around him were Allison, Sherman, Dawes, Ingalls, h.o.a.r, Logan, and the other Republican war-horses, with the more recent comers, including Hale, Mitch.e.l.l, and Conger. With them, if not of them, was General Mahone, with the delicate frame of a woman, a large head covered with flowing brown hair, sharp, piercing eyes, a flowing beard, and a manner which showed his revolutionary instincts.

Mr. Pendleton, portly and gentlemanly, was the central figure on the Democratic side, as their caucus Chairman. At the commencement of the session, the Democratic nominee for the Presidency--Bayard --sat by his side to give him counsel. Senator Harris, of Tennessee, who would have liked himself to be President _pro tem._, was a better parliamentarian, to whom the rules and the manual were as familiar as "household words." Senator Jones, of Florida, the best Const.i.tutional lawyer in the body, had some volumes of debates on his desk, and was examining the precedents. Senator Ben. Hill sat leaning back in his chair apparently rather dejected, but his countenance lighted up as he gave Edmunds a cordial greeting.

Senators Lamar and Butler, and Ransom and Hampton, were all in their seats, and on the sofa behind them were ex-Senators Gordon and Withers, and a dozen or more Democratic Representatives.

After prayer had been offered and the President's proclamation had been read, Senator Pendleton offered a resolution declaring Mr.

Bayard President _pro tem_. Senator Edmunds adroitly endeavored to secure the admission of Messrs. Lapham, Miller, and Aldrich, but in vain. At first, Senator Davis voted with the Republicans in a low and undecided tone, but when the final vote came he did not vote at all. This was interpreted to mean that he would not vote, after the three Senators had been admitted, to oust Mr.

Bayard, and without his vote it could not be done.

The next day Senators Lapham and Miller, of New York, and Aldrich, of Rhode Island, were duly qualified, and the Republicans reversed the election of the preceding day by electing Senator David Davis President _pro tem_. He was not willing to aid in the election of Senator Anthony as presiding officer and he voted to oust Senator Bayard from the chair, but abstained from voting when his own name was presented by Senator Logan. Senator Davis, then in his sixty- seventh year, was a genial gentleman, and moved about with great activity, considering that he weighed some three hundred and fifty pounds. On that day he was more carefully dressed than usual, wearing a black broadcloth coat, light trousers and vest, a white cravat, and low-quartered shoes. He knew what was in store for him, and a placid smile showed his satisfaction. It was as good as a play to see him, his broad countenance wreathed in smiles, escorted to the President's chair by Senator Bayard, who had been deposed by his vote, and by Senator Anthony, who would have been elected if Davis would have voted for him. In a brief speech he accepted the position as a tribute to the independent ground which he claimed to have long occupied in the politics of the country.

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Chester A. Arthur CHESTER ALAN ARTHUR was born at Fairfield, Vt., October 5th, 1830; was graduated from Union College in 1845; studied law and commenced practice in New York city; was appointed by President Grant Collector of the Port of New York in November, 1871; was elected Vice-President on the Garfield ticket, and inaugurated, March 4th, 1881; on the death of President Garfield, September 19th, 1881, he became President, serving until March 4th, 1885; died in New York, November 18th, 1886.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX.

THE CENTENNIAL OF YORKTOWN.

President Arthur was a man of gracious presence, of good education, of extensive reading, and of courteous manners, refined by his having mingled in New York society. He was always well dressed, usually wearing in his office a Prince Albert coat, b.u.t.toned closely in front, with a flower in the upper b.u.t.ton-hole, and the corner of a colored silk handkerchief visible from a side pocket. Dignified, as became his exalted station, he never slapped his visitors'

shoulders, or called them by their Christian names, but he treated them as ent.i.tled to his consideration without that stilted courtesy which rebuffs even when veneered with formal civility. He was a good listener and he conversed freely, although he carefully avoided committing himself upon political questions, and never indulged in criticisms of those arrayed in opposition to him. The code of etiquette first adopted by General Washington on the recommendation of General Hamilton, from which there had been departures in recent years, was re-established, except that President Arthur occasionally accepted invitations to dinner. He devotedly cherished the memory of his deceased wife, before whose picture in the White House a vase of fresh flowers was placed daily, and he was affectionately watchful over his son Alan, a tall student at Princeton College, and his daughter Nellie, who was just entering into womanhood.