PUTNAM, GEORGE P. 



703 



served in timber, where it exists, and, where it does 

 not exist, inducements should be offered for planting 



it. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



In accordance with the terms of the act of Congress, 

 approved March 3, 1871, providing for the celebration 

 of the one-hundredth anniversary of American inde- 

 pendence, a commission has been organized, consist- 

 ing of two members from each of the States and Ter- 

 ritories. This commission has held two sessions, and 

 has made satisfactory progress in the organization 

 and in the initiatory steps necessary for carrying out 

 the provisions of the act, and for executing also the 

 provisions of the act of June 1, 1872, creating a cen- 

 tennial board of finance. A preliminary report of 

 progress has been received from the president of the 

 commission, and is herewith transmitted. It will be 

 the duty of the commission, at your coming session, 

 to transmit a full report of the progress made, and 

 to lay before you the details relating to the exhibi- 

 tion of American and foreign arts, products, and 

 manufactures, which, by the terms of the act, is to 

 be held, under the auspices of the G-overnment of the 

 United States, in the city of Philadelphia, in the 

 year 1876. 



This celebration will be looked forward to by 

 American citizens with great interest, as marking a 

 century of greater progress and prosperity than is 

 recorded in the history of any other nation, and as 

 serving a further good purpose in bringing together, 

 on our soil, peoples of all the commercial nations of 

 the earth, in a manner calculated to insure inter- 

 national good feeling. 



.CIVIL SERVICE. 



An earnest desire has been felt to correct abuses 

 which have grown up in the civil service of tho 

 country, through the defective method of making 

 appointments to office. Heretofore, Federal offices 

 have been regarded too much as the reward of politi- 

 cal services. Under authority of Congress, rules 

 have been established to regulate the tenure of office 

 and the mode of appointments. It cannot be ex- 

 pected that any system of rules can be entirely effec- 

 tive, and prove a perfect remedy for the existing 

 evils, until they have been thoroughly tested by act- 

 ual practice, and amended according to the require- 

 ments of the service. During my term of office, it 

 shall be my earnest endeavor to so apply the rules 

 as to secure the greatest possible reform in the civil 

 service of the Government ; but it will require the 

 direct action of Congress to render the enforcement 

 of the system binding upon my successors, and I 

 hope that the experience of the past year, together 

 with appropriate legislation by Congress, may reach 

 a satisfactory solution of this question, and secure 

 to the public service, for all time, a practical method 

 of obtaining faithful and efficient officers and em- 

 ployes. U. S. GRANT. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 2, 18T2. 



PUTNAM, GEOROE PALMER, A. M., an 

 American publisher, author, and art connois- 

 seur, born in Brunswick, Me., February 21, 

 1814; died in New York City, December 20, 

 1872. He was of Revolutionary stock, being 

 a grandson of General Joseph Palmer, the 

 brave Massachusetts commander in the at- 

 tempt to rescue Rhode Island from British 

 aggression, and a grand-nephew of the famous 

 General Israel Putnam. His early advantages 

 of education were but meagre, but his love of 

 reading was intense, and, when at the age of 

 twelve years he went to Boston as a clerk in 

 a store, he employed every leisure moment in 

 reading. In 1828 he came to New York and 

 entered the bookstore of Daniel and Jonathan 



Leavitt as a clerk. The same year he com- 

 menced a compilation of dates, at first for his 

 own benefit, but finally for publication, which 

 was the foundation of his well-known " The 

 "World's Progress," though first issued when 

 he was but nineteen years old as a "Chro- 

 nology." After remaining with the Messrs. 

 Leavitt for some years, he entered the employ 

 of Mr. John Wiley, then as now an honored 

 publisher and bookseller of New York, and in 

 1837 or 1838 was sent to Europe on business 

 for Mr. Wiley. On his return he published 

 " The Tourist in Europe." In 1840 he became 

 a partner in the house of Wiley & Putnam, and 

 in 1841 went to London and established there 

 a branch of the firm in Paternoster Row, and 

 a pleasant home in St. Jobn's Wood, which 

 many Americans still remember with delight. 

 During the seven years of his residence in 

 London he built up a fair trade in American 

 books, and at the same time established as a 

 regular business the trade in English books in 

 this country. He published while there " The 

 American Bookseller," 1843, and a compilation 

 intended as a partial reply to Mr. Dickens's 

 "American Notes," with the title of "Amer- 

 ican Facts." This little book was of great 

 service in giving the English people clearer 

 ideas of our country and its people. Mr. Put- 

 nam returned to New York from London in 

 1848, and soon afterward dissolved the part- 

 nership with Mr. Wiley, and engaged in busi- 

 ness by himself. .He soon began the publica- 

 tion of Washington Irving's works his most 

 important enterprise, if the character and 

 number of the volumes, their extensive sale 

 and wide influence, are considered, and this 

 proved a very successful venture. Among 

 other various standard works which he sub- 

 sequently published were the writings of J. 

 Fenimore Cooper, Bayard Taylor, Charles 

 Lamb, Thomas Hood, John P. Kennedy, Edgar 

 A. Poe, and others. One of his early publish- 

 ing enterprises was a library of choice read- 

 ing, in 25-cent volumes, selected from the best 

 authors, whereby he hoped to bring them 

 within the reach of all classes. This under- 

 taking was not very successful in a busi- 

 ness point of view, but he was partial to the 

 idea till his death. Mr. Putnam early inter- 

 ested himself in the production of fine illus- 

 trated books, publishing, among others, the 

 "Artists' Edition of Irving's Sketch Book," 

 the "Book of American Scenery," and "The 

 Homes of American Authors." In 1852, with 

 the assistance of George William Curtis, James 

 Briggs, and some others, he established Put- 

 nam's Magazine, the aim of which was to be, 

 what no other monthly in this country then 

 was, a strictly American magazine. It met 

 with immediate success, and in 1856, while 

 still prospering greatly, was sold to other pub- 

 lishers, who failed in the financial crisis of 

 185T, when the publication of the magazine 

 was suspended. In 1863 Mr. Putnam retired 

 from active business, to become Collector of 



