846 



UNITED STATES. 



and promptly confirmed. It was as follows: 

 James G. Blaine, of Maine, to be Secretary of 

 State ; William Windom, of Minnesota, to be 

 Secretary of the Treasury ; Wayne MacVeagh, 

 of Pennsylvania, to be Attorney-General; 

 Thomas L. James, of New York, to be Post- 

 master-General; Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, 

 to be Secretary of the Interior; Robert T. Lin- 

 coln, of Illinois, to be Secretary of War; Wil- 

 liam II. Hunt, of Louisiana, to be Secretary of 

 the Navy. 



One of the first diplomatic appointments was 

 that of Levi P. Morton, of New York, for Min- 

 ister to France, which was confirmed on the 

 21st of March. The appointment of Mr. Mat- 

 thews for the vacant place on the Supreme 

 Bench was renewed on the 14th of March, and 

 after considerable delay and opposition was 

 confirmed by the Senate on the 12th of May. 

 One object of the various consultations that 

 preceded the inauguration was to reach a satis- 

 factory agreement regarding the more impor- 

 tant appointments to be made, but a contest 

 was encountered with Senator Conkling, of 

 New York, over the appointments within that 

 State. The selection of Postmaster-General 

 and of the Minister to France was supposed to 

 have his approval, but that of Collector of the 

 Port of New York met his earnest opposition, 

 and led to his resignation of his seat in the 

 Senate. (For details, see articles on GAHFIELD, 

 Special Session of the Senate under CONGRESS, 

 and NEW YOKE, in the present volume.) 



The inauguration of the President on the 

 4th of March was observed with unusual satis- 

 faction and confidence. The fact of his elec- 

 tion was undisputed. His public career had 

 inspired no distrust nor apprehension. His 

 inaugural address confirmed the hopes and ex- 

 pectations that had been excited in Ids favor 

 by his supporters. He said : 



Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to 

 liberty and good government during the century, our 

 people are determined to leave behind them all those 

 bitter controversies concerning things which have 

 been irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of 

 which can only stir up strife and delay the onward 

 march. . . . We have no standard by which to meas- 

 ure the disaster that may be brought upon us by 

 ignorance and vice in the citizens when joined to cor- 

 ruption and fraud in the suffrage. . . . The source of 

 our supreme danger, the point where the life of the 

 nation is vulnerable, is at the ballot-box where her 

 will is declared. . . . The danger which arises from 

 ignorance in the voter can not be denied. 



In these sentences there is a clear apprecia- 

 tion of the truth which he elsewhere asserts, 

 that " the fountains of political power must be 

 made pure by intelligence, and kept pure by 

 vigilance, as a condition for preserving the 

 public safety." Immediately after the inau- 

 guration, the Senate was convened, as above 

 stated. During this session, the confirmation 

 of a number of officers nominated by the Pres- 

 ident was opposed, for the reason that they 

 were not approved by Senators representing 

 the States where the officers resided and were 

 to perform their duties. As a constitutional 



question, there can not be a doubt of the con- 

 clusion. The President is charged to make a 

 selection of all officers, independently of the 

 Senate, or any member of the Senate. The 

 nomination by the President imposes on him 

 responsibility ; the concurrence of the Senate 

 in the appointment was designed as an addi- 

 tional check and safeguard. A nomination by 

 the President with the necessary concurrence 

 or sanction of one or more Senators of the 

 State where the appointee resides, diminishes 

 the responsibility and security. The conse- 

 quences of this contest were an exasperation 

 of the public rnind and an infusion of bitterness 

 among the classes actively engaged in the con- 

 tentions of party warfare, and who seek com- 

 pensation in the spoils of party victory. In 

 the division of those spoils, intrigue, cabal, 

 favoritism, sordid pursuit of official rank, habit- 

 ually appear. The course of the President in 

 asserting the claims of his high office was ap- 

 proved. But it soon appeared that the con- 

 troversy was to him a fatal one. On the 2d of 

 July, with the purpose of joining a party to 

 attend the ceremonies at the college where he 

 had been educated, the President came to the 

 railr*oad depot, within the city of Washington. 

 For weeks previously he had been the object 

 of a sly, stealthy, murderous pursuit by an as- 

 sassin, whose brain had been stimulated by the 

 passion and excitements of election contests 

 and of an unregulated and disordered life. 

 Without hearing the tread of the felon, or 

 having any boding sense of his own peril, the 

 President received a mortal wound which ter- 

 minated his magistracy, and, not long after, his 

 life. Crimes, and crimes of atrocity, produc- 

 tive of lasting mischief to empires, states, and 

 to individuals, must be expected sometimes to 

 occur. These result from the perversions of 

 humanity. 



For the months of March. April, May, June, 

 the capital was in a state of siege. There was 

 a blockade of all the streets. Hunger-bitten 

 adventurers were everywhere, carrying cer- 

 tificates of their worth. The best testimonial 

 they could have furnished to their own worth- 

 lessness was the fact that they were so urgent 

 to file them, and, in their own jargon, "to in- 

 terview " the President about them. The 

 President had to consider the claims of the 

 contributors to the election fund, to share his 

 counsels in the Cabinet, or to represent the 

 country abroad. He had to determine wheth- 

 er one politician or another should control the 

 patronage of this or that State, and which fac- 

 tion he should maintain. Those who had had 

 any connection with him in the camp, or the 

 field, or the legislative hall, or in the private 

 circle, were there to make a profit from the 

 fortunate acquaintance. 



In the Capitol grounds, at the window of the 

 church in which he worshiped, on the street 

 as he sustained the feeble frame of his wife, 

 and at the train prepared to bear him away to 

 recreation and to some oblivion of the labo- 



