848 



UNITED STATES. 



UNITED STATES, THE CENSUS OF. 



mission to the will of Almighty God and of reverence 

 and love for the memory and character of our late 

 Chief Magistrate. 



In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand 

 and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 

 Done at the city of Washington, the 22d day of Sep- 

 tember, in the year of our Lord 1881, and of the inde- 

 pendence of the United States the 106th. 



CHESTER A. ARTHUR. 



By the President : 



JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State. 



Shortly after, a special session of the Sen- 

 ate was appointed by proclamation to be held 

 on the 10th of October. (For proceedings, see 

 CONGRESS.) No immediate changes in the 

 Cabinet were made, though Attorney-General 

 MacX^eagh expressed a desire to withdraw at 

 once. Secretary Windom, of the Treasury De- 

 partment, insisted on resigning in October, in 

 order to return to the Senate. Mr. Edwin 

 D. Morgan, of New York, was nominated as 

 his successor, and confirmed by the Senate, but 

 declined t'ie position on account of the state 

 of his health. Charles J. Folger, Chief Judge 

 of the New York Court of Appeals, was sub- 

 sequently appointed and confirmed, and took 

 charge of the department on the 15th of No- 

 vember. Mr. MacVeagh insisting on his resig- 

 nation, Benjamin Harris Brewster, of Phila- 

 delphia, was appointed Attorney-General on 

 the 16th of December. Secretary Blaine re- 

 tired from the State Department on the 15th 

 of December, and was succeeded by Frederick 

 T. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey. Postmaster- 

 General Jamss resigned near the beginning of 

 1832, and Timothy O. Howe, of Wisconsin, 

 was appointed to the place. On the 15th of 

 December Chief-Justice Horace Gray, of the 

 Supreme Court of Massachusetts, was appointed 

 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill 

 the vacancy caused by the death of Justice 

 Nathan Clifford. 



The funding act, pass2d by the Forty-sixth 

 Congress, having been vetoed by President 

 Hayos, the question of calling an extra session 

 of Congress to deal with the subject was en- 

 tertained, but decided adversely, Secretary 

 Windom having devised the plan of extending 

 the five and six per cent bonds at 3$ per cent 

 at the option of the holders. (See FINANCE.) 



Before the new Administration came in 

 there had been allegations of fraud and irreg- 

 ularity in the conduct of the mail service on 

 the Star routes. It was alleged that favors had 

 been shown to a combination or "ring" of 

 contractors, who obtained control of a large 

 number of routes in the "West and Southwest 

 where railroad connections did not exist. Aft- 

 er the service had been let on contracts, the 

 compensation was largely increased by expedit- 

 ing the time required for trips over the various 

 routes, and increasing the number of trips be- 

 yond the necessities of the service. It was 

 charged that a conspiracy to defraud the Gov- 

 ernment existed, in which some of the leading 

 contracters, the Second Assistant Postmaster- 

 General, Thomas J. Brady, and certain other 



persons, including Senator S. W. Dorsey, of 

 Arkansas, were concerned. An investigation 

 was carried on by the Post-Office Department, 

 a large amount of evidence was collected, and 

 the matter was turned over to the Attorney- 

 General for the prosecution of the alleged of- 

 fenders. General Brady resigned April 20, 

 1881; J. L. French, one of his clerks, was re- 

 moved April 26th ; and Mr. McGrew, the 

 Sixth Auditor of the Treasury, who had charge 

 of the Post - Office accounts, resigned June 

 2d. The Attorney- General had associated 

 with him for the prosecution of the Star-route 

 cases, W. A. Cook, of Washington, and B. II. 

 Brewster, of Philadelphia, and, after the ac- 

 cession of President Arthur, Mr. George Bliss, 

 of New York, was added and took a lead- 

 ing part in the conduct of the cases. Pro- 

 ceeding by information was begun in one of 

 the most important cases, because delay in ob- 

 taining indictments threatened to defeat the 

 prosecution through the operation of the stat- 

 ute of limitations. This case was dismissed by 

 Judge Cox, on the 10th of November, on the 

 ground that proceedings by information could 

 cot be sustained. Subsequently the subject 

 was brought before the Grand Jury of the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia, and indictments found early 

 in 1882 against Brady, Dorsey, and several 

 others, on a charge of conspiracy to defraud 

 the Government. 



Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, 

 was indicted for murder on the Vth of Octo- 

 ber, and brought to trial on the 14th of No- 

 vember. (See GUITKAU'S TRIAL; also, INSAN- 

 ITY, AS A DEFENSE FOR CKIME.) On the 12th of 

 September, Sergeant Mason, one of the soldiers 

 detailed to guard Guiteau, fired into his cell in 

 the Washington jail, with the evident intent to 

 kill the prisoner. lie was subsequently tried 

 by court-martial and early in 1882 was sen- 

 tenced to dismissal from the army, loss of pay 

 due, and to imprisonment for eight years in the 

 penitentiary at Albany, New York. 



The foreign relations of the country during 

 the year were undisturbed. Diplomatic dis- 

 cussion and negotiations were confined chiefly 

 'to the Interoceanic Canal question, and the 

 conflict between Chili and Peru. (See PANAMA 

 CANAL ; and PERU, CHILI, AND THE UNITED 

 STATES; also, NATURALIZATION PAPERS.) 



The Government took part in an International 

 Monetary Conference having for its object the 

 rehabilitation of silver as money. (See BI-MET- 

 ALLISM, and FINANCES OF THB UNITED STATES.) 



The centenary of the battle of Yorktown 

 took place in October. (See VIRGINIA.) 



UNITED STATES, THE CENSUS OF. The 

 census of the United States is ordained by a 

 provision of the Federal Constitution. The 

 first article of that instrument prescribes a 

 general enumeration of the people within three 

 years after the first meeting of Congress, and 

 thereafter within every subsequent term of 

 ten years. The first census was taken in 1790, 

 and recorded the names of heads of families, 



