EXECUTIVE ORDERS.

Whereas in an Executive order dated the 21st day of July, 1875, directing the distribution of the fund of 400,000 pesetas received from the Spanish Government in satisfaction of the reclamation of the United States arising from the capture of the Virginius, it was provided "that should any further order or direction be required the same will hereafter be made in addition hereto;" and

Whereas a further order or direction is deemed necessary:

Now, therefore, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby direct that all persons entitled to the benefit of any of the aforesaid fund of 400,000 pesetas who have not yet presented their claims thereto shall formulate and present their claims to the Secretary of State of the United States within six months from the date of this order, or be held as forever barred from the benefits of said fund.

And I hereby further direct that the balance of the fund which shall remain unclaimed at the expiration of the aforesaid period of six months shall be distributed pro rata among the beneficiaries under the original distribution, provided they or their heirs or representatives shall within the six months next succeeding the said former period present to the Secretary of State of the United States petitions for their shares of said balance.

And to these ends the Secretary of State is requested to cause public notice to be given of the above direction.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand, at the city of Washington, this 12th day of December, A.D. 1885, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and tenth.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 9, 1886—4 o'clock p.m.

Tidings of the death of Winfield Scott Hancock, the senior major-general of the Army of the United States, have just been received.

A patriotic and valiant defender of his country, an able and heroic soldier, a spotless and accomplished gentleman, crowned alike with the laurels of military renown and the highest tribute of his fellow-countrymen to his worth as a citizen, he has gone to his reward.

It is fitting that every mark of public respect should be paid to his memory.

Therefore it is now ordered by the President that the national flag be displayed at half-mast upon all the buildings of the Executive Departments in this city until after his funeral shall have taken place.

By direction of the President:

DANIEL S. LAMONT,
Private Secretary.

In the exercise of the power vested in the President by the Constitution, and by virtue of the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes and of the civil-service act approved January 16, 1883, the following rule for the regulation and improvement of the executive civil service is hereby amended and promulgated, as follows:

Rule XXII.

Any person in the classified departmental service may be transferred and appointed to any other place therein upon the following conditions:

1. That he is not debarred by clause 2 of Rule XXI.

2. That the head of a Department has, in a written statement to be filed with the Commission, requested such transfer to a place in said Department, to be designated in the statement.

3. That said person is shown in the statement or by other evidence satisfactory to the Commission to have been during six consecutive months in such service since January 16, 1883.

4. That such person has passed at the required grade one or more examinations under the Commission which are together equal to that required for the place to which the transfer is to be made.

But any person who has for three years last preceding served as a clerk in the office of the President of the United States may be transferred or appointed to any place in the classified service without examination.

Approved, April 12, 1886.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 20, 1886.

Under the provisions of section 4 of the act approved March 3, 1883, it is hereby ordered that the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Government Printing Office be closed on Monday, the 31st instant, to enable the employees to participate in the decoration of the graves of the soldiers who fell during the rebellion.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, July 3, 1886.

To Heads of the Government Departments:

Inasmuch as the 4th of July of the present year falls upon Sunday and the celebration of Independence Day is to be generally observed upon Monday, July 5, it is hereby ordered that the several Executive Departments, the Department of Agriculture, and the Government Printing Office be closed on Monday, the 5th instant.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, July 14, 1886.

To the Heads of Departments in the Service of the General Government:

I deem this a proper time to especially warn all subordinates in the several Departments and all officeholders under the General Government against the use of their official positions in attempts to control political movements in their localities.

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the Government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the discharge of their official duty, offending by a display of obtrusive partisanship their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials.

They should also constantly remember that their party friends from whom they have received preferment have not invested them with the power of arbitrarily managing their political affairs. They have no right as officeholders to dictate the political action of their party associates or to throttle freedom of action within party lines by methods and practices which pervert every useful and justifiable purpose of party organization.

The influence of Federal officeholders should not be felt in the manipulation of political primary meetings and nominating conventions. The use by these officials of their positions to compass their selection as delegates to political conventions is indecent and unfair; and proper regard for the proprieties and requirements of official place will also prevent their assuming the active conduct of political campaigns.

Individual interest and activity in political affairs are by no means condemned. Officeholders are neither disfranchised nor forbidden the exercise of political privileges, but their privileges are not enlarged nor is their duty to party increased to pernicious activity by officeholding.

A just discrimination in this regard between the things a citizen may properly do and the purposes for which a public office should not be used is easy in the light of a correct appreciation of the relation between the people and those intrusted with official place and a consideration of the necessity under our form of government of political action free from official coercion.

You are requested to communicate the substance of these views to those for whose guidance they are intended.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

RULE IX.

All applications for regular competitive examinations for admission to the classified civil service must be made on blank forms to be prescribed by the Commission.

Requests for blank forms of application for competitive examination for admission to the classified civil service and all regular applications for such examination shall be made—

1. If for the classified departmental service, to the United States Civil Service Commission at Washington, D.C.

2. If for the classified customs service, to the civil-service board of examiners for the customs district in which the person desiring to be examined wishes to enter the customs service.

3. If for the classified postal service, to the civil-service board of examiners for the post-office at which the person desiring to be examined wishes to enter the postal service.

Requests for blank forms of application to customs and postal boards of examiners must be made in writing by the persons desiring examination, and such blank forms shall not be furnished to any other persons.

Approved, August 13, 1886.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, November 16, 1886.

Hon. Daniel Manning,
Secretary of the Treasury.

DEAR SIR: In pursuance of a joint resolution of the Congress approved March 3, 1877, authorizing the President to cause suitable regulations to be made for the maintenance of the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," now located on Bedloes Island, in the harbor of New York, as a beacon, I hereby direct that said statue be at once placed under the care and superintendence of the Light-House Board, and that it be from henceforth maintained by said board as a beacon, and that it be so maintained, lighted, and tended in accordance with such rules and regulations as now exist applicable thereto, or such other and different rules and regulations as said board may deem necessary to carry out the design of said joint resolution and this order.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 84.

HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY,
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, November 18, 1886.

I. The following proclamation [order] has been received from the President:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D.C., November 18, 1886.

To the People of the United States:

It is my painful duty to announce the death of Chester Alan Arthur, lately the President of the United States, which occurred, after an illness of long duration, at an early hour this morning at his residence in the city of New York.

Mr. Arthur was called to the chair of the Chief Magistracy of the nation by a tragedy which cast its shadow over the entire Government.

His assumption of the grave duties was marked by an evident and conscientious sense of his responsibilities and an earnest desire to meet them in a patriotic and benevolent spirit.

With dignity and ability he sustained the important duties of his station, and the reputation of his personal worth, conspicuous graciousness, and patriotic fidelity will long be cherished by his fellow-countrymen.

In token of respect to the memory of the deceased it is ordered that the Executive Mansion and the several departmental buildings be draped in mourning for a period of thirty days and that on the day of the funeral all public business in the departments be suspended.

The Secretaries of War and of the Navy will cause orders to be issued for appropriate military and naval honors to be rendered on that day.

Done at the city of Washington this 18th day of November, A.D. 1886, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eleventh.

[SEAL.]

GROVER CLEVELAND.

By the President:
THOMAS F. BAYARD,
Secretary of State.

II. In compliance with the instructions of the President, on the day of the funeral, at each military post, the troops and cadets will be paraded and this order read to them, after which all labors for the day will cease.

The national flag will be displayed at half-staff.

At dawn of day thirteen guns will be fired, and afterwards at intervals of thirty minutes between the rising and setting of the sun a single gun, and at the close of the day a national salute of thirty-eight guns.

The officers of the Army will wear crape on the left arm and on their swords and the colors of the Battalion of Engineers, of the several regiments, and of the United States Corps of Cadets will be put in mourning for the period of six months.

The date and hour of the funeral will be communicated to department commanders by telegraph, and by them to their subordinate commanders.

By command of Lieutenant-General Sheridan:

R.C. DRUM, Adjutant-General.