Perley's reminiscences of sixty years in the national metropolis, v. 1-2

by Benjamin Perley Poore

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 snatched, opened, and read. "Thank God!" 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 institutions, an attack upon the integrity of republican government. Good God! 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, God, 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 Associate 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, Hiscock, 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 God!" 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 pronounced them careful and well-matured documents. 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 constitutional 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 sturdy 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.