Navy Department, Washington, September 23, 1881.
Struck down by the hand of a cowardly assassin, in the day of his vigor and usefulness, on the eve of departure from the capital in search of much-needed rest from the toils and cares of office, our Chief Magistrate, President, and Commander in Chief, James A. Garfield, after bearing with heroic fortitude untold suffering, succumbed to the dread summons and yielded up his life at Elberon, N.J., on the evening of the 19th instant. The nation mourns its loss. The funeral services will take place at Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday, the 26th instant. It is eminently fit and proper that special honors should be paid to the memory of the late President on that day, and the Department therefore directs that at all naval stations and on board all vessels in commission the flags shall be at half-mast from sunrise to sunset and a gun fired every half hour during that period. The period of mourning by half-masted colors will cease at sunset. On foreign stations this order will be carried out on the day after its receipt. The navy-yards will be closed and all work suspended during the day. Officers of the Navy and Marine Corps will, as a further mark of respect, wear crape on the left arm and sword hilt for six months from the 20th instant.
ED. T. NICHOLS, Acting Secretary of the Navy.
ACTION OF SENATORS AND OF REPRESENTATIVES ELECT IN WASHINGTON.
The members of the Senate and members elect of the House of Representatives in Washington held meetings on September 22 and selected the following gentlemen to accompany the remains of the late President to Cleveland, Ohio:
Senators Henry B. Anthony, of Rhode Island; John Sherman, of Ohio;
Thomas F. Bayard, of Delaware; John J. Ingalls, of Kansas; James L.
Pugh, of Alabama; Henry W. Blair, of New Hampshire; Johnson N. Camden,
of West Virginia, and John T. Morgan, of Alabama.
Representatives elect John Randolph Tucker, of Virginia; John A. Kasson,
of Iowa; Samuel J. Randall, of Pennsylvania; Frank Hiscock, of New York;
Benjamin Wilson, of West Virginia; John R. Thomas, of Illinois; Amos
Townsend, of Ohio, and Charles M. Shelley, of Alabama.
ORDERS OF THE HEADS OF THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.
[From the National Republican, Washington, September 21, 1881.]
LONG BRANCH, September 20.[A]