In reviewing the history of the case in connection with the autopsy it is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebrae, furnish a sufficient explanation of the septic condition which existed.
D.W. BLISS. J.K. BARNES. J.J. WOODWARD. ROBERT REYBURN. FRANK H. HAMILTON. D. HAYES AGNEW. ANDREW H. SMITH. D.S. LAMB.
[September 20, 1881.]
FORMAL OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO PRESIDENT ARTHUR.
President Chester A. Arthur took the formal oath of office as President of the United States in the room of the Vice-President, in the Capitol, Thursday, September 22, 1881, at 12.10 o'clock p.m. Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution in the presence of the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, General W.T. Sherman, and a number of Senators and Representatives.
[For Inaugural Address of President Arthur see pp. 33-34.]
ACTION OF CONGRESS.
President Arthur, in his first annual message to the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress, thus announced the death of his predecessor:
An appalling calamity has befallen the American people since their chosen representatives last met in the halls where you are now assembled. We might else recall with unalloyed content the rare prosperity with which throughout the year the nation has been blessed. Its harvests have been plenteous; its varied industries have thriven; the health of its people has been preserved; it has maintained with foreign governments the undisturbed relations of amity and peace. For these manifestations of His favor we owe to Him who holds our destiny in His hands the tribute of our grateful devotion.
To that mysterious exercise of His will which has taken from us the loved and illustrious citizen who was but lately the head of the nation we bow in sorrow and submission.