The Project Gutenberg EBook of Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol.
VIII.: James A. Garfield, by James D. Richardson

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. VIII.: James A. Garfield

Author: James D. Richardson

Release Date: May 10, 2004 [EBook #12318]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRESIDENT GRAFIELD ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Shawn Cruze and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team

A COMPILATION
OF THE
MESSAGES AND PAPERS
OF THE
PRESIDENTS

By JAMES D. RICHARDSON

A Representative from the State of Tennessee

VOLUME VIII

1897

Prefatory Note

This volume comprises the Garfield-Arthur term of four years and the
first term of Cleveland. The period covered is from March 4, 1881, to
March 4, 1889. The death of President Garfield at the hand of an
assassin early in his Administration created a vacancy in the office of
the Chief Executive, and for the fourth time in our history the
Vice-President succeeded to that office. The intense excitement
throughout the land brought about by the tragic death of the President,
and the succession of the Vice-President, caused no dangerous strain
upon our institutions, and once more proof was given, if, indeed,
further evidence was required, that our Government was strong enough to
quietly and peacefully endure a sudden change of rulers and of
administration, no matter how distressing and odious the cause.

During the Administration of President Arthur a treaty between the
United States and the Republic of Nicaragua was signed, providing for an
interoceanic canal across the territory of that State. An able and
learned discussion of this proposition will be found among his papers.
This treaty was pending when he retired from office, and was promptly
withdrawn by President Cleveland. The act to regulate and improve the
civil service of the United States was approved by President Arthur, and
he put into operation rules and regulations wide in their scope and
far-reaching for the enforcement of the measure. In his papers will be
found frequent and interesting discussions of this question. His vetoes
of