tes 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:

RULE XIX.

There are excepted from examination the following: (i) The confidential
clerk or secretary of any head of Department or office; (2) cashiers
of collectors; (3) cashiers of postmasters; (4) superintendents of
money-order divisions in post-offices; (5) the direct custodians of
money for whose fidelity another officer is under official bond and
disbursing officers having the custody of money who give bonds, but
these exceptions shall not extend to any official below the grade of
assistant cashier or teller; (6) persons employed exclusively in the
secret service of the Government, or as translators or interpreters or
stenographers; (7) persons whose employment is exclusively professional;
(8) chief clerks, deputy collectors, and superintendents, or chiefs
of divisions and bureaus. But no person so excepted shall be either
transferred, appointed, or promoted, unless to some excepted place,
without an examination under the Commission. Promotions may be made
without examination in offices where examinations for promotion are
not now held until rules on this subject shall be promulgated.

Approved, November 10, 1884.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.

WASHINGTON, _December 1, 1884_.

_To the Congress of the United States:_

Since the close of your last session the American people, in the
exercise of their highest right of suffrage, have chosen their Chief
Magistrate for the four years ensuing.

When it is remembered that at no period in the country's history has
the long political contest which customarily precedes the day of the
national election been waged with greater fervor and intensity, it is
a subject of general congratulation that after the controversy at the
polls was over, and while the slight preponderance by which the issue
had been determined was as yet unascertained, the public peace suffered
no disturbance, but the people everywhere patiently and quietly awaited
the result.

Nothing could more strikingly illustrate the temper of the American
citizen, his love of order, and his loyalty to law. Nothing could more
signally demonstrate the strength and wisdom of our political
institutions.

Eight years have passed since a controversy concerning the result of
a national election sharply called the