_April 20, 1853_.
With deep sorrow the President announces to the officers of the Navy
and Marine Corps the death of William Rufus King, Vice-President of the
United States, who died on the evening of Monday, the 18th instant, at
his residence in Alabama.
Called into the service of his country at a period of life when but few
are prepared to enter upon its realities, his long career of public
usefulness at home and abroad has always been honored by the public
confidence, and was closed in the second office within the gift of the
people.
From sympathy with his relatives and the American people for their loss
and from respect for his distinguished public services, the President
directs that appropriate honors be paid to his memory at each of the
navy-yards and naval stations and on board all the public vessels in
commission on the day after this order is received by firing at dawn
of day thirteen guns, at 12 o'clock m. seventeen minute guns, and at
the close of the day the national salute, by carrying their flags at
half-mast one day, and by the officers wearing crape on the left arm
for three months.