PRESIDENT ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION.
The first session of the Forty-seventh Congress, which was commenced
on the 5th of December, 1881, and prolonged until the 8th of August,
1882, found the Republicans again in the possession of the Federal
Government. In the Senate, where the elephantine David Davis
presided in his pleasant way, often disregarding parliamentary
rules, there was a Republican majority of two, and in the House,
which had elected as its Speaker that gallant, burly, impulsive
son of Ohio, General J. Warren Keifer, there was a majority of ten.
These small majorities made the game of legislation the more
interesting, as every move had to be carefully studied before it
was made. The proposed revision of the customs tariff and the
Internal Revenue Tax Bill interested every member, as each had one
or more pet industries belonging to favorite constituents, on which
he wanted the high war taxes or duties retained, while he boldly
advocated sweeping reductions on everything else.
President Arthur's appointments of Judge Folger to the Treasury
Department, of Mr. Frelinghuysen to the State Department, of Mr.
Brewster to the Department of Justice, and of Mr. Howe to the Post-
Office Department were all predicted and expected, but no one looked
for Mr. Conkling's appointment to the vacant place on the bench of
the Supreme Court, as it was well known that he had only a few
years previous refused the Chief Justiceship. The appointment gave
Mr. Conkling's enemies an opportunity to talk about his theatrical,
overbearing manner, but his appointment met general approbation;
some, doubtless, feeling a relief that his political career would
thus be ended. The Senate confirmed the nomination, but Mr. Conkling
declined the honor thus tendered.
One of the first acts of the Forty-seventh Congress was the
appointment of a joint committee of eight Senators and a Representative
for every State, to whom was referred so much of the message of
President Arthur as related to the decease of General Garfield,
with instructions to report by what token of respect and affection
Congress could express the deep grief of the nation. The Committee
reported, condoling with the widow of the deceased, and providing
for an oration on his life and character, to be pronounced before
the two houses of Congress and the high officials of Government,
by the Hon. James G. Blaine.
The scene in the Hall of the House of Representatives on the 27th
of February, when the Garfield Memorial services were held, would
have kindled the spark of oratorical fire in a less gifted man than
Mr. Blaine. As he stood there at the Clerk's desk, looking over
the great assemblage before him, his glance must first have fallen
upon the calm features and dignified presence of the President of
the United States, who was seated in the chair of honor, directly
in front of his late Secretary of State. Then Mr. Blaine must have
met the glance of his late associates in President Arthur's Cabinet
--Folger, of impressive manner; Lincoln, to whom the proceedings
of the day rekindled the saddest of recollections; Brewster,
noticeable by the quaintness of his dress; Kirkwood, of plain,
homely ways and dress, and the Creole-like Hunt. By the side of
these Mr. Blaine saw his own successor in the Cabinet, Frelinghuysen
and with him Postmaster-General Howe. A little to the left,
resplendent in gilt trappings and buttons, sat General Sherman,
with his weather-beaten and kindly face, and by his side plucky
Phil. Sheridan, now gray and demure, and Hancock, of stately bearing.
There, too were Admiral Porter and Rear-Admiral Worden of the navy,
men of fame.
In another direction sat the Justices of the Supreme Court, clad
in their flowing robes of office. States were there represented
by their Governors, and their Senators, and their Representatives,
throwing aside for the nonce the strife and partisanship incidental
to legislative warfare, gave testimony by their respectful silence
to the esteem in which they held the memory of the man, who, prior
to the Chicago Convention, enjoyed the friendship of all his
colleagues.
Still further back an area of sheen and color marked the position
of the Diplomatic Corps, with its variety of costumes and decorations.
Yet further back were Fred. Douglass, conspicuous from his long
white hair and strong features, and General Schenck, with hale,
firmly set face. The orator's glance must have noted the venerable
historian Bancroft, himself the orator of the day like this when
Lincoln's eulogy was pronounced, and by the side of Bancroft the
philanthropist, Corcoran, and next him, and to the President's
left, Cyrus W. Field. As Mr. Blaine's glance was raised to the
galleries he must have been struck with the uniform sombreness of
the appearance of the embanked multitude of ladies, whose dark
attire was peculiarly appropriate, forming, as it did, a kind of
mourning frame around the living picture which was presented on
the floor. In the President's gallery the orator could see the
refined lineaments of George William Curtis, or the English-like
face of Henry James, Jr. Such were the salient features of the
audience to whom Mr. Blaine was to speak of Garfield.
It looked to some who knew Mr. Blaine well as if he felt tempted
to cast aside the pile of manuscript heavily bordered with black,
which he placed before himself, and to speak as inspiration suggested,
so long did he stand before that remarkable audience before beginning.
To the audience the orator was second in interest only to the
subject of the oration. Expectation was great respecting Mr.
Blaine's treatment of the subject. He was the dead man's closest
friend, and he was looked upon as the representative of one wing
or division of a party within which was great bitterness. To
separate his duty to the dead from due consideration for the living
and balance the two was difficult, but he held the scales with such
an even, steady hand, that neither the lovers of the dead President
and his acts were disappointed or dissatisfied, nor the friends of
the living President offended. He merely performed the duty assigned
him in a simple, earnest, manly, truthful, conscientious, becoming
manner.
Mr. Blaine was not the "plumed knight" of political debate, impetuous
and enthusiastic, but he read page after page with patient enunciation,
his resonant voice only faltering when for a moment it quivered
with emotion as he described the boyish joy of General Garfield as
he breathed the fresh morning air on the fatal day when he went
forth to meet his doom. The personal pronoun did not once occur
in the whole eulogy, and not one single allusion was made that
could be thought of as referring to the speaker.
When Mr. Blaine had finished there was a reverential silence.
President Arthur, who seemed to have been deeply impressed, made
no movement to go. The immense audience was motionless. It was
the most impressive moment of the day. At length there was a faint
stir. Then President Arthur arose, and, with his Cabinet, silently
left the great hall. The Supreme Court followed, and then the
great assemblage quietly dissolved. The last public ceremonial
over the death of Garfield was finished. It was just one year
previous that he had quitted his home at Mentor to come to Washington
and be inaugurated as President of the United States.
President Arthur wore mourning for his predecessor six months,
dressing in black, using writing paper with a broad black border,
declining all invitations to theatrical performances, and giving
no state entertainments at the White House. At first he endeavored
to bring about a millennium of political forces, but the "stalwart"
lions refused to lie down with the "half-breed" lambs, and his
honest attempts to secure a reconciliation only provoked the enmity
of both factions. Before the burial of General Garfield a series
of personal attacks was begun on his constitutional successor at
the White House, which were industriously kept up. With a low
cunning that generally concealed its malignancy, about once a
fortnight some ingenious paragraph was started, ostensibly stating
some fact connected with the Federal Government, but really stabbing
at President Arthur. Unable to condemn his administration of
national affairs, his enemies sought by innuendo and misrepresentation
to render him ridiculous and neglectful of the public interest.
But it so happened that President Arthur's Scotch-Irish character
displayed itself in a practical utility never before known at the
White House. His extensive knowledge of State politics was constantly
called into requisition in making appointments, while in his messages
to Congress he made statements and suggestions with a strenuous
conviction of their truth, as he stood like a sturdy sentinel before
the gates of the Constitution. He "made haste slowly" and he made
but few blunders.
The President's daily life was very simple, although pains were
taken to make him out a _bon vivant_. He usually rose about half-
past nine, took a cup of coffee and a roll while dressing, and went
into his office, where he read his private letters, dictated replies
to official communications, and courteously received Congressional
and other place-hunters. At noon he ate a light breakfast--no
meat, but oatmeal, fish, and fruit--and then returned to his desk,
where he remained until four o'clock in the afternoon. He then
took a drive or a ride on horseback, sometimes accompanied by his
daughter. His family dinner hour was six, when his favorite repast
was a mutton-chop, with a glass of Bass' ale, or a slice of rare
roast beef, with a glass of claret, hot baked potatoes, and the
fruits of the season. After dinner he returned to his work, reading
the many papers submitted to him by the heads of departments, and
not leaving his desk until the "wee sma' hours."
The "Star-route" trials were inaugurated by Attorney-General MacVeagh
to bring reproach upon the Administrations of Grant and Hayes.
This system of "extra allowances" for carrying the United States
mails dated back, however, to the days of William Taylor Barry,
Postmaster-General under President Jackson. A Democratic Committee
of Congress which investigated the mismanagement of the Post-Office
Department, ascribed much of the rascality to "the large disbursements
of money under the name of extra allowances. It is a puzzling
problem to decide whether this discretionary power, throughout its
whole existence, has done most mischief in the character of impostor
upon the Department, or seducer to contractors. It has, doubtless,
been an evildoer in both guises."
The "Star-route" system of plunder was, however, handed down from
Administration to Administration, and the contractors who were
thereby enriched were called upon at each successive Presidential
election to contribute to the campaign fund. This had been done
in the Garfield and Hancock contest just concluded. Mr. Jay A.
Hubbell, who was the custodian of the Republican campaign fund,
applied to Assistant Postmaster-General Brady, who negotiated the
"Star-route" contracts, for pecuniary aid, and was told that it
should be forthcoming, provided he could have a letter from General
Garfield to exhibit to the contractors to spur them up to make
liberal contributions.
General Garfield wrote, on the 23d of August, 1880, not to Brady,
but to Hubbell: "Yours of the 19th received and contents noted.
Please say to Brady I hope he will give us all the assistance
possible. Please tell me how the Departments are doing. As ever,
yours." The letter from Hubbell, to which this was a reply, was
never published, and General Garfield's friends afterward maintained
that he had not alluded to the "Star-route" contractors. The
letter, they maintained, was simply the expression of a hope that
Brady, a citizen of Indiana, who was reputed to have made an immense
fortune in "Bell Telephone stock," would respond from his ample
means in aid of his party in the life-and-death struggle then going
on in his own State.
The Attorney-General made a great display in his prosecution of
some of those who had enriched themselves by "Star-route" contracts,
retaining eminent counsel, and bringing witnesses to Washington at
a great expense. There was much rascality developed, and some
reputations were smirched, but the disagreement of juries prevented
any punishment of the offenders. They regarded themselves as
political victims and felt deeply wronged because of their prosecution
by an Administration which they had certainly helped into power.
The people believed that the Star-route scandals, like the whisky
frauds, the bogus quarter-master's claims, the public-land seizures,
and the steamship subsidy schemes, were "ring" relics of the war,
with their profligacy and corruption, on each one of which Colonel
Mulberry Sellers would have remarked: "There's millions in it."
Yet the lobbyists and schemers enriched by these plunder schemes,
who bore the brand of "swindler" in scarlet letters of infamy upon
their foreheads, did not lose their places in Washington society.
[Facsimile]
David D Porter
DAVID D. PORTER, born at Philadelphia, June, 1813; Midshipman in
the navy, 1829; Lieutenant, 1841; served in the Mexican War;
Commander, 1861; took active part in opening the Mississippi; Rear-
Admiral, July 4th, 1863; took Fort Fisher, January, 1865; Vice-
Admiral, July 25th, 1866; Admiral, August, 1870.