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.
The memory of his exalted character, of his noble achievements, and
of his patriotic life will be treasured forever as a sacred
possession of the whole people.
The announcement of his death drew from foreign governments and
peoples tributes of sympathy and sorrow which history will record as
signal tokens of the kinship of nations and the federation of
mankind.
The Senate on December 6, 1881, adopted the following resolution:
_Resolved_, That a committee of six Senators be appointed on the
part of the Senate to join such committee as may be appointed on the
part of the House to consider and report by what token of respect
and affection it may be proper for the Congress of the United States
to express the deep sensibility of the nation to the event of the
decease of the late President, James A. Garfield, and that so much
of the message of the President as relates to that melancholy event
be referred to said committee.
The committee on the part of the Senate, having been subsequently
increased to eight, comprised the following-named gentlemen:
John Sherman, of Ohio; George H. Pendleton, of Ohio; Henry L. Dawes, of
Massachusetts; Elbridge G. Lapham, of New York; Thomas F. Bayard, of
Delaware; John T. Morgan, of Alabama; Omar D. Conger, of Michigan, and
Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia.
The House of Representatives on December 6, 1881, passed the following
resolution:
_Resolved_, That a committee of one member from each State
represented in this House be appointed on the part of the House to
join such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate to
consider and report by what token of respect and affection it may be
proper for the Congress of the United States to express the deep
sensibility of the nation to the event of the decease of their late
President, James Abram Garfield, and that so much of the message of
the President as refers to that melancholy event be referred to said
committee.
The committee on the part of the House of Representatives comprised the
following-named gentlemen:
William McKinley, Jr., of Ohio; Romualdo Pacheco, of California; James
B. Belford, of Colorado; John T. Wait, of Connecticut; William H.
Forney, of Alabama; Poindexter Dunn, of Arkansas; Edward L Martin, of
Delaware; Robert H.M. Davidson, of Florida; Alexander H. Stephens, of
Georgia; Joseph G. Cannon, of Illinois; Godlove S. Orth, of Indiana;
John A. Kasson, of Iowa; John A. Anderson, of Kansas; John G. Carlisle,
of Kentucky; Randall L. Gibson, of Louisiana; Nelson Dingley, jr., of
Maine; Robert M. McLane, of Maryland; Benjamin W. Harris, of
Massachusetts; Roswell G. Horr, of Michigan; Mark H. Dunnell, of
Minnesota; Charles E. Hooker, of Mississippi; Nicholas Ford, of
Missouri; Edward K. Valentine, of Nebraska; George W. Cassidy, of
Nevada; Joshua G. Hall, of New Hampshire; John Hill, of New Jersey;
Samuel S. Cox, of New York; Robert B. Vance, of North Carolina; Melvin
C. George, of Oregon; Charles O'Neill, of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Chace,
of Rhode Island; D. Wyatt Aiken, of South Carolina; Augustus H.
Pettibone, of Tennessee; Roger Q. Mills, of Texas; Charles H. Joyce, of
Vermont; J. Randolph Tucker, of Virginia; Benjamin Wilson, of West
Virginia, and Charles G. Williams, of Wisconsin.
The following concurrent resolutions were adopted by both Houses of
Congress on December 21, 1881:
Whereas the melancholy event of the violent and tragic death of
James Abram Garfield, late President of the United States, having
occurred during the recess of Congress, and the two Houses sharing
in the general grief and desiring to manifest their sensibility upon
the occasion of the public bereavement: Therefore
_Be it resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring),_ That the two Houses of Congress will assemble in the
Hall of the House of Representatives on a day and hour to be fixed
and announced by the joint committee, and that in the presence of
the two Houses there assembled an address upon the life and
character of James Abram Garfield, late President of the United
States, be pronounced by Hon. James G. Blaine, and that the
President of the Senate _pro tempore_ and the Speaker of the House
of Representatives be requested to invite the President and
ex-Presidents of the United States, the heads of the several
Departments, the judges of the Supreme Court, the representatives of
the foreign governments near this Government, the governors of the
several States, the General of the Army, and the Admiral of the
Navy, and such officers of the Army and Navy as have received the
thanks of Congress who may then be at the seat of Government to be
present on the occasion.
_And be it further resolved,_ That the President of the United
States be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Mrs.
Lucretia R. Garfield, and to assure her of the profound sympathy of
the two Houses of Congress for her deep personal affliction and of
their sincere condolence for the late national bereavement.
February 1, 1882, both Houses of Congress adopted the following resolution:
_Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),_
That Monday, the 27th day of February, 1882, be set apart for the
memorial services upon the late President, James A. Garfield.
[For proclamation of President Arthur appointing, in consequence of the
death of James Abram Garfield, late President of the United States, a
day of humiliation and mourning, see p. 34.]