patriotic administration.

The political campaign of 1880 was earnestly contested by the great
political parties. The Republicans were victorious, and their ticket
bearing the names of Garfield and Arthur was triumphantly elected. On
the fourth of March, 1881, General Arthur took the oath of office in the
Senate Chamber as Vice-President of the United States, and half an hour
later General Garfield was inaugurated on a platform before the east
front of the Capitol, in the presence of the imposing military and civil
procession which had escorted him with music and banners. When the
ceremony was concluded, the distinguished personages around the new
President tendered their congratulations, the assembled multitude
cheered, and a salute fired by a light battery stationed near by was
echoed by the guns at the navy yard, the arsenal, and the forts around
the metropolis.

Republicans congratulated each other on the indications of a vigorous
administration, governed by a conscientious determination to promote
harmony. But a few months had elapsed, however, before President
Garfield was cruelly assassinated, in the full vigor of his manhood, and
the Republican party was at first stricken with apprehensions. These
gloomy doubts, however, soon disappeared as the incidents of Mr.
Arthur's patriotic and useful life were recalled, and a generous
confidence was soon extended to the new President.

President Arthur took the oath of office in New York immediately after
the death of General Garfield, and he repeated it in the Capitol on the
twenty-second of September, in the Vice-President's room. The members of
General Garfield's cabinet, who had been requested by his successor to
continue for the present in charge of their respective departments, were