Chester A. Arthur: Announcement to the Vice-President of the Death of President Garfield and Reply of Vice-President Arthur

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Announcement to the Vice-President of the Death of President Garfield and Reply of Vice-President Arthur
September 19, 1881

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LONG BRANCH, N.J., September 19, 1881.

Hon. CHESTER A. ARTHUR,

No. 123 Lexington Avenue, New York :

It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield and to advise you to take the oath of office as President of the United States without delay. If it concur with your judgment, we will be very glad if you will come here on the earliest train to-morrow morning.

WILLIAM WINDOM,

Secretary of the Treasury.

WILLIAM H. HUNT,

Secretary of the Navy.

THOMAS L. JAMES,

Postmaster-General.

WAYNE MAcVEAGH

Attorney-General,

S. J. KIRKWOOD,

Secretary of the Interior.

(The Secretaries of State and of War were absent from Long Branch.)

REPLY OF THE VICE-PRESIDENT

NEW YORK, September 20, 1881.*

I have your message announcing the death of President Garfield. Permit me to renew through you the expression of sorrow and sympathy which I have already telegraphed to Attorney-General MacVeagh. In accordance with your suggestion, I have taken the oath of office as President before the Hon. John R. Brady, justice of the supreme court of the State of New York. I will soon advise you further in regard to the other suggestion in your telegram.

C.A. ARTHUR.

*Addressed to the Cabinet.

Citation: John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA. Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69148.

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