would make a paper of no small worth and proportion. When, at the reading of one of these tentative drafts to me in February last, I had expressed to him my desire to possess it, he exclaimed, in his characteristic and original way: What! you would not wish the staggerings of my mind, would you?""

March 4th is a notable day in the history of the American Government. On that day every new Congress begins, and on that day once in four years there is a change in the administration of the government. A new President is inaugurated, though he be the same man who has occupied the office of the executive before.

The morning of March 4th, 1881, was dark and gloomy. The weather was unpleasant; in every respect it was a "March day." But the weather did not prevent the gayest decorations that Washington has ever seen on a similar occasion. Without attempting a description of the brilliant scenes, or even naming the many distinguished persons who were present at the inauguration, it remains only to be said, that at the appointed hour Mr Garfield was introduced to the vast crowd gathered before the east front of the Capitol, by Senator Pendleton, and immediately proceeded to deliver the Inaugural Address.

At its close the oath of office was administered to him by Chief Justice Waite, and the guns of the Republic were under the command of President Garfield.

Turning to his mother, who sat beside him during the delivery of his address, he took her by the hand and kissed her; and then turning to his wife he kissed her, and then as far as possible shook hands with the multitudes that pressed forward to greet him. He was "the pillar of the people's hope." Colonel Rockwell says:

"Probably no administration ever opened its existence under brighter auspices than that of President Garfield,

but it was not long before his great vitality showed visible signs of yielding to the dragging wear of the never-ending demands and importunities for place. Each day brought its exhausting physical fatigue and intellectual weariness -the result of a continual din of selfish talk. Fairly staggering into the library at the close of a specially exhausting day, he said to me: I cannot endure this much longer; no man, who has passed his prime, can succeed me here, to wrestle with the people as I have done, without its killing him.' Yet through it all he was cheerful. As throughout his life, so, even now, his great heart held its accustomed sway; the playful, almost boyish, humor illuminating all. Leaving behind him the stress of work and the cares of his office, he would often say: 'Now the fun is over, let us go to business!'-referring to some proposed recreation.

The earlier doings of his administration were spent in the construction of his cabinet and such other duties as lie at the beginning of every new administration.

His cabinet was composed as follows: Secretary of State, James G. Blaine, of Maine; Secretary of the Treasury, William Windom, of Minnesota; Secretary of War, Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois; Secretary of the Navy, William H. Hunt, of Louisiana; Secretary of the Interior, S. J. Kirkwood, of Iowa; Attorney-General, Wayne McVeagh, of Pennsylvania; and Postmaster-General, Thomas L. James, of New York.

In swiftness and in anxiety the days passed. Every day his administration grew in favor with the people, and by the 1st day of July he had completed all the initiatory and preliminary work of his administration, and was making preparations to leave the city, to meet and to greet the friends and schoolmates and classmates whom he had learned to love at old Williams a quarter of a century before. To the world he seemed at the summit of his power and hope.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SHOT THAT WAS HEARD ROUND THE WORLD.

In one of his speeches during the campaign of 1880 Mr. Garfield said: If a man murders you without provocation, your soul bears no burden of the wrong; but all the angels of the Universe will weep for the misguided man who committed the murder."

There seems to have been, on the part of members of the Garfield family, vague apprehensions, amounting almost to convictions, of impending trouble. Mr. Garfield is represented as saying, during the campaign: "If assassination is to play its part in the campaign, and I must be the sacrifice, perhaps it is best. I think I am ready."

In January, before the family went to Washington, Colonel Rockwell says one near to Gen. Garfield wrote thus: I am not sorry that the cold winter is passing so rapidly; although the events of the next two months rise up before us, until I am overwhelmed in advance, I scarcely dare to think; I only feel the desire to hurry through it all. But perhaps our trials will then only have begun."

When Mr. Garfield's mother was about to leave Washington for Ohio, after her recovery from a severe illness, he accompanied her to the train with the friend who was to be her escort. Her last remark to him, as he was about bidding her farewell, acquires, in the light of his fate, a

new and startling significance, as another of those inexplicable premonitions of evil to which reference has been made. With great earnestness, she said:

"James, I wish you would take good care of yourself, for I am afraid somebody will shoot you."

"Why, mother," he asked in astonishment, "who would wish to shoot me ?"

But the time went on, and nothing serious had occurred to the new administration. It is true that the issues which were made by place-holders, place-hunters and political managers with the new President had caused some commotion in the political world. He had slain, with a bold hand, the dragon named the "Courtesy of the Senate," which had menaced or utterly destroyed the peace, for many years, of each incoming administration. He had denounced it years before, in his place in the House; upon the threshold of his administration he destroyed it. It was the deadliest foe of reform, and he attacked it in its lair," and regained for the Executive powers which had long been usurped by the Senate.

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The morning of the 2d of July was bright and cheerful as the hopes of the man who had so long anxiously awaited its coming. About nine o'clock two carriages left the White House. In the first were seated the President, Secretary Blaine, and Colonel Rockwell; in the second, Harry and James Garfield, Mr. Judd, telegraph operator of the President, Dr. Hawks, tutor of the boys, and Dan Rockwell, son of the Colonel.

The President's carriage reached the depot considerably in advance of the other, and, its occupants alighting, the President moved to the door of the building, leaning upon the arm of Secretary Blaine. President Garfield had barely passed the door when a man stepped behind him, drew a revolver, and fired directly at his back. The Presi