Hayes's Administration.

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discontinued the payment of gold and silver, using paper money-mostly "greenbacks"-instead. This "suspension of specie payments" continued till the 1st of January, 1879, when the banks and government resumed specie payments, and gold and silver money once more came into common use.

Not the least important event of this administration was the making of a treaty with China. The people of the Western states, especially of California, had in many ways expressed their opposition to the system by which large numbers of Chinese laborers were brought to our Pacific coast. They asserted that, in consequence of this, labor in certain departments of business had become so cheapened as to compel the American workmen to abandon such departments. The treaty, negotiated by a commission sent to China, practically leaves the subject of regulating the immigration to the decis ion and control of the United States.

3. During the summer of 1880 preparation, were begun for the presidential election which was to take place before the close of the year. The Republicans nominated National James A. Garfield of Ohio. The Democrats preElection. sented as their candidate the distinguished soldier,

24th

Winfield S. Hancock.* The Greenbackers had also a candidate. The canvass was exceedingly spirited, being marked by immense meetings of the people and by great torchlight processions. It was estimated that on one occasion, in the city of New York, at least fifty thousand citizens marched in the procession. In describing it the next day, one of the newspapers of opposite politics said, "So grand a procession there never was in America before." The result of the election was in favor of the Republicans.

4. In February of the next year, a few days before the

* Winfield Scott Hancock was born in Pennsylvania in 1824. His military education was acquired at West Point, and he won distinction and promotion for merit in the war with Mexico. He held important commands during the Great Civil War, and for his good conduct at Gettysburg, in which conflict he was severely wounded, he was awarded the thanks of Congress.

The Obelisk.

expiration of Hayes's term, an interesting ceremony took place in Central Park, New York City. In the presence of a large gathering of ladies and gentlemen, to the number of several thousand, an ancient Egyptian obelisk was formally presented by the general government to the city.

5. More than three thousand years ago this obelisk had been erected before the Temple of Amen, sacred to the sun, at Heliopolis, where doubtless

Fully Auss it was seen by Moses in his out susurpes youth. Thence, after a NAMIN D 4 period of nearly fifteen hundred years, by order of the Roman emperor, AuDgustus Cæsar, and to com10a memorate his victories in Egypt, it was removed to Alexandria, and re-erected in front of a temple which Augustus had founded and which for centuries was one of the glories of Alexandria. There it stood more than eighteen hundred years when the Khedive of Egypt made a gift of it to the United States, and a wealthy

The OBELISK, now in Central Park, New York, citizen of New York of

fered to bear the entire ex

pense of conveying it from the old world to the new.

6. The task of transporting it was by no means an easy one. The obelisk is nearly seventy feet long; its weight is 438,500 pounds, the weight of its pedestal being 98,000 pounds more; and the distance from Egypt to New York is more than 5000 miles. Another difficulty just then presented itself: "By one of the vicissitudes of government which happen in Egypt

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the khedive suddenly abdicated and left the country, thus leaving his gift incomplete. Then there was some solicitude whether the incomplete gift would be assured to us by his successor. By the careful and faithful efforts of our Consul General in Egypt, notwithstanding some obstacles from jealous nations who thought it a shame that the eastern hemisphere should not hold all the obelisks, even if Egypt were despoiled of them to grace their own capitals, we at last arrived at a satisfactory conclusion.

7. Then, in searching for an agent who had the right kind of courage and skill and the requisite knowledge of the sea, we were fortunate in finding in an accomplished officer of our navy a man wholly fit for the achievement. It was his duty to take down the obelisk at Alexandria, put it on board a ship, take it across the Atlantic, and set it up in our Central Park, The way he did it was more original, more scientific, and far more interesting than had been done in a like work by the Roman, Frenchman, or Englishman. He had greater difficulties to contend with, but he overcame them in the most singular manner, and by methods never before used in moving such monoliths. Cutting a hole in the bow of the ship he pushed the obelisk into it, stowed it snugly away in the hold, reached New York in thirty-eight days, constructed a locomotive to drag the big stone up hill and through lanes and streets, hung it in mid air upon a single pair of trunnions, and even took it over a lofty bridge right over the carriages and horses in the street below."

8. The work was accomplished, and now, on this anniversary of Washington's birthday (Feb. 22, 1881), a great number of persons had been drawn together, as already stated, to witness the formal transfer of the great obelisk with its wonderful history from the custody of the nation to that of the city. A hymn was sung, addresses were made, a hundred medals commemorative of the event were presented to as many of the most worthy boys of the public schools, and the ceremony was ended.

Garfield's Administration.

1. The new president-Garfield-had risen from a very humble position in life. In his boyhood, with axe and hoe and by driving the oxen before the plow, he helped on his father's farm. He was never idle. When, at a later period, he was not earning money in his neighbors' hay-fields, he was doing so in a carpenter shop, or in chopping wood, or in driving horses along the canal. He loved books and it was his

great ambition to get an education. At the age of eighteen he was a school-teacher; at twentyfour a professor of Latin and Greek; at twenty-seven a college president; at twenty-eight a State senator; at thirty-one a general in the army doing his best to preserve the Union; at thirty-three a member of Congress. On the 4th of March, 1881, he was inaugurated President of the United States. His administration was begun with vigor and at once gave promise of marked success. The finances of the government, which, during the preceding administration, had been managed with wisdom, were still further improved; greater economy was effected in the management of the post-office department; and other improvements were in progress.

JAMES A. GARFIELD.

Assassina

Ac

2. The president had been in office less than four months, summer had come, and he had accepted invitations to visit some pleasant places in the Eastern States. tion of companied by friends he left the White House and Garfield. reached the railroad depot, when, without warning, "this strong, brave, pure man" was shot down by an assassin (July 2). With little delay he was carried back to the White

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House, and there, more than two months, was tenderly cared for. Then, in the hope that a change of air would bring a change for the better in his condition, he was removed to Long Branch, a summer resort in New Jersey overlooking the Atlantic. But all was in vain, for at night on the 19th of September he died.

3. The sad news was at once flashed by telegraph to every part of the land and to other lands beyond the great oceans; and while men still slept bells were tolled, not only in the principal cities and towns of the Union but in more than one church tower of Europe. Never was sorrow more universal. "Heroes and statesmen have died before, but never before did all civilized peoples so watch at the bedside of a dying man and feel the loss their own. The shot at Garfield, a man so eminent as a student, a master of books, a companion of the learned, a brave soldier, an inspiring orator, a fearless leader, was the most causeless, purposeless, and wicked crime of the century. No section, no party, no faction desired it. Such a life and career, so ruthlessly broken, arouse horror and sympathy. But the love, reverence, and sadness of this hour are due to the fact that the man himself, in his strength and weakness, in his struggles and triumphs, in his relations to mother, wife, and children, and in his battle with death, was the best type of manhood. He was not one of those historical heroes, with the human element so far eliminated, that, while we admire the character, we rejoice that it exists only in books and on canvas; but a man like ourselves, with like passions and feelings, but possessed of such greatness and goodness that the higher we estimate him the nearer and dearer he becomes to us.