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: