powers into friendly relations.  After they had set out from New York Mr. Blaine resigned, and Mr. Frelinghuysen reversed the diplomatic policy with such precipitate haste that the envoys on arriving at their destination were informed by the Chilian minister of foreign affairs that their instructions had been countermanded, and that their mission was an idle farce.  By this reversal of diplomatic methods and purposes the influence of the United States government on the South American coast was reduced to so low a point as to become insignificant.  Mr. Blaine’s policy had been at once strong and pacific.  It was followed by a period of no policy, which enabled Chili to make a conqueror’s terms with the conquered and to seize as much territory as pleased her rapacious generals.

The most conspicuous act of Mr. Blaine’s administration of the state department was his invitation to the peace congress.  The proposition was to invite all the independent governments of North and South America to meet in a peace congress at Washington on March 15, 1882.  The representatives of all the minor governments on this continent were to agree, if possible, upon some comprehensive plan for averting war by means of arbitration, and for resisting the intrigues of European diplomacy.  Invitations were sent on November 22, with the limitations and restrictions originally designed.  Mr. Frelinghuysen lost no time in undermining this diplomatic congress, and the meeting never took place.

On the morning of Saturday, July 2, President Garfield was to start from Washington by the morning limited express for New York, en route for New England and a reunion with his old college mates at the Williams College commencement.  His secretary of state accompanied him to the train, and has recorded the great, almost boyish, delight with which the President anticipated his holiday.  They entered the waiting-room at the station, and a moment later Guiteau’s revolver had done its work.  The country still vividly remembers the devotion with which the head of the Cabinet watched at the President’s bedside, and the calm dignity with which, during those long weeks of suspense, he discharged the painful duties of his position.  On September 6 the President was removed from Washington to Elberon, whither he was followed the same day by Mr. Blaine and the rest of the Cabinet.  The apparent improvement in the President’s condition warranted the belief that he would continue to gain, and Mr. Blaine went for a short rest to his home in Augusta.  He was on his way back to Elberon when the fatal moment came, and reached there the next morning.  It is the universal testimony of the press and people that, during the weary weeks which intervened between the President’s injury and death, Mr. Blaine’s every action and constant demeanor were absolutely faultless.  Selected by Congress to pronounce a formal eulogy upon President Garfield, Mr. Blaine, on February 19, 1882, before President Arthur and his Cabinet, both Houses of Congress, the Supreme Court, the foreign legations, and an audience of ladies and gentlemen which crowded the Hall of Representatives, delivered a most just, comprehensive, and admirable address upon the martyr’s great career and character.