細節
GARFIELD, JAMES A., President. Partly printed document boldly signed ("James A. Garfield") AS PRESIDENT, Washington, D.C., 10 June 1881. 1 page, 4to, on blue paper, accomplished in manuscript.
GARFIELD SENDS A LETTER OF STATE JUST THREE WEEKS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION
President Garfield "...authorize[s] and direct[s] the Secretary of State [James G. Blaine] to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to the envelope of my letter in reply to a letter of H.M. the King of Belgians, announcing the marriage of the Princess Stephanie to Prince Rudolphe of Austria..." On 2 July 1881, Garfield was fatally shot by Charles Guiteau at the Washington railroad station. He died 19 September 1881.
Eight years after this state letter was dispatched, Archduke Rudolphe, heir to the Austrian throne, was discovered in his hunting lodge at Mayerling by the side of his mistress. Both were dead of gunshot wounds; the official explanation was a joint suicide.
Appointments and orders to affix the seal remain virtually the only form in which Garfield's signature as President is obtainable today. About four handwritten letters signed as President are believed to be extant, and one commentator has, over the years, traced a grand total of 43 documents signed as President in circulation (John M. Taylor, From the White House Inkwell, 1989, p. 125).
GARFIELD SENDS A LETTER OF STATE JUST THREE WEEKS BEFORE HIS ASSASSINATION
President Garfield "...authorize[s] and direct[s] the Secretary of State [James G. Blaine] to cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed to the envelope of my letter in reply to a letter of H.M. the King of Belgians, announcing the marriage of the Princess Stephanie to Prince Rudolphe of Austria..." On 2 July 1881, Garfield was fatally shot by Charles Guiteau at the Washington railroad station. He died 19 September 1881.
Eight years after this state letter was dispatched, Archduke Rudolphe, heir to the Austrian throne, was discovered in his hunting lodge at Mayerling by the side of his mistress. Both were dead of gunshot wounds; the official explanation was a joint suicide.
Appointments and orders to affix the seal remain virtually the only form in which Garfield's signature as President is obtainable today. About four handwritten letters signed as President are believed to be extant, and one commentator has, over the years, traced a grand total of 43 documents signed as President in circulation (John M. Taylor, From the White House Inkwell, 1989, p. 125).