In reviewing the history of the case in connection with the autopsy it is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebrae, furnish a sufficient explanation of the septic condition which existed. D.W. BLISS. J.K. BARNES. J.J. WOODWARD. ROBERT REYBURN. FRANK H. HAMILTON. D. HAYES AGNEW. ANDREW H. SMITH. D.S. LAMB. [September 20, 1881.] FORMAL OATH OF OFFICE ADMINISTERED TO PRESIDENT ARTHUR. President Chester A. Arthur took the formal oath of office as President of the United States in the room of the Vice-President, in the Capitol, Thursday, September 22, 1881, at 12.10 o'clock p.m. Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite administered the oath prescribed by the Constitution in the presence of the members of the Cabinet, the Justices of the Supreme Court, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes, General W.T. Sherman, and a number of Senators and Representatives. [For Inaugural Address of President Arthur see pp. 33-34.] ACTION OF CONGRESS. President Arthur, in his first annual message to the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress, thus announced the death of his predecessor: 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.