4th of March, 1881, ex-Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood of Iowa was called to his Cabinet as Secretary of the Interior. This created a vacancy in the United States Senate from Iowa and there was a general desire expressed by the Republicans that Hon. James F. Wilson should be appointed to the vacant seat. Governor Gear, however, tendered the place to J. W. McDill, one of the railroad commissioners, who accepted.
On the 2d of July, 1881, the country was horrified by the news of the assassination of President Garfield at Washington. As he was about to take a train, Charles Guiteau, a disreputable lawyer from Chicago, who was regarded as partially demented, walked up to the President and shot him twice with a revolver. He made no effort to escape and was arrested. The President lingered, suffered greatly, until the 19th of September when he died. Vice-President Arthur was sworn in and became President. The members of Garfield’s Cabinet tendered their resignations soon after and Kirkwood returned to private life, having served as Secretary of the Interior but seven months.
On the 2d of June, 1881, the Greenback State Convention assembled at Des Moines and nominated the following candidates: for Governor, D. M. Clark; for Lieutenant-Governor, J. M. Holland; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Adeline M. Swain; Supreme Judge, W. W. Williamson. The resolutions adopted in addition to affirming the platform of former conventions, declared: “We demand a revision of our patent right laws, placing a fair limit upon the royalties of inventors and protecting the people from injustice.” They also demanded equal political rights for men and women. The nomination of Mrs. A. M. Swain of Fort Dodge for Superintendent of Public Instruction, by this convention, was a notable event in the political history of the State. She was the first woman placed in nomination for a State office by any political party of Iowa. She was a woman of supe-
