No. 328.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Daggett
Washington, January 5, 1883.
Sir: Mr. Elisha H. Allen, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Hawaii, near this Government, and senior member of the diplomatic body at this capital, died suddenly on the 1st instant, under the following circumstances:
In company with his colleagues of the diplomatic body, and as their dean, he attended the official reception of the President at the Executive Mansion at 11 o’clock. The formalities of presentation being over, and while Mr. Allen was preparing to leave the White House, he fell, stricken by angina pectoris, and, without recovering consciousness, in less than fifteen minutes was dead. Two surgeons of the Army and Navy, who were among the guests in attendance, were close at band, and attempted to render assistance to the dying man, but their efforts were unavailing.
The President was deeply affected on learning of the sad occurrence. He immediately gave orders to close the doors of the Executive Mansion, and to suspend the official receptions of the day, and sought in every way to make manifest to the relatives of the deceased his heartfelt sympathy with them in their irreparable loss, and to testify his high regard for the distinguished personal qualities and elevated rank of one so generally esteemed.
The funeral took place on the 3d instant from the church which Mr. Allen and his family had attended during their sojourn in this city. Eight foreign representatives, chosen in the order of their seniority, and comprising the ministers of Hayti, Turkey, Sweden and Norway, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Great Britain and China, acted as pall-bearers. The President and Cabinet, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the members of the Committees on Foreign Relations of the Senate, and on Foreign Affairs, of the House of Representatives, the diplomatic body, and many distinguished officers and citizens attended the religious services and accompanied the remains to the railway station. From the church to the railway station the hearse was escorted by a military guard of honor suitable to the rank of the deceased. An officer of the State Department accompanied the remains on the journey, to represent the President and Secretary of State at the final ceremonies of interment, which, in accordance with the wishes of the family of the deceased, are to take place at Boston.
It seems proper that you should convey to the Government of Hawaii intelligence of the fitting tributes thus paid to the memo y of the illustrious [Page 548] dead, and that you should express the sorrow of the President, and of this Government, that death should have thus stricken down art honored representative of a friendly nation at his very post of duty. You may add that in all this our sense of esteem for his memory of the man himself is no less earnest than our offering of official respect for the doubly high office he held so worthily.
I am, &c.,