First International Conference of American States And so, as Secretary of State, Blaine sent invitations to all the nations of the Hemisphere to come to Washington in November 1881 with the principal goal of considering and discussing methods to prevent war between the nations of the Hemisphere. But destiny intervened: President Garfield was assassinated on 19 September 1881 and the new President Chester A. Arthur, who was no friend of Blaine's, quickly removed him from the State Department. Shortly afterward, the Conference invitations were withdrawn on the grounds that the unsettled situation at home and abroad would make such an event impossible. Now a private citizen,
Thomas J. Campbell (university president) completing his studies, he returned to St. Francis Xavier College to teach rhetoric in 1876. He left St. Francis in order to study French literature, ecclesiastical history, and theology at Louvain University, Belgium. He was ordained in 1881, and returned to Frederick, Maryland in the US to spend his third year of probation. In 1885 he became the president of the college, and was the youngest president in over a hundred years. He continued the plans for a new science building, and during his administration the first bachelor of sciences degree was awarded. Campbell also wanted to help the mentally