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 Shortly afterward, the Conference invitations were withdrawn on the grounds that the unsettled situation at home and abroad would make such an event impossible.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,
1881 Michigan Wolverines football team brothers), the Upper Peninsula (fullback William J. Olcott), and even Florida (Purl Woodruff). In 1881, Michigan scheduled games against the top American football teams—the Eastern powerhouses of Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Every year between 1870 and 1893, only Yale, Princeton, or Harvard has been credited with the consensus or shared national championship except Columbia in 1875. Retrospective historical power ratings have ranked them as the top three college football teams of 1881. The Michigan-Harvard game, which was played on Halloween 1881, was the first time any of the elite Eastern teams had played a team from the West. In his