1881 United States Senate election in New York caucus of the Democratic State legislators met on January 17, State Senator Charles A. Fowler (14th D.) presided. They re-nominated the incumbent U.S. Senator Francis Kernan by acclamation. Thomas C. Platt was the choice of both the State Senate and the Assembly, and was declared elected. Notes: Platt remained in office for only ten weeks, until May 16, 1881, when he resigned together with his boss Roscoe Conkling in protest against the distribution of federal patronage in New York by President James A. Garfield, a Half-Breed, without being consulted, what Conkling said was a breach of a pledge given by
1881 Michigan Wolverines football team entirely on individual play. Our half-backs, I believe, were equal to any we met, but our line was weak, the men being light and having little experience. Most of us had never played in a match game and some of us had never seen a copy of the rules. Having lost all of its games and being outscored 28–4, the 1881 Michigan team holds the distinction of having the worst record in the school's history—a record that has not been matched in the more than 125 years of football that followed. After the 1881 season, Michigan did not schedule any