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 Shortly afterward, the Conference invitations were withdrawn on the grounds that the unsettled situation at home and abroad would make such an event impossible.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,
USS Holly (1881) USS Holly (1881) USS "Holly" (1881) was a lighthouse tender borrowed by the U.S. Navy from the U.S. Commerce Department during World War I and armed as a patrol craft. "Holly" was used to patrol the waters near Norfolk, Virginia. Post-war she was returned to the Commerce Department. The first ship to be so named by the Navy, "Holly", a wood and steel lighthouse tender, was built in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1881, and was owned by the Department of Commerce, Lighthouse Service, until being taken over by the Navy 15 April 1917. She served in the 5th Naval District, operating