did private citizens lease steamboats to the union navy in the civil war

His political opponents were the first to bear the heartiest and most generous tribute to the broad kindliness of nature, the sweetness and gentleness of character which so endeared him to his close associates. It is not too much to say that at the time of President McKinley's death he was the most widely loved man in all the United States while we have never had any public man of his position who has been so wholly free from the bitter animosities incident to public life. President McKinley was killed by an utterly depraved criminal belonging to that body of criminals who object to all governments, good and bad alike, who are against any form of popular liberty if it is guaranteed by even the most just and liberal laws, and who are as hostile to the upright exponent of a free people's sober will as to the tyrannical and irresponsible despot. Both President Lincoln and President Garfield were killed by assassins of types unfortunately not uncommon in history President Lincoln falling a victim to the terrible passions aroused by four years of civil war, and President Garfield to the revengeful vanity of a disappointed office-seeker. Moreover, the circumstances of this, the third assassination of an American President, have a peculiarly sinister significance. Of the last seven elected Presidents, he is the third who has been murdered, and the bare recital of this fact is sufficient to justify grave alarm among all loyal American citizens. On the sixth of September, President McKinley was shot by an anarchist while attending the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, and died in that city on the fourteenth of that month. The Congress assembles this year under the shadow of a great calamity.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

Did private citizens lease steamboats to the union navy in the civil war