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Claire A. Faulkner

  • Scholarship

    Arlington's Ceremonial Horses and Funerals at the White House

    Though presidential personalities and policies can generate deep chasms during their term of service, the death of a president evokes a genuine sadness that transcends partisan politics. Rarely are Americans as united in emotion and sensibility as at such a time. In a eulogy following President James A. Garfield’s death in 1881, Henry Watterson, journalist, editor, and later Pulitzer Prize wi

  • Article

    A Presidential Funeral

    Flags lowered. A flag-draped coffin. A stoic first lady on the arm of a military aide. The fly over of twenty one fighter aircraft. Gunfire salutes at military installations across the country. These are the familiar sights and sounds of a state funeral for a modern day American president. With the ceremonies attendant to the passing of President Ford fresh

  • Article

    President Buchanan Greets a Guest of State

    By the fall of 1860, the Buchanan administration seemed headed for a tense but dramatic conclusion. Earlier that year, President James Buchanan had pointedly declined the renomination, exhausted by a fractured relationship with Congress and last minute attempts to quash talk of southern states’ secession from the union. He believed that his best efforts at reconciliation between states’ rights activists and abol