diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-8.txt | 15284 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 303955 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 1539023 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/34217-h.htm | 15658 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 157199 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing167.jpg | bin | 0 -> 178628 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing208.jpg | bin | 0 -> 92123 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing254.jpg | bin | 0 -> 134125 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing268.jpg | bin | 0 -> 138792 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing44.jpg | bin | 0 -> 180739 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing506.jpg | bin | 0 -> 184904 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217-h/images/facing54.jpg | bin | 0 -> 151935 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217.txt | 15284 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 34217.zip | bin | 0 -> 303905 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
17 files changed, 46242 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34217-8.txt b/34217-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f6c3a0b --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15284 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James A. +Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield + Twentieth President of the United States. + +Author: Emma Elizabeth Brown + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +THE + +LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES + +OF + +JAMES A. GARFIELD, + +TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + +INCLUDING + +_FULL AND ACCURATE DETAILS OF HIS EVENTFUL ADMINISTRATION, +ASSASSINATION, LAST HOURS, DEATH, Etc._ + +TOGETHER WITH + +NOTABLE EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES AND LETTERS + +BY E. E. BROWN. + +BOSTON + +D. LOTHROP COMPANY + +32 FRANKLIN STREET + + +COPYRIGHT, 1881, +BY D. LOTHROP & CO. + + + + +DEDICATION. + + + "To one who joined with us in sorrow true, + And bowed her crowned head above our slain." + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D. D. + + +More eloquent voices for Christ and the gospel have never come from the +grave of a dead President than those which we hear from the tomb of our +lamented chief magistrate. + +Twenty six years ago this summer a company of college students had gone +to the top of Greylock Mountain, in Western Massachusetts, to spend the +night. A very wide outlook can be gained from that summit. But if you +will stand there with that little company to-day, you can see farther +than the bounds of Massachusetts or the bounds of New England, or the +bounds of the Union. James A. Garfield is one of that band of students, +and as the evening shades gather, he rises up among the group and says, +"Classmates, it is my habit to read a portion of God's Word before +retiring to rest. Will you permit me to read aloud?" And then taking in +his hand a pocket Testament, he reads in that clear, strong voice a +chapter of Holy Writ, and calls upon a brother student to offer prayer. +"How far the little candle throws its beams!" It required real principle +to take that stand even in such a company. Was that candle of the Lord +afterward put out amid the dampening and unfriendly influences of a long +political life? It would not be strange. Many a Christian man has had +his religious testimony smothered amid the stifling and vitiated air of +party politics, till instead of a clear light, it has given out only +the flicker and foulness of a "smoking wick." + +But pass on for a quarter of a century. The young student has become a +man. He has been in contact for years with the corrupting influences of +political life. Let us see where he stands now. In the great Republican +Convention at Chicago he is a leading figure. The meetings have been +attended with unprecedented excitement through the week. Sunday has +come, and such is the strain of rivalry between contending factions that +most of the politicians spend the entire day in pushing the interests of +their favorite candidates. But on that Lord's day morning Mr. Garfield +is seen quietly wending his way to the house of God. His absence being +remarked upon to him next day, he said, in reply, "I have more +confidence in the prayers to God which ascended in the churches +yesterday, than in all the caucusing which went on in the hotels." + +He had great interests at stake as the promoter of the nomination of a +favorite candidate When so much was pending, might he not be allowed to +use the Sunday for defending his interest? So many would have reasoned +But no! amid the clash of contending factions and the tumult of +conflicting interests, there is one politician that heard the Word of +God sounding in his ear "_Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy +work_, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou +shall not do any work." And, at the bidding of the Divine command, his +conscience marches him away to the house of God. Not, indeed, to enjoy +the luxury of hearing some famous preacher, or of listening to some +superb singing, but he goes to one of the obscurest and humblest +churches in the city, because there is where he belongs, and that is +the church which he has covenanted to walk with, as a disciple of Jesus +Christ. "How far" again "that little candle threw its beams!" It was a +little thing, but it was the index of a principle, an index that pointed +the whole American people upward when they heard of it. Here was a man +who did not carry a pocket conscience--a bundle of portable convictions +tied up with a thread of expediency. Nay! here was a man whose +conscience carried him--his master, not his menial, his sovereign, not +his servant. + +And when, during the last days in his home at Mentor, just before going +to Washington to assume his office, he was entertaining some political +friends at tea, he did not forego evening prayers, for fear he might be +charged with cant, but, according to his custom, drew his family +together and opened the Scriptures and bowed in prayer in the midst of +his guests. And his was a religious principle that found expression in +action as well as in prayer. A lady residing in Washington told us that +while a member of the House of Representatives, he was accustomed to +work faithfully in the Sunday school, and that among his last acts was +the recruiting of a class of young men and teaching them in the Bible. +We know from his pastor that he was not too busy to be found often in +the social meetings of the church, nor too great to be above praying and +exhorting in the little group of Christians with whom he met. A +practical Christian, did we say? He must have been a spiritual Christian +also. There is one address of his in Congress that made a great +impression on our mind as we read it. He was delivering a brief eulogy +on some deceased Senator--I think it was Senator Ferry. He spoke of him +as a Christian, not a formalist, but a devout and godly disciple of +Christ. And then he spoke of the rest into which he had entered, and +quoted with great effect that beautiful hymn of Bonar's-- + + "Beyond the smiling and the weeping, + I shall be soon. + Beyond the waking and the sleeping, + Beyond the sowing and the reaping, + I shall be soon. + + Love rest, and home sweet home, + Lord, _tarry not, but come_." + +And taking the key from these last words, he said: "Yes, when the Lord +comes there will be no more weeping, no more sorrow, no more death. +'_Even so come, Lord Jesus._'" + +We believe that only a man of real spiritual, evangelical faith could +have uttered those words. And when we think how rarely such a man has +filled the presidential chair, we feel overwhelmed at the loss. + +Let us praise God that for once we have had a President who could shine +in the most illustrious position in the nation, and yet light up for us +the humblest walks of Christian obedience. Here is one who ruled and who +served, who was a leader of the people and a follower of Christ. The +seat where he sat as ruler of fifty millions will speak to generations +yet to come, telling them how righteousness exalteth a ruler, and the +little stream where he was baptized will tell perpetually, as it flows +on, how it "becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +The "Great Heart of the People."--Bereaved of their Chief.--Universal +Mourning.--Wondering Query of Foreign Nations.--Humble Birth +in Log Cabin.--The Frontier Settlements in Ohio.--Untimely death +of Father.--Struggles of the Family. 11 + +CHAPTER II. + +Boyhood of James.--Attempts at Carpentry.--First Earnings.--His +Thirst for Knowledge.--The Garfield Coat-of-Arms.--Ancestry, +etc. 21 + +CHAPTER III. + +Life at the "Black-Salter's".--James wants to go to Sea.--His +Mother will not give her Consent.--Hires out as a Woodchopper.--His +Powerful Physique.--His Strength of Character. 25 + +CHAPTER IV. + +James still longs for the Sea.--Experience with a Drunken +Captain.--Change of Base.--Life on the Canal. 30 + +CHAPTER V. + +Narrow Escape from Drowning.--Return Home.--Severe Illness.--James +determines to fit himself for a Teacher.--Geauga Seminary.--Personal +Appearance.--Dr Robinson's Verdict. 36 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Low state of Finances.--James takes up Carpentry again.--The +Debating Club.--Bread and Milk Diet.--First Experience +in School-Teaching.--Becomes Interested in Religious +Topics.--Creed of the Disciples.--James joins the New +Sect. 42 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Return to Geauga Seminary.--Works at Haying through the +Vacation.--Teaches a Higher Grade of School.--First +Oration.--Determines to go to College.--He visits the +State Capitol at Columbus. 48 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Hiram Institute.--The faithful Janitor.--Miss Almeda Booth.--James +is appointed Assistant Teacher.--Critical habit of +Reading.--Moral and Religious Growth.--Debating Club. 53 + +CHAPTER IX. + +Ready for College.--His Uncle lends him Five Hundred Dollars.--Why +he decides to go to Williams.--College Life. 58 + +CHAPTER X. + +Return Home.--Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram +Institute.--His Popularity as a Teacher.--Answers Prof +Denton.--Marriage. 67 + +CHAPTER XI. + +Law Studies.--Becomes Interested in Politics.--Delivers Oration +at the Williams Commencement.--Elected State Senator.--His +Courage and Eloquence. 74 + +CHAPTER XII. + +War Declared Between the North and South.--Garfield Forms a +Regiment from the Western Reserve.--Is Appointed Colonel.--General +Buell's Order.--Garfield Takes Charge of the +18th Brigade.--Jordan's Perilous Journey.--Bradley +Brown.--Plan of a Campaign.--March Against Marshall, 80 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Opening of Hostilities.--Brave Charge of the Hiram Students.--Giving +the Rebels "Hail Columbia".--Sheldon's Reinforcement.--The +Rebel Commander Falls.--His Army +Retreats in Confusion. 93 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.--Starvation Stares them +in the Face.--Garfield Takes Command of the Sandy +Valley.--Perilous Trip up the River.--Garfield's Address +to the Citizens of Sandy Valley.--Pound Gap.--Garfield +Resolves to Seize the Guerillas.--The Old Mountaineer.--Successful +Attack.--General Buell's Message.--Garfield is +Appointed Brigadier General. 100 + +CHAPTER XV. + +Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.--Battles of +Shiloh and Corinth.--The Fugitive Slave.--Attack of +Malaria.--Home Furlough.--Summoned to Washington.--Death +of his Child.--Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.--Kirke's +Description of Garfield. 110 + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.--Garfield as +Mediator.--Remarkable Military Document.--The Tullahoma +Campaign.--Insurrection Averted.--Chattanooga.--Battle +of Chickamauga.--Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.--Garfield's +Famous Ride. 115 + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Rosecran's Official Report.--Sixteen Years Later.--Promotion +to Major General.--Elected to Congress.--Resigns his +Commission in the Army.--Endowed by Nature and Education +for a Public Speaker.--Moral Character.--Youngest +Member of House of Representatives.--One Secret of Success.--First +Speech.--Wade Davis Manifesto.--Extracts +from Various Speeches. 125 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.--The New York Mob.--Garfield's +Memorable Words.--Eulogy upon Lincoln.--Memorial +Oration.--Eulogy upon Senator Morton.--Extracts +from other Orations. 138 + +CHAPTER XIX. + +The Home in Washington.--Fruit Between Leaves.--Classical +Studies.--Mrs. Garfield.--Variety of Reading.--Favorite +Verses. 147 + +CHAPTER XX. + +Tide of Unpopularity.--Misjudged.--Vindicated.--Re-elected.--The +De Golyer Contract.--The Salary Increase Question.--Incident +Related by President Hinsdale. 154 + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The Credit Mobilier.--Garfield entirely Cleared of all Charges +Against him.--Tribute to him in Cincinnati Gazette.--Elected +U. S. Senator.--Extract from Speech.--Sonnet. 160 + +CHAPTER XXII. + +After the Ordeal.--Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of +Ohio.--Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.--Purchase +of the Farm at Mentor.--Description of the New +House.--Life at Mentor.--The Garfield Household.--Longing +for Home in his Last Hours. 167 + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Republican Convention at Chicago.--The Three Prominent +Candidates.--Description of Conkling.--Logan.--Cameron.--Description +of Garfield.--Resolution Introduced by Conkling.--Opposition +of West Virginians.--Garfield's Conciliatory +Speech.--His Oration in Behalf of Sherman.--Opinions +of the Press. 174 + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The Battle still Undecided.--Sunday among the delegates.--Garfield's +Remark.--Monday another Day of Doubt.--The +Dark Horse.--The Balloting on Tuesday.--Garfield's Remonstrance.--He +is Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth +Ballot.--Enthusiastic Demonstrations, Congratulatory +Speeches and Telegrams.--His Speech of Acceptance. 187 + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Return Home.--Ovations on the Way.--Address at Hiram Institute.--Impromptu +Speech at Washington.--Incident of +the Eagle.--The Tract Distributor. 196 + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +News of the Nomination Received with Delight.--Mr Robeson +speaks for the Democrats in the House of Representatives.--Ratification +Meeting at Williams College.--Governor Long's +Opinion.--Hotly-contested Campaign.--Garfield Receives the +Majority of Votes.--Is Elected President on the Second of +November, 1880.--Extract from Letter of an Old Pupil.--Review +of Garfield's Congressional Life.--His own Feelings +in Regard to the Election. 201 + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +At Mentor.--The Journey to Washington.--Inauguration Day.--Immense +Concourse of People.--The Address.--Sworn +into Office.--Touching Scene.--Grand Display.--Inauguration +Ball.--Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.--Two +Great Problems.--How they were Solved.--Disgraceful +Rupture in the Senate.--Prerogative of the Executive +Office vindicated. 207 + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.--Morning of +the Fateful Day.--Secretary Blame Accompanies him to the +Station.--A Mysterious-looking Character.--Sudden Report +of a Pistol.--The President Turns and Receives the Fatal +Shot.--Arrest of the Assassin.--The President Recovers +Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House. 214 + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +At the White House.--The Anxious Throngs.--Examination of +the Wounds.--The President's Questions.--His Willingness +to Die.--Waiting for his Wife.--Sudden Relapse.--A +Glimmer of Hope.--A Sunday of Doubt.--Independence +Day.--Remarks of George William Curtis. 218 + +CHAPTER XXX. + +The Assassin.--What were his motives.--His own Confessions.--Statement +of District-Attorney Corkhill.--Sketch of Guiteau's +Early Life. 227 + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +Night of the Fourth.--Extreme Solicitude at the White House.--Description +of an Eye-witness.--Attorney McVeagh's +Remark.--Sudden Change for the Better.--Steady Improvement.--The +Medical Attendance. 233 + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +A Relapse.--Cooling Apparatus at the White House.--The +President writes a Letter to his Mother.--Evidences of +Blood Poisoning.--Symptoms of Malaria.--Removal to +Long Branch.--Preparation for the Journey.--Incidents by +the Way. 238 + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +Description of the Francklyn Cottage.--The Arrival at Long +Branch.--The President is Drawn up to the Open Window.--Enjoys +the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.--The Surgical +Force Reduced.--Incident on the Day of Prayer. 245 + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +Hopeful Symptoms.--Official Bulletin.--Telegram to Minister +Lowell.--Incidents at Long Branch.--Sudden Change for +the Worse.--Touching Scene with his Daughter.--Another +Gleam of Hope.--Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.--The +Closing Scene. 252 + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +The Midnight Bells.--Universal Sorrow.--Queen Victoria's +Message.--Extract from a London Letter.--The Whitby +Fishermen.--The Yorkshire Peasant.--World wide Demonstrations +of Grief. 260 + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +The Services at Elberon.--Journey to Washington.--Lying in +State.--Queen Victoria's Offering.--Impressive Ceremonies +in the Capitol Rotunda. 266 + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +Journey to Cleveland.--Lying in State in the Catafalque in the +Park.--Immense Concourse.--Funeral Ceremonies.--Favorite +Hymn.--At the Cemetery. 273 + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +Lakeview Cemetery.--Talk with Garfield's Mother.--First +Church where he Preached.--His Religious Experience.--Garfield +as a Preacher. 280 + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +The Sunday Preceding the Burial.--The Crowded Churches.--The +one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.--Across the +Water.--At Alexandra Palace.--At St. Paul's Cathedral.--At +Westminster Abbey.--Paris.--Berlin.--Extract from +London Times. 287 + +CHAPTER XL. + +National Day of Mourning.--Draping of Public Buildings and +Private Residences.--Touching Incident.--Tributes to Garfield.--Senator +Hoar's Address.--Whittier's Letter.--Senator +Dawes' Remarks. 290 + +CHAPTER XLI. + +Subscription Fund for the President's Family.--Ready Generosity +of the People.--Touching Incident.--Total Amount of the +Fund.--How the Money was Invested.--Project for Memorial +Hospital in Washington.--Cyrus W. Field's Gift of +Memorial Window to Williams College.--Garfield's Affection +for his Alma Mater.--Reception given Mark Hopkins and the +Williams Graduates.--Garfield's Address to his Classmates. 301 + +CHAPTER XLII. + +Removal of the President's Remains.--Monument Fund Committee.--Garfield +Memorial in Boston.--Extracts from +Address by Hon. N. P. Banks. 306 + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +Southern Feeling.--Memorial Services at Jefferson, Kentucky.--Extracts +from Address by Henry Watterson.--Senator Bayard.--Ex-Speaker +Randall.--Senator Hill.--Extracts from +some of the Southern Journals. 328 + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a Friend +in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.--To Corydon E. +Fuller, a College Classmate. 336 + +CHAPTER XLV. + +Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.--Of one of the Pupils at +Hiram Institute.--Garfield's Keen Observation.--His Kindness +of Heart.--Anecdote of the Game of Ball.--Of the +Lame Girl in Washington.--Of Brown the ex-Scout and old +Boat Companion. 353 + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Remarks of a Personal Friend.--Reminiscences of the President's +Cousin, Henry Boynton.--Garfield as a Freemason. 360 + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.--George Parsons +Lathrop.--From _London Spectator_.--Oliver Wendell Holmes.--H. +Bernard Carpenter--John Boyle O'Reilly--Joaquin +Miller.--M. J. Savage.--Julia Ward Howe.--Rose Terry +Cooke.--Prize Ode.--Kate Tannett Woods. 368 + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +Currency.--Lincoln.--The Draft.--Slavery.--Independence.--The +Rebellion.--Protection and Free-Trade.--Education.--William +H. Seward.--Fourteenth Amendment.--Classical +Studies.--History.--Liberty.--Statistics.--Poverty.--The +Salary Question.--The Railway Problem.--Elements of +Success.--Law.--The Revenue.--Statesmanship.--Relation +of Government to Science.--Gustave Schleicher.--Suffrage.--Union +of the North and South.--Appeal to Young +Men.--Inaugural. 388 + +ADDENDA. + +Remarkable Military Document by Garfield 494 + +Official report of the post-mortem examination + of Garfield's body 505 + +Senator Hoar's Address 520 + +Hon. James G. Blame's Eulogy 544 + +A Threnody 584 + + + + +LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + The "Great Heart of the People."--Bereaved of their + Chief.--Universal Mourning.--Wondering Query of Foreign + Nations.--Humble Birth in Log Cabin.--The Frontier + Settlements in Ohio.--Untimely Death of Father.--Struggles + of the Family. + + +"_The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!_" + +So murmured the brave, patient sufferer in his sleep that terrible July +night, when the whole nation, stricken down with grief and consternation +at the assassin's deed, watched, waited, prayed--as one man--for the +life of their beloved President. + +And all through those weary eighty days that followed, of alternate hope +and fear, how truly the great, loving, sympathetic heart of the people +did battle, with millions of unseen weapons, for the strong, heroic +spirit that never faltered, never gave up "the one chance," even while +he whispered: "God's will be done; I am ready to go if my time has +come." + +Party differences were all forgotten; there was no longer any North or +South--only one common brotherhood, one great, sorrowing household +watching with tender solicitude beside the death-bed of their loved one. + +How anxiously the varying bulletins were studied! How eagerly the +faintest glimmer of hope was seized! And when, on that +never-to-be-forgotten anniversary of Chickamauga's battle, the midnight +bells tolled out their solemn requiem, + + "The nation sent + Like Egypt, in her tenth and final blow. + Through all the land a loud and bitter cry; + And felt, like her, as o'er her dead she bent, + _There is in every home a present woe_!" + +And yet, with renewed fervor, we repeat those pathetic words: + +"_The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!_" + +While bowing reverently, submissively to the decree of the Almighty +Disposer of human affairs, the nation feels that "no canon of earth or +Heaven can forbid the enshrining of his manly virtues and grand +character, so that after-generations may profit by the contemplation of +them." + +A halo of immortal glory already gathers around the name of James A. +Garfield. + +The remembrance of his brave, self-forgetting endurance of pain, his +strong, indomitable will, his tender regard for his aged mother, his +simple, unaffected piety, his cheerful resignation, will never be +effaced from the heart of the people. + +And when expressions of sympathy and regret came to America from all +parts of the world, the wondering query arose: + +"How is it that republican manners and republican institutions can +produce such a king among men as President Garfield?" + +Let us go back to that humble log cabin in the wilds of Ohio where, +fifty years ago, a little fair-haired, blue-eyed boy was born. + +It is a bleak, bitter day in November, and the whistling of the winds +through the crevices, mingles with the howl of hungry wolves in the +woods close by. + +But the new baby finds a warm welcome waiting him in that rough cabin +home. The mother's love is fully reflected in the honest face of the +great, warm-hearted father, as he folds the little stranger in his +strong arms, and declares he is "worth his weight in gold." + +Thomas, a boy of nine years, with Mehetabel and Mary, the two little +sisters, look wonderingly upon their baby brother, and then run out to +spread the good news through the neighborhood. + +In those early days the frontier settlements seemed like one family, so +interested were all in the joys and sorrows of each. + +Eighteen months later, when the brave, strong father was cut down in +the midst of his work, a circle of true-hearted, sympathizing friends +stood, like a body-guard, around the little family. + +One of those dreaded forest fires had been raging for days through the +tract of country adjoining the Garfield farm. With the aid of his older +children, Mehetabel and Thomas, the father had at last checked the +flames, but, sitting down to rest by the open door, he took a severe +cold which brought on congestion of the throat. + +Before a physician could be called he was past all human aid, and, +looking wistfully upon his children and heart-broken wife, he said, with +dying breath,-- + +"I am going to leave you, Eliza. I have planted four saplings in these +woods, and I must now leave them to your care." + +The blue-eyed baby, who bore his father's name, could not understand the +sorrowful faces about him, and, toddling up to the bedside, he put his +little hands on the cold lips, and called "Papa! Papa!" till the weeping +mother bore him out of the room. + +"What will become of those poor, fatherless children?" said one neighbor +to another. + +"It _is_ a strange providence," was the reply. "The mother is too young +and too frail to carry on the farm alone. She will have to sell +everything, and find homes for the children among her friends." + +But Eliza Garfield was not the weak, dependent woman they had imagined. +Moreover, she had one brave little helper close at hand. + +"Don't cry, mother dear," said Thomas, making a great effort to keep +back his own tears. "I am ten years old now, you know. I will take care +of you. I am big enough to plough and plant, and cut the wood and milk +the cows. Don't let us give up the farm. I will work ever so hard if we +can only keep together!" + +Noble little fellow! No wonder the mother's heart grew lighter as she +watched his earnest face. + +"You are not strong enough, dear child, to do all that," she said, "but +God helping us, we will keep together. I will sell off part of the farm +to pay our debts, and we shall then have thirty acres left, which will +be quite enough for you and me to take care of." + +It was now late in the spring, but Thomas managed to sow the wheat, +plant the corn and potatoes and with the help of a kind neighbor +complete the little barn his father had begun to build. + +In cultivating the ground, his mother and sisters were always ready to +help, and together they split the rails, and drove the stakes for the +heavy fence around the wheat-field. + +With such example of untiring industry and perseverance constantly +before his eyes, it is no wonder the restless baby brother soon tried +to lend a helping hand. + +"Me do it too," he would cry, when Thomas took down the rake or the hoe, +and started off for his work in the fields. + +"One of these days, Jimmy," the boy-farmer would reply, with a merry +smile: though even then he could not help hoping there might be better +things in store for the little brother he loved so dearly. + +Walking all the way to Cleveland, Thomas secures a little job, and +brings home his first earnings, with a bounding heart. + +"Now Jimmy can have a pair of shoes," he says to his mother who cannot +keep back her tears as she looks at his own bare feet. + +The old cobbler comes and boards at the cabin while he makes the little +shoes, and when they are completed it is hard to tell which is the +happier boy,--Thomas or little Jimmy. + +Four years after the father's death, a school-house is built a mile and +a half away. + +"Jimmy and the girls must go," says Thomas. + +"Yes," replies the mother, "but I wish you could go, too." + +"It wouldn't do for me to leave the farm, mother dear," says the noble +boy. "One of these days, perhaps I can study at home." + +The mile and a half walk to the school-house was a long, hard pull for +little Jimmy, in spite of those new shoes; and many a time Mehetabel +might have been seen, carrying him back and forth on her broad +shoulders. + +It was a happy day for all the children when the new log school-house +was put up on one corner of the Garfield farm. The land had been given +by Mrs. Garfield, and the neighbors clubbed together and built the +house, which was only twenty feet square, with a slab roof, a puncheon +floor, and log benches without backs. + +The master was a young man from New Hampshire. He boarded with Mrs. +Garfield, and between him and little James a warm friendship was soon +established. + +The bright active child was never tired of asking questions. + +"He will make his mark in the world, one of these days--you may take my +word for it!" exclaimed the teacher, as he recounted James' wonderful +progress at school. + +The happy mother never forgot these words, and determined to give her +little boy every possible advantage. + +But the Ohio schools in those days were very poor. The three "R's," with +spelling and geography, were the only branches taught, and oftentimes +the teachers knew but little more than the scholars. + +As soon as James could read, he eagerly devoured every book that came +within his reach. The family library comprised not more than half a +dozen volumes, but among these, Weems' "Life of Marion" and Grimshaw's +"Napoleon" were especial favorites with the eager enthusiastic boy. + +Every night the mother would read to her children from her old, +well-worn Bible: and oftentimes James would puzzle his little playmates +with unexpected scripture questions. His wonderful memory held a strange +variety of information in its tenacious grasp. He delighted to hear his +mother read poetry, and would often commit long passages by heart. His +vivid imagination peopled the old orchard with all sorts of strange +characters. Each tree was named after some noted Indian chief, or some +favorite hero he had read about; and from a high ledge of rocks in the +neighborhood, he would sometimes deliver long harangues to his imaginary +audiences. Thomas watched the progress of his little brother with +fatherly pride and admiration, and James looked up to him with loving +confidence. + +He could now help about the farm in many ways, and when Thomas got an +opportunity to work out and earn a few extra pennies, James would look +after the stock, chop the wood, hoe the corn, and help his mother churn +and milk. + +"One of these days, James," she said to him, as he was working +diligently by her side, "I expect Thomas will go out into the world to +earn his living, and then you will have to take his place here on the +farm." + +"But, how soon will that be, mother?" asked the little fellow, who felt +then that he could not possibly get along without his big brother. + +"Not until Thomas is twenty-one, and then you will be twelve years +old--older by two years than Thomas was when your father died." + +"I wish I could be as good a farmer as he," said James; "but I think I +would rather be a carpenter." + +"And I would rather have you a teacher or a preacher," said his mother; +"but we must take our work just as Providence gives it to us, and +farming, my boy, comes first to you." + +It was a trying day to the whole family when Thomas left the little home +to work on a clearing, "way off in Michigan." He would be gone six +months, at least, and there was very little communication in those days +between Ohio and the farther west. + +"I wish you could have found work nearer home," said the fond mother. + +"But I shall earn higher wages there--twelve dollars a month,"--answered +the self-forgetting son; "and, when I get back, I shall have money +enough to build you a frame house." + +The little log cabin was fast coming to pieces, and for five years +Thomas had been cutting and seasoning lumber for the new house, but they +had never been able to hire a carpenter to put it up. + +James tried very hard to fill his brother's place, but he could never +throw his whole soul into farming as Thomas had done. He read and +studied all the time he could get out of working hours, and his thirst +for knowledge was constantly increasing. But how was he to procure the +education for which he longed? + +"Providence will open the way," said the good mother; "though how and +when I cannot tell." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Boyhood of James.--Attempts at Carpentry.--First + Earnings.--His Thirst for Knowledge.--The Garfield + Coat-of-Arms.--Ancestry, etc. + + +True to his promise, Thomas returned in a few months with seventy-five +dollars in gold, which seemed a great sum to the little family. + +"Now you shall have the new house, mother," he exclaimed; and it was not +many days after, that the carpenter was hired and the work begun. + + +James watched the building with keen, observant eyes. Before the house +was completed he had learned a good part of the trade and practised it +besides. + +"I think I'll have to employ you when I want an extra hand," laughed the +good-natured mechanic, as he noticed how cleverly James used the mallet, +chisel and plane. + +"I wish you would; I like the trade," exclaimed the boy, with sudden +earnestness. + +After the family had moved into the new house, which consisted of three +rooms below and two above, Thomas went back to his work in Michigan, and +James returned to his labor on the farm. + +But the boy's restless spirit longed for a wider field. If he could only +earn a little money, perhaps he would be able to buy a few books. + +Passing the carpenter's shop one day, he saw a pile of boards at the +door waiting to be planed. He stepped inside and asked for the job, +which was readily given him. + +"I will give you a cent a board," said the carpenter, "for I know you +will do them well." + +"How soon do you want them done?" asked James. + +"Oh! it doesn't matter," answered the carpenter; "take your own time for +them." + +"All right!" said the boy, "I'll begin early to-morrow morning, just as +soon as I get through with the chores on the farm." + +Before night he had planed a hundred boards, and each board was twelve +feet long! + +He asked the carpenter to come and count them, lest he had made a +mistake. + +"That is too hard a day's work for a little fellow like you," exclaimed +the astonished man; "but here are a hundred pennies, as I promised you." + +This was the first money that James had ever earned, and it was with a +proud, happy heart he emptied his load of coppers that night into his +mother's lap. + +It was not a difficult matter to find jobs after that. A boy who could +plane a hundred boards in a day was just the sort of help the +enterprising carpenter wanted. Not long after, he engaged James to help +him put up a barn, paying him about twenty dollars for the job. + +By this time James had learned about all he could in the district +schools. He had performed problems in arithmetic that puzzled his +teachers, and could repeat by heart the greater part of his reading +books. A copy of "Josephus" came into his hands, and he read it over and +over until long passages were indelibly impressed upon his memory. + +"Robinson Crusoe," "Alonzo and Melissa," he devoured that winter with +all a boy's enthusiasm, and the little home in Orange seemed smaller to +him than ever. He longed to go out into the world and find a wider +sphere of labor. The blood of his old Welsh ancestors was burning in his +veins. He had often looked at the old Garfield coat of arms, which his +father had kept with loyal pride, and wondered what it meant. Now he +seemed to understand, as if by a sudden intuition, the crimson bars on +the golden shield, with that strong arm, just above, wielding a sword, +whose motto read, "_In cruce vinco_." + +"Tell me about my great-great-grandfathers," he said one day to his +mother, as they were sitting together by the open fire. + +"Your father's family came from Wales," she answered, "and the first +James Garfield was one of the brave knights of Gaerfili Castle. But that +is going a long way back. I know your father used to say he was more +proud of having an ancestor who had fought in the Revolutionary War, and +that was Solomon Garfield, your own great-grandfather." + +"How splendid it is to be a soldier!" exclaimed James. + +"Yes," said his mother, "but there are many grand victories won in the +world besides those upon the battle-field." + +And just here it may be said that it was not only from his father's side +that James Garfield inherited so many sterling traits of character. His +mother is a descendant of Maturin Ballou, a French Huguenot, who joined +the colony of Roger Williams, and settled in Cumberland, Rhode Island. +From this pioneer preacher, a great many eminent men have sprung, among +them the celebrated Hosea Ballou, a cousin of Eliza Ballou Garfield. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Life at the "Black-Salter's".--James wants to go to + Sea.--His mother will not give her Consent.--Hires out as a + Woodchopper.--His Powerful Physique.--His Strength of + Character. + + +About ten miles from the little settlement at Orange, and not far from +Cleveland, was a large potash factory, owned by a certain Mr. Barton. +The neighboring farmers, when they cleared their lands, would draw the +refuse logs and branches into a great pile and burn them. The ashes thus +collected, they sold to this Mr. Barton, who went by the name of +"black-salter," because the potash he manufactured was called in its +crude state, "black salts." At one time he needed a new shed where the +ashes were leached, and James assisted the carpenter who put it up. + +The bright, industrious lad pleased the old black-salter, and he offered +him fourteen dollars a month, if he would come and work in his ashery. + +This was two dollars more than Thomas was earning "away off in +Michigan," and James was greatly delighted at the prospect of earning +one hundred and sixty-eight dollars a year! + +It was not, however, just the sort of work he would have chosen; and +the mother dreaded for her son the rough companionship of the +black-salters. + +But James did not associate with the rude, coarse men out of +working-hours. Their profanity shocked him; and he gladly turned to the +books he found on an upper shelf at Barton's house. + +As might have been expected, however, these books were very different +from any he had read before. "Marryatt's Novels," "Jack Halyard," "Lives +of Eminent Criminals," and "The Pirate's Own Book," were in fact more +dangerous companions for him than the coarse, brutal men would have +been. The printed page carried with it an authority that the excited boy +did not stop to question. He would sit up all night to follow in +imagination some reckless buccaneer in his wild exploits, till at last +an insatiable longing to be a sailor fired his brain. + +"A life on the ocean wave" seemed to him, at that time, the "ultima +thule" of all his dreams. He longed to see some more of the world, and +to the inexperienced lad this seemed the quickest and surest way. + +One day, he happened to hear Mr. Barton's daughter speak of him in a +sneering tone as her father's "hired servant." This was more than the +high spirit of James could bear. Years after, he said to a friend,-- + +"That girl's cutting remark proved a great blessing to me. I was too +much annoyed by it to sleep that night; I lay awake under the rafters of +that old farm-house, and vowed, again and again, that I _would_ be +somebody; that the time should come when that girl would not call me a +'_hired servant_.'" + +The next morning James informed his employer that he had concluded to +give up the black-salter's business. + +In vain Mr. Barton urged him to stay, by the offer of higher wages. + +Much as he needed the money, the boy was determined to find some other +and more congenial way of earning a living. If he could only go to sea! + +Fortunately none of the family favored this wild scheme of James. + +His mother declared that she could never give her consent. "If you ever +go to sea, James," she said in her firm, decided tones, "remember it +will be entirely against my will. Do not mention the subject to me +again." + +James was a dutiful son. He did not want to oppose his mother's will, +and yet he did want to go to sea. + +A few days after he heard that his uncle, who was clearing a large tract +of forest near Cleveland, wanted to hire some wood-choppers. After +talking the matter over with his mother, he decided to offer his +services. He could not be idle, and wood-chopping was certainly +preferable to leaching ashes. + +His sister Mehetabel, who was now married, lived near this uncle, so +James could make his home with her. + +Altogether the plan pleased Mrs. Garfield, although she was loath to +part with her boy, even for a few months. + +James engaged to cut a hundred cords of wood for his uncle, at the rate +of fifty cents a cord, and declared he could easily cut two cords a day. + +Now it so happened that the edge of the forest where James' work lay +overlooked the blue waters of Lake Erie. With stories from "The Pirate's +Own Book" still haunting his brain, it was not strange that he often +stopped in his work to count the sail, and watch the changing color of +the beautiful waters. + +By and by he noticed that the old German by his side, who seemed to +wield his axe so slowly, was getting ahead of him in the amount of work +accomplished. He began to realize that he was wasting a deal of time by +these "sea dreams," and resolutely turned his back upon the fascinating +waters. + +It was not so easy, however, to drive out of his mind the bewitching +sea-faring tales he had read; and when those hundred cords of wood were +cut, he returned home with the old longing to be a sailor only +intensified. + +He said nothing, for he did not wish to grieve his mother, and as it was +now the last week in June he hired himself out to a farmer for the +summer months, to help in haying and harvesting. + +James was now a strong, muscular boy in his teens. He possessed, +naturally, a fine constitution, and his simple life and vigorous +exercise in the open air had greatly enhanced his powers of endurance. +Whatever he undertook he was determined to carry through successfully. +His strong, indomitable will conquered every difficulty, while his stern +integrity was a constant safeguard. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + James still longs for the Sea.--Experience with a Drunken + Captain.--Change of Base.--Life on the Canal. + + +James went on with his work at home, attending school in the winter, +reading whatever books he could find, and taking odd jobs in carpentry +to add to the family income. + +His heart, however, was still on the sea. + +At last he said to his mother: + +"If I should be _captain_ of a ship some day, you wouldn't mind that, +would you?" + +Now Mrs. Garfield, like a wise mother, had been studying her restless +boy and was not unprepared for this returning desire on his part "to +follow the sea." + +"You might try a trip on Lake Erie," she replied, "and see how you like +it; but if you want to be 'somebody,' as you say, I would look higher +than to a sea-captain's position." + +James hardly heard his mother's last words, so delighted was he to have +this unexpected permission. + +He packed up his things as quickly as possible and walked the whole +distance to Cleveland. + +Boarding the first schooner he found lying at the wharf, he asked one of +the crew if there was any chance for another hand on board. + +"If you can wait a little," was the answer, "the captain will soon be up +from the hold." + +James had a very exalted idea of this important personage; he expected +to see a fine, noble-looking man such as he had read about in his books. + +Suddenly, he heard a fearful noise below, followed by terrible oaths. +Stepping aside to let the drunken man pass him, he was greeted by the +gruff question,-- + +"What d'yer want here, yer green land-lubber, yer?" + +"I was waiting to see the captain," replied James. + +"Wall, don't yer know him when yer do see him?" he shouted. "Get off my +ship, I tell yer, double quick!" James needed no second invitation. +Could this besotted brute be a specimen of the monarchs of the sea? The +boy was so shocked and disgusted that he made no further effort to find +a place on board ship. He began to think his story-books might be a +little different from the reality in other things as well as captains! + +Wandering through the city, he came to the canal which at that time was +a great thoroughfare between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. One of the +boats, called the "Evening Star," was tied to the bank, and James was +greatly surprised to find that the captain of it was a cousin of his, +Amos Letcher. + +"Well, James, what are you doing here?" said the canal-boat captain. + +"Hunting for work," replied the boy. + +"What kind of work do you want?" + +"Anything to make a living. I came here to ship on the lake, but they +bluffed me off and called me a country greenhorn." + +"You'd better try your hand on smaller waters first," said his cousin; +"I should like to have you work for me, but I've nothing better to offer +you than a driver's berth at twelve dollars a month." + +"I must do something," answered James, "and if that is the best you can +offer me, I'll take the team." + +"It was imagination that took me upon the canal," he said, years after; +and it is easy to see how fascinating the trips from Cleveland to +Pittsburgh seemed at that time to the inquiring boy. + +The "Evening Star" had a capacity of seventy tons, and it was manned, as +most of the canal-boats were, with two steersmen, two drivers, a +bowsman, and a cook. The bowsman stood in the forward part of the boat, +made ready the locks, and threw the bow-line around the snubbing-post. +The drivers had two mules each, which were driven tandem, and, after +serving a number of hours on the tow-path, they took turns in going on +board with their mules. + +[Illustration: On the Tow-Path.] + +James had hardly taken his place behind "Kit and Nance," as his team was +called, when he heard the captain call out,-- + +"Careful, Jim, there's a boat coming." The boy had seen it, and was +trying to pass it to the best of his ability. But his inexperience and +haste occasioned a sudden tightening of the reins, and, before any one +quite knew what had happened, both driver and mules were jerked into the +canal. For a few seconds it seemed as if they would go to the bottom, +but James was equal to the emergency, and, getting astride the forward +mule, kept his head above water until rescue came. This was his +initiation in canal-boat driving, and the adventure was a standing joke +among his comrades for a long time. + +When they came to the "Eleven-Mile Lock," the captain ordered a change +of teams, and James went on board with his mules. + +Letcher, who is still living in Bryan, Ohio, gives the following account +of his talk with the boy as they were passing the locks: + +"I thought I'd sound Jim on education--in the rudiments of geography, +arithmetic and grammar. For I was just green enough in those days to +imagine I knew it all. I had been teaching school for three months in +the backwoods of Steuben County, Indiana. So I asked him several +questions, and he answered them all; and then he asked me several that +I could not answer. I told him he had too good a head to be a common +canal-hand." + +One evening when the "Evening Star" was drawing near the twenty-one +locks of Akron, the captain sent his bowsman to make the first lock +ready. Just as he got there, a voice hailed him through the darkness. It +was from a boat above that had reached the locks first. + +"We are just around the bend," said her bowsman, "all ready to enter." + +"Can't help it!" shouted the bowsman of the "Evening Star," with a +volley of oaths; "we've got to hev this lock first!" + +The captain was so used to these contests on the canal that he did not +often interfere, but it was a new experience to James. He tapped his +cousin Amos on the shoulder, and said,-- + +"Does that lock belong to us?" + +"Well, I suppose not, according to law," was the answer, "but we will +have it, anyhow." + +"No! we will not!" he exclaimed. + +"But why?" said the captain. + +"Why?" he repeated, "because it don't belong to us." + +Struck with the boy's sense of right, and ashamed of his own +carelessness, the captain called out to his men,-- + +"Hold on, hold on! Let them have the lock." + +When the boatmen knew that their fight had been prevented by James's +interference they were greatly incensed, and began to call him "coward" +and all sorts of derogatory names. + +The boy only smiled; he knew he could vindicate his rights when the time +came, and it was not long before he had an opportunity. + +The boat had just reached Beaver, and James was on deck with his +setting-pole against his shoulder; a sudden lurch wrenched it from him +and threw it upon one of the boat-hands, who was standing close by. + +"Beg pardon, Dave," said the boy quickly; "it was an accident." + +The great, rough man, however, would take no apology, and rushed upon +James with clenched fists. A fight seemed inevitable, but with one +well-directed blow, the boy of sixteen threw down his burly antagonist, +and held him fast. + +"Pound him, James! Give him a good thrashing!" exclaimed the captain. + +"Not when he is down and in my power," said the boy. Then, letting his +conquered foe rise, he said,-- + +"Come, Dave, give us your hand!" and from that time forth they were the +best of friends. + +"He's dif'rent from the rest on us--that's sartin--but he's a good un, +got a mighty sight o'pluck," said the whole crew. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Narrow Escape from Drowning.--Return Home.--Severe + Illness.--James determines to fit Himself for a + Teacher.--Geauga Seminary.--Personal Appearance.--Dr + Robinson's Verdict. + + +One dark, stormy night, just as the "Evening Star" was leaving a long +reach of slack water, James was called out of his berth to tend the +bow-line. As he began to uncoil the rope, it caught on the edge of the +deck; he pulled several times before he could extricate it, but suddenly +it gave way with such force as to throw him headlong into the water. + +The whole crew were soundly sleeping, the boat glided over him, and as +he could not swim he felt there was no hope. Suddenly he caught hold of +something hard; it was the rope which had become entangled in a crevice +of the deck and become so tight that it was an easy matter to climb up +by it into the boat. + +As he stood there in his dripping clothes, rescued from a watery grave, +he took the rope and tried to see how it happened to catch in the +crevice. Six hundred times he threw it, but it would not kink in the +same manner again. + +"No one but God could have saved my life by such a thread as that!" he +exclaimed, and then he began to wonder if he could not make a better use +of his miraculously-spared life than by spending it upon a canal-boat. + +A severe attack of chills and fever followed this night's drenching and +exposure. He thought of his mother and her hopes for him, and made up +his mind to return home as soon as he was able. + +His mother was overjoyed when, a few weeks later, he stood before her +and told her of his changed plans. But again the malaria asserted its +sway over him, and for a long time he lay between life and death. It was +six months before he was able to do anything, and then to his mother's +delight he told her he was going to fit himself to be a teacher. + +A young man named Samuel Bates (now a clergyman in Madison, Ohio,) had +charge that winter of the district-school in Orange. He was a frequent +visitor at Mrs. Garfield's, and between James and himself there sprang +up a warm friendship. The young teacher had attended the Geauga Seminary +in Chester, and was full of his school experiences. He told James how +economically one could live, by clubbing together with other students, +and the result was that in the following spring, Garfield and his two +cousins, William and Henry Boynton, went to Chester and rented a room +just across the street from the seminary. The house belonged to a poor +widow, who agreed to look after their room and do their washing for a +small sum. They bought their own cooking-stove, and immediately set up +house-keeping. James had only eleven dollars in his pocket, but he hoped +to earn more before that was gone. + +The academy was a plain wooden building of three stories, and could +accommodate about a hundred pupils. The library connected with it +contained a hundred and fifty volumes, which seemed to James a perfect +mine of wealth. Among the pupils at that time attending the academy was +a studious young girl by the name of Lucretia Rudolph, but the boys and +girls seldom saw each other except in their classes, and James was so +shy and awkward he did not care much for the society of young ladies. He +watched Miss Rudolph, however, with quiet admiration. Her sweet face, +her pleasant manners, and fine scholarship, made her a universal +favorite, and little by little a hearty friendship sprang up between the +two students who had so many aims in common. + +The principal of the academy at that time was an eccentric old gentleman +by the name of Daniel Branch. His wife, who was his chief assistant and +equally eccentric, was trying to introduce into the school a grammar of +her own construction, which was totally at variance with all other +systems. For instance, she insisted that _but_ should be parsed as a +verb, in the imperative mood, with the sense of _to be out_; she also +declared that _and_ was another verb in the imperative mood, and meant +_add_! + +Young Garfield, who had been thoroughly drilled in Kirkman's Grammar at +the district school, constantly contended against these new ideas which, +to his clear, well-balanced brain, presented nothing but absurdity. It +is to be hoped that the other scholars followed his sage example, and +that Branch's idiosyncrasy was soon banished from the school curriculum. + +James' personal appearance at this time is thus described by one of his +friends: + +"His clear, blue eyes, and free, open countenance were remarkably +prepossessing. His height was exaggerated by the coarse, satinet +trousers he wore, which were far outgrown, and reached only half-way +down the tops of his cowhide boots. It was his one suit, and the +threadbare coat was so short in the sleeves that his long arms had a +singularly awkward look. His coarse, slouched hat, much the worse for +wear, covered a shock of unkempt yellow hair that fell down over his +shoulders like a Shaker's." + +Without consulting any one, James resolved to be examined by a physician +before going on with his studies. + +He went to Dr. J. P. Robinson, of Bedford, who happened to be in the +neighborhood, and said to him,-- + +"You are a physician, and know the fibre that is in men. I want you to +examine me, and then say frankly whether or no it is worth while for me +to take a course of liberal study. It is my earnest desire to do so, but +if you advise me not to attempt it, I shall feel content." + +The doctor, in speaking of this incident, says:-- + +"I felt that I was on my sacred honor, and the young man looked as +though he felt himself on trial. I had had considerable experience as a +physician, but here was a case much different from any other I had ever +had. I examined his head, and saw that there was a magnificent brain +there. I sounded his lungs, and found them strong and capable of making +good blood. I felt his pulse, and saw that there was an engine capable +of sending the blood up to the brain. I had seen many strong, physical +systems with warm feet, but cold, sluggish brain; and those who +possessed such systems would simply sit around and doze. At the end of a +fifteen minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and I said: +'Go on; follow the promptings of your ambition. You have the brain of a +Webster, and you have the physical proportions that will back you in the +most herculean efforts. Work, work hard, do not be afraid of +overworking; and you will make your mark.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Low State of Finances.--James Takes up Carpentry again.--The + Debating Club.--Bread and Milk Diet.--First Experience in + School-Teaching.--Becomes Interested in Religious + Topics.--Creed of the Disciples.--James Joins the New Sect. + + +After buying his school-books and some other necessary articles, James +found his small amount of funds rapidly decreasing. But this did not +discourage him in the least. + +"I have never yet had any difficulty in finding work, and I don't +believe I shall now," he said to his cousins, as he started off one +Saturday afternoon to find a carpenter's shop. + +In those days planing was always done by hand, and Mr. Woodworth, the +one carpenter at Chester, was very glad to engage so willing and capable +an assistant as the young student. + +By working at his shop before and after school, and all day upon +Saturday, James earned enough money to pay all his bills that term, and +carry home a few dollars besides. From that time forward he never failed +to pay his own way, although to do it he was obliged to work very hard +and deny himself many comforts. + +The studies of his first term at Chester included English grammar, +natural philosophy, arithmetic and algebra. It was one of the +regulations of the school to write a composition every fortnight upon +subjects chosen sometimes by the principal, and sometimes by the +students themselves. These essays were occasionally read before the +whole school, and the first time that James read his, he trembled so +that he was "very glad," he writes, "of the short curtain across the +platform that hid my shaking legs from the audience." + +In the Debating Society James always took an active part. He was a +little diffident at first, but soon astonished himself as much as his +friends by his ready command of language. Whatever question came up +before the club he studied as he would a problem in mathematics. The +school library supplied him with books of reference, and his ready +memory never failed him. The students at Geauga listened with +astonishment to the eloquent appeals of their rough, ungainly +schoolmate. The secret of his power was largely due to the thorough +preparation with which he armed himself. He was so full of his subject +he could not help imparting it in the strongest and most impressive +manner. Here it was that he laid the basis of his future success as a +public speaker. + +Having taken from the library the "Life of Henry C. Wright," he became +quite interested in the author's experiment of living upon a bread and +milk diet. He told his cousins they had been too extravagant in their +mode of living, that milk was better than meat for students, and that +another term they must try it. + +The boys, always ready to follow James, acquiesced; and after a trial of +four weeks, found their expenses had been reduced to thirty-one cents +each, per week. But their strength also had become reduced; and while +still making milk their principal article of diet, they concluded to +increase their table to the amount of fifty cents each for the remainder +of the term. + +When the long vacation came James was very anxious to teach school. The +principal at Geauga had told him that he was fully competent, and with +his usual energy and determination he started out to find a school. + +"What! you don't expect we want a _boy_ to teach in our district?" was +the first reply to his modest application. + +It was of no use to show the committee his excellent recommendation from +Mr. Branch--they wanted a man, not a boy. + +Somewhat discouraged, James walked on to the next district, only to find +that a teacher had already been engaged. About three miles north was +another school, but here, too, they were just supplied with a graduate +from Geauga. + +Two days of persistent school-hunting followed, but James was unable to +find any position as teacher. + +"It may be that Providence has something better in store for you," said +his mother; but James was so tired and discouraged he had not a word to +say. + +Early next morning he was surprised by a call from one of the committee +men belonging to their own district. + +"We want some one to teach at the 'Ledge,'" he said to James, "and we +heard that you were looking for a school. Now, the boys all know you in +this district, and they are a pretty hard lot to manage, but I reckon +you are stout enough to thrash them all." + +Not a very encouraging outlook for James, surely! But after talking the +matter over with his Uncle Amos Boynton, he concluded to undertake the +school. + +Beginning as "Jim Garfield," he determined to win the respect of both +pupils and parents until he was known as "Mr. Garfield." To do this a +deal of firmness was required, and his first day at school was a series +of battles with naughty boys. After that a most friendly relation was +established between pupils and teacher. They felt he had no desire to +domineer over them, but that he would maintain order and decorum at any +cost. In "boarding around," as was the custom for district school +teachers in those days, he became well acquainted with all the families +in the neighborhood and gained a still firmer hold upon the affections +of his pupils. Before the winter was over, _Mr_. Garfield had won the +reputation of being "the best teacher who had ever taught at the +'Ledge.'" + +It was a great delight to his mother to have him so near her. Every +Sunday he spent at home, and it was at this time that he became deeply +interested in religious questions. His mother was a member of the Church +of Disciples, or Campbellites, as they were sometimes called, from +Alexander Campbell, the founder of the sect. + +Their creed is as follows: + +I. We believe in God, the Father. + +II. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the +only Saviour. + +III. That Christ is a Divine Being. + +IV. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent in the conversion of +sinners, and the sanctification of Christians. + +V. That the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the inspired word of +God. + +VI. That there is future punishment for the wicked, and future reward +for the righteous. + +VII. That the Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. + +VIII. That the Bible is our only creed. + +The founder of the sect was for a long time a member of the Baptist +Church, and declared that he differed from them only in his "disbelief +in the binding force of the church creed, and in the necessity of +ministerial ordinations." + +The new church grew very rapidly, notwithstanding the persecutions it +received from both the Baptist and Freewill Baptist denominations, and +it numbers now over half a million members. + +It is not strange that James was drawn to this single-hearted, +struggling sect of "Disciples." The earnest, persuasive arguments of one +of its preachers led him to Christ, and when, that same winter, he was +baptized in the little river at Orange, he became at once an earnest +champion of the new church. In all religious discussions, he claimed the +right of following the Bible according to the convictions of his own +conscience, and declared that every one else should have the same right. + +His consistent Christian life added strength to his spoken words, and +the Disciples felt that a bright and shining light had been added to +their ranks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Return to Geauga Seminary.--Works at Haying through the + Vacation.--Teaches a higher Grade of School.--First + Oration.--Determines to Go to College.--He visits the State + Capitol at Columbus. + + +When James returned to the academy, he made an arrangement with Mr. +Woodworth, by which he could have a comfortable boarding-place at one +dollar and six cents a week. This was at Mr. Woodworth's own house, and +the payment was to be taken out in labor at the carpenter's shop. It was +an excellent plan, and gave James more time for his studies, in spite of +the hard manual labor he performed out of school-hours. He could use the +square and the scratch-awl now, as well as the plane; and his wages were +correspondingly increased. + +In the summer vacation of his third term at Geauga, James and a +schoolmate resolved to earn a little money at haying. They accordingly +hired themselves out to a neighboring farmer who wanted some extra +hands. Noticing how vigorously the boys worked, the farmer turned to his +men and said,-- + +"Lookee here, you lubbers! these boys are gitting way ahead of you. +They make broader swaths, and they mow a sight better than you do!" + +When the haying was done, and the settling day came, the farmer asked +the boys what wages they expected. + +"Whatever you think is right," replied James. + +"Wall," said the farmer, "as yer only boys, of course yer won't expect +men's wages." + +"But didn't you say yourself," argued James, "that we did more work than +your men? If that is so, why should you pay us less?" + +The farmer was nonplussed, and gave the boys the same wages he paid his +men, remarking, as he did so,-- + +"It's the fust time I ever paid boys so much, but you've fairly earned +it--that's a fact!" + +It was just about this time that the anti-slavery contest began to +assert itself throughout the country. + +In the little Debating Club at Geauga, the question was given out, +"_Ought slavery to be abolished in this republic?_" It was a subject +that roused James to his best efforts; and his school-mates, as they +listened to his fiery denunciations against slavery, declared that "Jim +ought to go to Congress!" + +The following winter James procured a school at Warrensville, where he +was paid sixteen dollars a month and his board, which was more than he +had ever earned before. It was in this school that one of the pupils +wanted to take up geometry--a branch of mathematics that James had never +studied. + +As usual, however, he was equal to the emergency. Buying a text-book, he +studied geometry after school-hours, until he had mastered the science, +and his pupils never once dreamed but that he was as familiar with it as +with algebra or arithmetic. + +It was at the annual exhibition of Geauga Seminary, in November, 1859, +that James delivered his first oration. It was prepared with his usual +carefulness, and delivered with so much magnetic earnestness that the +whole audience were held spell-bound. + +"He is bound to make his mark in the world," said every one who had +listened to the earnest, enthusiastic student. + +Mrs. Garfield noted with grateful joy that her son no longer spoke of +"going to sea." The one great aim of his life now was to procure a +liberal education. A deeper, broader ocean was stretching out before +him, and already his pulses thrilled with the mighty, incoming tide. + +It was during his last term at Geauga Seminary that James met a young +man who was a graduate of a New England college. From him he learned +that it was possible to work one's way through college as well as +through school. It was a new thought to James. His poverty had seemed to +him before an insurmountable obstacle in gaining a university education. +Now, he began to study Latin and other branches that might pave the way +to a college examination. + +On his return home, he found his mother was just about to start on a +journey to Muskingum County, where some of her relatives lived. She was +very anxious that James should go with her, and, when he found that he +could obtain a school near Zanesville, he was quite ready to go. The +Cleveland and Columbus Railroad had just been opened, and this was +James' first ride in the cars. When they reached Columbus they visited +the legislature, which was then in session; and, as James remarked +afterwards, "That alone was worth a month's schooling to me." + +The mother and son spent three months in this part of Ohio, James +teaching the little school at Harrison, and studying hard himself all +the time. Having met a student from the Eclectic Institute at Hiram, +Portage County, Ohio, he learned that opportunities were there afforded +for studying the branches of the first two college years. The expenses +of tuition were no greater than at Geauga Seminary, and the Institute +was under the direction of the Church of the Disciples. + +It seemed a providential opening, and, after talking over the matter +with his mother, he determined to seek admission there the following +autumn. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Hiram Institute.--The faithful Janitor.--Miss Almeda + Booth.--James is appointed Assistant Teacher.--Critical + habit of Reading.--Moral and Religious Growth.--Debating + Club. + + +It was towards the latter part of August, 1851, and James was nearly +twenty years of age when he first presented himself at Hiram Institute. +The board of trustees was then in session, and he was directly +introduced into the room where they were seated. Notwithstanding his +shabby clothes and awkward manners, his earnest, intelligent face at +once prepossessed them in his favor. + +"I must work my way," he began; "but I am very anxious to get an +education. I thought, perhaps, you would let me ring the bell and sweep +the floors to pay part of my bills." + +"How do we know that you can do the work well?" asked one of the +trustees. + +"If, at the end of a couple of weeks," replied James, "you find that my +work does not suit you, I will not ask to keep the place." + +"I think we had better try the young student," said another of the +trustees, and so the question was settled, and James was duly installed +as janitor. + +The town of Hiram was at that time twelve miles from the railroad, and +consisted of a straggling collection of houses, with two churches and a +few stores at the cross-roads. Its natural advantages, however, were +wonderfully fine, and to-day it is sometimes called "the crown of Ohio." +Its location is very near the line where the waters divide, one part +flowing northward to Lake Erie, the other southward to the Ohio river. + +The Institute was a plain, brick building on the top of a hill, whose +slopes were thickly planted with corn; from this eminence a charming +panorama of the whole surrounding country could be obtained. It was +built for the special accommodation of the sons and daughters of the +Western Reserve farmers, and among its founders was Mr. Zebulon Rudolph, +the father of James' old school-mate, Lucretia Rudolph. The Rev. A. S. +Hayden was, at this time, its principal, and Thomas Munnell and Norman +Dunshee were assistant teachers. + +The aims of the school were,-- + +1st. To provide a sound, scientific and literary education. + +2d. To temper and sweeten such education with moral and scriptural +knowledge. + +3d. To educate young men for the ministry. + +[Illustration: HIRAM COLLEGE, HIRAM, OHIO.] + +The charter of the Institute, according to the peculiar tenet of the +religious movement in which it originated, was based upon the study of +the Holy Scriptures. The Disciples believed that the Bible ought to take +a larger place in general culture than had as yet been accorded to it. +In the course of study, the system pursued was strictly elective. It was +just the place for James to fit for college, and pursue, if he chose, +branches that would enable him to enter a university two years in +advance. + +Among the pupils at Hiram, when James entered the Institute, was a Miss +Almeda Booth, some nine years his senior, who proved an invaluable +friend and helper. She was a teacher as well as scholar, but James, at +the end of a few months, found himself pursuing the same studies and +ranking in the same classes as Miss Booth. "I was far behind her," he +writes, "in mathematics and the physical sciences, but we were nearly in +the same place in Greek and Latin." + +Miss Booth was a lady of rare talent. Upon the death of the young man to +whom she was engaged, she resolved to consecrate her life to higher +intellectual attainments, in order to increase her usefulness. + +In a tribute to her memory, a few years ago, Garfield said,-- + +"She exerted a more powerful influence over me than any other teacher, +except President Hopkins.... The few spare hours which schoolwork left +us were devoted to such pursuits as each of us preferred, but much +study was done in common. I can name twenty or thirty books, which will +be doubly precious to me because they were read and discussed in company +with her. I can still read between the lines the memories of her first +impressions of the page, and her judgment of its merits." + +Whenever James had a thesis to prepare, he would talk over the subject +for hours with Miss Booth, and together they read during one term a +hundred pages of Herodotus and a hundred of Livy. + +At the close of his first year at Hiram, James was given the position of +assistant teacher of the English department and ancient languages. He +had also secured regular work with the carpenter in Hiram, so it was no +longer necessary for him to serve as janitor. But many of his old +schoolmates still remember the faithfulness with which he performed the +menial services of his first position. He was promptness itself at the +ringing of every bell, and seemed the personification of Herbert's +servant, in making "drudgery divine"--for truly, + + "Who sweeps a room as to Thy laws, + Makes that and the action fine!" + +It was while at Hiram Institute that he formed the habit of taking +critical notes from all the books he read. It proved of invaluable +service to him in after years, for no matter upon what topic he desired +to speak, these indexes served as so many finger-posts in his library, +and directed him at once to the subject-matter in hand. + +All this time the moral and religious faculties of the young student +were developing no less rapidly than his intellectual powers. At the +frequent meetings of the Disciples he was a ready speaker, and his +earnest appeals are remembered to this day by his school-mates. Every +one seemed to think, as a matter of course, that he would become a +preacher in the Church of the Disciples, but, as the months went by, he +seemed disinclined to express any decision upon that point. + +The Debating Club at Hiram called out his best powers. His practice at +Geauga had fitted him to express his opinions upon whatever subject +might be under discussion, in the clearest and most impressive manner. +At one time the contest over some public question became so bitter and +excited that James finally rose and declared he would no longer waste +his time over such nonsensical things as the majority proposed. A +division of the club was the final result, and James was chosen +president of the new society. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Ready for College.--His Uncle lends him Five Hundred + Dollars.--Why he Decides to go to Williams.--College Life. + + +After spending three years at Hiram in faithful, persistent study, James +felt he was prepared to enter the junior class at almost any college. +But how was he to procure the means to carry on his studies? Thus far he +had defrayed all his expenses by his own exertions as janitor, +carpenter, and teacher; but, to enter college, he would need a little +money in advance. His proud, independent spirit shrank from borrowing +even from his friends. At last, he went to his uncle, Thomas Garfield, +and asked for the use of five hundred dollars until he could earn enough +money by teaching to pay it back. + +His uncle Thomas had always shown a kindly interest in his efforts to +obtain an education, and now gladly advanced him the sum he desired. In +order to make sure the payment in case of his death, James procured a +policy upon his life to the value of five hundred dollars, and presented +it to his uncle. + +He had now, as he thought, the necessary means to enter college, but +which of the many inviting doors should he enter? Every one seemed to +take it for granted that he would go to Bethany College; which was under +the patronage of his own denomination, but, in a letter to a friend, he +gave his final decision as follows:-- + +"After thinking it all over, I have made up my mind to go to +Williamstown, Mass.... There are three reasons why I have decided not to +go to Bethany:--1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough +as in eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. +3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but +little acquaintance with people of other views; and having always lived +in the West, I think it will make me more liberal both in my religious +and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall +be under new influence. Therefore, I wrote to the presidents of Brown +University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had +done, and asking how long it would take me to finish their course. + +"Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two +years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins +concludes with this sentence: 'If you come here we shall be glad to do +what we can for you.' Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, +which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled +that question for me. I shall start for Williams next week." + +It was at the close of the summer term in 1854 that James presented +himself before President Hopkins for examination. He is described at +this time "as a tall, awkward youth, with a great shock of light hair, +rising nearly erect from a broad, high forehead, and an open, kindly, +and thoughtful face, which showed no traces of his long struggle with +poverty and privation." + +He passed the examination without difficulty, and soon became a great +favorite with his class in spite of his shabby clothes and Western +provincialisms. "Old Gar" and the "Ohio giant" were the names by which +he was best known in college, and a classmate says of him that "he +immediately took a stand above all his companions for accurate +scholarship, and won high honors as a writer, reasoner, and debater." + +The beautiful, mountainous scenery about Williamstown was a constant +delight to the young Westerner. He would frequently climb to the top of +Greylock and feast his eyes upon the magnificent panorama below. He was +no longer obliged to work at the carpenter's bench, or perform the +duties of janitor, and these long walks gave him needful exercise as +well as pleasant recreation. + +President Hopkins became greatly interested in the earnest, +enthusiastic student. The "friendly hand-grasp" was extended to him in +many ways, and, when the summer vacation came, he offered him the free +use of the college library. + +James gladly availed himself of this privilege, and browsed among the +books to his heart's content. It was the first time in his life that he +had ever found leisure to read the works of Shakespeare, consecutively. +During the summer vacation he not only read and thoroughly studied the +plays, but committed large portions of them to memory. He also varied +his heavier reading with works of fiction, allowing himself one novel a +month. Dickens and Thackeray were favorite authors, and Tennyson's poems +were read with ever-increasing pleasure. + +He completed his classical studies the first year he was at +Williamstown, as he had entered far in advance of the other pupils. He +then took up German as an elective study, and, in the space of a few +months, had made such rapid progress that he could read Goethe and +Schiller, and converse with fluency. + +In the "Williams Quarterly," a magazine published by the students, James +took great interest, and was a frequent contributor both in prose and +poetry. + +The following poem, entitled "Memory," he wrote the last year he was at +Williams College:-- + + "'Tis beauteous night, the stars look brightly down + Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow, + No light gleams at the window save my own, + Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me + And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes, + And leads me gently through her twilight realms + What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, + Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed + The enchanted shadowy land where Memory dwells? + It has its valleys, cheerless lone and drear, + Dark shaded by the mournful cypress tree, + And yet its sunlit mountain tops are bathed + In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, + Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, + Are clustered joys serene of other days, + Upon its gently sloping hillsides bend + The weeping willows o'er the sacred dust + Of dear departed ones, and yet in that land, + Whene'er our footsteps fall upon the shore, + They that were sleeping rise from out the dust + Of death's long silent years, and round us stand, + As erst they did before the prison tomb + Received their clay within its voiceless halls + The heavens that bend above that land are hung + With clouds of various hues some dark and chill + Surcharged with sorrow, cast then sombre shade + Upon the sunny, joyous land below, + Others are floating through the dreamy air, + White as the falling snow their margins tinged + With gold and crimson hues, then shadows fall + Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes, + Soft as the shadows of angel's wing + When the rough battle of the day is done. + And evening's peace falls gently on the heart, + I bound away across the noisy years, + Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land, + Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet, + And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins; + Where woke the first-remembered sounds that fell + Upon the ear in childhood's early morn; + And wandering thence, along the rolling years, + I see the shadow of my former self + Gliding from childhood up to man's estate. + The path of youth winds down through many a vale + And on the brink of many a dread abyss, + From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, + Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf, + And beckons toward the verge. Again the path + Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall; + And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, + Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along." + +He was also a prominent member of the Philologian Society, of which he +was afterwards elected president. + +While James was at Williamstown, the anti-slavery contest was at a white +heat. Charles Sumner had aroused the whole nation by his stirring, +eloquent speeches in Congress; and when the tidings came of the attack +made upon him by Preston Brooks of South Carolina, indignation meetings +were held everywhere throughout the North. At the gathering in +Williamstown, Garfield made a most powerful speech, denouncing slavery +in the strongest terms. + +"Hurrah for 'Old Gar!'" exclaimed his classmates; "the country will hear +from him yet!" + +When the fall term closed, James looked about for some position as +teacher, and finally opened a writing-school in Pownal, Vermont. This +brought him in quite a sum of money, and enlarged his circle of +acquaintance. His sunny disposition, his energy, his warm-hearted, +sympathetic nature, made him a great favorite wherever he went, and +President Hopkins, writing of him at this time, says,-- + +"He was prompt, frank, manly, social, in his tendencies; combining +active exercise with habits of study, and thus did for himself what it +is the object of a college to enable every young man to do,--he made +himself a MAN." + +Professor, now President, Chadbourne adds his testimony as follows:-- + + "The college life of James Garfield was so perfect, so + rounded, so pure, so in accordance with what it ought to be + in all respects, that I can add nothing to it by eulogizing + him. It was a noble college life; everything about him was + high and noble and manly. He was one whom his teachers would + never suspect as guilty of a dishonest or mean act, and one + whom a dishonest or mean man would not approach. His moral + and religious character, and marked intellectual ability, + gave great promise of success in the world." + +At the end of his first collegiate year, James visited his mother, who +was then living with her married daughter in Solon, Ohio. What a tall, +manly fellow he had grown to be! What a power he would be in the church, +in the world! Her heart was full of grateful joy as she realized how +abundantly God had answered her earnest prayers. + +The next winter vacation James taught a school in Poestenkill, a little +village some six miles from Troy, N.Y. There was a Church of the +Disciples in the place, and James was a frequent attendant at the +conference meetings. His able remarks and earnest exhortations excited +so much comment that the pastor, Mr. Streeter, invited him to occupy his +pulpit. After hearing him preach once, the people declared that they +must hear him again, and so it came about that almost every Sunday found +the young student in the desk. + +"He will become the most noted preacher in the Disciples' Church," said +his friends and classmates. + +One day a certain Mr. Brooks, belonging to the school committee at Troy, +called upon him and said,-- + + "Our high school needs a new teacher, Mr. Garfield, and we + want you to supply the vacancy. You will not find it a + difficult position, and we will pay you a salary of twelve + hundred dollars." + +It was a tempting offer, and would relieve James at once of the +pecuniary difficulties that hung like weights about his feet. After +taking some days to consider the matter, he finally said to Mr. +Brooks,-- + +"Much as I need the money, I feel it would not be right for me to accept +the position. It would prevent me from finishing my college course, and +so cramp me, intellectually, for life. Then, again, I feel under some +obligation to Hiram Institute, where the trustees expect me to return. +My roots seem to be fixed in Ohio, and the transplanting might not +succeed; it is best for me to complete my studies here, and then return +to my homework, even for smaller pay." + +Abiding by this decision, James applied himself to his books with +renewed energy. President Hopkins had established the metaphysical +oration as the highest honor of the class, and James' essay upon "The +Seen and the Unseen" bore off the palm. + +He graduated in August, 1856, and among the forty-two members that +composed his class, are a number of names that have since won an +enviable distinction. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Return Home.--Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram + Institute.--His Popularity as a Teacher.--Answers Prof. + Denton.--Marriage. + + +Upon his return home, Garfield was immediately appointed Professor of +Ancient Languages and Literature at Hiram Institute. Writing to a friend +at this time, he says,-- + +"I have attained to the height of my ambition. I have my diploma from an +eastern college, and my position here at Hiram as instructor; and now I +shall devote all my energies to this Institution." + +The following year, upon the resignation of A. L. Hayden, Garfield was +appointed President of Hiram Institute. He was now twenty-six years of +age, and one of his pupils writing of him at this time, says,-- + +"He was a tall, strong man, full of animal spirits, and many a time he +used to run out on the green and play cricket with us. He combined an +affectionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most +successful manner. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof +or approbation, he would generally manage to get one arm around him and +draw him close up to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, +giving a twist to your arm and drawing you right up to him. This +sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. He took very kindly to +me, and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor and was janitor +of the buildings, and swept them out in the morning, and built the fires +as he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil at the same +school. + +"Once when he assigned me a task that I feared was beyond my powers, I +said,-- + +"'I am afraid I cannot do that.' + +"'What!' he exclaimed, 'you are not going to give up without trying! It +seems to me, Darsie, when one is in a place he can easily fill, it is +time for him to shove out of it into one that requires his utmost +exertion.'" + +The present principal at Hiram, President Hinsdale, was one of +Garfield's pupils, and it was through his advice and constant +encouragement that the struggling student undertook the work of a +liberal education. + +"Tell me," he writes Hinsdale, "do you not feel a spirit stirring within +you that longs to _know, to do, and to dare_, to hold converse with the +great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble object +to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may be +given? Do you not have longings like these which you breathe to no one, +and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life +unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will +forever cling around your heart till you obey their mandate.... God has +endowed some of His children with desires and capabilities for an +extended field of labor and influence, and every life should be shaped +according to 'what the man hath.' _I know_ you have capabilities for +occupying positions of high and important trust in the scenes of active +life. I sincerely hope you will not, without an earnest struggle, give +up a course of liberal study." + +Hinsdale, as we all know, followed the advice of his earnest, +sympathetic teacher, and is now ranked among the foremost scholars of +the day. + +A favorite mode of instruction with Garfield was by means of lectures. + +"They were upon all sorts of subjects," writes one of his pupils, "and +were usually the result of his readings and observation. One season he +took a pleasure trip, and, on his return, gave a very interesting series +on 'The Chain of Lakes,' including Niagara, The Thousand Isles, and +sub-historic points. One lecture on ærolites I shall never forget. About +the time of the attack on Fort Sumter, he gave several lectures upon +'Ordnance'; and the natural sciences, æsthetics, etc., always came in +for a share of his effective treatment." + +At one time a certain Prof. Denton, who was a strong advocate of +spiritualism, gave a series of lectures in Northern Ohio, by which he +attempted to prove the inaccuracy of the Scriptures. He was something of +a scholar, and stated his theories in so plausible a manner that many +weak minds were misled. At last he became so bold that he offered a +challenge to any and every believer of the Bible in Ohio to refute his +statements. + +The Churches of the Disciples were greatly troubled. Many of their young +men were falling away, and the false doctrines were gaining a rapid +ascendancy throughout the community. They must have a strong champion, +who could meet Professor Denton with sharp weapons upon his own ground. +They applied to Garfield, who, after some persuasion, finally agreed to +meet the professor upon the appointed evening and take up his challenge. +He had only three days to prepare for the contest, but, selecting six of +his most advanced students, he told them the plan of argument he had +devised, and then sent them to the college library to look up the +separate points. He also procured copies of all the previous lectures +that Professor Denton had delivered, and sent in various directions for +the latest scientific works. When the evening came he was thoroughly +prepared at every point. A large and excited audience had gathered to +hear the discussion. Professor Denton opened the debate. Supposing his +opponent would not dare to attack him on scientific ground, he neglected +to be precisely accurate in all his statements. Garfield waited until he +had finished, and then, with overwhelming authority, took up each point +of the discussion and refuted all the Professor's arguments with the +very weapons he had himself been using. It was a complete victory, and +Professor Denton had the manliness to acknowledge that he had never +before met with so gifted and powerful an adversary. + +As the Institute at Hiram was under the special patronage of the +Disciples, a large number of the students in attendance were young men +who were fitting for the ministry. Garfield's position, therefore, as +principal, gave him a close connection with church-work. He was a +preacher as well as a teacher, and at one time filled the pulpits at +Solon and Newberg every Sunday. At the morning devotions it was his +custom to deliver a short, impressive address; his favorite hymn at +these services was, "Ho, reapers of life's harvest," and his pupils +recall how, at the singing of the last verse, he would always rap upon +his desk and request the whole school to rise. He frequently preached at +the Disciples' Church in Hiram, and everyone believed that he would +eventually choose the ministry for his profession. + +Lucretia Rudolph, the bright, attractive school-mate to whom his +thoughts had so often reverted, was now a teacher at Hiram. They had +corresponded all the time he was in college, their long friendship had +ripened into a deep and tender love, and on the 11th of November, 1858, +they were united in marriage. + +A poet-student at Hiram celebrates the event in the following ode:-- + + "_Again_ a Mary? Nay, _Lucretia_; + The noble, classic name + That well befits our fair ladie, + Our sweet and gentle dame + With heart as leal and loving + As e'er was sung in lays + Of high-born Roman nation, + In old, heroic days; + Worthy her lord illustrious, whom + Honor and fame attend; + Worthy her soldier's name to wear. + Worthy the civic wreath to share + That binds her Viking's tawny hair; + Right proud are we the world should know + As hers, him whom we long ago + Found truest helper, friend." + +In a humble little cottage, just in front of the college campus, they +began their wedded life,--a life whose wonderful beauty, strength, and +devotion was soon to be seen and known of all the world. + +Mrs. Garfield became as great a favorite in the college as her husband. +One of the graduates thus writes:-- + +"There are men and women scattered over the United States, holding +positions of honor and wealth, who began the life that led them upward +by the advice and with the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Garfield." + +The wife was always the ready and efficient helpmeet of her husband. +Whenever he had a lecture or speech to prepare, she would search the +whole library, consulting every book that pertained to the subject in +hand, and then together they would discuss the topic from every point of +view. One, in every thought and purpose, their quiet life at Hiram +presented the same beautiful home picture that after honors could never +dim nor tarnish. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Law Studies.--Becomes Interested in Politics.--Delivers + Oration at the Williams Commencement.--Elected State + Senator.--His Courage and Eloquence. + + +Shortly after his marriage, Garfield entered his name in the law office +of Riddle and Williamson, attorneys in Cleveland, Ohio, as a student of +law. This formality was necessary in order to ensure admission to the +bar. It was not here, however, that he studied, and for a long time his +friends knew nothing of the step he had taken. After his hours of +teaching, at odd moments through the day, and often far into the night, +he pored over his law-books with the same intensity of purpose he had +shown in all his other undertakings. + +It was his patriotic interest in the measures which were then before the +legislature of Ohio that first led him to take up a critical study of +law. He always wanted to go to the bottom of things, and his college +training under President Hopkins had developed a wonderful power of +synopsizing. In entering upon a course of law studies, it was not so +much with the thought of becoming a lawyer, as to make himself +conversant with the principles of law. When, however, he was admitted +to the bar, he was so thoroughly equipped for practice, that he could go +into courts of any grade and try the most intricate cases. + +In later years a friend said of him:-- + +"Had Garfield gone to the bar for a living, his gift of oratory, his +strong analytical powers, and his ability to do hard work, would soon +have made him eminent. In the few law cases he took during vacation +seasons he held his own with some of the best lawyers of the country. In +one of them his ability to grasp successfully with an unexpected +situation was signally demonstrated. The case was tried in Mobile, and +involved the ownership of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Garfield had +prepared himself upon an important and difficult question of law +involved, and felt a comfortable sense of readiness for the trial; but +after he reached Mobile the court ordered the consolidation of three +suits concerning the road, and the question upon which he had prepared +himself passed wholly out of sight; and, as he wrote to a friend, 'the +whole entanglement of an insolvent railroad twenty-five years old, lying +across four states and costing $20,000,000, came upon us at once.' He +was assigned the duty of summing up the case for his side. During the +trial he did five days and five nights of the hardest work he ever did +in his life. Then he made his argument and won the case." + +It will be remembered that when at college, Garfield always took an +active part in political discussions, although he did not cast a vote +until four years after his majority. At that time the new Republican +party was formed on the anti-slavery platform, with Fremont and Dayton +as their candidates. Garfield heartily sympathized with this party that +"drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which God has +lighted in every human heart," and from that time forward became its +earnest and ready champion. During the campaign of 1856 he was +constantly called upon for speeches and lectures. A pupil at Hiram at +that time says:-- + +"He would attend to his duties at the Institute through the day, jump +into a buggy at night, taking me or some other student to keep him +company, put his arm around me, talk all the way to the place where the +meeting was to be held, be it ten or twenty miles. It would not be +conversation on politics, but on history, general literature, or some +great principle. He was always welcomed upon the platform, and after +speaking would return, taking up the theme we had dropped, getting home +in the small hours in the morning. + +"At nine o'clock the next day he would be in the school as fresh as +ever. When Sunday came he would have a sermon as fresh and vigorous as +if it had been the study of the week. All the while he was carrying on +the study of law and attending to the duties incumbent on him as the +president of the Institute, keeping up a course of general reading, and +his acquaintance with the classics." + +In 1859, only three years after his graduation, the faculty of Williams +College honored Garfield with an invitation to deliver the master's +oration at Commencement. The able, brilliant speaker was constantly in +demand, and he won fresh laurels wherever he went. + +Upon his return to Ohio, he found to his surprise that his name had been +proposed in Portage county for the state senatorship. The unanimous +support he received was very gratifying, yet his first thought was of +the Institute. + +"You will be away but a few weeks at a time," said the trustees; "your +influence is greatly needed at the Capitol, and Hiram must be content to +wait." + +So, after much persuasion, Garfield accepted the nomination, and the +Institute jealously kept his name, though deprived of his presence. + +It was in January, 1860, that Garfield first took his seat in the state +senate. Secession and a civil war seemed imminent, but the North +continued strong and steadfast in its denunciations against slavery. +Garfield, scarcely thirty years of age at this time, was the youngest +member of the senate. Jacob D. Cox, another radical member, and +Professor Monroe of Oberlin College, were his intimate friends, and +zealous coadjutors. The 'radical triumvirate,' they were called by the +opposite party, and when the constitutional amendment which would give +the slave states the continuation of slavery, was submitted to the Ohio +legislature, Garfield led the brave minority with marked ability and +courage. + +In less than ten years from the time he visited Columbus with his +mother, he had become one of the most prominent members of the state +senate! + +The following extract from the Fourth of July oration he delivered that +year at Ravenna gives us a passing glimpse of his patriotic eloquence-- + +"The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety. Trees may +flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while +silently the trickling rain-drops are filling the deep cavern behind its +rocky barriers, which, by-and-by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild +ruin its treacherous peace. It is true that in our land there is no such +outer quiet, no such deceitful repose. Here society is a restless and +surging sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the wave, is forever +in our ears. Even the angry hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But +there is an understratum of deep, calm sea, which the breath of the +wildest tempest can never reach. There is, deep down in the hearts of +the American people, a strong and abiding love of our country and its +liberty, which no surface-storms of passion can ever shake. That kind of +instability which arises from a free movement and interchange of +position among the members of society, which brings one drop up to +glisten for a time in the crest of the highest wave, and then gives +place to another while it goes down to mingle again with the millions +below, such instability is the surest pledge of permanence. On such +instability the eternal fixedness of the universe is based. Each planet, +in its circling orbit, returns to the god of its departure, and on the +balance of these wildly rolling spheres God has planted the base of His +mighty works. So the hope of our national perpetuity rests upon that +perfect individual freedom, which shall forever keep up the circuit of +perpetual change. God forbid that the waters of our national life should +ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the +stagnation of death--the ocean grave of individual liberty." + +Garfield was elected to a second term in the senate, and among the +difficult questions he was obliged to discuss the following year that of +"State Rights" was one of the most perplexing. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + War declared between the North and South.--Garfield forms a + regiment from the Western Reserve.--Is appointed + Colonel.--General Buell's Order.--Garfield takes charge of + the 18th Brigade.--Jordan's perilous journey.--Bradley + Brown.--Plan of a Campaign.--March against Marshall. + + +The Ohio legislature was still in session when, upon that +never-to-be-forgotten April day, in 1861, Fort Sumter received the first +rebel shot. The news was quickly followed by a call from President +Lincoln for seventy-five thousand men. This, proclamation was read in +the Ohio senate, and amid deafening applause, Garfield immediately +sprang to his feet, and moved that Ohio should contribute twenty +thousand men and three million dollars as the quota of the state. + +Although the preservation of the Union was the first thought that +presented itself to the minds of the people, another and deeper +impulse--the overthrow of slavery--filled their hearts and nerved their +hands for the coming conflict. + +To his old pupil, Mr. Hinsdale, Garfield writes-- + +"My heart and thought are full almost every moment with the terrible +reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look +upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible +here, that the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be +any breaking up of our institutions; but stern, awful certainty is +fastening upon the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a +miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its attendant +horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed I cannot +say that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by +the South would be hypocritical and sinful; they would neither be obeyed +nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one +of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no +remission." + +Garfield, always as quick to act as to speak, immediately offered his +services to Gov. Dennison, who at once sent him to Missouri to obtain +five thousand stands of arms that General Lyon had placed there. + +These having been safely shipped to Columbus, Gov. Dennison then sent +Garfield to Cleveland to organize the seventh and eighth regiments of +Ohio infantry. He would have appointed him colonel of one of them, but +Garfield, with his usual modesty, declined because he had had no +military experience. He agreed, however, to take a subordinate position +if he could serve under a West Point graduate. + +The governor then appointed him lieutenant-colonel, and commissioned him +to raise a regiment from the Western Reserve. He hoped to have his old +schoolmate, Captain Hazen, of the regular army, for colonel, but when +the governor sent on for his transfer, General Scott refused to release +him. + +Meanwhile, the Hiram students had laid aside their books, and flocked +with patriotic ardor to the standard of their old leader. The greater +part of this forty-second regiment, indeed, was made up of Campbellites, +whose noble self-sacrifice in the days that followed will never be +forgotten. + +When the regiment went into camp at Columbus it was still without a +colonel. Again the governor begged Garfield to assume the command, and +after repeated requests he finally consented. + +After making the decision, he wrote thus to a friend:-- + +"One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are +found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give +place to the new structure of military life. It is not without a regret, +almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, as the +result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of thousands +of American citizens, we can see on the ruins of our own national errors +a new and enduring fabric arise, based on a larger freedom and higher +justice it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented +with such a prospect, and, regarding my life as given to the country, am +only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage upon +it is foreclosed." + +Great noble heart! How grand and pathetic these words seem to-day as we +read them in the light of the last sad tragedy! + +The Forty-second regiment did not leave for the South until the middle +of September. It was then ordered to join General Buell's forces at +Louisville. While in camp near Columbus, Garfield applied himself to the +study of military tactics. With his carpenter's tools he cut out of some +maple blocks a whole regiment, and with these ingenious marionnettes he +mastered the art of infantry. Then, forming a school for his officers, +he required regular recitations in military tactics and illustrated the +different movements of an army by means of his blocks. After this he +could easily institute all sorts of drills, and his regiment soon gained +the reputation of being the best disciplined in Ohio. + +When the regiment reached Cincinnati, a telegram was received from +General Buell, requesting a personal interview with Colonel Garfield. +The latter hastened on to Louisville and presented himself at the +General's headquarters, the following evening. + +Looking the young colonel through and through with his clear, piercing +eye, General Buell took down a map, and pointed out the position of +Humphrey Marshall's forces in East Kentucky. He then marked the +locations where the Union's troops were posted, described the country, +capabilities, etc., and said to his visitor,-- + +"If you were in command of the sub-department of Eastern Kentucky, what +would you do? Come here at nine o'clock to-morrow morning and tell me." + +Garfield went back to his hotel, found a map of Kentucky, the latest +census report, etc., and then with paper, pen, and ink, sat down to his +problem. When daylight came he was still at work, but nine o'clock found +him at General Buell's headquarters with the sketch of his plans all +completed. + +The elder officer read it, and immediately made it the foundation of a +special order by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was +organized, and Colonel Garfield was made its commander. + +Soon after, the new brigadier received his letter of instructions from +General Buell, which was in substance an order to unite in the face of +the enemy two small companies of soldiers that were stationed far apart, +and drive the rebel General Marshall out of Kentucky. + +Garfield set out for Catlettsburg without delay, and found his regiment +had gone on to the little town of Louisa, some twenty-eight miles up the +Big Sandy river. + +The whole surrounding country was in a great state of excitement. The +Fourteenth Kentucky regiment had been stationed at Louisa, but hearing +that Marshall with all his forces was closely following them, they had +hastily retreated to the mouth of the Big Sandy. + +On the day before Christmas, Garfield joined his troops at Louisa, much +to the relief of the terror-stricken citizens, who were just preparing +to cross the river to find a place of safety. + +The young commander had two very important and difficult things to +accomplish. First, he must communicate with Colonel Cranor; then he must +unite his own forces to that officer's, in the face of a greatly +superior enemy that could, and probably would, swoop down upon them as +soon as they made the least movement. + +Going to Colonel Moore of the Fourteenth Kentucky, he said,-- + +"I want a man who is not afraid to take his life in his hand for the +saving of his country." + +"There is John Jordan from the head of Blaine," was the reply, "I think +we could rely upon him." + +Jordan was immediately sent for, and, notwithstanding his uncanny +appearance, Garfield was at once prepossessed in his favor. He was tall +and lank, with hollow cheeks and a curious squeaking voice. Born and +bred among the Kentucky hills, he was rough and untutored, but his +clear, gray eyes showed an unflinching courage and a downright honesty, +that Garfield read with unerring intuition. + +"Are you willing to risk your life for the country?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, sir!" was the ready response. "When I volunteered, I gave up +my life for jest what it was wuth. If the Lord sees fit to make use of +it now, I'm willin' He should take it." + +"Do you mean you have come into the war not expecting to get out of it?" + +"Yes, gin'ral, that's how I meant it." + +"And are you willing to die rather than give up this despatch?" + +"That's the gospel truth, gin'ral." + +"Well, then, I think I can trust it with you." + +So saying, Garfield rolled up into the form of a bullet the tissue-paper +on which the despatch was written; he then coated it with warm lead and +gave it to Jordan. He also gave him a carbine, a brace of revolvers, and +the swiftest horse in the regiment. + +The dangerous journey was to be taken only by night, and in the day-time +the messenger was to hide in the woods. + +It was just at midnight of the second day when Jordan reached Colonel +Cranor's quarters at McCormick's Gap with his precious bullet. + +Upon opening the despatch the colonel found it was dated Louisa, Dec. +24th. The order read to move his regiment as soon as possible to +Prestonburg, to take as little baggage and as few rations as possible, +as the safety of his command would depend upon his expedition. Hours +were worth months at such a time; and early on the following morning +Colonel Cranor's regiment was on the move. It consisted of one thousand +one hundred men, while Garfield's larger division numbered about +seventeen hundred. The enemy, under Gen. Marshall, were stationed with +the main body of their forces near Paintville; but a company of eight +hundred were at West Liberty, a town directly on the route by which +Colonel Cranor was to join General Garfield. It was a hazardous +expedition, but the brigadier colonel knew he must obey orders. + +On the morning after Jordan's departure for Cranor's camp, Garfield set +out with his men and halted at George's Creek, which was only twenty +miles from Marshall's intrenched position at Paintville. The roads along +the Big Sandy were impassable for trains, so Garfield decided to depend +upon boats to transport his supplies. At this time of the year, however, +the stream was very uncertain, as heavy freshets often rendered +navigation impossible for a number of days. + +Garfield, however, was used to contending with difficulties, and was not +easily discouraged. Taking ten days' rations, he chartered two small +steamboats and all the flat boats he could find, and loaded them with +provisions. + +Next morning, just as they were starting, one of the soldiers came up to +Garfield and said,-- + +"There's a rough-looking man out here, colonel, who says he must see +you." + +Garfield stepped forward, and immediately recognized in the +disreputable-looking tramp before him, Bradley Brown, one of his old +companions on the canal boat. + +It seemed that he belonged to the rebel army, and had heard a few days +previous that Garfield, for whom he had always cherished a strong +affection, was commanding the Union forces in that part of Kentucky. + +Going to Marshall he told him of his former acquaintance with Garfield, +and the help it might now prove to them if he should enter the camp and +find out all about the Union forces. Marshall was entirely deceived by +the plausibility of Brown's argument, never once dreaming that the +tables might be turned upon himself. + +Brown's real purpose was to warn Garfield of the rebel's strength and +purpose, and he desired, above all things, to serve in the ranks of his +old benefactor. He was just the man that the Union army wanted for a +scout, and Garfield, when assured of his loyalty, employed him to +reconnoitre through the mountain borders of Virginia. + +The safe return of Jordan the following day, after many hairbreadth +escapes, encouraged Garfield to organize a "secret service," which +Rosecrans used to call "the eyes of the army." + +It was a long, wearisome march for the Union forces, but on the sixth of +January, 1862, they arrived within six miles of Paintville. While they +were halting there, a messenger arrived from General Buell with an +intercepted letter of Marshall's to his wife. It disclosed the fact that +the rebels had four thousand four hundred infantry and six hundred +cavalry, and that they were daily expecting an onslaught of ten thousand +from the Union forces. + +Garfield assembled a council of his officers. + +"What shall we do?" he said. "Is it better to march at once, or wait for +Cranor and his forces?" + +All but one of the officers declared it was better to wait, but that one +said: "Let us move on at once--our fourteen hundred can whip ten +thousand rebels." + +Garfield paused a moment, as if in deep reflection. Then he exclaimed, +"Well, forward it is. Give the order." + +There were three roads that led down to the enemy's intrenchment. One of +these was a river road upon the western bank; another was a very +winding road and came in at the mouth of Jenny's Creek: the third and +most direct lay between the others, but it was very difficult to pass +because of the intervening ridges. + +In order to mislead Marshall as to the real strength of his forces, +Garfield ordered a small division of his infantry to approach by the +river road, drive in the enemy's pickets, and then move rapidly after +them, as if preparing an attack upon Paintville. A similar force was +sent off two hours later along the mountain road. A third detachment was +ordered to take the road at the mouth of Jenny's creek. + +The result of this strategy was just what Garfield had foreseen. When +the pickets on the first route were attacked, they hurried back to +Paintville in great confusion, and sent word to Marshall that the Union +army was coming up by the river road. A large detachment of the rebel +forces was at once dispatched to this point, but, by the time they +reached them, the tidings had come that Garfield's forces were +approaching by the mountain road. The rebel general then countermanded +his first order, only to find his pickets had been attacked at another +point. Finally, in utter confusion, they abandoned Paintville and fled +to the fortified camp, declaring that the whole Union army was in hot +pursuit. + +Garfield immediately pushed forward and took possession of Paintville. +This was on the afternoon of January 8th. Later in the evening, a rebel +spy came to Marshall's camp and told him that Cranor, with three +thousand three hundred men, was within twelve hours' march to the +westward. + +The rebel general naturally concluded that he was to be attacked by a +band of Union forces far outnumbering his own. He therefore broke up +camp and retreated so hastily that he was obliged to leave behind a +large quantity of his supplies. + +At nine o'clock in the evening, Garfield, with a thousand of his men, +took possession of the deserted camp, and waited there for the arrival +of Cranor. + +Next morning Cranor arrived, but his men were so tired and footsore they +seemed in no condition for making an attack. Garfield, however, knew +that the time had come for a decisive challenge, and so he ordered to +the front all who were able to march. Eleven hundred,--and four hundred +of these were from Cranor's exhausted ranks--obeyed the call, and +hastened after Marshall and his retreating army. + +The Union forces had marched about eighteen miles when they came to the +mouth of Abbott's Creek, three miles below Prestonburg. Here Garfield +learned that Marshall and his army were encamping on the same stream +some three miles distant. As it was then nine o'clock in the evening he +ordered his men to put up their tents, and then he sent a messenger back +to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who had been left in command at +Paintville, and ordered him to bring up the remainder of the army as +soon as possible. + +The whole night he spent in reconnoitring about the country, so eager +was he to know the exact arrangement of Marshall's troops and the +probable contingencies of a battle. + +Jordan's ride through the enemy's country had been of invaluable service +to him. Marshall had strongly posted his army on a semi-circular hill at +the forks of Middle Creek, and was quietly waiting there in ambuscade +for the approach of the Union forces. + +It was a chill night, and a driving rain added to the cheerlessness of +the dreary bivouac in the valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Opening of Hostilities--Brave Charge of the Hiram + Students--Giving the Rebels "Hail Columbia"--Sheldon's + Reinforcement--The Rebel Commander Falls--His Army Retreats + in Confusion. + + +With the first glimmer of light in the east, Garfield's men begin their +march down into the valley. As the advance guard turns a jutting ridge, +it is fired upon by a company of rebel horsemen. Instantly Garfield +forms his soldiers into a hollow square, and a heavy volley from their +rifles drives the enemy back. + +Marshall and his whole army must be close by, but to find out their +exact position, Garfield sends forward a reconnoitring party. Suddenly a +twelve-pound shell whirs above the tree-tops, and tears up the ground at +their feet. But the mounted company of twelve go bravely forward; and as +they sweep around a curve in the road, another shell whistles past them, +and they can hear in the distance a threatening rumble. + +The enemy's position is at once clearly defined. The main body of their +army is posted upon the top of two ridges at the left of Middle Creek, +but there is also a strong detachment upon the right, with a battery of +heavy artillery to hold the forks of the stream. Marshall's plan is to +draw the Union forces down into the narrow rocky road along the Creek, +where between two fires, he knows it will be an easy matter to hem them +in and utterly destroy the whole number. + +But Garfield, with his quick intuition, takes in the situation at a +glance. He immediately orders a hundred of his Hiram students to cross +the stream, climb the ridge where the firing has been most frequent, and +open the battle. + +Bravely the little company plunge into the icy stream, and clinging to +the low underbrush, begin the perilous ascent. A shower of bullets from +two thousand rifles is falling all around them, but nothing daunted, +they press onward till the summit is reached. Then, from every side the +deadly shots are hurled, and, for a moment, the little band begin to +waver. + +"Every man to a tree!" shouts the leader, Captain Williams. "Give them +as good as they send, boys!" + +The word passes from lip to lip, and instantly from behind the great +oaks and maples, they take their stand, and open a volley of fire upon +the rebels. This is followed by a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonets, +and little by little, the brave boys are driven back. + +"To the trees again!" cries the leader, "we may as well die here as in +Ohio!" + +One of the Hiram students, a lad of eighteen, is shot through the thigh, +and a confederate soldier passing by says to him,-- + +"Here, boy, give me your musket." "Not the gun, but its contents," he +replies, and in another instant the rebel lies dead at his feet. His +companion takes up a weapon to kill the brave young student, but the +latter seizes the dead man's rifle and, with unerring aim, fells him to +the ground. + +When his comrades bear him away to the camp, and a surgeon tells him +that the wounded limb must be amputated, his only words are: "Oh, what +will mother do?" + +The story of the noble lad--Charles Carlton of Franklin, Ohio,--is told +in the Ohio Senate, two weeks later, and a statute is immediately framed +to make provision for the widows and mothers of our soldiers. + +A hundred men like young Carlton present a steady resistance to the +enemy's fire, but Garfield watching them from a rocky height, realizes +their perilous situation and exclaims,-- + +"They will surely be driven back, they will lose the hill unless +supported." + +Instantly, five hundred of the Ohio Fortieth and Forty-second, under +Major Pardee and General Cranor, are ordered forward. + +"Hurrah for Captain Williams and his Hiram boys!" they shout, as they +ford the stream, holding their cartridge-boxes high above their heads. +But the fire of four thousand muskets fall upon them and though,-- + + "Bravely they fight and well, + Stormed at with shot and shell," + +the unequal contest is quickly noted by the Union commander. + +"This will never do," he exclaims. "Who will volunteer to carry the +crest of the mountain?" + +"Let _us_ go forward," cries Colonel Monroe, of the Twenty-second +Kentucky, "we know every inch of the ground." + +"Go in, then," says Garfield, "and give them 'Hail Columbia!'" + +Crossing the stream a little lower down, they mount the ridge to the +left, and in ten minutes are face to face with the rebel army. + +"Don't shoot till you see the eyes of your enemy," shouts the colonel, +and although the men have never been in battle before, they are as cool +and calm as their commander. + +Five hundred against five thousand! It was a fearful contest, equalled +only by the famous charge of the "Light Brigade." + + "Cannon to right of them, + Cannon to left of them, + Cannon in front of them, + Volleyed and thundered!" + +And Garfield, standing upon a rock scarred with bullets, watched and +waited for Sheldon's reinforcements, until, fearing the little band +would be forced to retreat, he turned to the company held back as +reserves, threw his military cloak into a tree, and exclaimed,-- + +"Come on, boys! It is _our_ turn now to give them 'Hail Columbia'!" And +then, as the ballad tells the story,-- + + "He led, they followed, spreading wide + Among the rebels routed; + From rank to rank, in liberal gift, + The self-same thing he shouted." + +The short winter's day was almost over. Hotter and hotter raged the +battle, but the Union forces, in spite of their inferior number, were +constantly gaining ground. They seemed infused with the indomitable +spirit of their commander. Their coolness and intrepidity gave added +power to every shot, while the enemy, not understanding the difficulty +of firing "down hill," frequently missed aim and let their bullets fall +harmlessly upon the tree-tops, or far beyond the mark. + +At this juncture, Dr. Pomerene, the surgeon of the Ohio Forty-second, +saw a gleam of muskets in the distance. Hatless and excited, he mounted +a fleet horse, crossed the stream, and hurried on to ascertain, what +colors were borne by the coming troops. The glorious star-spangled +banner met his eyes, and, drawing nearer, he saluted Colonel Sheldon +with the longed-for reinforcements. + +"For God's sake, hurry!" he cried, "or the boys on the other side will +be captured!" + +From his elevated position on the opposite hill, Marshall had already +descried the starry banner, and Sheldon's fresh troops hurrying to the +rescue. + +"_Retreat!_" he shouted to his men, and then, pierced by six bullets, he +fell to the ground. Night closed about the contending armies, the rebels +were seized with a sudden panic and fled wildly in all directions. + +"God bless you, boys! You have saved Kentucky!" exclaimed Garfield, as +he led the victorious troops back to camp. It was, indeed, a wonderful +contest. The entire loss on the federal side was but one killed and +eleven wounded. + +"In all the battles of the late war," writes Edmund Kirke, in the _New +York Tribune_, "there was not another like it. Measured by the forces +engaged, the valor displayed, and the results that followed, it throws +into shade the achievements of even that mighty host that saved the +nation." + +It was the first decided victory upon the Union side, but, years after, +Garfield himself said of the skirmish, + +"I see now, that favorably as it terminated, the engagement was a very +rash and imprudent affair on my part. A West Point officer would +probably have had more caution, and would not have attempted so unequal +a contest. I didn't know any better, then." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.--Starvation Stares them + in the Face.--Garfield takes Command of the "Sandy + Valley"--Perilous Trip up the River.--Garfield's Address to + the Citizens of Sandy Valley.--Pound Gap.--Garfield Resolves + to Seize the Guerillas.--The Old Mountaineer.--Successful + Attack.--General Buell's Message.--Garfield is Appointed + Brigadier-General. + + +Marshall and his entire force were dislodged from their intrenchments. +Garfield had obeyed General Buell's orders, and the following day he +issued the following address to his army:-- + + "_Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade:_ + + "I am proud of you all! In four weeks you have marched some + eighty, and some a hundred miles, over almost impassable + roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the storm, + with only a winter sky above your heads. You have marched in + the face of a foe of more than double your number--led on by + chiefs who have won a national renown under the old + flag--intrenched in hills of his own choosing, and + strengthened by all the appliances of military art. With no + experience but the consciousness of your own manhood, you + have driven him from his strongholds, pursued his inglorious + flight, and compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced + to fight, he sought the shelter of rocks and hills; you + drove him from his position, leaving scores of his bloody + dead unburied. His artillery thundered against you, but you + compelled him to flee by the light of his burning stores, + and to leave even the banner of his rebellion behind him. I + greet you as men. Our common country will not forget you. + She will not forget the sacred dead who fell beside you, nor + those of your comrades who won scars of honor on the field. + I have called you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor + for still greater exertions. Let no one tarnish his + well-earned honor by any act unworthy an American soldier. + Remember your duties as American citizens, and sacredly + respect the rights and property of those with whom you may + come in contact. Let it not be said that good men dread the + approach of an American army. Officers and soldiers, your + duty has been nobly done. For this I thank you." + +The enemy, after burning their supplies and baggage of every +description, had made their escape through Pound Gap, and Garfield knew +that it would be worse than useless to pursue them any farther. His own +little force was greatly exhausted and short of food, as it had started +with only two days' rations. A heavy rain-storm had caused an overflow +of the Big Sandy, and a large part of the valley was under water. The +boats were all detained in the Ohio, and among them the steamers that +Garfield had loaded with provisions for his troops. Meanwhile, +starvation stared them in the face. Foraging was strictly forbidden, and +if it had been possible for them to march over the muddy roads, it would +have been in disobedience to orders, for the enemy might at any moment +return and take possession of the country. + +The young commander saw but one way out of the difficulty. Calling +Brown, his faithful scout, he said to him,-- + +"What do you say to our going down the river and hurrying up the +supplies? The boatmen say it can't be done, but you and I have had some +experience on the water." + +"I say, gin'ral," answered Brown, "I'd rather drown than starve, any +day. Jest give me the word for't and I'm yer right-hand man!" + +"We'll go, Brown," was the laconic reply, and, boarding a small skiff, +they floated down the seething waters to the mouth of the Big Sandy. + +Here they found a small steamboat, called the "Sandy Valley," which had +formerly been in the quartermaster's service. This, Garfield loaded with +supplies, and ordered up river. + +The captain, who was a secessionist, declared it was impossible to stem +the current in such a flood. The water was at least sixty feet deep, and +the trees along the banks were covered to their topmost branches. + +"I will take the command of this steamer," said Garfield in an +authoritative tone, at the same time ordering the captain and his men to +get on board. + +Placing Brown at the bow, Garfield took his stand at the helm. The most +careful steering was necessary, for the water was full of dangerous +snags and treacherous banks of sand. At one time the boat ran aground. + +"We must get a line to the opposite shore!" exclaimed Garfield. + +"It can't be done," said the rebel captain; "it's death to any man that +attempts it!" + +"It must be done!" cried Garfield, as he sprang into a yawl and called +Brown to follow. For a few moments it seemed as if the little boat would +be overborne by the current and utterly submerged. But the strong arm +and indomitable will at last prevailed. Another moment of fearful +suspense, and the opposite shore was gained. It was an easy matter, +then, to fasten the rope, construct a windlass, and draw the steamboat +out of the mud. + +For two days and the greater part of one night, Garfield stood at the +wheel, and at nine o'clock the following morning the provisions were +safely landed at Paintville. + +"Had it not been for my experience on the canal-boat," he said, +afterwards, "I could never have managed that trip up the Big Sandy." + +When the half-famished men saw the boat and their noble commander at the +helm, they could hardly contain themselves. They shouted and cheered, +and would have borne him in triumph upon their shoulders had he not made +a resolute protest against such manifestations. + +The whole neighboring country about Paintville were greatly terrified +when they heard of Marshall's retreat. The rebel troops spread such +alarming reports of the hostile intentions of the Union forces that the +people left their homes and took refuge in the woods. + +To quiet their fears, Garfield issued the following:-- + + "_Citizens of Sandy Valley_ + + "I have come among you to restore the honor of the Union, + and to bring back the old banner which you once loved, but + which, by the machinations of evil men, and by mutual + misunderstanding, has been dishonored, among you. To those + who are in arms against the Federal Government, I offer only + the alternative of battle or unconditional surrender. But to + those who have taken no part in this war, who are in no way + aiding or abetting the enemies of this Union--even to those + who hold sentiments averse to the Union, but will give no + aid or comfort to its enemies--I offer the full protection + of the government, both in their persons and property. + + "Let those who have been seduced away from the love of their + country to follow after, and aid the destroyers of our + peace, lay down their arms, return to their homes, bear true + allegiance to the Federal Government, and they shall also + enjoy like protection. The army of the Union wages no war of + plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. + Let all peace-loving citizens, who have fled from their + homes, return and resume again the pursuits of peace and + industry. If citizens have suffered any outrages by the + soldiers under my command, I invite them to make known their + complaints to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed and + the offenders punished. I expect the friends of the Union in + this valley to banish from among them all private feuds, and + let a liberal love of country direct their conduct toward + those who have been so sadly estrayed and misguided, hoping + that these days of turbulence may soon be ended and the days + of the Republic soon return. + + "J. A. GARFIELD, + + "_Colonel Commanding Brigade_." + + + +This promise of protection allayed the fears of the people, and they +began to flock about the Union camp. From them Garfield learned that +Marshall and his forces were still lurking about the country. At last, +through the scout, Jordan, he found out that a grand muster of the rebel +militia was to meet in Pound Gap on the 15th of March, and that, by +uniting their forces, they hoped to enter Kentucky and drive out the +Union army. + +Pound Gap is a narrow opening in the Cumberland mountains and leads into +Virginia. On the top of the gorge through which the road passes, the +rebels had built a long line of huts; and, directly across the gap, they +had thrown up a breastwork, behind which they declared five hundred men +could easily resist five thousand. + +About six hundred of the rebel militia under Major Thompson had been +stationed here for a number of weeks. Forming guerilla bands, they would +come down into the peaceful valleys and commit all sorts of +depredations. Before the terrified inhabitants could offer any +resistance they would retreat to their strongholds, where pursuit was +impossible. + +Garfield felt his work in Kentucky would not be done until some effort +had been made to break up these mountain hordes. When he heard of the +intended muster, he set out with seven hundred men, and, although the +way was beset with difficulties, he pushed on through swollen streams +and muddy roads until he was within two miles of the rebel garrison. His +plan was to send one hundred of his horsemen up the road to attract the +enemy's attention, while he, with the six hundred infantry, were +climbing the steep side of the mountain and attacking the rebels on the +flank. + +He could find no one, however, to act as a guide in this perilous +expedition, until one morning an old man, with long hair and snow-white +beard, came into camp. + +"I came down the mountain ten days ago," he said, "and where I can come +down, ye can go up." + +"But, do you think we can get over the road safely?" asked Garfield; +"they tell me in winter the slope is a sheet of ice with three feet of +snow on the summit." + +"Wall," said the old man; "ye'll hev to make yer own path most likely, +but it's worth yer trouble if ye can only ketch that nest o' murderin' +thieves as is pesterin' the hull country!" + +Garfield looked steadily into the old man's face with that peculiar +searching glance of his, and then said,-- + +"We will do it to-morrow, and you shall be our guide." + +The snow was falling in blinding drifts next morning when they commenced +their ascent. The ridge rises to a height of two thousand feet above +the valley at this point, and sudden precipices yawn on every side. A +single misstep is certain death; and slowly, cautiously the little band +follow their weird-looking guide up the icy slope. + +At length the old man turns suddenly to Garfield, saying,-- + +"The rebels are just a half mile from here; press on at the double and +ye hev 'em!" + +A firing from the picket-guard greets them, and the enemy call together +all their forces to resist the intruders. + +But Garfield and his men are equal to the occasion. + +"Press forward, scale the hill, and carry it with the bayonet!" cries +the Union commander, and with loud cheers the order is obeyed. + +Little by little, the rebels fall back into the forest. The undaunted +band follow with gleaming weapons, and before night are comfortably +established in the enemy's quarters. Next morning, they burn the long +huts, some sixty in number, destroy the breastworks, and set out for +their own camp at Piketon. A week later, the order comes to march to +Louisville, and the campaign on the Big Sandy comes to a successful +close. + +Kentucky is thoroughly rid of the rebel hordes, and General Buell is so +delighted that he sends to Garfield the following message:-- + +"The general commanding takes occasion to thank General Garfield and his +troops for their successful campaign against the rebel force under +General Marshall, on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in battle. +They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of country, +conditions of the roads and the inclemency of the season, and, without +artillery, have in several engagements, terminating in the battle of +Middle Creek, on the 10th inst., driven him back into the mountains, +with a loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men +killed or captured. These services have called into action the highest +qualities of a soldier,--fortitude, perseverance and courage." + +President Lincoln, to whom the news of "Middle Creek" had come like a +benediction in his discouragement, immediately appointed Colonel +Garfield a Brigadier-General. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.--Battles of + Shiloh and Corinth.--The fugitive Slave.--Attack of + Malaria.--Home Furlough.--Summoned to Washington.--Death of + his Child.--Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.--Kirke's + description of Garfield. + + +When Garfield reached Louisville he found that General Buell had +hastened on to the assistance of Grant, who was then at Pittsburg +Landing. Overtaking General Buell at Columbia, Tennessee, he was +assigned to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, and in the famous +battle of Shiloh won new laurels. + +In the long and wearisome siege of Corinth, Garfield's brigade did +signal service; and in June, 1862, they were sent to repair and protect +the Memphis and Charleston railroad. Here, as well as at Huntsville, +Alabama, Garfield's old skill at carpentry came into play; and he gained +no small renown for his fine military engineering. + +It was while in the command of this brigade that a fugitive slave came +running into his camp, badly wounded and terribly frightened. A few +minutes after, his master came riding up, and, with a volley of oaths, +demanded his "property." Garfield was not present, so he passed on to +the division commander. This man was a believer in the theory that +fugitive slaves should be returned to their masters, and that the Union +soldiers should see that this was done. He accordingly wrote a +peremptory order to General Garfield, in whose command the slave was +thought to be hidden, telling him to hunt out the fugitive and deliver +him over to his master. + +General Garfield took the order and quietly wrote on the back of it,-- + +"I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my command to search +for, or deliver up any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here +for quite another purpose. The command is open, and no obstacles will be +placed in the way of search." When reminded by one of his staff-officers +that these rash words might bring him up before a court-martial, he +replied,-- + +"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right is right, and I +do not propose to mince matters at all. My soldiers are here for other +purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. My people, on the +Western Reserve of Ohio, did not send my boys and myself down here to do +that kind of business, and they will back me up in my action." + +The order was returned with the indorsement unchanged, and nothing more +was said about it. + +The exposures of the past year, together with the malarial atmosphere of +the South, began at last to tell upon the strong physique of the young +commander, and he was obliged to take a few weeks' furlough. He had +hardly started for home however, when the secretary of war, who had now +learned his rare qualities, issued orders for him to relieve General +Morgan of his command at Cumberland Gap. + +Garfield was too sick to obey, and, a month later the secretary desired +him to report in person at Washington, as soon as his health would +allow. A new honor awaited him here, for so high an estimate had been +placed upon his judgment and his technical knowledge of law that he had +been chosen one of the first members in the court-martial of Fitz John +Porter. + +While at Washington, he was called home by the sickness and death of his +eldest child, the "Little Trot," whose simple headstone in the cemetery +at Hiram bears the touching inscription,-- + +"She has gained the crown without the cross." + +In the following January, Garfield was ordered to join General +Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. It is said +that Rosecrans was somewhat prejudiced against Garfield because he had +heard of him as a preacher who had taken up politics. A few days' +acquaintance however, so thoroughly changed the General's opinion, that +he gave Garfield the choice of joining his staff or commanding a +brigade. He chose the former, and Rosecrans, writing of him, said,-- + +"I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an earnest and +devoted patriot, and a man of the highest honor." + +It is interesting to read just here Edmund Kirke's graphic picture of +Garfield, "Down in Tennessee," which was written in 1863. + +"In a corner by the window, seated at a small pine desk--a sort of +packing-box perched on a long-legged stool, and divided into +pigeon-holes, with a turn-down lid, was a tall, deep-chested, +sinewy-built man, with regular, massive features, a full, clear blue +eye, and a high broad forehead, rising into a ridge over the eyes, as if +it had been thrown up by a plough. There was something singularly +engaging in his open expressive face, and his whole appearance indicated +great reserve power. His uniform, though cleanly brushed and sitting +easily upon him, had a sort of democratic air, and everything about him +seemed to denote that he was a man of the people. A rusty slouched hat, +large enough to have fitted Daniel Webster, lay on the desk before him; +but a glance at that was not needed to convince me that his head held +more than the common share of brains. Though he is yet young--not +thirty-three--the reader has heard of him, and if he lives he will make +his name long remembered in our history." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.--Garfield as + Mediator.--Remarkable Military Document.--The Tullahoma + Campaign.--Insurrection averted.--Chattanooga.--Battle of + Chickamauga.--Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.--Garfield's + Famous Ride. + + +Just at the time Garfield succeeded Garesche as Rosecrans' +chief-of-staff, that officer was having a series of bickerings with the +War Department. In his demands for more cavalry and arms, Garfield fully +sympathized, but his unreasonable requests, oftentimes couched in the +most exasperating language, the new chief endeavored to modify or +repress. + +From January until June, Rosecrans' army had lain idle at Murfreesboro'. +With the opening of spring the War Department urged him to advance. +Grant had begun his campaign against Vicksburg; and Halleck declared +that unless Rosecrans made some decided movement, the rebel General, +Bragg, would send a part of his force to aid Pemberton at Vicksburg. + +General Rosecrans, however, still delayed; he waited for reinforcements, +for the roads to be in better condition, for the corn to ripen. It was +better to keep quiet, he said, while Grant was at Vicksburg, for should +that General happen to fail, all the rebels of the surrounding section, +as well as those under General Johnston, would confront him. + +At first, Garfield approved of Rosecrans' delay, but as soon as his army +was thoroughly reinforced with men and supplies, he urged him to make an +advance. Through the secret service system which he had established +since Jordan's wonderful expedition, Garfield discovered that Bragg's +army was greatly reduced, and he felt assured that the time had come for +a decisive blow. At last, General Rosecrans sent a formal letter to his +corps, division, and cavalry generals asking their opinion concerning +the feasibility and wisdom of such a movement. Not one of the seventeen +generals was in favor of an immediate or even an early advance. + +Garfield took the answers sent in from the generals, and in one of the +ablest military documents on record,[A] he refuted every objection +raised, and added therewith such powerful arguments in favor of an +immediate advance, that General Rosecrans was convinced. Twelve days +later, the army moved, much to the chagrin of the other officers, who +declared it was a rash and fatal step for which Garfield alone should be +held responsible. + +It was the opening of the famous Tullahoma campaign--a campaign +remarkable throughout for its fine conception and able execution. +Bragg's army would have been utterly destroyed had the advance been made +a few days earlier; as it was, the rebel forces were finally driven +south of the Tennessee, a thousand five hundred and seventy-five +prisoners were captured, together with considerable ammunition, and the +state of Tennessee was again under the flag of the Union. + +Almost on the boundary line between Tennessee and Georgia stands the +village of Chattanooga. It is on the southern bank of the Tennessee +river, and to the north Lookout Mountain rises almost perpendicularly to +a height of twenty-four hundred feet. Missionary Ridge, which is a much +lower elevation, lies upon the eastern side, and along its base flows +the West Chickamauga Creek that empties into the Tennessee just at +Chattanooga. On the opposite side is Pigeon Mountain. + +The Tullahoma campaign had forced Bragg and his remaining troops across +the Tennessee, and they were now posted all along the southern bank of +the stream from Chattanooga far down toward Atlanta. + +Rosecrans' army had encamped themselves on the west with a line of +fortifications one hundred and fifty miles long, while General Burnside +had moved into Eastern Tennessee, and taken possession of Knoxville. The +great problem now was how to force Bragg from his position at +Chattanooga. + +It was about this time that Rosecrans received a letter, in which a plan +for arming the negroes and sending them throughout the slave states, was +proposed. + +"It would doubtless end the rebellion at once," said one of Rosecrans' +officers; "and the letter says that no blood would be shed except in +self-defence." + +"But, think what vengeance the blacks might take, if suddenly let loose +upon their masters!" exclaimed Rosecrans. "I must talk the matter over +with Garfield." + +After a careful reading of the letter, the chief-of-staff said, quietly, +but firmly,-- + +"It will never do, General. _We_ don't want to whip by such means. If +the slaves, of their own accord, rise and assert their original right to +themselves, that will be their own affair; but we can have no complicity +with them without outraging the moral sense of the civilized world." + +"But what if the other departments should encourage these uprisings?" + +"We must do all in our power to prevent them," exclaimed Garfield. + +Rosecrans, whose confidence in his chief-of-staff was daily increasing, +immediately took measures to stop the movement, and the insurrection, +with all its attendant horrors, was averted. + +To Garfield was now submitted the task of planning some movement which +would oblige Bragg to leave Chattanooga. General Halleck, then in +Washington at the head of the War Department, had sent to Rosecrans the +following telegram,-- + + "The orders for the advance of your army are peremptory." + +The only movement that could be made with any advantage at this time, +would be for the Union army to cross the river in three divisions and +cut off Bragg from all communication with Atlanta, whence he was +expecting supplies and reinforcements. + +Pontoons were, therefore, brought forward, and materials prepared for +building a couple of bridges. This was done with all possible secrecy, +but high up on Lookout Mountain the signal corps of Bragg's army, with +their field-glasses, were stealthily watching, and promptly reporting +every movement. + +The Confederates readily yielded their post at Chattanooga, but it was +only to give the appearance of a retreat. In reality, they were +concentrating all their forces along the banks of the Chickamauga, and +already their troops outnumbered Rosecrans' by several thousands. +Bragg's plan was to cross the Chickamauga at the various bridges and +fords, push across Missionary Ridge to Rossville, and then, closing in +upon Rosecrans' army, completely destroy it by the force of his +superior numbers. + +Garfield, by means of his secret service system, had discovered this +plan of the rebel commander, and apprized Rosecrans, who was now on the +alert and confronting Bragg's troops at every feasible point of the +road. + +"The resistance offered by the enemy's cavalry," writes the Confederate +general, "as well as the difficulties arising from the bad and narrow +country roads, caused unexpected delays." + +On the morning of the 19th of September, the battle began on the banks +of the Chickamauga between Pigeon Mountain and Missionary Ridge. It +raged fiercely all day, and when night closed down upon the contending +armies, the contest was still undecided. + +Bragg's army had been reinforced by a large detachment under General +Longstreet, and McLawes' division was expected every moment. The +prospect seemed very dark to the Union army, whose scattered troops +numbered at most but sixty thousand, and whose supplies were cut off in +all directions. They still held, however, the road to Rossville, the one +especial point for which Bragg had been fighting. + +It was a fortunate turn of affairs that gave to General Thomas the +command of the left wing of Rosecrans' army. Here it was that the brunt +of the battle came, on the second day at Chickamauga; and, through the +whole fearful struggle, the brave general and his devoted troops showed +the same invincible spirit that had won laurels for them in the +victories of Mill Spring, Pittsburg Landing, and Stone River. + +Garfield, as chief-of-staff, kept his place by Rosecrans' side until, at +a critical point in the battle, he turned to his commanding officer, and +said,-- + +"General, I ask permission to return and join General Thomas." Consent +was reluctantly granted, for, although it was necessary to inform +General Thomas of the condition of affairs, Rosecrans knew that Garfield +was undertaking a fearful risk. + +"As you will," he said, at last; "God bless you; we may not meet again. +Good-bye!" + +With the brave Captain Gaw as his guide, and two orderlies, Garfield +sets out on his famous ride. There are eight miles to be crossed before +they can reach Thomas; they ride swiftly and securely through the +neighboring forest, but as they emerge from the narrow road at Rossville +Gap, a shower of bullets falls about them. Longstreet's skirmishers and +sharp-shooters have surrounded them, and the two orderlies fall from +their horses, mortally wounded. + +Garfield spurs on his magnificent charger, leaps a fence, and finds +himself in an open field, white with ripening cotton. Only a slight +ridge now divides him from the outposts of Thomas's division, but, as he +makes a zig-zag ascent up the slope, the gray-coats send volley after +volley of whizzing bullets, and suddenly his horse is struck beneath +him. It is only a flesh wound, however, and the fiery creature is urged +forward with still greater impetuosity. + +Another second, and the crest of the hill is gained. Horse and rider +gallop down the other side and a band of mounted blue-coats surround +them. + +"Good God, Garfield!" cries General McCook, "I thought you were killed. +How you have escaped is a miracle." + +Though twice wounded, Garfield's horse plunges on, through tangled +under-brush, over fences, up hill and down, until the remaining four +miles are accomplished. Then, passing through another shower of shot and +shell, Garfield catches a glimpse of Thomas. + +"There he is!" he shouts, "God bless the old hero! he has saved the +army!" + +In five minutes more, Garfield is by the side of Thomas; the perilous +ride is safely over, the message is delivered. But look! the noble horse +is staggering, and now it drops down dead at the feet of General Thomas. + +A half hour longer the battle raged desperately, and then with a sudden +break in their lines the rebels abandoned the fight and began to +retreat. + +Garfield sat down behind a dead tree and wrote a dispatch to General +Rosecrans. In the midst of the heaviest firing, a white dove was seen to +hover around for several minutes, and then to settle down on the top of +the tree above Garfield's head. + +"A good omen of peace!" exclaimed General Wood, who was standing close +by. Garfield said nothing, but kept on with his writing. + +At seven o'clock that evening, a battery of six Napoleon guns, by order +of Generals Granger and Garfield, thundered after the retreating rebels. + +The battle of Chickamauga was ended; the Union army had won the day. + + "Again, O fair September night! + Beneath the moon and stars, + I see, through memories dark and bright, + The altar fires of Mars. + The morning breaks with screaming guns + From batteries dark and dire, + And where the Chickamauga runs + Red runs the muskets' fire. + + "I see bold Longstreet's darkening host + Sweep through our lines of flame, + And hear again, 'The right is lost!' + Swart Rosecrans exclaim! + 'But not the left,' young Garfield cries: + 'From that we must not sever, + While Thomas holds the field that lies + On Chickamauga River.' + + "Through tongues of flame, through meadows brown, + Dry valley roads concealed, + Ohio's hero dashes down + Upon the rebel field + And swift, on reeling charger borne, + He threads the wooded plain. + By twice a hundred cannon mown, + And reddened with the slain. + + "But past the swathes of carnage dire, + The Union guns he hears, + And gains the left, begirt with fire, + And thus the heroes cheers-- + 'While stands the left, yon flag o'erhead, + Shall Chattanooga stand!' + 'Let the Napoleons rain their lead!' + Was Thomas's command. + + "Back swept the gray brigades of Bragg, + The all with victory rung, + And Wurzel's 'Rally round the flag!' + 'Mid Union cheers was sung. + The flag on Chattanooga's height + In twilight crimson waved, + And all the clustered stars of white + Were to the Union saved. + + "O Chief of staff! the nation's fate. + That red field crossed with thee, + The triumph of the camp and state, + The hope of liberty! + O Nation! free from sea to sea, + With union blessed forever, + Not vainly heroes fought for thee + By Chickamauga's River." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] For document in full, see Addenda I. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Rosecrans' Official Report.--Sixteen Years Later.--Promotion + to Major-General.--Elected to Congress.--Resigns his + Commission in the Army.--Endowed by Nature and Education for + a Public Speaker.--Moral Character.--Youngest Member of + House of Representatives.--One Secret of Success.--First + Speech.--Wade-Davis Manifesto.--Extracts from various + Speeches. + + +General Rosecrans, in his official report of the battles of Chickamauga, +writes,-- + +"To Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff, I am especially +indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the points of +action and movement, and expressed in order the ideas of the general +commanding." + +To this meed of praise General Wood adds,-- + +"It affords me much pleasure to signalize the presence with my command, +for a length of time during the afternoon (present during the period of +hottest fighting), of another distinguished officer, Brigadier-General +James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff. After the disastrous rout on the +right, General Garfield made his way back to the battle-field (showing +clearly that the road was open to all who might choose to follow it), +and came to where my command was engaged. The brigade which made so +determined a resistance on the crest of the narrow ridge during all the +long September afternoon, had been commanded by General Garfield when he +belonged to my division. The men remarked his presence with much +satisfaction, and were delighted that he was a witness of the splendid +fighting they were doing." + +In connection with these reports, it is interesting to recall Garfield's +address to his comrades, sixteen years later, when some twelve hundred +of the veteran volunteers of Ohio visited him at his home in Mentor. In +response to an address of General M. D. Leggett, he said, in his hearty, +friendly way,-- + +"Any man that can see twelve hundred comrades in the front door-yard has +as much reason to be proud as for anything that can well happen to him +in this world. To see twelve hundred men from almost every regiment of +the state, to see a consolidated field report of survivors of the war +sixteen years after it is over, is a great sight for any man to look on. +I greet you all with gratitude for this visit. Its personal compliment +is great, but there is another thought in it far greater than that to +me, and greater to you. + +"Just over yonder, about ten miles, when I was a mere lad, I heard the +finest political speech of my life. It was a speech of Joshua R. +Giddings. He had come home to appeal to his constituents. A Southern +man drew a pistol on him while he was speaking in favor of human +liberty, and marched over to him to shoot him down, to stop his speech +and quench the voice of liberty. + +"I remember but one thing the old hero said in the course of that speech +so long ago, and it was this,-- + +"'I knew I was speaking for liberty, and I felt that if an assassin shot +me down, my speech would still go on and triumph.' + +"Well, now, these twelve hundred, and the one hundred times twelve +hundred, and the one million of men that went out into the field of +battle to fight for our Union, feel as that speaker felt, that if they +should all be shot down the cause of liberty would still go on. + +"You all, and the Union, felt that around you, and above you, and behind +you, was a force and a cause and an immortal truth that would outlive +your bodies and mine, and survive all our brigades, and all our armies, +and all our battles. + +"Here you are to-day; in the same belief we shall die; and yet we +believe that after us the immortal truth for which we fought will live +in a united nation, a united people, against all factions, against all +sections, against all divisions, so long as there shall be a continent +of rivers, and mountains, and lakes. + +"It was this great belief that lifted you all up into the heroic height +of great soldiers in war; and it is my belief that you cherish it +to-day, and carry it with you in all your pilgrimages and in all your +reunions. In that great belief and in that inspiring faith, I meet you +and greet you to-day, and with it _we will go on to whatever fate has in +store for us_." + +Ah! how little the devoted band of comrades dreamed that bright October +morning, with what a new and solemn meaning before another twelve months +those earnest words would come back to them! + +Four weeks after the battle of Chickamauga, General Rosecrans sent +Garfield on to Washington to report minutely to the War Department and +to the President, the position, deeds, resources, etc., of the army at +Chattanooga. In the mean time he had received the promotion of +major-general "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of +Chickamauga;" and during the year previous, the Nineteenth Congressional +District of Ohio had elected him as their representative to the +Thirty-Eighth Congress. + +Garfield's whole heart and soul were with the army, he would have +preferred to serve his country on the field rather than in the halls of +state; but when he expressed his desire to President Lincoln, the latter +urged him to resign his commission and come to Congress. There were +plenty of major-generals, he said, but able statesmen--like angels' +visits--were few and far between. + +It was universally believed, at this time, that the war was drawing to a +close; and still another consideration that influenced Garfield in his +decision was the fact that a voice in military legislation might be of +great assistance to his comrades in arms. So, on the 5th of December, +1863, after three years of military life, he resigned his army +commission with its high emoluments, for the poor pay and arduous work +of a Congressman. + +It is a little singular that he should have filled in Congress the very +seat left vacant by the death of Joshua R. Giddings, his boyhood's hero. +Did the mantle of this brave Elijah fall upon him, too, I wonder? + +Upon his arrival at Washington, Garfield, with his characteristic energy +and perseverance, began a thorough course of study upon all topics with +which he might have to deal, giving especial attention to commerce, +manufactures, finance, the tariff, taxation, and international law. +Every spare moment was turned to the best account; an intimate friend +says he was seldom seen without a book in his hand, or in his pocket. + +Both by nature and education, Garfield seemed specially endowed for the +office of a public speaker. He had a ready flow of language that +practice in debating clubs, the teacher's desk, at the bar, and in the +pulpit had rendered apt, pointed, and polished. His tall, massive +figure, powerful voice, and dignified manner gave additional weight to +every word that fell from his lips, while his fine scholarship, +extensive reading and wonderful memory furnished an inexhaustible +"reserve fund" of illustration and imagery. But above all and through +all, was the vital power of a warm, sympathetic, generous heart. + +"His moral character," writes President Hinsdale, "was the fit crown to +his physical and intellectual nature. No man had a kinder heart or a +purer mind. Naturally, and without conscious plan or effort, he drew men +to him as the magnet the iron filings." + +He had been the youngest man in the Ohio senate, the youngest +brigadier-general, and now, at the age of thirty-two, he was found to be +the youngest member of the House of Representatives. To make his mark +among so many brilliant intellects, so many fine orators, so many old +and well-tried statesmen, as graced the legislation halls of the nation +at that critical period of our history, required in the young and then +almost unknown congressman "a peculiar combination of strong talents and +intellectual acuteness." + +One secret of his success lay in his "genius for hard work." He was not +one to take ideas at second-hand; he was never satisfied until he had +sifted the subject in hand to the very bottom, and when once assured of +the truth and right of any matter, no power on earth could move him. + +"Comparatively few men or women," he said one day to a friend, "take the +trouble to think for themselves. Most people frame their opinions from +what they read or hear others say. I noticed this in early life, but +never saw the evil of it until I went to Congress." + +From the very first, Garfield made his influence felt in the Hall of +Representatives. He was strong enough to break over the bars that +usually restrict the new and younger members of Congress, and soon took +up the gauntlet with debaters like Thaddeus Stevens, N. P. Banks, Roscoe +Conkling, and other old leaders in the legislative halls. + +It was a tumultuous period in our national history; the War of the +Rebellion had brought to the surface many questions of debate that +required the utmost thought and deliberation, and upon whose decision +hung the weightiest of results. + +But Garfield as some able writer says, was "a man who was always equal +to the greatest opportunity; often surpassed it. He was great on great +occasions, because in temperament, intelligence, enthusiasm, and +eloquence, he rose, like air, to its highest limit." + +The first speech he delivered of any length, was on January 28th, 1864, +and was a reply to his Democratic colleague, Mr. Finck. It was in favor +of the confiscation of rebel property, and the following passage will +give an idea of his style of argument in those early days:-- + +"The war was announced by proclamation, and it must end by proclamation. +We can hold the insurgent states in military subjection half a +century--if need be, until they are purged of their poison and stand up +clean before the country. They must come back with clean hands, if they +come at all. I hope to see in all those states the men who fought and +suffered for the truth, tilling the fields on which they pitched their +tents. I hope to see them, like old Kaspar of Blenheim, on the summer +evenings, with their children upon their knees, and pointing out the +spot where brave men fell and marble commemorates it." + +His answer to Mr. Long, in the campaign of 1864, when McClellan was +proposed as the Democratic candidate, will never be forgotten. It was +delivered on the impulse of the moment and excited the wildest applause +throughout the House. The older members began to realize what a growing +power they had in their midst, and were not slow to seek Garfield's +assistance when they had some pet measure to bring forward. + +As the time drew near for holding the Congressional Convention of 1864, +in the Nineteenth District, a report was circulated in the Western +Reserve, that Garfield was the author of the famous Wade-Davis +manifesto. + +The convention wished to nominate him, but hesitated. Would he not come +forward and explain himself? + +Now this was just what Garfield was longing to do. With a firm step he +walked up to the platform and in a brief, trenchant speech, declared +that although he had not written the Wade-Davis letter, he was in +sympathy with the authors. If the Nineteenth District did not want a +representative who would assert his independence of thought and action, +it must find another man. Having stated his conviction of the truth in +the plainest, strongest terms, he came down from the platform and +quietly left the hall. A great noise from the building greeted his ears +as he turned the street-corner. He thought they were having an +indignation meeting, and he fully expected to be apprized of his +rejection. + +To his astonishment, however, he learned that the noise he had heard was +the cheering of the people upon his nomination. + +The convention had been taken entirely by surprise. Before any of his +opponents had had time to say a word, an Ashtabula delegate had risen to +his feet and declared that "a man who could face a delegation like that, +ought to be nominated by acclamation." Then, the popular feeling +expressed itself freely, and Garfield was renominated with great +applause. + +"It was a bold action on my part," he said afterward, "but it showed me +the truth of the old maxim that 'Honesty is the best policy,' and I have +ever since been entirely independent in my relations with the people of +my district." + +Ben Wade, the "old war-horse," was greatly touched by Garfield's +championship. + +"I shall never forget it, never, sir, while I live on this earth!" he +exclaimed as he held the hand of the young statesman in his iron grasp. + +Garfield was elected by a majority of twelve thousand, and on his return +to Congress the second term, the secretary of the treasury requested +that he might have a place on the Committee of Ways and Means. + +From his entrance into Congress, Garfield had made a special study of +finance and political economy. He was therefore, well equipped for this +new position, and nothing could move him from the firm stand he had +taken in favor of specie payments and the honorable fulfilment of the +nation's contract. + +"I affirm," he boldly declared before the House, "against all opposers, +that the highest and foremost present duty of the American people is to +complete the resumption of specie payments; and first of all, because +the sacred faith of this republic is pledged to resumption; and if it +were never so hard to do it, if the burdens were ten times greater than +they are, this nation dare not look in the face of God and men, and +break its plighted word. + +"It is a fearful thing for one man to stand up in the face of his +brother-man and refuse to keep his pledge; but it is a forty-five +million times worse thing for a nation to do it. It breaks the +mainspring of faith. It unsettles all security; it disturbs all values; +and it puts the life of the nation in peril for all time to come. + +"I am almost ashamed to give any other reason for resumption than this +one I have given. It is so complete that no other is needed; but there +is another almost as strong. If there were no moral obligations resting +upon the nation, if there were no public faith pledged to it, I affirm +that the resumption of specie payment is demanded by every interest of +business in this country, and so imperatively demanded that it can be +demonstrated that every honest interest in America will be strengthened +and bettered by the resumption of specie payment." + +Garfield's fidelity to conviction was strikingly shown in a case at this +time when in some of the states there were conflicts between civil and +military authorities. He was too well versed in law to follow blindly +the opinion of the majority. + +"Young man," said Judge Jeremiah Black to him, "it is a perilous thing +for a young Republican in Congress to take such an independent stand, +and I don't want you to injure yourself." + +"That consideration," replied Garfield, "does not weigh with me; I +believe in English liberty and English law." + +Speaker Colfax wanted to reappoint him on the military committee, but he +asked to be excused, saying,-- + +"I would rather serve where I can study finance; this is to be the great +question in the future of our country." + +In his first speech on the tariff question, he defines his position as +follows:-- + +"I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign +products is the best gauge to regulate international trade. Duties +should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the +foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection." + +In the well-remembered controversy that succeeded General Schenck's +tariff bill, Garfield said,-- + +"The great want of industry is a stable policy; and it is a significant +comment on the character of our legislation that Congress has become a +terror to the business men of the country.... A distinguished citizen +of my own district has lately written me this significant sentence: 'If +the laws of God and nature were as vacillating and uncertain as the laws +of Congress in regard to the business of its people, the universe would +soon fall into chaos.' + +"Examining thus the possibilities of the situation I believe that the +true course for the friends of protection to pursue, is to reduce the +rates on imports when we can justly and safely do so, and accepting +neither of the extreme doctrines, endeavor to establish a stable policy +that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people." + +Finding that no one in Congress had made a business of examining in +detail the various appropriations of the public money, Garfield took the +arduous task upon his own shoulders so that he might vote more +intelligently. Having made out a careful analysis, he delivered it +before the House; it was so well received, that each succeeding year +another was called for until "Garfield's budget speech" became a +well-known institution in Congress, and was considered a most important +help in reducing the expenditures of the Government. + +A few years later, Garfield was promoted to the chairmanship of the +Committee on Appropriations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.--The New York + Mob.--Garfield's Memorable Words.--Eulogy upon + Lincoln.--Memorial Oration.--Eulogy upon Senator + Morton.--Extracts from other Orations. + + +It is the morning after the fateful fourteenth of April, 1865. From the +Atlantic shore to the Pacific the whole startled nation is in the +wildest state of excitement. President Lincoln, with the glorious words +of Emancipation still warm upon his lips, has been shot down by the hand +of Booth. The newsboys shout through the streets that Seward is +dying--that the lives of other Government officers have been assailed! + +A furious mob rules the thoroughfares of New York and clamors for +revenge. One man who is suspected of rebel sentiments is shot dead on +the spot; another instant and his adversary lies beside him in the +gutter. + +"To the _World_! To the office of the _World_!" shout the rabble, +bearing high above their heads a roughly constructed gallows. + +Suddenly, a tall, manly figure steps forward with a small flag in his +hand. + +"Another telegram from Washington!" exclaims a chorus of excited voices. + +A dead silence follows, and then, with a reverential glance heavenward, +the stranger begins in clear, deep tones,-- + +"Fellow-citizens! clouds and darkness are round about Him. His pavilion +is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Justice and judgment are +the establishment of His throne. Mercy and truth shall go before His +face. Fellow citizens, God reigns, and the Government at Washington +still lives!" + +An eye-witness writes of the memorable scene: + +"The crowd stood riveted to the ground with awe, gazing at the +motionless orator, and thinking of God and the security of the +Government in that hour. As the boiling wave subsides and settles to the +sea, when some strong wind beats it down, so the tumult of the people +sank and became still. All took it as a divine omen. It was a triumph of +eloquence, inspired by the moment, such as falls to but one man's lot, +and that but once in a century. The genius of Webster, Choate, Everett, +Seward, never reached it. What might have happened had the surging and +maddened crowd been let loose, none can tell. The man for the crisis was +on the spot, more potent than Napoleon's guns at Paris. I inquired what +was his name. The answer came in a low whisper, 'It is General Garfield +of Ohio!'" + +"_God reigns; and the Government at Washington still lives!_" With what +majestic eloquence those immortal words come back to us to-day! With +what quickened sympathies we re-read his grand eulogy delivered a year +later in Congress, upon Abraham Lincoln, the martyred president! + +Have not the American people repeated one of those "times in the history +of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates +mortals from immortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that +they can almost hear the beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart +of the Infinite?" + +Through its parting folds the thin veil has admitted another "martyr +president to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic." Shall not +the whispers of God be heard by the children of men? Awe-stricken by His +voice, shall not the American people again "kneel in tearful reverence +and make a solemn covenant with Him and with each other that this nation +shall be saved from its enemies, and the temples of freedom and justice +built upon foundations that shall survive forever?" + +Upon the birthday of Lincoln, February 12th, 1878, when Carpenter's +painting of "The Emancipation" was presented to Congress by Mrs. +Thompson, Garfield delivered another memorial oration, from which we +quote the following beautiful passages:-- + +"The representatives of the nation have opened the doors of this Chamber +to receive at her hands a sacred trust. In coming hither, these living +representatives have passed under the dome and through that beautiful +and venerable hall, which, on another occasion, I have ventured to call +the third House of American Representatives, that silent assembly whose +members have received their high credentials at the impartial hand of +history. Year by year, we see the circle of its immortal membership +enlarging; year by year, we see the elect of their country, in eloquent +silence, taking their places in this American pantheon, bringing within +its sacred precincts the wealth of those immortal memories which made +their lives illustrious; and year by year, that august assembly is +teaching deeper and grander lessons to those who serve in these more +ephemeral Houses of Congress. + +"Abraham Lincoln" (and may we not say the same of James Abram Garfield?) +"was one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, +and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were +multiplied. + +"His character is aptly described in the words of England's great +laureate--written thirty years ago--in which he traces the upward steps +of some + + 'Divinely gifted man, + Whose life in low estate began, + And on a simple village green; + + 'Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, + And grasps the skirts of happy chance, + And breasts the blow of circumstance, + And grapples with his evil star; + + 'Who makes by force his merit known, + And lives to clutch the golden keys, + To mould a mighty State's decrees. + And shape the whisper of the throne; + + 'And moving up from high to higher, + Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire.' + +"Such a life and character will be treasured forever as the sacred +possession of the American people and of mankind." + +Again, in Garfield's eulogy upon Senator Morton of Indiana, how truly +the words apply to himself:-- + +"His force of will was most masterful. It was not mere stubbornness, or +pride of opinion, which weak and narrow men mistake for firmness. But it +was that stout-hearted persistency which, having once intelligently +chosen an object, pursues it through sunshine and storm, undaunted by +difficulties, and unterrified by danger. + +"He possessed an intellect of remarkable clearness and force. With keen +analysis he found the core of a question, and worked from the centre +outward.... Few men have been so greatly endowed with the power of clear +statement and unassailable argument. The path of his thought was +straight,-- + + 'Like that of the swift cannon-ball + Shattering that it may reach, and + Shattering what it reaches." + +"When he had hit the mark, he used no additional words, and sought for +no decoration. These qualities, joined to his power of thinking quickly, +placed him in the front rank of debaters, and every year increased his +power." + +One of Garfield's most popular eulogies was that upon John Winthrop and +Samuel Adams, from which we quote the following striking passages:-- + +"It must not be forgotten that while Samuel Adams was writing the great +argument of liberty in Boston, almost at the same time Patrick Henry was +formulating the same doctrines in Virginia. It is one of the grandest +facts of that grand time that the colonies were thus brought, by an +almost universal consent, to tread the same pathway, and reach the same +great conclusions. + +"But most remarkable of all is the fact that, throughout all that +period, filled as it was with the revolutionary spirit, the men who +guided the storm exhibited the most wonderful power of self-restraint. +If I were to-day to state the single quality that appears to me most +admirable among the fathers of the revolution, I should say it was this: +that amidst all the passions of war, they exhibited so wonderful a +restraint, so great a care to observe the forms of law, to protect the +rights of the minority, to preserve all those great rights that had come +down to them from the common law, so that when they had achieved their +independence, they were still a law-abiding people." + +When a resolution of thanks was about to be passed in Congress to +General Thomas for his generalship in the battle of Chickamauga, +Garfield moved an amendment, by inserting the name of General Rosecrans. + +After an eloquent appeal in behalf of his old commander, he closed with +the following words:-- + +"Who took command of the Army of the Cumberland,--found the army at +Bowling Green, in November, 1862, as it lay disorganized, disheartened, +driven back from Alabama, and Tennessee,--and led it across the +Cumberland, planted it in Nashville, and thence, on the first day of the +new year, planted his banners at Murfreesboro; in torrents of blood, and +in the moment of our extremest peril, throwing himself into the breach, +saved by his personal labor the Army of the Cumberland and the hopes of +the Republic? It was General Rosecrans. From the day he assumed the +command at Bowling Green, the history of that army may be written in one +sentence--it advanced and maintained its advanced position--and its last +campaign under the general it loved was the bloodiest and most +brilliant. + +"The fruits of Chickamauga were gathered in November, on the heights of +Mission Ridge and among the clouds of Lookout Mountain. That battle at +Chattanooga was a glorious one, and every loyal heart was proud of it. +But, sir, it was won when we had nearly three times the number of the +enemy. It ought to have been won. Thank God it was won! I would take no +laurel from the brow of the man who won it, but I would remind gentlemen +here, that while the battle of Chattanooga was fought with vastly +superior numbers on our part, the battle of Chickamauga was fought with +still vaster superiority against us. + +"If there is any man upon earth whom I honor, it is the man who is named +in this resolution--General George H. Thomas. I had occasion, in my +remarks on the conscription bill a few days ago, to refer to him in such +terms as I delighted to use; and I say to gentlemen here that if there +is any man whose heart would be hurt by this resolution as it now +stands, that man is General George H. Thomas. I know, and all know, that +he deserves well of his country; and his name ought to be recorded in +letters of gold; but I know equally well that General Rosecrans deserves +well of his country. + +"I ask you then, not to pain the heart of a noble man, who will be +burdened with the weight of these thanks that wrong his brother officer +and superior in command. All I ask is that you will put both names into +the resolution, and let them stand side by side." + +It is needless to add that the amendment was accepted, and that the name +of General Rosecrans was inserted with that of General Thomas. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + The Home in Washington.--"Fruit between Leaves."--Classical + Studies.--Mrs. Garfield.--Variety of Reading.--Favorite + Verses. + + +In a private letter to Colonel Rockwell, dated August 30th, 1869, +Garfield writes:-- + +"It seems as though each year added more to the work that falls to my +share. This season I have the main weight of the Census Bill and the +reports to carry, and the share of the Ohio campaign that falls to me; +and in addition to all this I am running in debt and building a house in +Washington. + +"On looking over my accounts, I found I had paid out over five thousand +dollars since I first went to Congress, for rent alone, and all this is +a dead loss; so, finding an old staff-officer (Major D. G. Swaim), I +negotiated enough to enable me to get a lot on the corner of Thirteenth +and I Streets, north, opposite to Franklin Square, and I have got a +house three-quarters done. It may be a losing business, but I hope I +shall be able to sell it when I am done with it, so as to save myself +the rent." + +This house, where Garfield and his family spent so many happy hours +during their winter sojourns in Washington, is a plain brick mansion +with a wing built out on the east side to accommodate his fine library. +The parlor windows look out upon Franklin Square and the corner of I and +Thirteenth Streets. + +To a visitor ushered into this pleasant, cheery drawing-room, the first +object that greeted the eye was an excellent portrait of "Grandma +Garfield," which hung over the grand piano. On the opposite side was a +beautiful painting of "Little Trot," the baby-girl whose loss the loving +father never ceased to deplore. The room was tastefully but simply +furnished, and in the small sitting-room, leading out of the parlor, the +pretty desk piled up with books and papers, seemed the most important +piece of furniture. + +The dining-room with its Japanese dado, and its chairs and table of +Austrian bent wood was a particularly pleasant room. Just above the +mantel hung a half-finished sketch of an old-time knight balancing in +one hand an empty glass, and leaning the other upon an inn table. + +An artist friend began the painting with the intention of carrying out +an ideal that Garfield had once expressed at a Shakespearian gathering. +Dying before the picture was finished, the painter left only an outline +of the idea, but that outline, Garfield valued very highly. His love +for pictures was almost as great as his love for books, and the walls of +this plain little house in Thirteenth Street were adorned with many +choice paintings and engravings. + +Just over the dining-room was the library where Garfield spent the +greater part of his time, when free from congressional duties. In the +centre stood a large black walnut office-desk with its accompaniments of +pigeon-holes, boxes and drawers, filled to overflowing. Six or seven +book-cases, holding in all some three thousand volumes, stood against +the walls; and scrap-books of all shapes and sizes confronted you +everywhere. + +It used to be a common saying in Congress that no man in Washington +could stand before the army of facts that Garfield could bring forward +at a moment's notice. This readiness was largely due to his systematic +course of reading, and his invaluable method of _indexing_. For +instance: if an author's views on some subject struck him as +particularly good and worth remembering, he would immediately make a +note of it in his commonplace-book, giving with the topic, the volume, +and page where the extract could be found. In this manner a rich fund of +information was always at hand; his "fruit between leaves" was always +ready to gather. + +The record of the Congressional Library shows that he took out more +books than any other member of Congress; and his reading embraced every +variety of subject, history, biography, law, politics, philosophy, +government, and poetry. + +At one time, during an unusually busy session, a friend found him behind +a big barricade of books. + +"I find I'm overworked," he said, "and need recreation. Now my theory is +that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it lie idle, but to put +it at something quite outside the ordinary line of employment. So, I am +resting by learning all the Congressional Library can show about Horace, +and the various editions and translations of his poems." + +Mrs. Garfield showed the same love for the classics as her husband. A +year or two ago, he said,-- + +"I taught my wife Latin at Hiram, and she was as good a pupil as I had. +She is now teaching the same Latin to my two big boys." + +Mary Clemmer wrote of her:-- + +"Mrs. Garfield has the 'philosophic mind' that Wordsworth sings of, and +she has a self-poise, a strength of unswerving absolute rectitude. Much +of the time that other women give to distributing visiting cards, Mrs. +Garfield has spent in the alcoves of the Congressional Library, +searching out books to carry home to study.... She has moved on in the +tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life of absolute devotion to +duty; never forgetting the demands of her position or neglecting her +friends, yet making it her first charge to bless her home, to teach her +children, to fit her boys for college, to be the equal friend, as well +as the honored wife, of her husband." + +From a letter of Garfield's to President Hinsdale we follow the +indefatigable reader in still another course of study:-- + +"Since I left you I have made a somewhat thorough study of Goethe and +his epoch, and have sought to build up in my mind a picture of the state +of literature and art in Europe, at the period when Goethe began to +work, and the state when he died. I have grouped the various facts into +order, have written them out, so as to preserve a memoir of the +impression made upon my mind by the whole. The sketch covers nearly +sixty pages of manuscript. I think some work of this kind outside the +track of one's every day work is necessary to keep up real growth." + +In another letter to the same friend, he writes:-- + +"I have found a book which interests me very much. You may have seen it; +if not I hope you will get it. It is entitled, 'Ten Great Religions' by +James Freeman Clarke. I have read the chapter on Buddhism with great +interest. It is admirably written, in a liberal and philosophic spirit, +and I am sure will interest you. What I have read of it leads me to +believe that we have taken too narrow a view of the subject of +religion." + +Again, when a fit of sickness confined him to the house, he says-- + +"I am taking advantage of this enforced leisure to do a great deal of +reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the following: Sherman's two +volumes, Leland's 'English Gypsies', George Borrow's 'Gypsies of Spain', +Borrow's 'Rommany Rye', Tennyson's 'Mary', seven volumes of Froude's +England, several plays of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a +new book, 'The History of the English People,' by Prof. Green of +Oxford." + +For light literature, Garfield usually turned to Thackeray, Scott, +Dickens, Jane Austen, Kingsley, or Honoré de Balzac. He was fond of +poetry, and his voluminous scrap-books contained many gems, from one of +which we cull the following verses, said to be his especial favorites.-- + + "Commend me to the friend that comes + When I am sad and lone, + And makes the anguish of my heart + The suffering of his own, + Who coldly shuns the glittering throng + At pleasure's gay levee + And comes to gild a sombre hour + And give his heart to me. + + "He hears me count my sorrows o'er; + And when the task is done + He freely gives me all I ask,-- + A sigh for every one. + He cannot wear a smiling face + When mine is touched with gloom, + But like the violet seeks to cheer + The midnight with perfume. + + "Commend me to that generous heart + Which like the pine on high, + Uplifts the same unvarying brow + To every change of sky, + Whose friendship does not fade away + When wintry tempests blow, + But like the winter's icy crown + Looks greener through the snow. + + "He flies not with the flitting stork. + That seeks a southern sky, + But lingers where the wounded bird + Hath lain him down to die. + Oh, such a friend! He is in truth, + Whate'er his lot may be + A rainbow on the storm of life, + An anchor on its sea." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Tide of Unpopularity.--Misjudged.--Vindicated.--Re-elected.--The + De Golyer Contract.--The Salary Increase Question.--Incident + related by President Hinsdale. + + +It was impossible for a man of strong independent views like Garfield, +to mount the ladder of fame so rapidly without meeting some opposition. + +A lawyer by profession, he was at one time called to appear in the +Supreme Court in behalf of some Confederates who had been tried by a +court-martial and condemned to death. Of this case an able writer says, +the rebels had been "tried by martial law in a State, in time of peace +_de facto_ in the State, and in a section of State not under martial +law. The legal question was, whether any military body had such power +under the circumstances. Should the civil power be ignored in time of +peace, or in sections of the country where martial law had not been +proclaimed? It was a case for which Garfield received no pay, and was +undertaken as a test of this important principle." + +By his clear, forcible presentation of the case and the law, in which he +was fully sustained by the Court and the presiding justice--the +criminals were finally set at liberty. + +When the Ohio district that sent Garfield to Congress, heard that he had +been pleading in Court for condemned rebels, a large proportion voted +against him. As soon, however, as the facts of the case were fully +known, the tide of popular feeling again turned towards their favorite +leader, and Garfield was re-elected. + +The De Golyer contract was the next to excite unfavorable comment. But +again, when a thorough investigation had been made, Garfield was found +to be entirely innocent of the charges brought against him. + +Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the Congressional Committee of +Investigation, gives a clear statement of the case as follows:--. + +"The Board of Public Works at Washington was considering the question as +to the kind of pavements that should be laid. There was a contest as to +the respective merits of various wooden pavements. Mr. Parsons +represented, as attorney, the De Golyer & McClellan patent, and being +called away from Washington about the time the hearing was to be had +before the Board of Public Works on this subject, procured General +Garfield to appear before the Board in his stead and argue the merits on +this patent. This he did, and this was the whole of his connection in +the matter. It was not a question as to the kind of contract that +should be made, but as to whether this particular kind of pavement +should be laid. The criticism of the committee was not upon the +_pavement_ in favor of which General Garfield argued, but was upon the +_contract_ made with reference to it; and there was no evidence which +would warrant the conclusion that he had anything to do with the +latter." + +There were forty kinds of pavement presented, and for drawing up a brief +in favor of the De Golyer patent, Garfield received a fee of five +thousand dollars. + +This was an honorable business transaction. "There was not in my +opinion," adds Mr. Wilson, "any evidence that would have warranted any +unfavorable criticism upon his conduct." + +Garfield defended himself in a manly, straightforward manner. "If +anybody in the world," he said in conclusion, "holds that my fee in +connection with this pavement, even by suggestion or implication, had +any relation whatever to any appropriation by Congress for anything +connected with this District, or with anything else, it is due to me, it +is due to this committee, and it is due to Congress, that that person be +summoned. If there be a man on this earth who makes such a charge, that +man is the most infamous perjurer that lives, and I shall be glad to +confront him anywhere in this world." + +The political opponents of Garfield delighted to call him a "salary +grabber," but with how much justice the following facts will show. + +On the 7th of February, 1873, a bill was presented in Congress, together +with a report submitted by B. F. Butler, from the Judiciary Committee of +the House of Representatives, for the passing of the so-called +retroactive law. Its object was to increase the pay of members of +Congress for past services, a measure that Garfield strenuously opposed +from the first. A few days later Butler tried to incorporate it with the +miscellaneous appropriation bill. Of the whole matter, Garfield spoke as +follows:-- + +"I wish to state in a few words the condition of the salaries-increase +question in the conference committee of the Senate and the House. The +Senate conferees were unanimous in favor of fixing the salary at $7,500 +and cutting off all allowance except actual individual travelling +expenses of a member from his home to Washington and back again, once a +session. That proposition was agreed to by a majority of the conferees +on the part of the House. I was opposed to the increase in the +conference as I have been opposed to it in the discussion and in my +votes here; but my associate conferees were in favor of the Senate +amendment, and I was compelled to choose between signing the report and +running the risk of bringing on an extra session of Congress. I have +signed the report, and I present it as it is, and ask the House to act +on it in accordance with its best judgment." + +Garfield felt that Congress had no right to increase its own pay, but +those who favored the plan had attached it to another bill that he very +much desired to see passed. + +President Hinsdale who was in Washington at the time, says,-- + +"There is an incident connected with that bill which I will relate, not +because I was concerned in it, but because it shows something of the +working of Garfield's mind. I got to Washington on Saturday, and on +Sunday there was a long session of the committee on appropriations +devoted to the discussion of the increase of salaries. This feature was +a rider on one of the most important appropriation bills. Garfield +opposed the rider, but was overruled by the committee. On Monday, I +happened to pass the room of the committee on appropriations and I found +General Garfield walking up and down the corridor. He said to me,-- + +"'I've got to decide in fifteen minutes whether I will sign that bill or +not. If I do, I go on the record as indorsing a measure that I have been +opposing. If I do not, I lose all control of the bill. It will be +reported to the House by General Butler, and he will control the debate +on it. The session of Congress ends to-morrow, and if the bill fails to +pass, this Congress will expire without making provisions for carrying +on the government. Now, what would you do?' + +"I told him that I would sign the bill, and in the House I would briefly +explain why I had at last signed a bill which I had opposed. I don't +assume that his conduct was guided by my advice, but he pursued the +course I had indicated." + +The bill passed; but immediately upon the receipt of the back pay that +had been voted him, Garfield returned the money to the Treasury. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The Credit Mobilier.--Garfield entirely Cleared of all + Charges Against him.--Tribute to him in Cincinnati + Gazette.--Elected U. S. Senator.--Extract from + Speech.--Sonnet. + + +A still more fruitful source of scandal was the association of +Garfield's name with the Credit Mobilier stock. The company bearing this +high-sounding French title was chartered, as early as 1859, under the +law of Pennsylvania, for the alleged purpose of buying land, loaning +money, building houses, etc. + +When the war broke out, it ceased operations, until in 1866 the +construction of the Pacific railroad brought it again into notice. + +By using the charter of this Credit Mobilier, Mr. Oakes Ames and his +associates saw an opportunity of making large sums of money. They bought +up a majority of the stock of the Pacific Railroad, and secured the +entire control of the Credit Mobilier. A contract was made with this +company to build the road at an exorbitant profit, the proceeds of which +were to be divided among themselves. The rights and interests of the +smaller stockholders were quite ignored, as well as those of the United +States, which, besides giving millions of acres, had also indorsed +$60,000,000 of its bonds, to assist in the building of the railroad. + +Of course, all this fraudulent dealing was kept a profound secret, and +the true character of the Credit Mobilier was not known to the public +for a long time. + +To prevent Congress from investigating this outrageous swindle, the ring +tried to dispose of some of their Credit Mobilier stock to different +members of Congress. + +George Francis Train called upon Garfield and asked him to invest. + +"You can double and treble your money in a year," he urged; "the object +of the company is to buy land where cities and villages are to spring +up." + +Garfield told Mr. Train that he had no money to invest, and even if he +had, he should want to make further inquiries before entering into such +a transaction. + +A year later Mr. Ames, who was a member of Congress, came to Garfield +and repeated the request. + +"If you have no money to spare," said Mr. Ames, "I will hold the stock +until you can find it convenient to pay for it." + +After taking a few days to consider the matter, Garfield told Mr. Ames +he had decided not to invest. + +The following July, 1867, Garfield sailed for Europe, and in order to +obtain funds for this trip, he turned over advanced drafts for several +months of his congressional salary. When he returned home in November, +he needed a small sum, for current expenses, and borrowed three hundred +dollars of Oakes Ames. This loan he paid back in 1869. + +Not long after this transaction, Garfield was informed that his name was +upon Oakes Ames' book as holding ten shares of the Credit Mobilier. + +He demanded an explanation, and Mr. Ames appeared before a committee of +investigation, upon December 17, 1872. His testimony was as follows,-- + +"In reference to Mr. Garfield," said the chairman, "you say that you +agreed to get ten shares for him and to hold them till he could pay for +them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"He never paid any money on that stock, nor received any money from it?" + +"Not on account of it." + +"He received no dividends?" + +"No, sir; I think not. He says he did not. My own recollection is not +very clear." + +"So, that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, +nor received any money on that transaction?" + +"No, sir; he had some money from me once, some three or four hundred +dollars, and called it a loan. He says that is all he ever received from +me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock and never +paid for it." + +"Did you understand it so?" + +"Yes; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him +any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money." + +Five weeks after this statement, Mr. Ames appeared a second time before +the committee with a memorandum in which there was an entry to the +effect that a certain amount of stock had been sold for $329 and paid +over to General Garfield; that it was not paid in money, but by a check +on the sergeant-at-arms. + +To this statement, the sergeant-at-arms, Mr. Dillon, testified that he +had paid a check of $329, but that the payment had been made to Mr. +Ames, not to General Garfield. + +It was conclusively proved that Garfield's name was not among the eleven +congressmen who had bought shares in the Credit Mobilier. + +In a long and able vindication of the purity of his motives, Garfield +concludes with the following words:-- + +"If there be a citizen of the United States who is willing to believe +that, for $329, I have bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have +added perjury, these lines are not addressed to him. If there be one +who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on so low a +level as these charges would place it, I do not address him; I address +those who are willing to believe that it is possible for a man to serve +the public without personal dishonor. + +"If any of the scheming corporations or corrupt rings that have done so +much to disgrace the country by their attempts to control its +legislation, have ever found in me a conscious supporter or ally in any +dishonorable scheme, they are at full liberty to disclose it. In the +discussion of the many grave and difficult questions of public policy +which have occupied the thoughts of the nation during the last twelve +years, I have borne some part; and I confidently appeal to the public +records for a vindication of my conduct." + +A writer in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_ at this time thus described +Garfield:-- + +"With as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitions of sordid +ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him +that he is poor, and yet has been accused of dishonesty. He has no +capacity for investment, nor the rapid solution of wealth, nor profound +respect for the penny in and out of pound, and still, is neither +careless, improvident, nor dependent. The great consuming passion to +equal richer people, and live finely, and extend his social power, are +as foreign to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicious +nor a high-mettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly from his +obliging, un-refusing disposition. Men who were scheming imposed upon +him as upon Grant and other crude-eyed men of affairs. The people of his +district, however, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, +heard him in his defence, and kept him in Congress and held up his +hand." + +Side by side with this testimony, listen to Garfield's own words in the +Ohio Senate just after his election:-- + +"During the twenty years I have been in the public service (almost +eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States), I have tried to do +one thing. I have represented, for many years a district in Congress +whose approbation I greatly desired, but, though it may seem perhaps a +little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation +of one person, and his name is Garfield. He is the only man that I am +compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and die with, and, if I could not +have his approbation, I should have bad companionship." + +The following sonnet, from an anonymous pen, appeared about this time in +the Washington _Evening Star_:-- + + +TO JAMES A. GARFIELD. + + "Thou who didst ride on Chickamauga's day, + All solitary, down the fiery line, + And saw the ranks of battle rusty shine, + Where grand old Thomas held them from dismay, + Regret not now, while meaner factions play + Their brief campaigns against the best of men; + For those spent balls of slander have their way, + And thou shalt see the victory again. + Weary and ragged, though the broken lines + Of party reel, and thine own honor bleeds, + That mole is blind that Garfield undermines! + That shot falls short that hired slander speeds! + That man will live whose place the state assigns, + And whose high mind the mighty nation needs!" + +[Illustration: PRIVATE RESIDENCE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD, MENTOR, +OHIO.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + After the Ordeal.--Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of + Ohio.--Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.--Purchase + of the Farm at Mentor.--Description of the New House.--Life + at Mentor.--The Garfield Household.--Longing for Home in his + Last Hours. + + +As gold is tried in the fire, so General Garfield passed through the +distressing ordeal of slander and fierce opposition. In January, 1880, +he was elected by a unanimous vote United States Senator from Ohio. In +his speech of acceptance, he says,-- + +"I do not undervalue the office that you have tendered to me yesterday +and to-day; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the +manner in which it was tendered to me is far more desirable than the +thing itself. That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly +of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their +confidence, is as touching and high a tribute as one man can receive +from his fellow-citizens." + +Three years previous to his election as Senator, Garfield was spending +his summer vacation near Cleveland, Ohio. Driving one day along the +stage-road that skirts the shores of Lake Erie, he came to the pretty +town of Mentor. + +His old fascination for the sparkling, blue waters returned--he was a +boy again, chopping wood in his uncle's forest and counting the sails +with every stroke! Why not make his summer home just here? + +Upon inquiry, he found in Mentor, waiting a purchaser, a fine farm of a +hundred and twenty acres. + +The little cottage upon the ground would accommodate his family for +awhile, and when they went back to Washington, a larger and more +convenient house could be built in its place. So the farm was purchased, +and "Lawnfield," the pleasant Mentor home, established. + +The new house, built upon the foundation of the old one, suggests +comfort rather than elegance. It is two and a half stories high, with +two dormer windows and a broad veranda in front. + +The wide, airy hall contains a large writing table, in addition to the +other furniture, and piles of books and papers greet you in every +corner. + +The first floor has a parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, +wash-room and pantry, planned with every convenience by Mrs. Garfield, +to whom the architect's papers were submitted. + +Two of the pleasantest rooms on the second floor are fitted up +especially for "Grandma Garfield;" one of these has a large, +old-fashioned fire-place, and is conceded to be the brightest, +cheeriest room in the whole house. + +In the ell is a small room, thirteen and a half by fourteen feet, called +by the children "papa's snuggery." It is not the library, but the walls +are covered with book-shelves, and the little room seems to have been +used by the busy statesman as a sort of "sanctum sanctorum." + +The library is a separate building, a few steps to the northeast of the +house. Garfield used to call it his "workshop," and the books of +reference, indices, public documents, etc., piled up on the shelves, +show the numerous tools he employed in his "literary carpentry." + +This home at Mentor was purchased especially for the benefit of the +Garfield children, but both father and mother enjoyed the quiet country +life far better than the whirl of society at Washington. + +"Isn't it strange," exclaimed Garfield, to one of his guests, "how a man +will revive his early attachment to farm-life? For twenty-five years I +scarcely remained on a farm for a longer period than a few days, but now +I am an enthusiast. I can see now what I could not see when I was a boy. +It is delightful to watch the growing crops." + +As Washington turned with delight to the quiet shades of Mount Vernon, +so Garfield looked forward each year to his summer at Mentor. + +Oftentimes, his visitors would find him out in the fields, tossing hay +with his boys, superintending the farm-work, or planning some new +improvement. + +In a letter to a friend, he says,-- + +"You can hardly imagine how completely I have turned my mind out of its +usual channels during the last weeks. You know I have never been able to +do anything moderately, and, to-day, I feel myself lame in every muscle +with too much lifting and digging. I shall try to do a little less the +coming week." + +It was his custom at Mentor to rise very early in the morning; directly +after breakfast he would mount one of his horses and go all over the +farm, giving directions for the day's work. There were one hundred and +twenty acres in the original farm, but forty more were purchased soon +after. The beautiful lawn, together with the garden and orchard, takes +up about twelve acres. Seventy more are under cultivation, and the +remainder are in pasture lots and woodland. One piece of marshy ground +has been carefully drained, and from it an excellent crop of wheat is +obtained. Many other improvements have been made, as Garfield was an +enthusiast in scientific farming. He liked nothing better than to show +visitors over the place; and, in making the rounds, he would always take +them down the lane back of the house, and up to the top of the ridge +beyond, explaining how the level basin below was once a part of Lake +Erie. + +The little town of Mentor is largely settled by New Englanders, and the +hilly surface, the groves of maple, oak, and hickory, interspersed with +thrifty farms, remind one constantly of the Eastern States. Cleveland is +only twenty-five miles to the east, and the waters of Lake Erie form its +northern boundary. To reach Mentor by rail, one must take the Lake Shore +and Michigan Southern Railroad. + +A gentleman, who dined one day at Lawnfield, says,-- + +"I sat next to Mrs. Garfield, and I found her a ready and charming +conversationalist.... She is tall, fine-looking, has a kind, good face, +and the gentlest of manners. A pair of black eyes and a mouth about +which there plays a sweetly-bewitching smile, are the most attractive +features of a thoroughly expressive face. She is a quick observer, and +an intelligent listener." + +The two older boys, Harry and James, are fine, manly fellows, eighteen +and sixteen years of age. They are good scholars, and passed an +excellent examination upon their entrance to Williams College in the +fall of '81. Mollie, the only daughter, is a lovely girl of fourteen. +The next child, a boy of ten, bears the name of Irvin McDowell. + +"I had," said Garfield, "a personal acquaintance with General McDowell, +and I knew him to be an upright man and a good officer, and consequently +protested slightly to the abuse heaped upon him by giving my son his +name." + +The youngest child is seven years of age, and is called Abram, for his +grandfather. + +"Grandma Garfield," whose features, as well as those of the children and +their parents, have become so familiar to us, is a bright, active old +lady of eighty years. + +"I have seen Garfield," writes Mr. Campbell, the editor of the _Wheeling +Intelligencer_, "in the midst of his plain home life--beneath his +Western Reserve cottage farm-house. His surroundings were those of a man +of culture, but of a man of limited means. His board was frugally +spread--scarcely differing in any respect from the table of his humble +neighbors. He preferred frugality and self-denial to debt, and I came +away, doing honor in my mind to this sterling trait of his character." + +Some of the happiest hours of Garfield's life were spent in this modest +home at Mentor, and as one writer beautifully expresses it, through +those long, long summer days, "wounded to death, and looking out on the +yellow dreary Potomac, so dreary, so yellow in the throbbing midsummer +heat, his soul wandered in his dreams, not amid the scenes of his +ambitions or his achievements, but through the haunts of his boyhood, +through the streets of Cleveland, with the comrades of his prime; and +his last dream on earth was a dream of Mentor, the home of his happy and +prosperous manhood. Its modest walls, its harvest fields, its peaceful +glades, were the last pictures to fill his sight with delight before he +lifted his eyes to confront the glory of the Heavenly City." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Republican Convention at Chicago.--The Three + Prominent Candidates.--Description of + Conkling.--Logan.--Cameron.--Description of + Garfield.--Resolution Introduced by Conkling.--Opposition of + West Virginians.--Garfield's Conciliatory Speech.--His + Oration in Behalf of Sherman.--Opinions of the Press. + + +The National Convention of the Republican party that met at Chicago, in +June, 1880, will always be marked with a red-letter in the annals of our +country. The third-term issue, the unit rule, district representation, +and the arbitrary power of party managers, made the nomination for +President one long scene of hard fought battles. + +The three prominent candidates were General Grant; James G. Blaine, +Senator from Maine; and John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury. + +The third-term party who desired the nomination of Grant, was strongly +supported by Senator Conkling of New York, Senator Cameron of +Pennsylvania, and Senator Logan of Illinois. These three great political +leaders are thus described by a graphic writer, who was present at the +opening of the Convention:-- + +"Just as the great Exposition Building had nearly filled up, there was a +simultaneous huzza throughout the hall and galleries, and it speedily +broke out in a hearty applause. The tall and now silvered plume of +Conkling was visible in the aisle, and he strode down to his place at +the head of his delegation with the majesty of an emperor. He recognized +the compliment by a modest bow, without lifting his eyes to the +audience, and took his seat as serenely as if on a picnic and holiday. +The Grant men seemed to be more comfortable when they found him by their +side and evidently ready for the conflict. + +"Logan's swarthy features, flowing mustache, and Indian hair, were next +visible on the eastern aisle, but he stepped to the head of his +delegation so quietly that he escaped a special welcome. He sat as if in +sober reflection for a few moments, and then hastened over to Conkling +to perfect their counsel on the eve of battle. The two senatorial +leaders held close conference until the bustle about the chair gave +notice that the opposing lines were about to begin to feel each other, +and test their position. + +"Cameron had just stepped upon the platform with the elasticity of a +boy, and his youthful, but strongly-marked face was recognized at once. +There was no applause. They all knew that he never plays for the +galleries, and that cheers are wasted upon him. He quietly sat down for +ten minutes, although the time for calling the convention to order had +passed by an hour, and looked calmly out upon the body so big with +destiny for himself and his Grant associates. As he passed by he was +asked,-- + +"'What of the battle?' + +"'We have three hundred to start with,' he replied, 'and we will work on +till we win.' + +"This was said with all the determination that his positive manner and +expression could add to language, and it summed up his whole strategy." + +George F. Hoar, from Massachusetts, was appointed President of the +Convention; and among the delegates from Ohio, and enthusiastic +supporters of Sherman, was General Garfield, thus described by a writer +in the _Chicago Inter-Ocean_:-- + +"A big heart, a sympathetic nature, and a mind keenly sensitive to +everything that is beautiful in sentiment, are the artists that shade +down the gnarled outlines and touch with soft coloring the plain +features of his massive face. The conception of a grand thought always +paints a glow upon Garfield's face, which no one forgets who has seen +him while speaking. His eyes are a cold gray, but they are often--yes, +all the time when he is speaking--lit brilliantly by the warm light of +worthy sentiments, and the strong flame of a great man's conviction. + +"In speaking, he is not so restless as Conkling; his speech is an appeal +for thought and calm deliberation, and he stands still like the rock of +judgment while he delivers it. There is no invective or bitterness in +his effort, but there is throughout an earnestness of conviction and an +unquestionable air of sincerity, to which every gesture and intonation +of voice is especially adapted." + +On the second day of the convention a resolution was introduced by Mr. +Conkling that every member of the convention should support the nominee, +and that no one should hold a seat who was not willing thus to pledge +himself. The question was opposed by several voices, and when Mr. +Conkling called for a vote of the States, three delegates from West +Virginia voted in the negative. Another resolution was then offered by +Mr. Conkling, who declared that these delegates had forfeited their +seats in the convention. + +The West Virginians asserted that they were true Republicans, but could +not, and would not, pledge themselves in this manner. A hot contest of +words would probably have ensued, had not Garfield taken the floor and +spoken as follows:-- + +"I fear the convention is about to commit a grave error. Every delegate, +save three, has voted for the resolution, and the three gentlemen who +have voted against it have risen in their places and stated that they +expected, and intended, to support the nominee of the convention, but +that it was not, in their judgment, a wise thing, at this time, to pass +the resolution which all the rest of the delegates had voted for. Were +they to be disfranchised because they thought so? That was the question. +Was every delegate to have his republicanism inquired into before he was +allowed to vote? Delegates were responsible for their votes, not to the +convention, but to their constituents. He himself would never in any +convention vote against his judgment. He regretted that the gentlemen +from West Virginia had thought it best to break the harmony of the +convention by their dissent. He did not know these gentlemen, nor their +affiliations, nor their relations to the candidates. If this convention +expelled those men then the convention would have to purge itself at the +end of every vote and inquire how many delegates who had voted 'no' +should go out. He trusted that the gentleman from New York would +withdraw his resolution and let the convention proceed with its +business." + +One of the delegates from California immediately moved to lay the +resolution on the table, and Mr. Conkling thereupon withdrew it. + +On the fourth day of the convention, and just after the Grant men had +set forth in glowing terms the claims of their candidate, Garfield was +called to the platform to represent Ohio. A hearty cheering greeted him +as he began:-- + + "MR. PRESIDENT: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of + this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my + heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and + noble character. But as I sat on these seats and witnessed + these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean + in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and + tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the + dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but + the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths + are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm + settles on the ocean, when sunlight bathes its smooth + surface, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level + from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths. + + "Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not + mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm + has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we + shall find the calm level of public opinion below the storm + from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be + measured, and by which their final action will be + determined. + + "Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen thousand + men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic + to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces + of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates waiting to cast + their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their + party, but by four million Republican firesides, where the + thoughtful fathers with wives and children about them, with + the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of + country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the + future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned + and blessed our nation in days gone by--there God prepares + the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work + to-night. Not in Chicago in the heat of June, but in the + sober quiet that comes between now and November, in the + silence of deliberate judgment will this great question be + settled. Let us aid them to-night. + + "But now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want? + Twenty-five years ago this republic was wearing a triple + chain of bondage. Long familiarity with traffic in the + bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a + majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State + sovereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and most + beneficent powers of the national government, and the + grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin territories + of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal + bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It + drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which + God has lighted in every man's heart, and which all the + powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish. + + "The Republican party came to deliver and save the republic. + It entered the arena when the beleaguered and assailed + territories were struggling for freedom, and drew around + them the sacred circle of liberty which the demon of slavery + has never dared to cross. It made them free forever. + + "Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young + party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this + spot, twenty years ago, was made its leader, entered the + national capital and assumed the high duties of the + government. The light which shone from its banner dispelled + the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the capital, + and melted the shackles of every slave, and consumed in the + fire of liberty every slave-pen within the shadow of the + capitol. + + "Our national industries by an impoverishing policy, were + themselves prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in + such feeble currents that the treasury itself was well-nigh + empty. The money of the people was the wretched notes of two + thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible state banking + corporations, which were filling the country with a + circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the life of + business. The Republican party changed all this. It + abolished the babel of confusion, and gave the country a + currency as national as its flag, based upon the sacred + faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around our + great industries, and they stood erect as with new life. It + filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great + functions of the government. It confronted a rebellion of + unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, and, under + God, fought the final battle of liberty until victory was + won. Then, after the storms of battle were heard the sweet, + calm words of peace uttered by the conquering nation, and + saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate at its + feet,-- + + "'This is our only revenge, that you join us in lifting to + the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like + stars forever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and + justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free and + stand equal before the law.' + + "Then came the question of reconstruction, the public debt, + and the public faith. In the settlement of the questions the + Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of + glorious existence, and it has sent us here to prepare it + for another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we do + this great work? We cannot do it, my friends, by assailing + our Republican brethren. God forbid that I should say one + word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of our + heroes. + + "This coming fight is our Thermopylæ. We are standing upon a + narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united, we can + withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can + bring against us. Let us hold our ground this one year, for + the stars in their courses fight for us in the future. The + census taken this year will bring reinforcements and + continued power. But in order to win this victory now, we + want the vote of every Republican, of every Grant + Republican, and every anti-Grant Republican in America, of + every Blaine man and anti-Blaine man. The vote of every + follower of every candidate is needed to make our success + certain; therefore, I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are + here to take calm counsel together, and inquire what we + shall do. + + "We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the + achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, + standing on a mountain height, sees all the achievements of + our past history, and carries in his heart the memory of all + its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to + meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want one who will + act in no spirit of unkindness towards those we lately met + in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of + the South the olive-branch of peace, and wishes them to + return to brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that it + shall be admitted forever and forevermore, that in the war + for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. On that + supreme condition we meet them as brothers, and on no other. + We ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of + this great republic. + + "Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a + name for your consideration--the name of a man who was the + comrade and associate and friend of nearly all those noble + dead whose faces look down upon us from these walls + to-night; a man who began his career of public service + twenty-five years ago; whose first duty was courageously + done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when the + first red drops of that bloody shower began to fall which + finally swelled into the deluge of war. He bravely stood by + young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the + National Legislature, through all subsequent time his + pathway has been marked by labors performed in every + department of legislation. + + "You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty-five years + of national statutes. Not one great beneficent measure has + been placed in our statute books without his intelligent and + powerful aid. He aided these men to formulate the laws that + raised our great armies and carried us through the war. His + hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that + restored and brought back the unity and calm of the States. + His hand was in all that great legislation that created the + war currency, and in a still greater work that redeemed the + promises of the government and made the currency equal to + gold. And when at last called from the halls of legislation + into a high executive office, he displayed that experience, + intelligence, firmness and poise of character which has + carried us through a stormy period of three years. With + one-half the public press crying 'Crucify him,' and a + hostile Congress seeking to prevent success, in all this he + remained unmoved until victory crowned him. + + "The great fiscal affairs of the nation, and the great + business interests of the country he has guarded and + preserved, while executing the law of resumption and + effecting its object without a jar and against the false + prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of + this continent. He has shown himself able to meet with + calmness the great emergencies of the government for + twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous heights of + public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne + his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of 'that + fierce light that beats against the throne,' but its + fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain on his + shield. I do not present him as a better Republican or as a + better man than thousands of others we honor, but I present + him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate John + Sherman, of Ohio." + +Of this powerful speech, that was constantly interrupted by storms of +applause, Whitelaw Reid said,-- + +"It was admirably adapted to make votes for his candidate, if speeches +ever made votes. It was courteous, conciliatory, and prudent." + +The editor of the Chicago _Journal_ wrote as follows:-- + +"The supreme orator of the evening was General Garfield. He is a man of +superb power and noble character.... He indulged in no fling at others. +It was a model speech in temper and tone. The impression made was +powerful and altogether wholesome. Many felt that if Ohio had offered +Garfield instead of Sherman, she would have been more likely to win." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + The Battle still Undecided.--Sunday among the Delegates.--Garfield's + Remark.--Monday another Day of Doubt.--The Dark Horse.--The + Balloting on Tuesday.--Garfield's Remonstrance.--He is + Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth Ballot.--Enthusiastic + Demonstrations, Congratulatory Speeches and Telegrams.--His + Speech of Acceptance. + + +Garfield's eloquent speech was followed by one from Mr. Billings, of +Vermont, who proposed Senator Edmunds as a nominee. Mr. Cassidy, of +Wisconsin, presented the name of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, and +was seconded by Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut. + +The battle was waged in this manner until a late hour on Saturday +evening. Many of the delegates wanted to continue the balloting after +midnight, and some urged the chairman, Judge Hoar, to ignore the Sabbath +and let the convention go on. + +"Never!" he replied; "this is a Sabbath-keeping nation, and I cannot +preside over this convention one minute after twelve." + +Garfield attended church in the morning, and dined with Marshall Field. +The conversation at table turned upon the dead-lock in the convention +and the quietus at Washington, where every one was waiting for further +developments. + +Addressing the friend who sat beside him, Garfield said,-- + +"Yes, this is a day of suspense, but it is also a day of prayer; and I +have more faith in the prayers that will go up from Christian hearts +to-day, than I have in all the political tactics which will prevail at +this convention." + +When President Hoar called the convention to order on Monday morning, an +anxious crowd hastily took their seats and prepared for the coming +battle. Eighteen ballots were cast during the day and ten more in the +evening, with no decisive result. The weather was extremely hot, but the +hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and at each roll-call the whole +twelve thousand would simultaneously rise to their feet with a noise +like the roar of thunder. It was late at night before the convention +broke up, and some of the delegates did not retire at all. + +On Tuesday morning, a pencilled note, it is said, passed from Conkling +to Garfield, which read as follows:-- + + "MY DEAR GARFIELD,--If there is to be a dark horse in this + convention there is no man I would prefer before yourself. + + CONKLING." + +The reply was,-- + + "MY DEAR CONKLING,--There will be no dark horse in this + convention. I am for Sherman. + + J. A. GARFIELD." + + + +By the time the thirty-fourth ballot was cast, however, it began to be +very evident that a "break" was imminent. Wisconsin gave thirty-six +votes for Garfield, Connecticut followed with eleven more, Illinois gave +seven, and Indiana twenty-nine. + +Garfield immediately rose to his feet and said he had refused to have +his name announced and voted for in the convention. + +"I have not given my consent"--he began; but amidst much laughter the +chairman interrupted, and said the gentleman was not stating a question +of order. + +The enthusiasm for the new candidate now rose to its highest pitch. When +the thirty-sixth ballot was called, Sherman and the Ohio delegation, +with the New York anti-Grant men, led off in a grand burst of applause +for Garfield. One after another the States transferred their votes to +him, till at last Wisconsin completed the majority. + +Before the roll was called a salute of guns was fired in the park +outside, the galleries sprang to their feet, and the wildest scene of +excitement followed. + +Each delegation had its State banner, and, with Massachusetts at the +head, an impromptu procession was formed that marched over to the Ohio +delegation and placed all the standards by the side of Garfield. The +military band in the hall then struck up, "Rally round the Flag," and +the whole immense audience enthusiastically joined in the stirring song. + +"I shall never forget," writes an eye-witness, "the expression of +Garfield's face at the time that delegation after delegation was +breaking from its moorings and going over to him. I scanned him with +intense curiosity as he listened to the call of States, and the certain +coming of his nomination. His cheeks had a flush upon them, and there +was a far-away expression in his eyes as he listened to the responses of +the chairman, as if he was communing with the future. I can see his face +at this moment as plainly as I saw it then, and I ask myself now whether +as he swept the horizon of the future with his mind's eye, could he +possibly have had a glimpse of the dark apparition that was even then +being invoked into life. He looked anxious, almost troubled." + +When the President of the convention announced that James A. Garfield of +Ohio had received three hundred and ninety-nine ballots, the majority of +the whole votes cast, Senator Conkling arose and said,-- + +"I move that he be unanimously presented as the nominee of the +convention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my +feet, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican +party of the nation on the good-natured and well-tempered disposition +that has distinguished this animated convention. + +"I trust that the fervor and unanimity of the scenes of the convention +will be transplanted to the field of the country, and all of us who have +borne a part against each other here will be found with equal zeal, +bearing the banners and carrying the lances of the Republican party into +the ranks of the enemy." + +Senator Logan followed Conkling in a similar congratulatory speech; and +Eugene Hale, the defeated leader of the Blaine forces, said:-- + +"Standing here to return our heartfelt thanks to the many men in this +convention who have aided us in the fight that we made for the senator +from Maine, and speaking for them here, as I know that I do, I say this +most heartily: We have not got the man whom we hoped to nominate when we +came here, but we have got a man in whom we have the greatest and most +marked confidence. The nominee of this convention is no new and untried +man, and in that respect he is no 'dark horse.' When he came here, +representing his State in the front of his delegation and was seen here, +every man knew him because of his record; and because of that and +because of our faith in him, and because we were in the emergency, glad +to help make him the candidate of the Republican party for President of +the United States,--because, I say, of these things, I stand here to +pledge the Maine forces in this convention to earnest effort until the +ides of November, to help to carry him to the presidential chair." + +Short speeches followed from members of the other delegations and the +nomination of James A. Garfield was declared unanimous. + +While shaking hands with the crowd that gathered around him, Garfield +turned to a correspondent of the Cleveland _Herald_ and said gravely:-- + +"I wish you would say that this is no act of mine. I wish you would say +that I have done everything and omitted nothing to secure Secretary +Sherman's nomination. I want it plainly understood that I have not +sought this nomination, and have protested against the use of my name. +If Senator Hoar had permitted, I would have forbidden anybody to vote +for me. But he took me off my feet before I had said what I intended. I +am very sorry it has occurred, but if my position is fully explained, a +nomination, coming unsought and unexpected like this, will be the +crowning gratification of my life." + +Before nominating the Vice-President, the convention took a short +recess, and Garfield attempted to leave the hall. He was immediately +surrounded, however, by an enthusiastic crowd, who followed him to the +door and tried to take the horses off his carriage that they might draw +it themselves. + +A serenade followed at the Grand Pacific Hotel, but Garfield declined to +respond to the ovation further than to give his thanks. More than six +hundred congratulatory telegrams were received during the evening, among +the most notable of which were the following:-- + + + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + June 8th, 1880. + + _To General James A. Garfield:_ + + You will receive no heartier congratulations to-day than + mine. This both for your own and your country's sake. + + (Signed) R. B. HAYES. + + + WASHINGTON, June 8th, 1880. + + _Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago:_ + + I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination as + President of the United States. You have saved the + Republican party and the country from a great peril, and + assured the continued success of Republican principles. + + (Signed) JOHN SHERMAN. + + + "The vote of Maine just cast for you is given you with my + hearty concurrence. I assure you of my belief that you will + have a glorious victory in November." + + JAMES G. BLAINE. + + + MILWAUKEE, June 8th, 1880. + + "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art + promised." LAWRENCE BARRETT. + + + WASHINGTON, June 8th 1880. + + "Accept my hearty congratulations. The country is to be + congratulated as well as yourself." C. SCHURZ. + +Similar dispatches were received from other members of the cabinet, and +from various senators and representatives at Washington. When General +Grant heard the news he said, "It is all right--I am satisfied." + +At the earnest request of the delegates, an informal reception was held +at the Grand Pacific, and near midnight Garfield responded to the +committee appointed to notify him officially of his nomination, as +follows:-- + + "MR. CHAIRMEN AND GENTLEMEN,--I assure you that the + information you have officially given me brings a sense of + very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the + fact that I was a member of your body, a fact that could not + have existed with propriety had I had the slightest + expectation that my name would be connected with the + nomination for the office. I have felt with you great + solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the + struggle, but believing that you are correct in assuring me + that substantial unity has been reached in the conclusion, + it gives me gratification far greater than any personal + pleasure your announcement can bring. + + "I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work + of our party and the character of the campaign to be entered + upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than + I can properly do to-night. I thank you for the assurances + of confidence and esteem you have presented to me, and hope + we shall see our future as promising as are the indications + to-night." + +In a similar manner Senator Hoar and the committee officially apprized +General Arthur of his nomination to the Vice-Presidency; his acceptance +was given in a brief informal speech, but it was not till the "small +hours" that the excited crowds began to disperse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Return Home.--Ovations on the Way.--Address at Hiram + Institute.--Impromptu Speech at Washington.--Incident of the + Eagle.--The Tract Distributor. + + +The next morning, Garfield left Chicago for his home in Mentor. The +journey thither was one continual scene of ovations. An immense throng +followed him from the hotel to the station, and a large committee from +Cleveland met the train at Elyria. + +As the car containing Garfield and Governor Foster of Ohio, entered the +depot at Cleveland, a salute of a thousand guns was fired. A procession +of the militia and the Garfield clubs accompanied them to the Kennard +House, and among the transparencies borne by the crowd was one with the +happy inscription:-- + + "Ohio's senator, Ohio's Major-General, Ohio's President. The + true favorite son of Ohio is the favorite son of the Union. + He who at the age of sixteen steered a canal-boat will steer + the ship of state at fifty." + +Garfield had promised to deliver an address at the commencement +exercises of Hiram College. + +The morning after his arrival in Cleveland, therefore, he left as +quietly as possible for the little town, where thirty years before he +had held the humble position of college janitor. + +"I have sought but one office in my life," he said one day to a friend, +"and that was the office of janitor at Hiram Institute." + +As he approached the college grounds the students came out in a body to +greet him. It was a touching scene, and his beautiful address to them is +given in full, in the latter part of the volume.[B] With all his honors +he never forgot this place so "full of memories." + +After a short stay at Hiram, he went on to his home in Mentor, to take a +few days' rest before returning to Washington. + +His address to the enthusiastic crowds that gathered around him when he +reached the Capitol, is so full of his peculiar magnetic power that we +give it entire:-- + + "FELLOW-CITIZENS:--While I have looked upon this great + array, I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of + the American people. + + "When I reflect that whenever you find sovereign power, + every reverent heart on this earth bows before it, and when + I remember that here for a hundred years we have denied the + sovereignty of any man, and in place of it we have asserted + the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before me so + vast a concourse it is easy for me to imagine that were the + rest of the American people gathered here to-night, every + man would stand uncovered, all in unsandalled feet in + presence of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this + Government under Almighty God. + + "And therefore to this great audience I pay the respectful + homage that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the + people. I thank you for this great and glorious + demonstration. I am not, for one moment, misled into + believing that it refers to so poor a thing as any one of + our number. I know it means your reverence for your + Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence for + its institutions, and your compliment to one who is placed + for a moment in relations to you of peculiar importance. For + all these reasons I thank you. + + "I cannot at this time utter a word on the subject of + general politics. I would not mar the cordiality of this + welcome, to which to some extent all are gathered, by any + reference except to the present moment and its significance; + but I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage + to-night are my comrades, late of the war for the Union. For + them I can speak with entire propriety, and can say that + these very streets heard the measured tread of your + disciplined feet, years ago, when the imperilled Republic + needed your hands and your hearts to save it, and you came + back with your numbers decimated; but those you left behind + were immortal and glorified heroes forever; and those you + brought back came, carrying under tattered banners and in + bronzed hands the ark of the covenant of your Republic in + safety out of the bloody baptism of the war, and you brought + it in safety to be saved forever by your valor and the + wisdom of your brethren who were at home, and by this you + were again added to the great civil army of the Republic. + + "I greet you, comrades and fellow-soldiers, and the great + body of distinguished citizens who are gathered here + to-night, who are the strong stay and support of the + business, of the prosperity, of the peace, of the civic + ardor and glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your + welcome to-night. + + "It was said in a welcome to one who came to England to be a + part of her glory--and all the nation spoke when it was said,-- + + "'Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, + But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.' + + "And we say to-night of all nations, of all the people, + soldiers, and civilians, there is one name that welds us all + into one. It is the name of American citizen, under the + union and under the glory of the flag that led us to + victory and peace. For this magnificent welcome I thank you + with all my heart." + +A singular incident occurred in Washington, upon the day of Garfield's +nomination at Chicago. Almost at the very moment the ballot was cast, a +large bald eagle circled around the Park, and finally swooped down and +rested upon the little house on the corner of I and Thirteenth Streets. + +It was seen by Mr. George W. Rose, Garfield's private stenographer, who +occupied the house during his absence, and he says that "before the +eagle rose from its strange perch a dozen people had noticed and +commented upon it." + +Another curious coincident is worthy of notice. On that memorable +Tuesday morning as Garfield entered the Exposition building, where the +convention was assembled, a slip of paper was thrust into his hand by a +tract distributor. + +He put it mechanically into his pocket without reading, and was not a +little astonished that evening when it dropped out and he found upon it +these words:-- + +"This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is +become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any +other." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[B] See page 478. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + News of the Nomination Received with Delight.--Mr. + Robeson speaks for the Democrats in the House of + Representatives.--Ratification Meeting at Williams + College.--Governor Long's Opinion.--Hotly-contested + Campaign.--Garfield Receives the Majority of Votes.--Is + Elected President on the Second of November, 1880.--Extract + from Letter of an Old Pupil.--Review of Garfield's + Congressional Life.--His own Feelings in Regard to the + Election. + + +The news of the nomination at Chicago was received with unfeigned +delight throughout the country. In the House of Representatives at +Washington, Mr. Robeson, by request, spoke for the Democrats as well as +the Republicans, in terms of the highest commendation of the new +nominee; and three hearty cheers were given for him by both parties. + +A ratification meeting was immediately held at Williams College, and the +excited students sang as a chorus to "Marching through Georgia:" + + "Hurrah! hurrah! we'll shout for General G.! + Hurrah! hurrah! a Williams man was he, + And so we'll sing the chorus from old Williams to the sea, + And we'll cast a vote for Garfield!" + +Governor Long, of Massachusetts, when asked his opinion of the +nomination, said,-- + +"I feel an especial pride and satisfaction in the nomination of +Garfield, as I have both desired and publicly urged it from the first. + +"I regard General Garfield as a representative Republican, a sound +statesman, a thorough scholar, and with that good record as a soldier +which never yet has failed to be a claim upon the hearts of the American +people. I regard it as felicitous in General Garfield that, like so many +of his predecessors, he sprang from the humbler walks of life, and, by +his own efforts, has made his own way to eminence, and is not identified +as the special representative of wealth or any great controlling +interests. + +"As a representative from the old Joshua Giddings district, he has stood +from the first as an exponent of equal rights, and he has been an +advocate of honest money in the days when it cost something to face the +'Ohio idee.' Add to this his high personal character, his purity and +integrity, and yet his entire approachableness, and you have an ideal +candidate who commends himself to every good element in the party and +welds it firmly together again, and whose nomination is his election." + +The press were remarkably unanimous in their praise of Garfield. Even +the Southern papers seemed pleased with the nomination, and the New +Orleans _Times_ said,-- + +"Garfield is a very fair representative of the better element of the +Republican party, superior to most of his competitors at Chicago in +mental force, and equal to them in other essential attributes." + +When the Democratic candidate for President was announced, and the +strong names of Hancock and English were pitted against those of +Garfield and Arthur, a close contest was anticipated. And the hot +campaign that followed will long be remembered in the annals of our +country. + +Some of the states that had been securely counted upon by the +Republicans, went over to the Democrats; but, when the final returns +were given on the second day of November, 1880, it was found that +Garfield had carried twenty of the thirty-eight states, receiving two +hundred and fourteen of the electoral votes, while Hancock had but one +hundred and fifty-five. + +One of Garfield's old pupils, upon hearing the news, wrote to a friend +in New York as follows:-- + +"We of 'old Portage County,' where his ability was first recognized, and +from which no delegate to any convention where his name has been +presented ever voted against him, knowing him well and trusting him +fully, rejoice with exceeding joy in the results of Tuesday's +election.... We believe no manlier man ever headed a ticket for the +office. He is as pure as Washington, as brave as Jackson, as humane as +Lincoln, and as grand and able as Daniel Webster. He is broad enough for +the whole country, and sectionalism will find no sympathy in him." + +The editor of a leading Boston paper wrote the following fine review of +Garfield's congressional life:-- + +"The election of General Garfield to the office of President is, in some +sense, a departure from the custom of the country. He is the first man +who has had long and thorough experience in the legislative branch of +the government, holding for many years the position of a leader of a +party both while in power and while out of power, and, consequently, +thoroughly familiar with all the business of the nation, who has been +raised to the Presidential office. It had almost come to be thought that +no man could go directly from Congress to the Presidency. + +"It is not unreasonable to expect that the administration of General +Garfield will be marked by some peculiar features dependent upon these +conditions. For eighteen years he has been a member of the House of +Representatives, all the time a conspicuously active member, and a large +part of the time a recognized leader. He has served on all the more +important committees, and been chairman of several. He has been a close +and eager student of the theory and the practice of our form of +government, at once a philosophical statesman, a shrewd, practical +politician, and an accomplished debater of legislative measures. His +character, his accomplishments, his position, his tastes, have favored +and compelled him to form personal acquaintance with all classes of +influential men, so that probably there is not in the country another +who has so extensive a circle of acquaintances among men who are potent +in forming and directing public opinion. + +"Every great interest of American life knows that he has sounded it, and +apprehends and appreciates its capacity. In church, and college, and +market, and among the plain people who toil in shops and fields, he is +regarded as a friend who has regarded their necessities and spoken and +labored in their cause. + +"There is not a policy of administration which he has not analyzed; +there is not a department of the public service with the scope and work +of which he is not acquainted. He will come to his office better +equipped for intelligent conduct of national affairs than any man who +has preceded him for two generations at least, and the best part of his +equipment is his broad, hopeful faith in freedom, equal rights, and +impartial justice as the safe conditions of progress." + +In the midst of all this spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, Garfield +himself writes to a friend,-- + +"I believe all my friends are more gratified with the personal part of +my triumph than I am, and, although I am proud of the noble support I +have received, and the vindication it gives me against my assailants, +yet there is a tone of sadness running through this triumph which I can +hardly explain." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + At Mentor.--The Journey to Washington.--Inauguration + Day.--Immense Concourse of People.--The Address.--Sworn into + Office.--Touching Scene.--Grand Display.--Inauguration + Ball.--Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.--Two + Great Problems.--How they were Solved.--Disgraceful Rupture + in the Senate.--Prerogative of the Executive Office + vindicated. + + +The few months that elapsed between the election and the inauguration +were spent by Garfield in the quiet home at Mentor. + +One day an intimate friend of the family asked Mrs. Garfield if she were +not looking forward with pleasant anticipations to her life in the White +House. + +"No," she answered, simply and sincerely, "I can only hope it will not +be altogether unhappy." + +The words occasioned surprise at the time--afterwards they seemed like a +sad prophecy. + +Inauguration day drew near, and the journey from Mentor to Washington +was one continual series of ovations. Then that memorable fourth of +March at the capital. "Who that beheld the inspiring spectacle," +exclaims one writer, "can ever see it grow pale in memory!" + +Before noon thousands of people had gathered in front of the Capitol, +and when the doors of the rotunda were thrown open, the police were +obliged to push away the crowd that had assembled on the steps. + +Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Treasury and the Capitol grounds, was +one great sea of heads, and loud cheers arose from every side as the +long procession escorting the President-elect passed on to the Capitol. +The buildings along the whole route were beautifully decorated, and +handkerchiefs fluttered from every window. + +General Sherman, at the head of the Cleveland troops, led the way, and +the Columbia Commandery of Knights Templars formed an important part of +the escort. + +Upon reaching the Capitol, Garfield took his seat on the platform, with +President Hayes on his right hand, and Chief-Justice Waite on his left. +Just behind him sat Mr. Wheeler, and Vice-President Arthur. The mother +of the President-elect, his wife and little girl, were also on the +platform, and Mrs. Hayes and her daughter were seated just beside them. + +The Inaugural Address,[C] which occupied half an hour in its delivery, +was frequently applauded by the vast audience. The clear, ringing tones +of the speaker gave added force to every sentence; and his wonderful +magnetism held the whole crowd spell-bound. + +[Illustration: Eliza Ballou Garfield.] + +At the close of the address, the oath of office was administered by the +Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and then the immense throngs of +people began slowly to disperse. + +The threatening clouds of the early morning had all disappeared, and the +bright March sun looked down upon a most touching, beautiful picture, as +the new President turned around to his dear old mother, the guiding star +of his life--and tenderly kissed her. + + "Ah! not in Greece or Rome alone + High mother-hearts shall swell; + America's unsculptured stone! + Will Garfield legends tell,-- + How at the height of fame he durst-- + The proudest moment of his life-- + To put the white-haired mother first, + Then turned and kissed his wife." + +As soon as the evening twilight came on, a grand display of fireworks +illuminated the city. The Inauguration Ball was one of the most +brilliant ever held in Washington. The hall was finely decorated. Just +in the centre of the rotunda was a statue of America, surrounded by +tropical plants; in her left hand she held a shield, and from her right, +a powerful electric light in the form of a torch shone down the four +wings of the building. Heavy festoons of evergreens, intertwined with +rare flowers, hung from the ceiling, and the lofty pillars were +decorated with streamers of bunting and the shields of the States and +Territories. + +Some four thousand people had assembled in the building before the +arrival of the presidential party. Garfield did not take part in the +dancing, but after an hour spent in hand-shaking, he retired to a +balcony where his wife and mother were seated, and watched with evident +enjoyment the brilliant scene below. + +The next day the Senate had a special session, and the President +announced his Cabinet as follows:-- + + Secretary of State: JAMES G. BLAINE. + Secretary of the Treasury: WILLIAM WINDOM. + Secretary of the Interior: SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD. + Secretary of the Navy: WILLIAM H. HUNT. + Secretary of War: ROBERT T. LINCOLN. + Postmaster-General: THOMAS L. JAMES. + Attorney-General: WAYNE MCVEAGH. + +The different elements of the Republican party represented by these +names seemed to presage rough waters for the ship-of-state; but the +choice was made with clear-sighted judgment. + +Two great problems confronted President Garfield as he assumed the reins +of government. First, what should be done with the national debt, so +rapidly maturing? + +After considerable investigation, it was deemed best to extend the bonds +at a lower rate of interest, that is, three and a half per cent. +Garfield's accurate knowledge of political economy and finance saved the +country many millions of dollars by this wise plan; and the loans as +fast as they have become due have been paid by new bonds issued at this +lower rate. + +The second problem was not to be solved so readily. How could half a +million of importunate office-seekers be appeased, when only a hundred +thousand offices were in the President's power to bestow? + +The baleful influence of the wretched spoils system began its evil work +at once. + +Said a leading political paper:-- + +"The feeling has become a very dominant one that the Government owes +every man a living. This is found all the way up from the country school +district to town, city, county, state and nation. It need not be said +this is an unhealthy condition of things in every aspect. It diverts +men's minds from the old paths of industry, and badly demoralizes +families and communities. It leads to all manner of crimes, and so +intensifies party spirit that all laws provided for their punishment are +practically inoperative." + +President Garfield had never had any sympathy with the system that tries +to appease its party by "liquidating personal obligations with public +trusts." In organizing his administration, he desired to unite and +consolidate the Republican party, and to make such appointments as were +for the manifest good of the whole country. But it was impossible for +him to do this without exciting opposition; the disgraceful rupture in +the Senate immediately followed, and the first weeks of his +administration presented one continued series of hotly-contested +battles. + +That the President held his own, in spite of all adverse criticism, +showed at once the strong, unyielding hand that guided the Ship of +State, and after-events proved that he was clearly right from first to +last. + +"President Garfield," said one able writer, "used political weapons to +combat politicians in the matter of the New York Custom House, but he +achieved much by so doing. For the first time since 1876 we have a +Republican party in New York distinct from the close corporation that +has controlled the organization there these recent years. A nucleus has +been established around which all shades of Republican opinion can rally +with the good hope of destroying the despotism that has virtually +ostracized the best Republicans of the State from influential +participation in national politics. The nucleus is an administration +party, which invites the co-operation of all who would liberalize the +organization. With the overthrow of "machine" control, as it has existed +in New York and Pennsylvania, and the old would-be dictators remanded to +their proper place, a great advance has been made towards that purer +condition of political and public affairs that all honest men favor." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[C] See page 480. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.--Morning of + the Fateful Day.--Secretary Blaine Accompanies him to the + Station.--A Mysterious-looking Character.--Sudden Report of + a Pistol.--The President Turns and Receives the Fatal + Shot.--Arrest of the Assassin.--The President Recovers + Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House. + + "A WASP flew out upon our fairest son, + And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft, + The while he chatted carelessly and laughed, + And knew not of the fateful mischief done. + And so this life, amid our lore begun, + Envenomed by the insect's hellish craft, + Was drunk by Death in one long, feverish draught, + And he was lost--our precious, priceless one! + Oh, mystery of blind, remorseless fate! + Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate! + That life so mean should murder life so great!" + + J. G. HOLLAND. + + +The anniversary of our National Independence was now close at hand. In +spite of the shameful and distressing party factions of the previous +weeks, the country had never seemed in a more prosperous condition. The +electric state of the political atmosphere had proved itself an element +of purification, not of destruction, and the outlook for the future +grew brighter every day. + +On the morning of July second, the President arose at an early hour. +Worn out with the harassing disturbances of the past weeks, he felt the +urgent need of a few days' rest and recreation. Mrs. Garfield, who had +been spending a little time at Long Branch, was to join him in New York; +and together with a few members of the Cabinet and their families, the +President had planned a ten-days' trip through New England. + +It was a lovely summer's morning. The dew sparkled on the beautiful lawn +and gay parterres in front of the White House, the cool trickle of the +fountain mingled with the twittering of the sparrows as they flitted in +and out of their nests under the great front porch. + +All nature seemed in sympathy with the joyous mood of the President, as +he gaily tried an athletic feat with one of his boys, laughed, jested, +and talked about the commencement exercises at Williams College, which +he hoped to attend in a few days. + +Not one breath of impending danger, not one note of warning was there in +the clear, sunny atmosphere of that bright July morning! + +Shortly after breakfast, Secretary Blaine drove up to the White House +and accompanied the President to the station of the Baltimore and +Potomac Railroad, where the express train to New York leaves at 9.30. + +Finding they were ten minutes before time, the President and his +Secretary remained in the carriage, earnestly talking, until the depot +official reminded them that the train was about to start. + +Arm in arm they passed through the broad entrance-door into the ladies' +waiting-room, which gave them the readiest access to the train beyond. + +The room was almost empty, as most of the passengers had already taken +their seats in the cars, but pacing nervously up and down the adjoining +rooms, was a thin, wiry-looking man, whose peculiar appearance had once +or twice been commented upon by some of the railroad officials. Still, +there was really nothing about him to excite suspicion. He might have +simply missed the train; and, as he seemed inclined to mind his own +business, no further notice had been taken of him. + +As the President passed through the room, this ill-favored looking man +suddenly sprang up behind him, and, taking a heavy revolver from his +pocket, deliberately aimed it at the noble, commanding figure. + +At the sharp report the President turned his head with a troubled look +of surprise, and Secretary Blaine sprang quickly to one side. The wretch +immediately re-cocked his pistol, set his teeth, and fired again. + +This time the President fell senseless to the floor, and a dazed crowd +surrounded him while Secretary Blaine sprang after the assassin. The +cowardly knave was easily secured, and then all thoughts centred upon +the suffering victim. Mrs. White, who had charge of the ladies' +waiting-room, was the first to see the President fall, and, running to +his assistance, she knelt down and supported him in her arms. The +dreadful tidings flew hither and thither on eagle-wings. +Postmaster-General James, Secretary Windom, Secretary Hunt, and others +of the party who were to accompany the President on his trip, were soon +at his side, and messengers were sent in all directions. + +A physician was soon on the spot; the wounded man was tenderly placed +upon a mattress, and carried without delay to the White House. + +Yet, before he was taken from the station, he suddenly aroused from his +half-unconscious state, and turning to one of his friends he said, with +his old, self-forgetting thoughtfulness,-- + +"Rockwell, I want you to send a message to my wife. Tell her I am +seriously hurt; how seriously I cannot yet say. I am myself, and hope +she will come to me soon. I send my love to her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + At the White House.--The Anxious Throngs.--Examination of + the Wounds.--The President's Questions.--His Willingness to + Die.--Waiting for his Wife.--Sudden Relapse.--A Glimmer of + Hope.--A Sunday of Doubt.--Independence Day.--Remarks of + George William Curtis. + + +The members of the Cabinet and a number of the President's personal +friends were at the White House, when the ambulance containing the +wounded man drove slowly up the avenue. + +When he saw them on the porch, he raised his right hand, and with one of +his old, bright smiles, gave the military salute. But for the extreme +pallor of his face, no one would have guessed the intense pain he was +suffering, as he was borne upstairs to his own room in the southeast +corner. + +An excited crowd had already gathered about the White House, but troops +had been ordered from the Washington Arsenal, and armed sentinels kept a +vigilant guard about the executive Mansion. + +When Dr. Bliss and the other physicians in attendance examined the +wounds, they found the first shot had passed through the arm just below +the shoulder, without breaking any bones. The other ball had entered +the back just over the hips, but what direction it had taken, of where +it had lodged, could not be determined with any degree of certainty. The +physicians held a short consultation, and agreed to search for the ball +as soon as the President's condition would permit. + +The wounded man first complained of pain in his feet and legs, and for a +long time the "tiger clawing," as he called it, seemed harder to bear +than anything else. It is easy to understand now, how seriously the +spinal cord and the whole nervous system must have been affected by that +first fearful fracture of the vertebrae. + +As the shock began to pass off, the President turned to Secretary +Blaine, who was sitting beside him, and said,-- + +"What motive do you think that man could have had in trying to +assassinate me?" + +"Indeed, I cannot tell. He says he had no motive." + +"Perhaps," said Garfield, with a smile, "he thought it would be a +glorious thing to be a pirate king." + +Turning to Dr. Bliss, he said,-- + +"I want to know my true condition. Do not conceal anything from me; +remember, I am not afraid to die." + +The President's condition was extremely critical at that time, as there +were indications of internal hemorrhage, and the doctor frankly told him +that he feared he could live but a few hours. + +"God's will be done," he replied; "I am ready to go if my time has +come." + +As the little group stood in silence about his bed, they recalled his +words to Colonel Knox only a few days before, when warned of the danger +that might be lurking in hidden corners. + +"I must come and go as usual," he said; "I cannot surround myself with a +body-guard. _If the good of this country, the interests of pure +government and of the people against one-man power, demand the sacrifice +of my life, I think I am ready._" + +The arrival of Mrs. Garfield from Long Branch was anxiously awaited all +through that long, weary afternoon. An accident to the engine delayed +the train upon which she had started, and it was evening before she +reached the White House. + +The President's quick ears heard the carriage-wheels as they rolled over +the gravel driveway, and with a bright smile, he exclaimed,-- + +"That's my wife! God bless the little woman!" Then the strong-will power +that had kept him up to this moment, seemed suddenly to give way. His +attendants thought he was dying, and for hours his life hung upon the +merest thread. + +Slowly, but surely, the tide began to turn. At midnight he was still +conscious--the doctors thought there was "one chance" that he might +recover--the President had bravely taken that one chance; and with +lightning speed the good news was telegraphed all over the country. + +Sunday morning the President was so much better that he wanted to know +what had been said about the assassination--and what was the general +feeling throughout the country. + +"The country," replied Colonel Rockwell, "is full of sympathy for you. +We will save all the papers so that you can see them when you get well; +but you must not talk now." + +The President smiled, and in the broken slumber that followed he +murmured to himself,-- + +"The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!" + +The next night was one of fearful suspense, and the dawn of Independence +Day was ushered in with mingled feelings of hope and fear. + +A few days later, George William Curtis wrote as follows:-- + +"No Fourth of July in our history was ever so mournful as that which has +just passed. In 1826 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on +Independence Day. But the singular and beautiful coincidence was not +known for some time, and then it was felt to be a fitting and memorable +end of the life of venerable patriots long withdrawn from public +affairs. Nearly forty years later, 1863, there was intense and universal +anxiety when the great day dawned. Mr. Greeley, in his history, calls +the ten days preceding the Fourth of July in that year the very darkest +days the republic ever saw. But that was during the angry fury of civil +war, when passions and emotions of every kind were inflamed to the +utmost. There was fiery party rancor in the feeling of that time, and +the whole year was full of similar excitement. + +"But the emotion and the spectacle of this year are without parallel. In +every household there was a hushed and tender silence, as if one dearly +loved lay dying. In every great city and retired village the public +festivities were stayed, and the assembly of joy and pride and +congratulation was solemnized into a reverent congregation of heads +bowed in prayer. In foreign countries American gayety was suspended. In +the British Parliament, Whig and Tory and Radical listened to catch from +the lips of the Prime Minister the latest tidings from one sufferer. +From the French republic, from the old empire of Japan, and the new +kingdom of Bulgaria, from Parnell, the Irish agitator, and from the Lord +Mayor of Dublin, came messages of sympathy and sorrow. Sovereigns and +princes, the people and the nobles, joined in earnest hope for the life +of the Republican President. The press of all Christendom told the +mournful story, and moralized as it told. In this country the popular +grief was absolutely unanimous. One tender, overpowering thought called +a truce even to party contention. Old and young, men and women of all +nationalities and of all preferences, their differences forgotten, +waited all day for news, watched the flags and every sign that might be +significant, and lay down, praying, to sleep, thanking God that as yet +the worst had not come. + +"It was a marvellous tribute. In Europe, it was respect for a powerful +State; in America, it was affection for a simple and manly character. It +is plain that the tale of General Garfield's hardy and heroic life, the +sure and steady rise of this poor American boy, taking every degree of +honor in the great university of experience, equal to every occasion, to +peace and war, to good fortune and ill fortune, had profoundly touched +the heart of his countrymen. A year ago, every word and incident of that +life was told by party passion--on one side eulogized and extolled; on +the other, distorted and vilified. Out of the fiery ordeal he emerged +with a general kindly regard and high expectation. Mild and conciliatory +in character, of long and various political experience, a natural +statesman with an able mind amply stored and especially trained for +public duty, simply dignified in manner, a powerful man, singularly +blameless, he entered upon the presidency with every happy augury. The +country was at peace within and without, and hummed with universal +prosperity. The first measures of his administration were both wise and +fortunate, and the only trouble sprang from a source which is rapidly +becoming the fatal bane of the country--the patronage of office. This +breeds faction and makes faction fanatical and furious. If indignation +with fancied slights and supposed breaches of faith regarding patronage, +could so overmaster a conspicuous and experienced public man like Mr. +Conkling as to drive him suddenly to resign the highest political trust +which his State could bestow, to imperil his public career, to astound +his friends, and to abandon the control of the Senate to his political +opponents, it is not surprising that fancied neglect of political merit +and service should bewilder the light brain of an unbalanced and obscure +camp-follower like Guiteau, until, brooding with diseased mind upon his +'wrongs,' he should resolve to do 'justice' upon the supposed +wrong-doer. + +"So, in the most peaceful and prosperous moment that this country has +known for a half-century, the shot of the assassin is fired at a man +absolutely without personal enemies, and a President whom even his +political opponents respect. Then to the impression of brave and +generous and sagacious manhood, already produced by his career, was +added his sweet and tranquil bearing under the murderous blow. The +unselfish thought of others, the cheerful steadiness and even gayety of +temper, the lofty and manly resignation, with entire freedom from +ostentation of piety, the strong love of the strong man for those +dearest to him, and the noble response of his wife's calm and perfect +womanhood to this supreme and courageous manhood, filled the hearts of +his countrymen with sympathy and love and sorrow, and whether he lived +or died, his place in the affection of Americans was as secure as +Lincoln's. + +"Such feeling of millions of hearts for one man is profoundly touching. +It gives him a great distinction among all mankind. But it is also a +benediction for a people to be lifted by such an emotion. It is +impossible that party passion should not be somewhat subdued by it, and +that a wholesome sense of shame should not chasten factions and +disputes. If such are the men with whom bitter quarrels are waged, and +upon whom unstinted contumely and contempt are poured out, shall we not +all, upon every side, pause and reflect that to blow mere party fires to +fury, and to trample personal character in the mire of angry political +dispute, is to disgrace ourselves and the cause that we would serve, and +the country whose good name depends upon us? That is the reflection +which this last solemn Fourth of July undoubtedly suggested. It +recalled the country to emotions higher than those of the shop and the +caucus. It is character that makes a country. It is manhood like that of +Garfield and Lincoln which made the past of America, and which makes its +future possible. Commercial prosperity and politics and all national +interests rest at last upon the honesty and courage and intelligence of +the people, not upon mines and material resources, nor upon great +railroads or tariffs or free trade." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + The Assassin.--What were his Motives.--His own + Confessions.--Statement of District-Attorney + Corkhill.--Sketch of Guiteau's Early Life. + + +Together with the overwhelming sense of grief and consternation that had +spread throughout the country, was the eager desire to know what motives +had actuated the assassin in his terrible deed. + +When questioned by the detective who took him to jail, Guiteau declared, +"I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts; I did it to save the Republican +party." + +"Is there anybody else with you in this matter?" + +"Not a living soul," he replied. "I have contemplated the thing for the +last six weeks and would have shot the President when he went away with +Mrs. Garfield, but I looked at her, and she looked so sick, I changed my +mind." + +After a careful investigation of the facts, District-Attorney Corkhill +published the following statement:-- + +"The interest felt by the public in the details of the assassination, +and the many stories published, justify me in stating that the +following is a correct and accurate statement concerning the points to +which reference is made: The assassin, Charles Guiteau, came to +Washington city on Sunday evening, March 6th, 1881, and stopped at the +Ebbitt House, remaining only one day. He then secured a room in another +part of the city, and had boarded and roomed at various places, the full +details of which I have. On Wednesday, May 18th, 1881, the assassin +determined to murder the President. He had neither money nor pistol at +the time. About the last of May he went into O'Meara's store, corner of +Fifteenth and F Streets, this city, and examined some pistols, asking +for the largest calibre. He was shown two similar in calibre, and only +different in the price. On Wednesday, June 8th, he purchased a pistol, +for which he paid $10, he having, in the mean time, borrowed $15 of a +gentleman in this city, on the plea that he wanted to pay his board +bill. On the same evening, about seven o'clock, he took the pistol and +went to the foot of Seventeenth Street, and practised firing at a board, +firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding-place and wiped the +pistol dry, and wrapped it in his coat, and waited his opportunity. On +Sunday morning, June 15th, he was sitting in Lafayette Park, and saw the +President leave for the Christian Church on Vermont Avenue, and he at +once returned to his room, obtained his pistol, put it in his pocket, +and followed the President to church. He entered the church, but found +he could not kill him there without danger of killing some one else. He +noticed that the President sat near a window. After church he made an +examination of the window, and found he could reach it without any +trouble, and that from this point he could shoot the President through +the head without killing any one else. The following Wednesday he went +to the church, examined the location and the window, and became +satisfied he could accomplish his purpose. He determined to make the +attempt at the church the following Sunday. Learning from the papers +that the President would leave the city on Saturday, the 18th of June, +with Mrs. Garfield, for Long Branch, he therefore decided to meet him at +the depot. He left his boarding-place about 5 o'clock Saturday morning, +June 18th, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth Street, +and fired five shots to practise his aim, and be certain his pistol was +in good order. He then went to the depot, and was in the ladies' +waiting-room of the depot, with his pistol ready, when the presidential +party entered. He says Mrs. Garfield looked so weak and frail that he +had not the heart to shoot the President in her presence, and, as he +knew he would have another opportunity, he left the depot. He had +previously engaged a carriage to take him to the jail. On Wednesday +evening, the President and his son, and, I think, United States Marshal +Henry, went out for a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed +them, and watched them for some time, in hopes the carriage would stop, +but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening, July 1, he was sitting +on the seat in the park opposite the White House, when he saw the +President come out alone. He followed him down the avenue to Fifteenth +Street, and then kept on the opposite side of the street upon Fifteenth, +until the President entered the residence of Secretary Blaine. He waited +at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets for some time, and then, as he +was afraid he would attract attention, he went into the alley in the +rear of Mr. Morton's residence, examined his pistol, and waited. The +President and Secretary Blaine came out together, and he followed over +to the gate of the White House, but could get no opportunity to use his +weapon. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, he breakfasted at the Riggs +House about 7 o'clock. He then walked up into the park, and sat there +for an hour. He then took a horse-car and rode to Sixth Street, got out +and went into the depot and loitered around there; had his shoes +blacked; engaged a hackman for two dollars to take him to the jail; went +into a private room and took his pistol out of his pocket, unwrapped the +paper from around it, which he had put there to prevent the dampening +of the powder; examined his pistol; carefully tried the trigger, and +then returned and took a seat in the ladies' waiting-room, and, as soon +as the President entered, advanced behind him and fired two shots. + +"These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I give them +to the public to contradict certain false rumors in connection with the +most atrocious of atrocious crimes." + +Can such a deliberate preparation as this be deemed an act of insanity? + +A gentleman who knew Guiteau as a boy, says that he is of French +descent, and that his father, J. W. Guiteau, was "an old resident and +respected citizen of Freeport, Ill. He married a very beautiful woman, +and with her and the younger children, he joined the Oneida Community. +He afterwards returned to Freeport, where he served as cashier of the +Second National Bank until his death. At one time he became deranged on +the subject of 'Perfection,' and lectured extensively through the North +and West on that subject. There were three children. An elder brother, +Wilkes Guiteau, for a long time practised law at Davenport, Iowa. A +younger sister, Flora, was a very promising girl. When the family left +Oneida Community, Charles, then fifteen or sixteen years old, was left +behind. He afterwards went to Chicago, where he studied law, being +cared for and supplied with money by his father. After completing his +studies, he went to Europe, where he travelled several years, imbibing +Socialistic and other eccentric doctrines. A few years ago he returned +to this country, and lectured on the second advent of Christ. He +published a pamphlet on the subject, in which the egotism of the man was +plainly shown. From what I knew of the boy, his education in the Oneida +Community, and his utterances on religion, I was not at all surprised at +his committing the act. I understand from people employed at the White +House that Guiteau had forced himself upon the President several times. +He was an applicant for the consulship at Marseilles; and one day +obtained access to the President, and acted so rudely that the President +had him removed. I have no doubt that, feeling offended by this act, he +determined on the course which culminated in the terrible tragedy of +July the second." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + Night of the Fourth.--Extreme Solicitude at the White + House.--Description of an Eye-witness.--Attorney McVeagh's + Remark.--Sudden Change for the Better.--Steady + Improvement.--The Medical Attendance. + + +The night of the Fourth was a time of extreme solicitude at the White +House. Said one who was present:-- + +"I sat in the great East Room with the Attorney-General.-- + +"'Ah,' he exclaimed, 'our Garfield was never a better President than he +was at the moment when Guiteau's bullet struck him down. He never saw +more clearly, and he never had a firmer or better purpose. He was going +to be all that the best thought of the country ever expected of him. He +was going to be a great President.' + +"The last time I had been in this East Room was at Mr. Hayes' last +diplomatic reception, when thousands of elegantly dressed people +thronged it, and music and lights made it, for that evening at least, +the handsomest room in the country. There were no lights now. The great +spaces were gloomy with what seemed to be the gloom of coming death. +Through the open windows on the south side the summer air stole lazily, +and the shadows of the draperies seemed to add to the darkness. There +was no music now--only the sound of whispered conversation as people +went up or down the stairs. The result of the early evening consultation +was unfavorable. Tympanites had again appeared, and apparently in a more +threatening form than before. Grave men shook their heads. Even the +brave Mrs. Garfield lost somewhat of the splendid courage that had +sustained her throughout her trying ordeal. For the first time after his +recovery from the shock of the bullet, the President seemed to lose hope +himself. + +"Suddenly there was a change for the better. Toward midnight, the +troubled slumbers of the President became peaceful, and he soon sank +into the best sleep he had enjoyed since the shooting on Saturday +morning. His pulse and temperature became better; there were signs of an +improved vitality; the breathing was easier; the pains ceased; there was +no longer any appearance of dangerous inflammation or of peritonitis. +Hope began to dawn where despondency had been; the faces that had been +full of gloom began to look hopeful; there was yet some encouragement. +Recovery flung out her signals in the steady breathings and the peaceful +slumber of the President. The improvement continued, and again it could +be said that there was hope of final recovery. It seemed as though the +strong will and constitution of the man had made one more effort for +life." + +The cheering bulletins on the following morning kindled fresh hope in +the hearts of the people. The general feeling was expressed that the +worst was over, and the nation began to take courage. By the ninth of +July the President was so much better, that his children were allowed to +come into the room. On the 13th, it was reported that his appetite was +improving, that he had asked for a steak, and sandwiches of bread and +scraped raw beef had been given him. This increase in the variety of his +food seemed to give him additional strength, and the condition of the +wound was so favorable that it was thought the ball had become encysted. + +The first physician who reached the President when he lay wounded at the +depot, was Dr. Smith Townshend, Health Officer of the District of +Columbia. As soon as he examined the wound, he pronounced it necessarily +fatal. Immediately after the shooting, the Secretary of War, according +to the President's wishes, had summoned Dr. Bliss, who with other +physicians reached the depot soon after Dr. Townshend. + +"On the following Sunday morning," says Dr. Bliss, "when the President +had fully reacted, had had several hours of rest, was cheerful and +competent to attend to any ordinary business, I presented the matter of +his professional attendance to him, Mrs. Garfield being present. I then +explained to him fully, the valuable professional assistance the large +number of medical gentlemen had rendered up to that time, representing, +as they did, the best medical talent in the city. His reply was,-- + +"'Of course, doctor, it will not do to continue the large number of +medical gentlemen in attendance; such a number of surgeons would be +cumbersome and unwieldy.' + +"I said then: 'Mr. President, it is your duty to select your medical +attendants now.' + +"He replied: 'I desire you to take charge of my case. I know of your +experience and skill, and have full confidence in your judgment, and +wish you to thank the doctors individually for their kind attendance.' I +thanked him, and replied that it would be necessary to select three or +four medical assistants as counsel in the case. He replied,-- + +"'I shall leave that entirely with you; you know what talent you +require, and your judgment is best upon that point.' I then selected in +order the gentlemen who were immediately associated in the case, +Surgeon-General J. K. Barnes, of the army; and Doctors J. J. Woodward +and Robert Reyburn, stating in each instance the reason for so doing. He +said that was eminently satisfactory to him. I then turned to Mrs. +Garfield and said,-- + +"'If you desire to add one or more to the number selected, I shall be +happy to unite them to our counsel.' Her reply was,--'I would not add +one to the number you have selected, and I want to say to you, doctor, +that you shall not be embarrassed in any way in your future treatment of +this case.' Neither the President nor Mrs. Garfield, nor any member of +the household from that time forward, suggested the name of any other +physician except the eminent counsel called from Philadelphia and New +York, Doctors Agnew and Hamilton." The last-mentioned physicians arrived +on Monday morning, and in the consultation that followed they expressed +their hearty approval of the treatment adopted. While so much +uncertainty remained as to the exact location of the ball, it was folly +to risk the President's life in an attempt to remove it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + A relapse.--Cooling Apparatus at the White House--The + President writes a Letter to his Mother.--Evidences of + Blood-Poisoning.--Symptoms of Malaria.--Removal to Long + Branch.--Preparation for the Journey.--Incidents by the way. + + +On the morning of the twenty-third of July there came a relapse. While +the physicians were examining and dressing his wounds, the President +experienced a slight rigor, followed by an increase of febrile symptoms. +This was evidently owing to an interruption of the flow of pus, and, on +the twenty-fourth, an operation was performed upon the cavity, by which +the patient was relieved. + +The intense heat of those July days was very debilitating, and a variety +of ingenious plans were tried to lower the temperature in the sufferer's +room. The most successful experiment was that of Mr. Dorsay's, which was +based on the system used in cooling the air in mines. It required +considerable machinery, but by its means the temperature of the room was +reduced to seventy-five degrees. The system is as follows: A stationary +engine is first employed to compress the air which, when crowded into +less space, gives out a large amount of heat. This is carried away by +running water, and as soon as the air is again set free, it becomes as +cool by expansion as it had before been heated by compression. + +On the 27th of July, a piece of the fractured rib was removed; the +President was again able to take nourishing food, the fever subsided, +and all the bulletins began to assume a cheerful tone. + +And so the long, long days passed by, with frequent alternations of hope +and fear. On the 11th of August the President asked for pen and paper +that he might write a letter. + + "Through all those weary weeks of pain, + With death's dark angel nigh, + But once to grasp the accustomed pen + The trembling fingers try. + + "Those brave words from the strong man bowed, + Courageously death meeting, + To whom amid the courtly crowd + Of great ones sending greeting? + + "The mother-bosom beat afar-- + To her that tender letter; + To her--through life his guiding star-- + He writes he's 'getting better.'" + +By the middle of August it was evident that the President was suffering +from pyæmia, or blood-poisoning. The swollen parotid gland occasioned +fresh solicitude, and the stomach refused to perform its ordinary +functions. Nourishing enemeta were then administered with excellent +results, and the lancing of the parotid-swelling afforded temporary +relief. + +The sufferer longed for a change of air; the malarial atmosphere +surrounding the White House was a constant drawback to his recovery, and +early in September the physicians decided to remove him to Long Branch. +The sixth day of the month was appointed for the removal, and every +possible precaution was taken to make the journey as easy as possible. +The bed, and the train in general, were inspected the day before by +Surgeon-General Barnes and Drs. Bliss and Agnew. The train was run out +to Benning's Bridge, five miles from Washington, and the surgeons +thoroughly tested the couch. They said that it was perfect, and that no +better arrangement could have been made for the President's journey. In +the test of speed the doctors were surprised to find that there was +notably less motion and jar at forty miles than at thirty. + +The express wagon which was to convey the President to the depot, was in +waiting at the front entrance to the Executive Mansion all night. It was +a new vehicle, and the springs being well oiled, could not impart much +jarring to the bed on which the President would lie. + +When the track was being laid through Elberon, on which he was to be +taken to the Francklyn cottage as a last hope, the surveyor apologized +to a lady whose garden it laid waste. + +"Your flowers have required the labor of many summers, madam, and we +shall ruin them," he said. + +"O sir!" she cried, "I am willing you should ruin my house--all I have, +if it would help to save him!" + +There was to be a double departure from the White House. The President's +sons, Harry and James, were to start for Williams College, and shortly +before ten o'clock on the evening of the fifth, they bade their father +good-by, and took leave of their mother who was hopeful and courageous, +believing the journey to Long Branch would save her husband's life. +Their countenances were grave, and the passers-by, as they respectfully +made way for them, could not but feel that the two young men were just +about to start upon a career as, possibly, their distinguished father +was about to end one. + +Private Secretary Brown gives the following account of the trip to Long +Branch: "Upon leaving the Executive Mansion the President appeared to +enjoy the scenery and looked around inquiringly. All the way from the +White House to the depot the President was very anxious to observe +everything, and in this he was not prevented. He experienced little or +no disturbance in being transferred from the vehicle to the car, and his +pulse, although slightly accelerated, reaching about 115, fell to about +106 before the train started, and shortly afterward fell to 104 and +again to 102. The first stop of the train was made at Patapsco, at which +point the parotid gland was dressed. At half-past nine o'clock the +President's pulse was 108 and of good character. At that hour three +ounces of beef extract were administered. Between Philadelphia and +Monmouth Junction, the special train made several miles at the rate of +seventy miles per hour. Bay View, this side of Baltimore, was reached at +8.05, and a brief stop was made to enable the surgeons to make the +morning dressing of the wound. The wound was found to have suffered no +derangement by the travel. The dressing was soon accomplished, and the +train, after leaving Bay View, was run at the rate of about fifty miles +per hour. The track in this locality is very straight, and in excellent +condition, and though the speed was at times greater than fifty miles +per hour, the vibration of the President's bed, it is said, was no more +than had the train been moving twenty-five miles per hour. The attending +surgeons feel very much gratified with the manner in which the removal +was conducted, and are generally of the opinion that, with the +exception of being slightly fatigued, the President bore the journey +exceedingly well." + +"This is a great journey, Crete," he said to his wife, as the train +rushed on at lightning speed. "Let her go! The faster the better," he +added, when the doctors expressed their fears that the rapid motion of +the engine would tire him. + +"Don't put down the curtain! I want to see the people! Let them look +in!" he exclaimed, as he caught a glimpse of the eager, anxious crowds +at the different stations. + +One of the Boston dailies wrote as follows-- + +"In the preparations for the trip the great popular solicitude for the +well-being of the President infected even soulless railroad +corporations, as they are sometimes called, so that the management of +the lines over which he had to pass could not do too much to reduce the +fatigue or other injurious effect of the jaunt. It is a credit to our +common humanity, that everybody in any way connected with this transfer +of the President, from the mechanic to the railroad director, required +no spur but his own feelings to exert himself to the utmost for the +safety and comfort of him who had suffered so terribly, and evinced such +grand qualities under the most adverse circumstances. No railroad train +was ever the burden of so much anxious, prayerful solicitation as that +conveying the President to his destination. To change and apply one of +General Garfield's own expressions, the great heart of the nation must +have nobly sustained the presidential patient as he sped on his way to a +locality where, it is hoped, the recuperating processes of nature will +place him on the high road to convalescence. + +"Our despatches note the arrival of the presidential train at different +points, and the manner in which the patient bore the ride. As may well +be imagined, the people who gathered in Washington to see him on board +the train could not help remarking his generally emaciated appearance, +but he was sufficiently strong to turn upon his side and wave his adieus +to the crowd. The fortitude and will of the President are as surprising +as the many unusual episodes of his life." + + + + +CHAPTER. XXXIII. + + Description of the Francklyn Cottage.--The Arrival at Long + Branch.--The President is Drawn up to the Open + Window.--Enjoys the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.--The + Surgical Force Reduced.--Incident on the Day of Prayer. + + +"The Francklyn cottage at Long Branch, to which the President was taken, +is about fifty yards southeast of the hotel. Its front is within one +hundred feet of the edge of the bluff, from which a pebble can be +dropped into the surf. The building contains twenty rooms. It is a long, +rambling structure, two and one-half stories high, having seven gables +and being in fashion a mixture of the Queen Anne and Swiss chalet style. +The lower stories are painted a sienna color, and gables and roof a dark +slate. + +"A perfectly smooth lawn of well-kept turf surrounds it upon every side. +Its interior apartments are perfect; the kitchen is separated from the +main part of the building by a covered driveway, and none of the +culinary odors can reach the dwelling portion. Two spacious parlors and +an immense dining-hall faces the ocean, and a broad double window opens +upon a large uncovered veranda about six feet above the ground, +surrounded by a high railing. + +"The west or rear part of the dining-hall opens upon the main hall, a +roomy thoroughfare, from which by the landings a broad flight of stairs +ascend to the second floor. The stairs are of ample width, and allowed +the President's bed to be carried up them without difficulty. The +chamber occupied by the President is in the northeast corner of the +building. It is about twenty feet square. There is one broad window +facing the ocean on the east, and the windows facing the ocean on the +south. By leaving the door of the chamber open a breeze can be obtained +from every point of the compass except the north. The windows are +protected from the sun by awnings and blinds." + +The appointments of the chamber are perfect in every respect, being left +just as Mr. Francklyn's family occupied it. About one hundred yards +south of the Francklyn cottage is the cottage belonging to the hotel +assigned to Mrs. Garfield and her family. + +It was about a quarter past one when the President's train was observed +slowly making its way over the new track at Long Branch. There was no +whistling, no bell-ringing, no noisy puffing of the engine, no shouts +nor cheers. A powerful locomotive slowly, and almost silently, pushed +before it the cars of the train, the centre one being the President's. + +The train stopped opposite the Elberon, and immediately many flocked +about it to learn the particulars of the journey. All were told that the +trip had been successful, and the President was quite as well as when he +started. The delay was but for a moment. The forward car was uncoupled +from the train and a large force of men, held in readiness, gently +pushed it around the quarter circle and past the entrance to the +cottage. It was occupied by a few ladies and gentlemen of the +President's household, who at once left it and were escorted into the +house. + +Another gang of men pushed on the President's car close after it. It was +stopped at the proper place, and immediately a soldier mounted by ladder +to the roof and the sailcloth awning was raised. It did not, however, +completely conceal the passage on the side where the people were +gathered. The planks were put in position, and in a moment two or more +soldiers were seen to pass bearing a low bedstead. Many thought that the +President was resting on it, but this was a mistake. + +Three or four minutes later a mattrass on which was plainly discernible +under snowy coverings the form of a human body, was steadily and gently, +almost solemnly, borne from the car to the house, while two or three +hundred spectators, too far away and on too low a level to catch sight +of the face, held their breath in sympathy, their eyes meantime moist +with tears they cared not to conceal, and many doubtless praying with +deep earnestness that this heroic effort to save a precious life would +avail. There was not a cheer, not an audible sound uttered by any one. +Few scenes could be more impressive in their silence and their sympathy. + +"Please move me up where I can see the water," said the President, soon +after being placed in bed. His couch was immediately pushed up to the +wide open window; he was slightly raised upon it, and lay there for some +minutes looking out upon the sea. Although he was greatly fatigued by +the journey and his pulse was high, he slept better that night than he +had done for weeks. + +"Don't you think I look better!" he said next morning to one of the +attendants; "I feel better," he added. "This is good air." + +Previous to leaving Washington, after it had been determined to remove +the President to Long Branch, it appears the President asked his wife if +all the attending surgeons were going along. Mrs. Garfield replied that +she presumed they were. The President then expressed an opinion, the +effect of which was that he did not see why that was necessary. Further +discussion on the subject brought out the President's wishes, and the +withdrawal of Drs. Reyburn, Barnes, and Woodward was the result. Dr. +Bliss stated that there was no cause for the withdrawal or retirement of +the surgeons beyond the fact that it was the desire or whim of a very +sick man, and, as the President had entertained the idea that a fewer +number of physicians could manage his case as well as the number +heretofore engaged upon it, it was desired by Mrs. Garfield that his +wishes be complied with. The doctor stated further that the best of +feeling prevailed among the entire corps of surgeons, and that the +retirement of Messrs. Reyburn, Barnes and Woodward would not in any +manner affect the intimacy which had grown up between them since the +President was shot. After the wish of the President was made known to +one of the attending surgeons in Washington by Mrs. Garfield, a +consultation on the subject took place, resulting in its reference to +Dr. Agnew, with a view to obtaining his opinion as to the best mode of +procedure. Dr. Agnew recommended that the President be requested to name +the surgeons he was desirous of retaining in charge of his case, which +was done. Dr. Bliss, it appears, objected to assuming the entire +responsibility of removing the President to Long Branch, and insisted +that the entire number of surgeons should accompany the patient thither. +A compromise was then effected, which was that all the surgeons should +come to Long Branch with the President, but upon arrival, or as soon +thereafter as possible, the three mentioned should retire. + +The following day, September 8th, as the President sat in his reclining +chair by the open window he heard the stroke of bells from the little +church across the way. + +"Crete," he said to his wife, "what are they ringing that bell for?" + +"Why," said Mrs. Garfield, who had been waiting for the surprise, "the +people are all going there to pray for you to get well; and I am going +to pray too, James," she added, "that it may be soon, for I know already +that the other prayer has been heard." + +From where he lay, Garfield could see the carriages draw up and group +after group go in. He could even hear the subdued refrain of "Jesus, +lover of my soul," as it was borne by on its heavenward way. + +Thrilled with emotion, a tear trickled down the President's face. After +a while, a sweet woman's voice arose, singing from one of Sir Michael +Costa's noblest oratorios. + +"Turn thou unto me and have mercy upon me," sang the voice, "for I am +desolate; I am desolate and afflicted; the troubles of my heart are +enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses, out of my distresses, +my God." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + Hopeful Symptoms.--Official Bulletin.--Telegram to Minister + Lowell.--Incidents at Long Branch.--Sudden Change for the + Worse.--Touching Scene with his Daughter.--Another Gleam of + Hope.--Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.--The Closing + Scene. + + +On the evening of September 12th, the following official bulletin was +published:-- + + LONG BRANCH, Sept. 12--6 P. M. + + The President has experienced since the issue of the morning + bulletin further amelioration of symptoms. He has been able + to take an ample amount of food without discomfort and has + had several refreshing naps. At the noon examination the + temperature was 99.2, pulse 106, respiration 20. At 5.30 P. + M. the temperature was 98.6, pulse 100, respiration 18. + + D. W. BLISS. + D. HAYES AGNEW. + +The Attorney-General telegraphed:-- + + _To Lowell, Minister, London_--10 P. M.--In the absence of + Mr. Blaine, the attending physicians have requested me to + inform you of the President's condition. He has during the + day eaten sufficient food with relish, and has enjoyed at + intervals refreshing sleep. His wound and the incisions made + by the surgeons all look better; the parotid gland has + ceased suppuration, and may be considered as substantially + well. He has exhibited more than his usual cheerfulness of + spirits, his temperature and respiration are now normal, and + his pulse is less frequent and firmer than at the same hour + last evening. Notwithstanding these favorable symptoms, the + condition of the lower part of the right lung will continue + to be a source of anxiety for some days to come. + + MACVEAGH. + +The day before the President had been raised on his air pillows, so that +he lay looking out on the lawn beneath his window, and beyond that to +the sea. A soldier on duty as a guard was patrolling his beat at the +edge of the bluff. The soldier chanced to look toward the window of the +sick chamber, and the suffering President feebly raised his hand to give +the old soldier a salute. The President of the United States never +received a more heartfelt salute than the old soldier gave in return for +this gracious salutation, and about the camp all day the soldier, with +tears in his eyes, told how the great sufferer had honored him. But the +incident was of more than sentimental value, in that it showed that the +President took an interest in his surroundings, and had vitality enough +to tender a salute. There were hours at Elberon, when the listless eyes +would have looked out upon the sea and not have recognized the soldier. + +When Secretary Hunt called on the President, he informed him that there +was no business in his department requiring his (the President's) +attention. It had been the custom of the President to refer to the +secretary in various nautical terms, and after shaking the hand of the +President the secretary, pointing toward the ocean, remarked, "Well, Mr. +President, I see you have had to resort to my domain." "Yes," said the +President, "there it is, and isn't it beautiful?" + +Everything seemed to indicate certain, though it might be slow, +recovery. The people read the bulletins, and went about their work with +renewed hope and courage. On the 17th of September, however, Dr. +Hamilton stated that "the conditions, altogether, were more hazardous +than at any time since the patient had been at Long Branch." Severe +rigors had been followed by increased pulse, and there was constant +danger of his sinking into a comatose state. + +On the morning of the 19th Dr. Agnew remarked,-- + +"The vitality of our patient is something more remarkable than I have +ever met with in all my practice." + +The President awoke from a light slumber, and said to Dr. Bliss,-- + +"Doctor, I feel very comfortable, but I also feel dreadfully weak. I +wish you would give me the hand-glass and let me look at myself." + +General Swaim said: "Oh, no, don't do that, general. See if you cannot +get some sleep." + +[Illustration: In reclining chair, at Long Branch.] + +"I want to see myself," the President replied. + +Mrs. Garfield then gave him the hand-glass. He held it in a position +which enabled him to see his face. Mrs. Garfield, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Agnew, +General Swaim, and Dr. Boynton, stood around the bed, saying not a word, +but looking at the President. He studied the reflection of his own +features. At length he wearily let the glass fall upon the counterpane, +and, with a sigh, said to Mrs. Garfield,-- + +"Crete, I do not see how it is that a man who looks as well as I do +should be so dreadfully weak." + +In a moment or two he asked for his daughter Mollie. They told him that +she would see him later in the day. He said, however, that he wanted to +see her at once. + +When the child went into the room she kissed her father, and told him +that she was glad to see that he was looking so much better. + +He said: "You think I do look better, Mollie?" + +She said: "I do papa," and then she took a chair and sat near the foot +of the bed. + +A moment or two after, Dr. Boynton noticed that she was swaying in the +chair. He stepped up to her, but, before he could reach her, she had +fallen over in a faint. They carried her out where she could get the +fresh breeze from the ocean, and, after restoratives were applied, she +speedily recovered. The room was close, the windows were closed, and, +as Miss Mollie had not been very well, all these causes, combined with +anxiety, induced the fainting-fit. + +The President, they thought, had not noticed what had happened to his +petted child, for he seemed to have sunk into the stupor which had +characterized his condition much of the time. But, when Dr. Boynton came +back into the room, he was astonished to hear the President say,-- + +"Poor little Mollie. She fell over like a log. What was the matter?" + +They assured the President that the fainting-fit was caused by the +closeness of the room, and that she was quite restored. He again sank +into a stupor or sleep, which lasted until the noon examination. + +Hope returned during the afternoon, as there was no recurrence of the +rigors, and the evening bulletin was more encouraging than the one +issued at noon. There seemed to be every indication that the President +would pass a comfortable night. + +"Dr. Bliss," said the Attorney-General, "at 9.30, went to the cottage to +make his final examination before he retired for the night. He found +that the pulse, temperature, and respiration were exactly as they were +when the evening bulletin was issued. There had been no change of any +kind. There was every promise of a quiet night. All of the doctors +retired at once for the night, as did all of the attendants, except +General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell. They remained, and nothing +transpired until about 10.20; then the President said, 'I am suffering +great pain. I fear the end is near.' The attendant sent for Dr. Bliss, +who had retired to Private Secretary Brown's cottage. Dr. Bliss came +very rapidly. When he entered the room he found that the President was +in an unconscious state, and that the action of the heart had almost +ceased. Dr. Bliss said at once that the President was dying, and +directed the attendants to send for Mrs. Garfield and Drs. Agnew and +Hamilton." + +A _Herald_ postscript had the following from Long Branch: "The death-bed +scene of the President was a peculiarly sad and impressive one. As soon +as the doctors felt that there was no hope, the members of the family +assembled. The lights in the sick-room were turned down. Dr. Bliss stood +at the head of the bed with his hand on the pulse of the patient, and +consulted in low whispers with Dr. Agnew. The private secretary stood on +the opposite side of the bed, with Mrs. Garfield. Miss Lulu Rockwell and +Miss Mollie Garfield came into the room at the time the President lost +consciousness. Those about the bed occasionally went into the corners of +the room and spoke to each other. The solemnity of the occasion fully +impressed itself upon them. There was no sound heard except the gasping +for breath of the sufferer, whose changing color gave indication of the +near approach of the end. After he had repeated 'It hurts,' he passed +into a state of unconsciousness, breathing heavily at times and then +giving a slight indication that the breath of life was still in his +body. The only treatment that was given was hypodermic injections of +brandy by Dr. Agnew, assisted by Dr. Boynton. Occasionally they spoke +with Dr. Bliss in quiet whispers. The President suffered no pain after +the time he placed his hand upon his heart. He passed away almost +quietly. The line between life and death was marked by no physical +exhibition, nor any word. There was absolutely no scene. The intervals +between gaspings became longer and presently there was no sound. Every +one present knew that death had come quickly without pain. When it +became evident that he was dead, Mrs. Rockwell placed her arm around +Mrs. Garfield and led her quietly from the room. She uttered no word. +One by one the spectators left the scene, the doctors only remaining in +the room, and windows were closed. Directly afterward Private Secretary +Brown telegraphed the boys, James and Harry, at Williams College, Mass., +and Mrs. Eliza Garfield. Those were the first despatches sent after the +death." + +The following and last "official bulletin" was issued at Elberon:-- + + _September 19th, at half-past eleven, P. M._ + + "The President died at 10.35 P. M. After the bulletin was + issued at 5.30 this evening, the President continued in much + the same condition as during the afternoon, the pulse + varying from 102 to 106, with rather increased force and + volume. After taking nourishment he fell into a quiet sleep + about thirty-five minutes before his death, and while asleep + his pulse rose to 120, and was somewhat more feeble. At ten + minutes after ten o'clock he awoke, complaining of severe + pain over the region of the heart, and almost immediately + became unconscious, and ceased to breathe at 10.35." + + (Signed) D. W. BLISS. + FRANK H. HAMILTON. + D. HAYES AGNEW. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + The Midnight Bells.--Universal Sorrow.--Queen Victoria's + Messages.--Extract from a London Letter.--The Whitby + Fishermen.--The Yorkshire Peasant.--World-wide + Demonstrations of Grief. + + "There passed a sound at midnight through the land, + A solemn sound of sorrow and of fear; + A sound that fell on every wakening ear + Bearing a message all could understand." + + +The tolling of the bells in every city, town, and village throughout the +country announced the sad tidings of the President's death. The whole +world stopped to shed a sympathizing tear, and among the first +expressions of condolence received by Mrs. Garfield was the following +telegram from Queen Victoria:-- + + "BALMORAL. + + "Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you. May + God support and comfort you as He alone can. + + (Signed) THE QUEEN." + +To Minister Lowell the Queen telegraphed as follows:-- + + "With deep grief I and my children learn the sad but not + unexpected news of the fatal termination of the sufferings + of the President. His loss is a great misfortune. I have + learned with deep sorrow that the President has passed + away." + +Smalley, the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ writing from London +said,-- + +"It was about four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, by English time, +that President Garfield died. An hour later the news was here, and some +of the morning papers published it in a few late copies of their morning +edition. It was known in the provinces at the same moment, and published +in the same way. Before I say anything about the feeling it evoked in +high places and with the general public, I should like to mention what +occurred in the town where I was staying; Whitby, a fishing town and +small seaport which is also a watering-place on the northeast coast of +Yorkshire. At this season Whitby is the rendezvous for herring-fishers, +and its little harbor is crowded with boats hailing from ports all the +way from Pentland Firth to Penzance; Penzance itself sending a large +contingent. The fishermen are a simple folk, leading a hard life, +untaught, and as free from any concern on shore in the general affairs +of the world as any body of men that could be got together. But when +they heard that President Garfield was dead they one and all hoisted +their bits of flag at half-mast, and so kept them during the day. They +held no meeting, passed no resolutions. I suppose not a man among them +could have made a speech or drawn up a formal declaration of sorrow. +They acted with no concert of any kind. Their way of life makes them all +rivals and often enemies. Hartlepool has nothing to say to Lowestoft, +Sunderland quarrels with Arbroath, and Whitby itself keeps but ill terms +with any of its many guests. But somehow they agreed for this once. The +boats that lay in the river above the bridge, next the railway station, +were the first to hang out their signal of grief. Those in the port +below soon followed. Not long after, without anybody being able to say +how the news spread, the fleet at anchor outside the harbor one by one +ran up their ensigns, hauled them half down, and there made them fast +for the day. + +"Amid the innumerable demonstrations of sorrow to be seen and heard +these last two days all over England, I know of none which more truly +indicates the essentially popular character of the regret which the +President's death has excited.... An English friend who was shooting ten +days ago over a Yorkshire moor told me that, as the scattered line of +sportsmen were pushing through the heather in silence, the gamekeeper +met him some yards away, turned and asked: 'Can you tell me, sir, how +President Garfield is?' There on that lonely hillside, three thousand +miles and more distant from the sufferer, in the early morning, beneath +a sun which was not yet shining upon the President, breathing an air he +never breathed, this Yorkshire peasant, who had spent his life without +so much as hearing the President's name till a few weeks before; who +knew not the letters of which it was formed; who knew about grouse and +guns and dogs and the weather, and nothing else whatever; whose interest +in life never went beyond the stone hut in which he slept and ate, and +the stretch of furz-clad upland which lifted itself against the western +sky,--he, like the fishermen, had come to think or to feel that, somehow +or other, the life or death of that far-away martyr concerned him too. +It is easy to say that beneath the shooting-jacket and the jersey beats +the same human heart. No doubt it does. But what was it that set it +beating in unison with so many millions of others like it with sympathy +for the President? Lord Palmerston said he never knew what fame was till +he heard of the Tartar mothers on the steppes of Russia in Asia +frightening their children into quiet with some queer travesty of his +dreaded name. Yorkshire is not so remote as Russian Asia, indeed, but +the friendly concern of the gamekeeper was surely a truer measure of +real fame than the ignorant terror of the Muscovite mother. I know I +thought when I heard it that the President who lay dying would have +valued such a proof of the universality of the interest in him not less +than those expressions of it--certainly not less genuine--which came +from much higher quarters." + +[Illustration: Francklyn Cottage, where the President died.] + +Said another writer:-- + +"The American people cannot fail to be deeply impressed by the +multitudinous expressions of sympathy which have come from foreign +lands. It was to be expected that there would be the usual and formal +messages from the various rulers, but it is something of quite a +different sort, and something altogether beyond precedent which we are +witnessing. From all the governments of Europe, and from those of the +Orient as well, and from our nearer neighbors, Canada and Mexico, words +of sympathy and condolence have come. But beyond all this, and more +precious, are the manifestations of popular feeling in countries other +than our own, and especially in Great Britain and Canada. We hear of +public and private buildings draped in mourning, of mourning-flags upon +English Cathedrals, of the tolling of bells in English and Canadian +churches, of English and French journals with mourning borders. The +Queen sends a warm, womanly message of sympathy to the widow; and the +English Court puts on mourning for a week. And all these world-wide +demonstrations of grief, sincere, spontaneous and universal, are called +out by the death of this uncrowned republican of our Western world, a +man born of the people, schooled in hardship, but strong and noble in +all that pertains to true manhood. Such a spectacle as this, such +tributes as these from foreign potentates and peoples whose ideas and +methods of government vary so widely from ours, should not pass without +being heeded, and the lesson which they convey should be laid to heart. +It is true, as one of the leading English journals has well expressed +it, that a common sorrow unites the ocean-sundered members of the +English race to-day more closely than it has ever been since 1776, and +that there is scarcely an Englishman in a thousand who did not read of +President Garfield's death, with a regret as real and as deep as if he +had been a ruler of their own." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + The Services at Elberon.--Journey to Washington.--Lying in + State.--Queen Victoria's Offering.--Impressive Ceremonies in + the Capitol Rotunda. + + +On the morning of September twenty-first, the black-cloth casket, +containing all that was mortal of President Garfield, was placed in the +parlor of the Francklyn Cottage, at Long Branch; and for one brief hour, +a motley throng of city people and country folk were permitted to look +upon the wasted form of one they had learned to regard as a personal +friend. + +Brief religious services were read by Rev. C. J. Young of the Dutch +Reformed Church at Long Branch, and then Mrs. Garfield and her daughter, +followed by the members of the Cabinet, entered the waiting train; the +casket was placed in the funeral car, and slowly, sadly, amidst the +solemn tolling of the bells, the heavily draped train left the Elberon +station. At Princeton Junction, three hundred students with uncovered +heads stood on either side the track, and scattered choice flowers +beside the train for more than a hundred yards. Bells were tolled in all +the towns and villages through which the funeral party passed, and a +reverent stillness pervaded the waiting throngs at the various stations +on the way. + +At four, P. M., the train reached Washington, and the casket was borne +at once to the Capitol. + +All night long, the remains of the martyred President remained exposed +to view, and without cessation the stream of visitors passed through the +rotunda. At an early hour in the morning the throng at the east front of +the Capitol began to increase, and at eight o'clock fully five thousand +people were patiently and quietly waiting in two lines. From that hour +the crowd constantly increased, and at eleven o'clock there was a dense +mass of people in front of the main steps on the east front, extending +for two squares up East Capitol Street. People from the outlying country +flocked to the city, while every incoming train upon the several +railroads was heavily freighted with those who had come to testify their +profound sorrow at the nation's bereavement. + +Queen Victoria had telegraphed to the British minister to have a floral +tribute prepared and presented in her name. It was placed at the bier of +the President. It was very large, and was an exquisite specimen of the +florist's art, composed of white roses, smilax and stephanotis. It was +accompanied by a mourning card bearing the following inscription:-- + + "Queen Victoria to the memory of the late President + Garfield. An expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. + Garfield and the American nation. + + "Sept. 22, 1881," + +By half-past one, P. M., on Friday, the 23d, arrangements for the +funeral ceremonies in the rotunda were all completed and the chairs and +sofas labelled to designate for whom they were reserved. The positions +of the floral offerings were changed, and now nothing remained upon the +casket save a few branches of palm. At the head of the catafalque stood +a broken column of white and purple flowers, surmounted by a white dove. +On either side of this were tastefully arranged a crown and a pyramid of +roses. At the foot, and resting against the black drapery, was the +wreath which by order of the queen was the day before placed upon the +casket. Arranged on each side of this offering from the queen were +handsome crosses, while at their base was placed a magnificent floral +pillow on which was inscribed in violets "Our Martyr President." Next to +this was placed "The Gates Ajar," which also attracted much admiration. +The Knights of Malta contributed a large Maltese cross, and the Union +Veteran corps of which General Garfield was a member, a pillow of white +flowers bearing in violet letters the inscription, "U. V. C., to their +comrade." The whole appearance of the catafalque was tasteful and +elegant. In front of the chairs which were placed on the south side of +the casket were arranged sofas for the accommodation of Mrs. Garfield +and the family of the late President. Directly opposite and on the north +side of the catafalque seats were reserved for the members of the +cabinet and distinguished guests. The front row of chairs in the +northwestern section of the rotunda were placed at the disposal of the +justices of the Supreme Court, while in the rear of these several rows +were selected for the accommodation of senators. The representatives +occupied seats on the southeastern and southwestern sections. Behind +these a row of chairs were reserved for the representatives of the +press, and the remainder of the seats in that section were given to the +public generally. + +At exactly quarter to two o'clock the doors of the rotunda were opened. +The first society to arrive was the Knights Templars, Beausant +Commandery of Baltimore. They entered in full regalia, but did not +remain in the hall, simply passing around the catafalque in double file. +Four of their number--Sir Knights Stevens, Lawton, Butler and +Jennings--bore a floral offering in the shape of an immense Maltese +cross, which was reverently placed at the head of the dais. At ten +minutes past two the army of the Cumberland filed in by the door +leading from the senate chamber, and took the seats reserved for them. +Immediately after the doors were thrown open to all holders of tickets. + +In ten minutes the chairs set apart for the general public were +completely filled. Soon the members of the diplomatic corps arrived, and +were ushered to the seats reserved for them. + +Services were opened by Rev. Dr. Powers promptly at three o'clock. He +ascended the dais and briefly announced the opening hymn, "Asleep in +Jesus, blessed sleep," which was rendered by a choir of fifty voices. + +Rev. Dr. Rankin then ascended the raised platform at the head of the +catafalque, and read in a clear, distinct voice the scriptural +selections. Rev. Dr. Isaac Errett then offered prayer. + +Immediately after the close of the services the floral decorations were +all removed (Mrs. Garfield having requested that they be sent to her +home at Mentor) except the beautiful wreath, the gift of Queen Victoria, +which had been placed upon the head of the coffin when the lid was +closed, and which remained there when the coffin was borne to the +hearse, and will be upon it till the remains are buried. This touching +tribute of Queen Victoria greatly moved Mrs. Garfield, as only a woman +can feel a woman's sympathy at the time of her greatest earthly sorrow. + +The coffin having been placed in the hearse, a single gun was fired from +Hanneman's battery, the Second Artillery Band struck up a funeral march, +and the procession moved around the south front of the Capitol to the +avenue. At least 40,000 people were gathered about the Capitol to +witness the start of the procession, while along the line of march to +Sixth Street the crowd was even greater than on the 4th of March. +Everywhere it was most orderly and quiet; and as the hearse containing +the remains moved along the avenue, from the very door of the Capitol to +the entrance of the depot, all heads were uncovered. + +On reaching the depot the military were drawn up in line upon the +opposite side of the street, facing the Sixth Street entrance. The +remains were borne from the hearse upon the shoulders of six soldiers of +the Second Artillery and placed in the funeral car. The ten officers +from the army and navy, selected as the guard of honor, stood with +uncovered heads as the remains were taken from the hearse, and then +escorted them to the car. The diplomatic corps and others who were not +going upon either of the trains did not alight from their carriages. +President Arthur entered the depot with Secretary Blaine, and a few +minutes after entered the Secretary's carriage, and with Ex-President +Grant was driven up the avenue to his temporary home at the residence of +Senator Jones of Nevada. To avoid the crowd about the depot, Mrs. +Garfield was taken to the corner of Maine Avenue and Sixth Street, and +an engine and two cars, including the one intended for her use, were run +down the track, and she was taken on board the train without attracting +any attention. The funeral train was the same used on the trip from Long +Branch, with two additional cars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + Journey to Cleveland.--Lying in State in the Catafalque in + the Park.--Immense Concourse.--Funeral Ceremonies.--Favorite + Hymn.--At the Cemetery. + + +The sad journey to Cleveland was marked at every station by touching +tributes of affection. + +After lying in state Saturday and Sunday in the catafalque in the park +at Cleveland, the remains of President Garfield were solemnly committed +to the tomb at Lake View Cemetery with solemn and impressive rites, the +occasion fittingly reflecting the great sorrow under which the nation +lies. + +The heat of Sunday and Monday was intense, but until the closing of the +park gates in the forenoon previous to the beginning of the funeral +service, the stream of people passing through the catafalque, to view +the casket enclosing the remains, was continuous, and the number who so +paid their last respects must have aggregated at least 150,000. + +Promptly at half-past ten o'clock the ceremonies at the pavilion began. +The immediate members of the family, and near relatives and friends, +took seats about the casket, and at each corner was stationed a member +of the Cleveland Grays. Dr. J. P. Robinson, president of the +ceremonies, announced that the exercises would be opened by the +singing, by the Cleveland Vocal Society, of the "Funeral Hymn," by +Beethoven, whereupon the hymn was sung as follows:-- + + "Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee, + Since God is thy ransom, thy guardian, and guide, + The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee, + And Death has no sting since the sinless hath died." + +The scripture selections were then read by Right Rev. Bishop Bedell of +the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. + +Rev. Ross C. Houghton, pastor of the First Methodist-Episcopal Church, +then offered prayer. After which the Vocal Society sang as follows:-- + + "To thee, O Lord I yield my spirit, + Who breaks in love this mortal chain; + My life I but from thee inherit, + And death becomes my chiefest gain. + In thee I live, in thee I die, + Content, for thou art ever nigh." + +Rev. Isaac Errett of Cincinnati then delivered an eloquent address, +taking for his text the following: "And the archers shot King Josiah, +and the king said to his servants, 'Have me away, for I am sore +wounded.' His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put +him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to +Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his +fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah +lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of +Josiah in their lamentation to this day, and made them an ordinance in +Israel, and behold they are written in the Lamentations. Now the rest of +the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to that which was written +in the law of the Lord, and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are +written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. For behold the +Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah +the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of +water. The mighty man, and the man of war, and the prophet, and the +prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, +and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. +The voice said 'Cry,' and he said 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is +grass, and all the godliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The +grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord +boweth upon it. Surely the people is grass; the grass withereth, the +flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever." + +Dr. Errett was listened to with close and earnest attention. He spoke +for forty minutes, and when he closed a hush for a moment hung over the +vast audience. + +Rev. Jabez Hall then read President Garfield's favorite hymn,-- + + "Ho' reapers of life's harvest + Why stand with rusted blade + Until the night draws round ye, + And day begins to fade? + Why stand ye idle waiting + For reapers more to come? + The golden morn is passing: + Why sit ye idle, dumb? + + Thrust in your sharpened sickle, + And gather in the grain: + The night is fast approaching, + And soon will come again, + The master calls for reapers; + And shall he call in vain? + Shall sheaves lie there ungathered, + And waste upon the plain? + + Mount up the heights of wisdom, + And crush each error low; + Keep back no words of knowledge + That human hearts should know. + Be faithful to thy mission, + In service of thy Lord, + And then a golden chaplet + Shall be thy just reward." + +At 11.45, Rev. Dr. James S. Pomeroy delivered the final prayer, and +pronounced the closing benediction. + +A few minutes after the benediction had been pronounced, the casket was +lifted reverently from its resting-place, and borne on the shoulders of +the United States artillery sergeants who had acted as its special +bearers from Long Branch to the funeral car. The funeral procession +moved from Monumental Park at 11.55. The military presented a +magnificent appearance. The column was headed by that veteran volunteer +association, the Boston Fusileers, who had travelled from Massachusetts +in order to pay a last tribute to their deceased comrade by +participating in the obsequies. They were followed by two companies of +the Seventy-Fourth New York, the Buffalo Cadets and the Buffalo City +Guards; next came the United States barracks band of Columbus, followed +by the Governor's Guard, the Toledo Cadets, the District Infantry, the +Washington Infantry of Pittsburg, the Gatling Gun and Cleveland Light +Artillery; then followed all the civic and military organizations, in +the order of march already arranged, excepting that the Columbia +Commandery of Knights Templars of Washington marched with the guard of +honor and pall-bearers in the division having charge of the funeral car. + +Euclid avenue, for its six miles of length, seemed literally shrouded +with mourning emblems, and an immense concourse numbering hundreds of +thousands watched the slow progress of the procession. + +At 3.30 o'clock the procession entered the gate-way, which was arched +over with black, with appropriate inscriptions. In the key-stone were +the words, "Come to rest." On one side were the words, "Lay him to rest +whom we have learned to love." On the other, "Lay him to rest whom we +have learned to trust." A massive cross of evergreen swung from the +centre of the arch. The United States Marine Band, continuing the sweet, +mournful strain it had kept up during the entire march, entered first. +Then came the Forest City Troop, of Cleveland, which was the escort of +the President to his inauguration. Behind it came the funeral car, with +its escort of twelve United States artillerymen, followed by a battalion +of Knights Templars and the Cleveland Grays. The mourners' carriages and +those containing the guard of honor, comprised all of the procession +that entered the grounds. The cavalry halted at the vault and drew up in +line facing it, with sabres presented. The car drew up in front, with +the mourners' carriages and those of the cabinet behind. The band played +"Nearer, my God, to Thee," as the military escort lifted the coffin from +the car and carried it into the vault, the local committee of reception, +Secretary Blaine, Marshal Henry, and one or two personal friends, +standing at either side of the entrance. + +None of the President's family except two of the boys, left the +carriages during the exercises, which occupied less than half an hour. + +Dr. J. P. Robinson, as president of the day, opened the exercises by +introducing Rev. J. H. Jones, Chaplain of the Forty-Second Ohio +Regiment, which General Garfield commanded, who made a short address. + +After an ode by Horace, sung in Latin by the German Singing Society, Mr. +Robinson announced the late President's favorite hymn, "Ho! Reapers of +Life's Harvest," which the German vocal societies of Cleveland sang with +marked effect. The exercises closed with the benediction by President +Hinsdale, of Hiram College. + +Re-entering their carriages the mourners drove hurriedly back to the +city, to avoid another shower which was threatened. The Military and +Masonic escort left the cemetery in the same order in which they +entered, and kept in line until the catafalque was reached, where they +were dismissed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + Lakeview Cemetery.--Talk with Garfield's Mother.--First + Church where he Preached.--His Religious + Experience.--Garfield as a Preacher. + + +The lot in Lakeview Cemetery that was selected for the burial-place is +on the brow of a high ridge commanding an extensive view of Lake Erie. +It was the President's desire that his last resting-place might be in +this beautiful spot, and his mother, speaking of it, said,-- + +"It is proper that he should be buried in Cleveland. It is the capital +of the county in which he was born, and of the section where he grew +into prominence. Mentor had been his home but a short time, although he +had intended to spend the balance of his life there. Most of his years +have been spent in Solon and Orange, and it seems best that his final +resting-place should be near the places that he loved the best." + +The brave old lady trembled with emotion while talking of her son. + +"It is wonderful," she said, "how I live upon the thoughts of him. I +ride a little every day to get the fresh air, and look at the fields +and woods he loved so well." + +Mrs. Garfield was with her daughter, Mrs. Larrabee, in Solon, Ohio, when +the last sad tidings came. For days she had been greatly depressed--her +hopes of his recovery growing fainter with every telegram received. + +"Oh! it is too dreadful! it cannot be true!" she exclaimed, when the sad +news was gently broken to her. It was some time before she could control +her feelings. At last she murmured through her tears: "God knew best, +but it is very hard to bear!" + +A few days later, when a friend called to see her, she said,-- + +"He was the best son a mother ever had--so good, kind, generous and +brave. Did you ever see such an uprising? That ought to break the fall +for me, but it doesn't seem to. I want my boy." + +This little home at Solon is not far from the spot where the old log +cabin stood, and the first frame house was built. + +"I am glad you have been over to the old homestead," added the old lady +to her visitor. "My son loved every foot of it. He and his brother built +the frame house for me, near the well where the pole has been erected. +It was rude carpentry, but they both took their first lessons on it, +and I always loved the old home. It was burned down just after we left +it." + +The humble Church of the Disciples, where Garfield first preached, is +close by. Once, when addressing some young people, he spoke as follows +of his first religious experience,-- + +"Make the most of the present moment! No occasion is unworthy of your +best efforts. God in his providence often uses humble occasions and +little things to shape the whole course of a man's life. I might say +that the wearing of a certain pair of stockings led to a complete change +in my own career. I had made one trip as a boy on a canal-boat, and was +expecting to leave home for another trip. But I accidentally injured my +foot in chopping wood. The blue dye in the yarn of my home-made socks +poisoned the wound, and I was kept at home. Then a revival of religion +broke out in the neighborhood. I was thus kept within its influence, and +was converted. New desires and purposes then took possession of me, and +I determined to seek an education that I might live more usefully for +Christ. You can never know when these providential turning-points in +your life are at hand; so seek to improve each passing day." With this +we may connect the account of his conversion given by his friend, Rev. +Isaac Errett, D. D., of Cincinnati. "The lad," he says, "attended these +meetings for several nights, and after listening night after night to +the sermon, he went one day to the minister, and said to him: 'Sir, I +have been listening to your preaching night after night, and I am fully +persuaded that if these things you say are true, it is the duty and the +highest interest of every man, and especially of every young man, to +accept that religion and seek to be a man; but really I do not know +whether this thing is true or not. If I were sure it were true, I would +most gladly give it my heart and my life.' So, after a long talk, the +minister preached that night on the text, '_What is truth?_' and +proceeded to show that, notwithstanding all the various and conflicting +theories and opinions of men, there was one assured and eternal alliance +for every human soul in Christ Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the +Life; that every soul would be safe with him; that he never would +mislead; and that any young man giving him his hand and heart would not +go astray. After due reflection, young Garfield seized upon this. He +came forward and gave his hand to the minister in pledge of the +acceptance of the guidance of Christ for his life, and turned his back +upon the sins of the world forever." + +"He was never formally ordained," says one of his old pupils at Hiram +Institute, "hence some have inferred that his preaching was confined to +occasional and unofficial discourses. But while he was a student in +Williams College he supplied in vacations and at other times the pulpit +of the Disciples' church at Poestenkill, a few miles from Williamstown. +For this he received some compensation which assisted him in his course. +He had the ministry in view. Becoming Principal at Hiram, he also +accepted the position of regular pastor of the church of Disciples in +that town. This office he filled during a large part of his +Principalship, bearing its responsibilities and receiving what +compensation attached to it. It was a large village church, and the only +one in the place, except a small Methodist church. He was called from +year to year." The people loved him as their pastor, and the house was +crowded to hear him preach. He officiated at their funerals, and +administered the ordinances of baptism (which was always immersion) and +the Lord's Supper. The fact that he had not been ordained in due form +was not objectionable to the Disciples, and a matter of greater +indifference even among them at that time than it would be perhaps +to-day. Doubtless his appointment as Principal of their Institute was +regarded as equivalent to a sanction of his full ministry. He preached +Sunday morning and afternoon, and administered the communion every +Sunday. In the evening there was a prayer-meeting. The students were +required to be present at church at least twice in the day. He always +preached without notes, with great simplicity and practicalness, +interesting persons of mature years, and at the same time taking special +pains to reach the young. There was a bright little boy with whom he was +accustomed to talk after preaching, to make sure that he had been +understood. In prayer he impressed his congregation as a man who was +really speaking with God. On Saturday afternoons he visited socially +among the people. + +In 1857 his preaching was accompanied by a revival of religion. Meetings +were held nearly every night, and fifty-two united at one time with the +church. These Mr. Garfield baptized in the open air. Many of the +converts were students, and when he gave them the hand of fellowship at +the communion table he presented each one of them with a copy of the +Word of God. This was not the only time he led candidates into baptismal +waters. There were frequent occasions of this kind. One is remembered +which took place in the evening in the fall of the year, when the +moonlight was bright enough for the singers to read the music and the +hymns. He entered into the spirit of such scenes with great devotion and +zeal. + +Garfield always held to that side which emphasized man's need of the +Holy Spirit, and the necessity of believing in Christ from the heart. +This he always enforced in his preaching, and as urgently declared that +this faith must be followed by obedience. His public prayers were often +addressed to Christ. Our informant feels sure that he was far from being +a Unitarian. He was not pleased with the way in which Garfield, in +accordance with the usages of the Disciples, received candidates for +baptism, and one day said to him: "It seems to me that your practice, +Mr. Garfield, is hardly consistent with your doctrine in this matter. +You preach excellent sermons to the impenitent, and point out the way of +salvation in language which I can endorse; but when persons come forward +for baptism, you have no examination by the church to see if their +conversion is sound." The answer was: "I show them clearly that they +must believe from the heart. If they say they do, I leave the +responsibility with them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + The Sunday Preceding the Burial.--The Crowded Churches.--The + one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.--Across the Water.--At + Alexandra Palace.--At St. Paul's Cathedral.--At Westminster + Abbey.--Paris.--Berlin.--Extract from London Times. + + +On the Sunday that the remains of the martyred President were lying in +state at Cleveland, the churches throughout the country were crowded +with congregations in sober and reverent mood. One thought engrossed all +minds, and one topic alone occupied the preacher's desk. + +"It was most touching," said one writer, "to see with what sympathy and +sadness every appreciative tribute to the dead President was received; +to perceive by a thousand little indications how profoundly this great +event absorbing all thoughts had stirred the hearts of the people; to +detect the unbidden tears stealing down the cheeks of so many women, +aye, and of men too. The ministers felt the inspiration of the occasion, +and were uplifted by it to greater than ordinary eloquence, to more +tender and more hearty words." + +Not only in America but throughout Europe the mourning crowds were +gathered to offer their tributes of respect. At the Alexandra Palace, in +London, a memorial service was held, at which forty thousand persons +were present, many of them in deep mourning. + +St. Paul's Cathedral was crowded to overflowing at the announcement that +the services would relate to the death of President Garfield. When the +"Dead March in Saul" was played the whole congregation, numbering many +thousands, arose and remained standing, all showing grief and many +weeping. Canon Stubbs preached, and specially referred to the cruel +manner of President Garfield's death. He extolled his life and virtues, +and expressed sympathy for the sorrowing American nation. + +The following sonnet was written in the Cathedral just after the funeral +anthem for President Garfield had been sung,-- + +SEPTEMBER 25. + + Through tears to look upon a tearful crowd, + And hear the anthem echoing + High in the dome till angels seem to fling + The chant of England up through vault and cloud, + Making ethereal register aloud + At heaven's own gate. It was a sorrowing + To make a good man's death seem such a thing + As makes imperial purple of his shroud. + Some creeds there be like runes we cannot spell, + And some like stars that flicker in their flame, + But some so clear the sun scarce shines so well; + For when with Moses' touch a dead man's name + Finds tears within strange rocks as this name can, + We know right well that God was with the man. + +At both the morning and evening services in Westminster Abbey reference +was made to President Garfield's death. At the afternoon service Canon +Duckworth said the American people were richer in all that could dignify +national life by President Garfield's death. Had the shattered frame +revived, it would be hard to believe that he could have impressed his +greatness more effectually. At St. Margaret's, Westminster, the Rev. Mr. +Roberts described the assassination as a crime against the whole English +humanity. At all the principal churches of all denominations Garfield's +death formed the subject of sympathetic allusion. + +In Paris, Père Hyacinthe held a memorial service, and at Berlin, one of +the Emperor's chaplains spoke at length upon the martyred President. + +The London _Times_, summing up the events of the week, said: "Such a +spectacle has never before been presented as the mourning with which the +whole civilized world is honoring the late President Garfield. Emperors +and kings, Senates and ministers, are, in spirit, his pall-bearers, but +their peoples, from the highest to the lowest, claim to be equally +visible and audible as sorrowing assistants." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + National Day of Mourning.--Draping of Public Buildings and + Private Residences.--Touching Incident.--Tributes to + Garfield.--Senator Hoar's Address.--Whittier's + Letter.--Senator Dawes' Remarks. + + +Monday, September 26th, the day when the funeral rites were celebrated +at Cleveland, was appointed by President Arthur as a national day of +mourning. The public buildings throughout the country and many private +residences were draped with mourning, while beautiful and appropriate +emblems of the nation's sorrow were seen in almost every window. A +touching incident is told of a poor colored washerwoman at Long Branch +who tore up her one Sunday gown, a cheap black gingham, and hung it +about her door. When remonstrated with, she said, quietly,-- + +"He was my President, too." It would take volumes to give any adequate +collection of the many beautiful tributes to Garfield delivered in the +pulpit, from the forum, and through the public press, but from them we +select a few. + +At Mechanic's Hall in Worcester, Senator George F. Hoar spoke as +follows: "I suppose at this single hour there is deeper grief over the +civilized world than at any other single hour in its history. Heroes, +and statesmen, and monarchs, and orators, and warriors, and great +benefactors of the race, have died and been buried. There have been men +like William the Silent and his kinsmen of England, and men like +Lincoln, whose death generations unborn will lament with a sense as of +personal bereavement. But in the past the knowledge of great events and +great characters made its way slowly to the minds of men. The press and +the telegraph have this summer assembled all Christendom morning and +evening at the door of one sick-chamber. The gentle and wise Lincoln had +to overcome the hatred and bitterness of a great civil war. It was the +fortune of President Garfield, as it was never the fortune of any other +man, that his whole life has been unrolled as a scroll to be read of all +men. The recent election had made us familiar with that story of the +childhood in the log cabin, of the boyhood on the canal boat, of the +precious school time, of the college days at the feet of our saintly +Hopkins, of the school-teacher, of the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate, of the Christian preacher, of the soldier saving +the army at Chickamauga, of the statesman leading in great debates in +Congress, and of the orator persuading the conscience and judgment of +Ohio, and, through her, saving the nation's honor and credit in the +great strife for public honesty, of the judge determining the great +issue of the title to the presidency, of the loved and trusted popular +leader, to whom was offered the choice of three great offices, +Representative, Senator, and President at once. We know it all by heart, +as we know the achievements of the brief and brilliant administration of +the presidential office and the heroic patience and cheer of that long +dying struggle, when every sigh of agony was uttered in a telephone at +which all mankind were listening. No wonder the heart burst at last. +While it was throbbing and pulsing with fever and pain, it furnished the +courage which held up for seventy-nine days the sinking hopes of a +world. This man touched the common life of humanity, touched its +lowliness, touched its greatness, at so many points. His roots were in +New England puritanism, were in the yeomanry of Worcester and Middlesex. +He grew up to manhood in Ohio. The South had learned to know him. Her +soldiers had met him in battle. When he died she was making ready to +clasp the hand he was holding out to her returning loyalty. The child in +the log cabin knows all about the childhood so like his own. Scholarship +mourns the scholar who was struck down when he was hastening to lay his +untarnished laurel at the feet of his college. Every mother's heart in +America stirred within her when the first act of the new President was +to pay homage to his own mother. The soldiers and sailors of England, +the veterans of Trafalgar and Waterloo, join his own comrades in +mourning for a hero whom they deemed worthy to be ranked with the heroes +who held out the livelong day with Wellington, or who obeyed Nelson's +immortal signal. The laborer misses a brother who has known all the +bitterness of poverty and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of +his brow. The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and +sovereign of Cyprus and Malta and Gibraltar and Canada and Jamaica, knew +her peer when she laid her wreath, last Friday, on the coffin of a king. +The last we heard of him in health he was playing like a boy with his +boy. As our friend said in the pulpit yesterday, the saints of mankind, +when they saw him, knew the birthmark of their race, and bowed their +heads. The American people have anointed him as the representative of +their sovereignty. Washington and Lincoln came forward to greet him and +welcome him to a seat beside their own. I say there is deeper grief at +this hour over the civilized world than at any other single hour in +history. It seems to me that the death of President Garfield is the +greatest single calamity this country ever suffered. I have no doubt +there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of men who would gladly +have bought his life with their own, but we shall dishonor our dead +here if, even while his grave is open, we allow ourselves to utter a cry +of despair. It is true of nations, even more than of man, that "Whom the +Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." +Our republic was planted in sorrow. One-half of the pilgrims died at +Plymouth the first winter, and yet not one of the original colony went +back to England. Is there any man now who would they had not died, or +wishes they had found summer and plenty and ease on the coast of +Massachusetts? Could we celebrate Yorktown with the same lofty triumph +without the memories of Valley Forge and the death of Hale and Warren? I +think even the widow who goes mourning all her days will hardly wish now +that our regiments had come home from the war with full ranks. God has +taken from us our beloved, but think what has been brought into this +precious life. Fifty millions of people, of many races, of many climes, +the workman, the farmer, the slave just made free, met together to +choose the man whom they could call to the presidency among mankind. God +took him in his first hour of triumph and stretched him for seventy-nine +days upon a rack. He turned in upon that sick-chamber a Drummond light +that all mankind might look in upon that cruel assay, and see what +manner of men and what manner of women Freedom calls to her high +places. He revealed to them courage, constancy, cheerfulness, woman's +love, faith in God, submission to his will. Into what years of Europe, +into what cycles of Cathay were ever crowded so much of hope and cheer +for humanity as into the tragedy of Elberon? Your prayers were not +answered; the bitter cup has not passed from you, but, so long as human +hearts endure, humanity will be strengthened and comforted, because you +have drunk it." + + * * * * * + +The following letter, from John G. Whittier, was read at the funeral +services of President Garfield, held in Amesbury:-- + + DANVERS, MASS., 9TH MO., 24, 1881. + W. H. B. CURRIER. + + _My Dear Friend_,--I regret that it is not in my power to + join the citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury in the memorial + services on the occasion of the death of our lamented + President. But in heart and sympathy, I am with you. I share + the great sorrow which overshadows the land; I fully + appreciate the irretrievable loss. But it seems to me that + the occasion is one for thankfulness as well as grief. + Through all the stages of the solemn tragedy which has just + closed with the death of our noblest and best, I have felt + that the Divine Providence was overruling the mighty + affliction--that the patient sufferer at Washington was + drawing with cords of sympathy all sections and parties + nearer to each other. And now, when South and North, + Democrat and Republican, Radical and Conservative, lift + their voices in one unbroken accord of lamentation; when I + see how, in spite of the greed of gain, the lust of office, + the strifes and meanness of party politics, the great heart + of the nation proves sound and loyal, I feel a new hope for + the republic. I have a firmer faith in its stability. It is + said that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself; and the + pure and noble life of Garfield, and his slow, long + martyrdom so bravely borne in the view of all are, I + believe, bearing for us, as a people, "the peaceable fruits + of righteousness." We are stronger, wiser, better for them. + + With him it is well. His mission fulfilled, he goes to his + grave by the lakeside, honored and lamented as man never was + before. The whole world mourns him. There is no speech nor + language where the voice of his praise is not heard. About + his grave gathers, with heads uncovered, the vast + brotherhood of man. + + And with us it is well also. We are nearer a united people + than ever before. We are at peace with all; our future is + full of promise; our industrial and financial condition is + hopeful. God grant that, while our material interests + prosper, the moral and spiritual influence of this occasion + may be permanently felt; that the solemn sacrament of sorrow + whereof we have been partakers may be blest to the promotion + of the "righteousness which exalts a nation." Thy friend, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER. + +Said Senator Dawes:-- + +"Garfield was indeed a great man. This will be the judgment of those who +knew him personally and of history. This tragedy prevents the +corroboration of that judgment by results; for he had but just entered +upon the work for which his preparation and development had fitted him +and has finished nothing but a life of great promise and expectation. +His growth has been a wonderful study to those who were by his side +during its progress. It was constant to the last moment. The last year +had turned it into an altogether new and untried channel. It had been +begun and carried on until that time in quite a different direction. He +had never had executive experience, and a modesty and distrust, rare in +minds conscious of great power, led him to hesitate and shrink from what +was before him. His first remark to a long-tried friend on taking his +hand after the Chicago convention was this: 'I fear I am no man for this +place; I have felt that I could reasonably count on six years more of +labor and study and growth in the new and larger opportunity already +secured to me in my accustomed field, but this is an untried sphere to +me, and I dread the experiment.' The short time he has been permitted, +however, to labor in this new field has yet been long enough to bring +out great qualities and high purposes that the nation can ill spare. He +was conscious of great powers carefully trained, but he lacked +confidence to take hold of new things. His mind did not work quickly, +though it did surely. Always feeling the ground under every step he +took, he never ventured his foot where he could not, by some process of +reasoning, however slow, satisfy himself that he knew what was under +him. Hence the man who was a great leader in battle, and of unflinching +personal courage, and better fitted than any contemporary to +demonstrate and defend a political principle, had not yet come to be a +safe political leader in a sudden emergency, where there is no time for +logic or processes of reasoning, but action must follow instinct and +first impression. At such times he distrusted himself and left to +others, with not a tithe of his real power, the guidance of political +movements. As free from political as from personal guile, he was too +confiding and open-hearted to be safe in the hands of men less +scrupulous and less selfish. + +"Those who saw him enter public life, and were with him to the end, have +in mind a wonderful growth, and have in admiration, also, a wonderful +character, personal, mental and moral, ever charming, sure to be +instructive and always exemplary. In private intercourse with those he +loved he was as simple and trusting as a child, as tender and +affectionate as a woman, and as true and valiant as a knight. One of the +most touching scenes, illustrative of what manner of man he was, will +never be forgotten. The great cares of state had well-nigh worn him out; +the wife of his love lay lingering between life and death, and he had +been going from official labor and responsibility to her bedside night +after night, and, for the last two, had scarcely closed his eyes. The +report had gone out that Mrs. Garfield was dying; a near friend called +to inquire. Coming out of the sick-room, and grasping his hand, the +President begged him to sit down, and there this greatest of all public +men unbosomed himself like a broken-hearted woman. Dwelling with +surprising tenderness upon the love and beauty of his married life, and +the noble character of her who had made it what it was, he exclaimed, +with great emotion, 'I have had in this trial glimpses of a better and +higher life beyond, which have made this life I am leading here seem +utterly barren and worthless. Whatever may come of this peril, I fear +that I shall never again have ambition or heart to go through with that +to which I have been called.' To human view he has not been permitted to +finish the work for which he was fitted and to which he aspired, but he +has left valuable material for the study and instruction of public men, +covering a greater range of topics, a more thorough investigation, and +sounder conclusions than have been left by any one so constantly active +in the daily and current demands of public life. Let us thank God for +such a life, of such infinite value to the republic. Its example, its +teachings, its ambitions, its lofty aspirations and high resolves, and +its demonstrations of what man can make of himself, have no parallel in +history, and will have no measure in their beneficent effect upon those +who shall hereafter honestly study them. He dies loved, admired and +mourned before all others, but not yet fully appreciated. His loss is +irreparable, his lesson invaluable." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + Subscription Fund for the President's Family.--Ready + Generosity of the People.--Touching Incident.--Total Amount + of the Fund.--How the Money was Invested.--Project for + Memorial Hospital in Washington.--Cyrus W. Field's Gift of + Memorial Window to Williams College.--Garfield's Affection + for his Alma Mater.--Reception given Mark Hopkins and the + Williams Graduates.--Garfield's Address to his Classmates. + + +Soon after the President's assassination, the New York Chamber of +Commerce, headed by Cyrus W. Field and other leading capitalists, +started a subscription for Mrs. Garfield and her children. To this fund +all classes of the people contributed with a readiness and generosity +that gave touching evidence of the sincerity of their love and sympathy. +Little children sent their hoarded pennies, many a poor working woman +denied herself some needed comfort that she might add her mite, and one +old man, in tattered clothes, came into the office of Drexel & Co., +where subscriptions were received, and putting a bottle of ink on the +table, said,-- + +"It's all I have, but I must do something." + +As soon as the story was told, the ink was taken and sold again and +again that day, until it brought in fifty dollars. + +When Mrs. Garfield was first apprised of this subscription fund, she +said,-- + +"I wish it were possible for me to go around and see all these dear +people!" + +After the President's death it was stated that the fund would close on +the fifteenth day of October. The total amount received was $360,345.74, +and this was at once given over to the United States Trust Company, of +New York, for investment. The Company paid the amount of $348,968.75 for +the purchase of $300,000 four per cent. registered bonds, and the +balance of cash, $11,376.09, was placed in charge of this same Trust +Company. + +Among the numerous tributes to the memory of Garfield is a project for a +national memorial hospital in Washington on the spot where the President +was assassinated, and an organization has been formed to carry it into +effect. The object has the sympathy and endorsement of President Arthur, +General Sherman, members of the Cabinet, and other distinguished and +influential persons. The land on which the depot stands belongs to +Government, it is said, and is held on sufferance by the railroad +company. + +Cyrus W. Field is to place a memorial window in the chapel of Williams +College. + +"Nothing," says one writer, "has more illustrated the strong and tender +affection which Garfield retained for the master at whose feet he +learned the law of love, than the natural way in which he turned to Dr. +Hopkins after his career had reached its flower. The first reception in +the White House was given to Mark Hopkins and the Williams graduates. It +was the President's own planning. The alumni in Washington, resident and +visitors, including a large number of the class of '56, were notified of +the President's wishes, and went to the White House marshalled by the +venerable doctor. They were drawn up in the form of a horseshoe, and Dr. +Hopkins addressed the Chief Magistrate. The speaker was profoundly +moved, and exhorted his pupil to maintain the high ideals which had +marked his past. President Garfield, with wet eyes, replied in one of +those moving and inspired speeches which he sometimes uttered. He voiced +the deepest love and reverence for his old teacher, and ascribed the +good impulse of his career to lessons learned among the hills of +Berkshire. The forty or more alumni present were affected to tears." + + * * * * * + +Garfield was greatly attached to his Alma Mater; on the night previous +to his inauguration he met his college classmates, and, in an address to +them, spoke as follows: + +"CLASSMATES,--To me there is something exceedingly pathetic in this +reunion. In every eye before me I see the light of friendship and love, +and I am sure it is reflected back to each one of you from my inmost +heart. For twenty-two years, with the exception of the last few days, I +have been in the public service. To-night I am a private citizen. +To-morrow I shall be called to assume new responsibilities, and on the +day after the broadside of the world's wrath will strike. It will strike +hard. I know it and you will know it. Whatever may happen to me in the +future, I shall feel that I can always fall back upon the shoulders and +hearts of the class of '56 for their approval of that which is right and +for their charitable judgment wherein I may come short in the discharge +of my public duties. You may write down in your books now the largest +percentage of blunders which you think I will be likely to make, and you +will be sure to find in the end that I have made more than you have +calculated--many more. + +"This honor comes to me unsought. I have never had the presidential +fever, not even for a day; nor have I it to-night. I have no feeling of +elation in view of the position I am called upon to fill. I would thank +God were I to-day a free lance in the House or the Senate; but it is not +to be, and I will go forward to meet the responsibilities and discharge +the duties that are before me with all the firmness and ability I can +command. I hope you will be able conscientiously to approve my conduct, +and when I return to private life I wish you to give me another +class-meeting." + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + Removal of the President's Remains.--Monument Fund + Committee.--Garfield Memorial in Boston.--Extracts from + Address by Hon. N. P. Banks. + + +On the 22d of October, Garfield's remains were removed from the public +vault in Lakeview Cemetery to a private vault on the grounds, there to +remain until the completion of the crypt, where they will permanently +repose. + +A Garfield Monument Fund Committee was organized at Cleveland +immediately after the funeral, and contributions have been received by +it from all sections of the country. + +Upon Thursday, the 20th day of October, Memorial services were held in +Boston at Tremont Temple. From the address delivered by Hon. N. P. Banks +we give the following extracts:-- + +"The history of the Plymouth colony of 1620, which preceded the +embarkation of the Massachusetts colony, was blistered with the results +of a bitter and apparently relentless destiny, against which it would +have been scarcely possible for any people but the Massachusetts +Puritans and Pilgrims to have secured a triumph like that which the +Deity they worshipped vouchsafed to them. + +"Its founders were fugitives from England and exiles from Holland. They +gladly accepted the chances of suffering and death in the New World, to +gain liberty of conscience and freedom to worship God. For the first ten +years of its existence population increased slowly, and numbered but +three hundred souls in 1630. + +"The Massachusetts colony, with which Plymouth was united, left the Old +World under happier auspices. It started with concessions and +congratulations from the Crown. The best men in England were ambitious +to share its fortunes. Winthrop, Saltonstall and Sir Harry Vane--'the +sad and starry Vane'--were among its leaders; and such men as John +Hampden, Pym, Oliver Cromwell, and many others of that heroic type, were +restrained from emigration at the moment of embarkation by the order of +the king. Four thousand families--twenty thousand souls--people of +culture, capacity and character, no decayed courtiers or adventurers, +but merchants, seamen, husbandmen and others devoted to the highest +interests of man, had landed in Boston in ten years from the foundation +of the city. + +"Among them came, in 1630, Edward Garfield, the paternal ancestor of the +late President of the United States. He was a man of gentle blood, of +military instincts and training, possessing some property, and a +thoughtful and vigorous habit of mind and body. The earliest record of +his name in the annals of the colony indicated an origin from some one +of the great German families of Europe, and his alliance by marriage +with a lady of that blood and birth confirmed the original impression of +the people with whom he identified his fortunes. His emigration +suggested a purpose consistent with his capacity and character, and with +the higher aspirations of the colony. He coveted possession of land, and +for that reason probably, among others, settled in Watertown, where +territory was abundant, and boundary lines yet delicate and dim, +especially toward the west, where they were mainly defined by the +receding and vanishing forms of the aboriginal inhabitants of the +country. In the realm they had abandoned it was a maxim among men that +home was where the heart was. But in the New World the colonists had +discovered that both home and heart were where there were liberty and +land. + +"He chose a residence near Charles River, a stream unsurpassed in beauty +by any water that flows, since honored by the residence and immortalized +by the verse of Longfellow, and the original and marvellous industries +that enrich its peaceful and prosperous people. + +"Edward Garfield, the founder of this new American family, did not long +linger near the boundaries of Boston. His first share in the +distribution of land to the freemen, by the town, was a small lot or +homestall of six acres, on the line of territory afterwards incorporated +as the town of Waltham. Another general grant of land by the town, in +1636, 'to the freemen and all the townsmen then inhabiting,' one hundred +and twenty in number, called the Great Dividends, gave to Garfield a +tract of thirty acres, the whole of which was within the territory set +off to Waltham. In 1650 the land allotted to Mr. Phillips, the first +minister of Watertown (about forty acres, in the same locality), was +sold by his heirs to Garfield and his sons. A portion of this estate was +purchased from the heirs of Garfield by Governor Gore, who constructed +upon it, from imported plans and materials, on his return from England, +a country seat, still admired as one of the most elegant and stately +residences in America. The first distinctive title ever given to the +territory now embraced within the limits of Waltham was that of 'The +Precinct of Captain Garfield's Company.' It is said that, after the +incorporation of that town, this name rarely appears on the records of +Watertown. + +"While citizens of Watertown, Garfield and his descendants were assigned +to responsible military commands by the governors of the colony, and +frequently chosen for the board of selectmen and other town offices. +Captain Benjamin Garfield held a captain's commission from the governor, +was nine times elected representative of the town, and appointed to many +other offices. Others were honored in a similar manner in Watertown, in +Waltham, and wherever they planted themselves. + +"They did not hive in the settled and safe centres of the colony, but +struck out boldly for the frontier, where danger was to be encountered +and duty performed. They adhered zealously to the principles of the +colony, and the controversies that arose from considerations of that +nature, at the very outset of its history, settled upon an unchangeable +basis the character of its government. + +"An important and instructive illustration of this free spirit of the +people occurred in the second year of its settlement. Without previous +consultation of the several towns, the governor and assistants levied, +in 1632, an assessment of eight pounds sterling upon them for +construction of military defences in what is now Cambridge. This order +was declared to be subversive of their rights, and the people of +Watertown, the most populous and influential inland town, met in church, +with their pastor and elders, according to their custom, and after much +debate deliberately refused to pay the money, on the ground, they said, +'that it was not safe to pay monies after that sort, for fear of +bringing themselves and their posterity into bondage.' + +"When summoned before the governor they were obliged to retract the +declaration and submit; but they set on foot such an agitation through +the colony as to secure, within three months of their original debate, +an order for the appointment of two persons from each town to advise +with the governor and assistants as to the best method of raising public +moneys. This order ripened, in 1634, into the creation of a +representative body of deputies elected by the people, having full power +to act for all freemen, except in elections. This was the origin of the +House of Representatives in Massachusetts. After ten years' contest the +body of assistants to the governor was separated from the body of +deputies, and, sitting as a Senate, left to the deputies chosen by the +towns an absolute negative upon the legislation of the colony. Thus was +established, substantially as it now exists, the Legislature of +Massachusetts. + +"As the people began to be represented in the government of the colony, +so the direction of civil affairs in the towns came to be entrusted to a +municipal body of freemen, peculiar to New England, chosen for that +purpose, and known as the board of selectmen. It is a pleasure to know +that, during the violent contest for this right of representation in +State and local governments, Edward Garfield, the earliest American +ancestor of the martyr President whose loss we mourn, as a selectman of +Watertown, in the very crisis of that contest, did a freeman's duty with +a freeman's will, in securing to the people of Massachusetts the right +of representation they now enjoy. + +"The Massachusetts family of Garfields, in the male line at least, were +churchmen, freemen, fighting men, thoughtful and thrifty men, and +working men. They were enterprising, active, and brave, fond of +adventure, distinguished for endurance and strength, athletic feats, +sallies of wit, cheerful dispositions, and, like their eminent successor +so recently passed away, noted always for a manly spirit and a +commanding person and presence. It was a prolific and long-lived race. +Marriages were at a premium, and families were large and numerous. Among +the people of the Massachusetts colony who made their way quickly to the +frontier when new towns were to be planted, the Garfields were well +represented. The foundation of a new municipality was then a solemn +affair, usually preceded by 'a day of humiliation, and a sermon by Mr. +Cotton.' When the territory of Massachusetts was overstocked, they +passed to other States in New England, and ultimately to the great West. +Wherever they were they asserted and defended the principles they +inherited from the founders of Massachusetts. + +"Abram Garfield, of the fifth generation, a minute-man from Lincoln, +engaged in the fight with the British at Concord, and was one of the +signers of a certificate, with some of the principal citizens of that +town, declaring that the British began that fight. We should not feel so +much solicitude about that matter now. + +"Abram Garfield, a nephew of the soldier at Concord, whose name he bore, +and who represented the seventh generation of the family, settled later +in Otsego County, N. Y., where he received the first fruits of toil as a +laborer on the Erie Canal. The construction of canals by the Government +of Ohio drew him, with other relatives, to that State, where his +previous experience gained for him a contract on the Ohio Canal. The +young men and women who left the earlier settlements for the frontier +States sometimes consecrated the friendships of their youth by a +contract of marriage when they met again in the great West. Abram +Garfield in this way met and married (Feb. 3, 1821) Eliza Ballou, a New +Hampshire maiden, whom he had known in earlier years. It was a long +wait, but a solid union. They were nearly twenty years of age when +married. A log cabin, with one room, was their home. His vocation was +that of an excavator of canals in the depths of the primeval forests of +Ohio. There was not much of hope or joy in the life before them; but +still it was all there was for them of hope or joy. They could not +expect the crown of life until they had paid its forfeit. They adhered +to the religious customs of childhood. Their labor prospered. Amid their +suffering and toil in the construction of the arteries of civilization +and the foundation of States and empires that will hereafter rule the +world, four children came to bless them. The last of the four was James +Abram Garfield (Nov. 19, 1831), destined, in the providence of God, to +be and to die President of the Republic. + + * * * * * + +"Garfield had pre-eminent skill in directing and applying the labor and +attainments of others to the success of his own work. This is a somewhat +rare, but a most invaluable capacity. No one man can do everything. In +labor, as in war, to divide is to conquer. There have been men who knew +everything, and could do everything,--whose incomparable capacities +would have been sufficient, under wise direction, to have given the +highest rank among the few men that have changed the destiny of the +world; but who could not succeed in government, because they never saw +men until they ran against them. + +"Such admirable qualities, united to such strength and love for active +service, gave him reputation and rank, and opened the way to the +campaigns in Kentucky against Marshall, at Prestonburg and Middle +Creek,--the last a cause of other victories elsewhere,--and at Tullahoma +and Chickamauga. + +"His knowledge of law opened a new field of activity and service, of +great benefit to him and to the Government. But little attention had +been given by professors of legal science, at the opening of the war, to +the study of military law. In the field where it was to be administered, +great difficulties were encountered in determining what the law was and +who was to execute it. A distinguished jurist, Dr. Francis Lieber, was +appointed by the Government to codify and digest the principles and +precedents of this abstruse department of the science of law. But it +opened to Garfield, long before the digest was completed, a peculiar +field for tireless research and labor in new fields of inquiry. Once +installed as an officer of courts-martial, his services were found to be +indispensable. From the West he was called to Washington, was in +confidential communication with President Lincoln in regard to the +military situation in the West, was a member of the most important +military tribunals, became a favorite and protégé of the Secretary of +War, and, upon the express wish of the President and Secretary, +accepted his seat in the House of Representatives, to which he had been +chosen in 1862. + +"His career in Congress is the important record of his life. For that he +was best fitted; with it he was best satisfied; in it he continued +longest, and from it rose to the great destiny which has given him a +deathless name and page in the annals of the world. + +"The House of Representatives in the age of Clay, Calhoun and Webster +was an institution quite unlike that of our own time. Its numbers then +were small; its leading men comparatively few; but few subjects were +debated, and members of the House rarely or never introduced bills for +legislative action. Its work was prepared by committees, upon official +information, and gentlemen prepared to speak upon its business could +always find an opportunity. Now its numbers have been doubled. More than +ten thousand bills for legislative consideration are introduced in every +Congress. The increase of appropriations, patronage and legislation is +enormous, and the pressure for action often disorderly and violent. +Little courtesy is wasted on such occasions, when one or two hundred +members are shouting for the floor, and when one is named by the Speaker +it must be a strong man, ready, able, eloquent, to gain or hold the ear +of the House. Garfield never failed in this. His look drew audience and +attention. He was never unprepared, never tedious; always began with +his subject, and took his seat when he had finished. He had few +controversies, and was never called 'to order' for any cause. He was a +debater rather than an orator; always courteous, intelligent, +intelligible, and honorable. The House listened to him with rapt +attention, and he spoke with decisive effect upon its judgment. He liked +it to be understood that he was abreast of the best thought of the time, +had a great regard for the authority of scientific leaders, and walked +with reverential respect in the tracks of the best thinkers of the age. +It is a pleasant thing, this method of settling all problems by +demonstration of exact science. Hudibras must have been in error when he +spoke so lightly of these scholastic methods, saying, or rather +singing,-- + + 'That all a rhetorician's rules + Teach him but to name his tools.' + +"The people watched with great interest his long and terrible struggle +for life, and their hearts trembled with alternations of hope and fear, +as they studied with close attention the morning and the evening +bulletins giving the ebb and flow of life's dark tide with the precision +of exact science; but they read with infinite relief, if not always with +satisfaction, the telegrams of the Secretary of State to the American +minister at London, stating, in the language of common life, the +changes that had occurred in the condition of the President from day to +day. + +"As chairman or prominent member of the principal business committees of +the House, Garfield had always access to the floor, and an eager +assembly as his audience. His topics were generally of a national +character, connected with the organization and maintenance of the +government; but there is scarcely any subject brought before Congress to +which he has not, at some time, given a thorough and able exposition of +his views. The best known and most influential of his speeches have been +in relation to the war, financial affairs, the currency, and the tariff. +These all involved national interests, and exhibit on his part a +profound study of every subject necessary to their support. He was from +the first, and constantly, a hard-money man, a leader in discussion, and +a supporter by his votes of every proposition necessary to maintain a +sound currency. On the subject of the tariff, while he did not deny +that, as an abstract question, the doctrine of free trade presented an +aspect of truth, yet he always declared that under a government like +ours protection of national industries was indispensable. He advocated +duties high enough to enable the home manufacturer to make a wholesome +competition with foreigners, but not so high as to subject consumers to +a monopoly of product or supply. A moderate and permanent protection was +the doctrine he always ably sustained. It would be instructive to recall +the expression of his views embodied in his speeches upon these +subjects, which he photographed upon the minds of those to whom they +were addressed, but it is inappropriate on the present occasion. Few men +in the history of the House of Representatives have acquired a higher +reputation, and none will be more kindly and permanently remembered. + + * * * * * + +"There was much force in a declaration made by the Pastor of the +Disciples' Church, at the funeral of President Garfield, in the rotunda +of the Capitol at Washington. The gigantic proportions of this apartment +excite a strange sensation in every visitor. One familiar with the +scene, recalls at his entrance an ancient tradition, often repeated +before the war, that this majestic central apartment of the Capitol +would, some day, witness the coronation of a king. Apart from the +unusual solemnity of this occasion, the scene was of an extraordinary +character. The light that fell from the dome above gave a solemn aspect +to the apartment. Distinguished personages moved silently and slowly to +the positions assigned them. Two ex-Presidents, immediate predecessors +of the deceased, the only occupants of the presidential office that +have attended at such a time, sat in front of the eastern entrance of +the rotunda. The diplomatic corps, in full court costume, were placed in +rear of the ex-Presidents. Senators, judicial officers in their robes, +officers of the army and navy, in brilliant uniforms, were on the right. +Members and ex-members of the House, in large numbers, attended by the +Speaker, were massed upon the left, and the space around them was +crowded by citizens from every part of the country. The vast assembly +rose as the President, with the Cabinet officers and the stricken family +of mourners, passed to their seats near the casket of the deceased Chief +Magistrate,--which lay upon the same bier that bore the body of +President Lincoln, just beneath the centre of the canopy that from the +dome overhangs the rotunda,--guarded by veterans of the Army of the +Cumberland. The walls were hung with representations of important events +in American history;--the Landing of Columbus, De Soto's Discovery of +the Mississippi, the Baptism of Pocahontas, the Embarkation of the +Pilgrims, the Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of Cornwallis +at Yorktown, and the Resignation of Washington. On the belt of the +rotunda above were seen Cortez entering the Temple of the Sun in Mexico, +the Battle of Lexington, and other studies of varied and memorable +scenes in the history of the Republic. + +"Simple, brief, and impressive ceremonies heightened the deep and +general interest of the occasion. The funeral discourse was of a purely +religious character, with scarcely more than a brief allusion to the +career of the deceased President, and no mention, I think, of his title +or his name. But these omissions intensified the general interest in his +brief personal allusions. 'I do believe,' he said, 'that the strength +and beauty of this man's character will be found in his discipleship of +Christ.' + +"It is not my province to speak of the spiritual character of this +connection, but in another relation I believe it is true. + +"The Church of the Disciples, to which he belonged, is one of the most +primitive of Christian communions, excluding every thought of distrust, +competition, or advantage. It gave him a position and mission unique and +generic, like and unlike that of other men. While he rarely or never +referred to it himself, and wished at times, perhaps, to forget it, he +was strengthened and protected by it. It was buckler and spear to him. +It brought him into an immediate communion--a relation made sacred by a +common faith, barren of engagements and responsibilities--with +multitudes of other organizations and congregations, adherents and +opponents, able and willing to assist and strengthen him, present or +absent, at home or abroad, who dismissed aspersions upon his conduct +and character as accusations of Pharisees against a son of faith, and +gave him at all times a friendly greeting and welcome, whenever and +wherever he felt inspired to give the world his thought and word. All +great migrations and revolutions of men and nations are born of this +spirit and power. + +"In another direction he possessed extraordinary capacities. He was +animated by an intense and sleepless spirit of acquisition. It was not, +apparently, a common thirst for wealth, precedence, or power which +stimulates many men in our time. His ambition was for the acquisition of +knowledge. From early youth to the day of his last illness it was a +consuming passion. He gave to it days and nights, the strength of youth +and the vigor of middle age. When in the forests of New York, he made +the rocks and trees to personate the heroes of his early reading. When +engaged in the duties of his professorship, he found time for other +studies than those prescribed by the faculty, and for lectures, +addresses, and many other intellectual pursuits. He studied law while at +college without the knowledge of his intimate friends, until he was +admitted to the bar. When in Congress, he would occupy a whole night in +examination of questions to be considered the next day, and debate them +as if nothing unusual had occurred. + + * * * * * + +"It was said by one of the wisest of the ancient Greeks that it was +'impossible to penetrate the secret thoughts, quality and judgment of +man till he is put to proof by high office and administration of the +laws.' Whatever we may think of the splendid record of the late +President in every walk of life he followed, it does not enable us to +anticipate the character and success of the Administration upon which he +so happily entered. In other positions of public life, the concurrence +of so many different influences is required to accomplish even slight +results, that individual credit or responsibility therefor is but slight +and intangible. In the administration of government, the highest secular +duty to which men are ever called, responsibility is indivisible and +unchangeable; and the final results, whether for good or evil, are +indelibly stamped on the woof and warp of the web of time, and will so +remain forever. Good intentions are of no account, and a plea of +confession and avoidance,--admitting failure and disclaiming error,--so +advantageous in other cases, never governs the world in judging men who +fail rightly to administer government. We are happy in being absolved +from the responsibility of judgment where decision is impossible. + +"Undoubtedly, the open assertion in some parts of the world of the right +of assassination as a method of reform in administration and government +may have intensified the general interest in this calamitous event. But +the courage and composure with which the presidential martyr bore his +affliction; the firmness and constancy of his aged mother; the serenity +and saint-like resignation of the heroic wife, administering consolation +and courage to the husband and father, in a voice sweet as the zephyrs +of the south, with a spirit as gentle as love, and a soul as dauntless +as the hearts of the women of Israel,--were not unobserved or unhonored. +It melted hearts in the four quarters of the globe, and drew from the +sons of men, in every land and clime, such an attestation and confession +of the faith that all created beings are the children of one Father, as +never before fell from human lips. We should be dead to sensibility and +honor did we not feel such unwonted tests of the universal scope and +sweep of human sympathy vouchsafed to us by the appointed leaders of +churches, empires and democracies, and by that august lady the Queen of +England and Empress of India, who presides over the councils of the +empire whence we derive our ideas of Christian faith, language, liberty +and law, who gave to the afflicted children of revolted and republican +America the emblems of mourning, reserved by the customs of her court to +the best beloved and bravest of her realm, and sent, over her own hand, +to the wife, mother and orphans, swift and touching evidence of the +strength of her sympathy and the depths of her sorrow--the grandest of +sovereigns and noblest of women! + +"We turn from this record of active and honorable service to a brief +consideration, such as the occasion permits, of the elements of +character which distinguished President Garfield. After all, character +is the only enduring form of wealth. It is the power by which the world +is ruled, and the only legacy of true value that can be transmitted to +posterity. + +"We cannot forget what occurred during the administration of Mr. +Lincoln, or of his successor, Mr. Johnson. We have witnessed no such +political convulsions in our day. No one ever justified the +assassination of Mr. Lincoln on such grounds, or would now counsel such +violence against the chiefs of earlier administrations. Neither can it +now be done with truth or justice. Those who enlisted in the opposition +to past administrations were men whose intellectual and moral natures +restrained them from the execution of purposes dictated by passion. To +those whose feeble intellects deprive them of moral restraint we should +give support, and never justify, by thought or act, conduct that, under +other circumstances, might have endangered the lives of every President +of the Republic! There is no cause or incitement to crime in the +political controversies of this year, that might not have occurred under +any other administration; and no cause or justification, of any kind +whatever, for such an ineffable and inexpiable crime as the murder of +the mild, generous, warm-hearted, forgiving, and Christian Chief +Magistrate whose loss we mourn. + +"Political assassination is not insanity. It proceeds from infection and +distemper of the mind. It is not necessarily limited to the reform +administrations and governments, nor to any special form of government. +It can as well be applied to the settlement of a grocery bill, if an +excitation be created, as to the overthrow of a dynasty. + +"It is another form of the doctrine of annihilation, and the remedy for +its evil is to avoid convulsions, private and public, restrain passion, +avoid injustice, practise moderation in all things, and do no evil that +good may come. + +"The year 1881 is the complement of the full half-century since the +first open movement was organized for the control or destruction of our +government. The lesson of this half-century, with all its trials, +sacrifices and triumphs, is that it is good to maintain and defend the +government of our country and its lawfully constituted authorities, +whether or not we created them or like them. In the contemplation of +this half-century, can we find cause to wish the government had been +destroyed? Or can we now wish it destroyed? + +"The lesson of Garfield's life is an admonition to protect and defend +the government. His birth marks the period when it was first assailed by +enemies domestic; and at the close of his life he gave his last hours of +health and strength to improve and protect it. His last friend should +give his last sigh to maintain it, not for his honor, which is +untarnished, nor his glory, which is immaculate, but for his country, +which still has perils to encounter, and liberties to defend, for the +benefit of mankind." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + Southern Feeling.--Memorial Services at Jefferson, + Kentucky.--Extracts from Address by Henry + Watterson.--Senator Bayard.--Ex-Speaker Randall.--Senator + Hill.--Extracts from some of the Southern Journals. + + +At the United States military post at Jefferson, Kentucky, memorial +services were held in the presence of fifteen thousand people. + +Henry Watterson, the Democratic ex-Congressman, gave an eloquent +address, from which we quote the following:-- + +"I knew him well, and know now that I loved him. He was a man of ample +soul, with the strength of a giant, the courage of a lion, and the heart +of a dove. There never lived a man who yearned for the approval of his +fellow-men, who felt their anger more. There never lived a man who +struggled harder to realize Paul's idea, and to be all things to all +men. Did ever the character sketched by Paul find a nobler example, for +he was blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, apt to teach, not +given to filthy lucre. No one without the little family circle of +relatives and friends in which he lived will ever know how a certain +dismal, though in truth trivial, episode in his career cut him to the +soul. Born a poor man's son, to live and die a poor man, with +opportunities unbounded for public pillage, with licensed robbery going +on all around him, and he pinched for the bare means to maintain +himself, his wife and his little ones with decency and comfort, to be +held up to the scorn of men as one not honest! He is gone now, and +before he went he had outlived the wounds which party friends alike with +party foes had sought to put upon his honor and manhood, and maybe +to-day somewhere among the stars he looks down upon the world and sees +at last how selfish and unreal were the assaults of those in whose way +he stood. It is a pleasure to me to reflect amid these gloomy scenes +that some friendly words of mine gratified him at a moment when he +suffered most. Not in the last campaign, for it would have been a crime +in me to have hesitated then, but away back when no vision of the +presidency had crossed the disc of his ambition, and when the cruelest +blows were struck from behind. It is also a pleasure for me to remember +the last time I saw him. It was during an all-night session of the +House, when in company with Joseph Hawley of Connecticut, Randall Gibson +of Louisiana, and Randolph Tucker, we took possession of the committee +rooms of Proctor Knott, who joined us later, and turned all bickerings +and jars into happy forgetfulness of section and party. I do well +remember how buoyant he was that night in spirit and how robust in +thought, full of suggestion, and in repartee, unaffected and genial +ever; how delighted to lay aside the statesman and the partisan and be a +boy again, and how loth he was, with the rest, to recross the narrow +confines which separate the real and ideal, and to descend into the hot +abyss below. I could not have gone thence to blacken that man's +character any more than to do another deed of shame; and Republican +though he was, and party chief, he had no truer friends than the +brilliant Virginian whom he loved like a brother, and the eminent +Louisianian whose counsels he habitually sought. I refer to an incident +unimportant in itself to illustrate a character which unfolded to the +knowledge of the world through affliction, and whose death has awakened +the love and admiration of mankind. + +"All know that he was a man of spotless integrity who might have been +rich by a single deflection, but who died poor, who broadened and rose +in height with each rise in fortune, who was not less a scholar because +he had wanted early advantages, and who, not yet fifty, leaves as a +priceless heritage to his countrymen the example of how God-given +virtues of the head and heart may be employed to the glory of God and +the uses of men, by one who makes all things subordinate to the +development of the good within him. On all these points we think +together; there are not two opinions. We stand upon common ground; we +shall separate and go hence, and each shall take his way. Interests +shall clash, beliefs shall jar, party spirit shall lift its horned head +and interpose to chill and cloud our better natures. That is but a +condition of our being. We are mortal and we live in a free land. Out of +discussion and dissension ends are shapened; we rough-hewing in spite of +us. However, occasions come which remind us that we have a country and +are countrymen; which tell us we are a people bound together by many +kindred ties. No matter for our quarrels, they will pass away. No matter +for our mistakes, they shall be mended. But yesterday we were at war one +with the other. The war is over. But yesterday we were arrayed in the +anger of party conflict; behold how its passions sleep in the grave with +Garfield. I am here to-day to talk to you of him, and through him and in +his memory and honor to talk of our country. He was its chief +magistrate, our President, representative of things common to us all; +stricken down in the fulness of life and hope by wanton and aimless +assassination. He fell like a martyr; he suffered like a hero; he died +like a saint. Be his grave forever and aye a resting place for the +people, and for the seeds that burst thereon to let the violets bring +spring flowers of peace and love for all the people. Citizens, the flag +which waves over us was his flag and it is our flag. Soldiers, standing +beneath that flag and this armed fortress of the Republic, I salute your +flag and his flag reverently. It is my flag. I thank God, and I shall +teach my children to thank God, that it did not go down amid the +fragments of a divided country, but that it floats to-day, though at +half mast, as a symbol of union and liberty, assuring and reassuring us, +that though the heart that conceived the words be cold, and the lips +that uttered them be dumb, 'God reigns and the government at Washington +still lives.'" + +The tributes paid to the memory of Garfield by his political opponents +show strikingly how widely he was honored and beloved by those who knew +him as a friend as well as the leader of a party. + +Senator Bayard always treated the President with affectionate respect, +and mourns him deeply. Ex-Speaker Randall "knew him intimately and +respected him greatly." Senator Hill is much affected by the death. +"Poor Garfield," he says, "was a big-hearted and a big-brained man. I +shall never forget the last time I saw him. He was so cheerful and +apparently happy. I never saw him fuller of mental and physical vigor +and of hope for the future than then. I want to always remember him as +he appeared to me then--a perfect man." + +The _Courier-Journal_ of Louisville, Kentucky, said: "The President is +dead, and all the nations responding to that touch of sympathy which +makes the whole world kin stand uncovered in the presence of a calamity; +for tragedies, ever calamitous, are doubly so when they spring from +murder and attach themselves to the head of the State, the symbol of +power, the representative of the people and law. If ever mortal stood in +these relations to his country and his time, this man did so. It was the +universal sense that he did so which brought around his bedside his +fellow citizens without distinction of political opinion, and caused +women who had never seen him to pray for him, and little children, who +conceived not the emergency nor the magnitude nor the contingencies +hanging upon his life, to ask each day after his well-being, as if he +were a father ill and dying in some far-off place. Perhaps, too, the +flash of the assassin's pistol let in to many a heart a feeling of +honest regret, before dormant and unconscious, that they had consented +to see so good and so useful a man so pitilessly assailed in his private +honor during periods of angry partisan contention, and a consequent +wish, personally, to disavow this and to make a part of it at least up +to him in his dire misfortune." + +The _Baltimore Sun_ (Independent), alluding to President Garfield's +death, said: "Turning from the peculiarly tragic and distressing +circumstances of the President's death, 'tis difficult to exaggerate the +loss which the nation sustains in his death at this time. Although his +Administration was in its infancy, President Garfield had already met +the confidence of his country in the integrity of his purposes, the +moderation, soundness and conservatism of his policy." + +Said another Southern Journal: "In his death, mournful as it is, the +sections will evince a common sympathy that may cement more closely the +bonds of that fraternity so essential to the keeping of the compact +between the States. North, South, East and West will join in the grief +over the grave of the dead President--a sure sign that the currents of +the national life flow as strong as they ever did in the history of the +Union." + +The _New Orleans Times_ said: "Throughout our whole land parties stand +disarmed, and citizens bitterly deplore the death of James A. Garfield. +Henceforth he lives in memory, and though he was permitted to accomplish +but little during his presidential service, by his death he has given to +his countrymen a deeper scrutiny into themselves--a most precious +service." + +The _Picayune_, after referring to the assassination of President +Lincoln, said: "This is a sadder story in our national life. It was +Garfield's fortune to come to the high office of chief magistrate at a +time when peace and prosperity reigned throughout the broad confines of +this great land. There was naught but sincere respect for his authority +among the masses, and earnest wishes in the hearts of nearly all her +citizens that his administration might prove a happy one for himself as +it promised a prosperous one for the country. He was worthy of so proud +a position, and in his inaugural proclaimed the new life of a nation +united not in name but in truth." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + + Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a + Friend in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.--To Corydon + E. Fuller, a College Classmate. + + +One of the last letters written by President Garfield was to a gentleman +in Boston, who bore the same family name. They were warm friends and +mutually interested in the Garfield genealogy. They had often spoken of +the pleasure they would take in going over the country in the +neighborhood of Boston, where their common ancestors had had their +homes, and they had agreed, should chance ever bring them together here, +to take a little excursion, and as the President was about starting on a +New England tour, the letter related to the long anticipated pleasure. +If possible, the President was to take leave of his formal escort at +Concord and enjoy a quiet buggy drive with his friend, keeping perfectly +_incognito_. They were to visit the scenes of interest at Concord, where +the President's great-uncle, Abram Garfield, from whom he gets his +middle name, stood, perhaps, shoulder to shoulder with John Hoar, the +grandfather of the chairman of the Republican convention at Chicago +which so unexpectedly nominated him for his fateful office. Thence they +were to drive through Lincoln, Weston, Waltham and Watertown--towns +where the homes of their ancestors and kinsmen had stood. At Watertown +the intention was to rejoin the regular party. + +The letter was evidently written late on the evening before he was shot, +and was in the handwriting of the President's private secretary, but +bore the clear signature of J. A. Garfield. It was not sent from +Washington until after Guiteau's shot had been fired, for it bore the +postmark of 1 P. M. General Garfield had had considerable correspondence +with his friend about family matters, and his letters formed the basis +of much of the accurate article on his family genealogy printed in the +_Herald_ shortly after the Chicago convention. In a letter he wrote:-- + +"You can hardly imagine the pleasure which your letter of the 3d inst. +has given me. You will better understand why, when I tell you the causes +which have so nearly shut me off from any knowledge of my ancestry. My +father moved into the wild woods of Ohio before he was twenty years of +age, and died when he was thirty-three, and of course when all his +children were small, and I, the youngest, but an infant. Separated thus +from the early home of our father, we had but scanty means of obtaining +anything like accurate information of his ancestry. The most I knew, +until quite recently, were the family traditions retained in the memory +of my mother, as she had heard them from father and his mother. During +the last eighteen years I have, from time to time, picked up fragmentary +facts and traditions concerning our family and its origin. Many of these +traditions are vague and no doubt worthless, but I have no doubt they +have some truth in them. One of them is that the family was originally +from Wales. This tallies with what you say concerning the original +Edward Garfield coming from the neighborhood of Chester, Eng. I stood on +the walls of Chester a little more than four years ago, and looked out +on the bleak mountains of Wales, whose northern boundary lay at my feet, +along the banks of the Dee. Possibly I was near our ancestral home. A +Welsh scholar told me, not many years ago, that he had no doubt our +family was connected with the builders of an old castle in Wales, long +since in ruins, but still known as Gaerfill Castle. I give you this +conjecture for what it is worth. While I was in college at Williamstown, +Mass., in 1854 to 1856, I went down to old Tyringham and Lee, in +Berkshire County, Mass., and there found a large number of Garfields, +some twenty families, old residents of that neighborhood. Among them +were the names Solomon and Thomas, which seemed to have continued along +in the family. I found that they had come from the neighborhood of +Boston. In an old graveyard in Tyringham (now Monterey) I found the +tombstone of Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield (for that, I learn, was the +early spelling of the name), and on the stone was recorded 1755 as the +date of his death. The family told me that he (Lieutenant Isaac) crossed +the mountains into the wilderness of western Massachusetts in about +1739, and slept the first night under his cart.... I am sure I do not +need to apologize to you for this long letter, for if it gives you half +the pleasure yours has given me, you will not tire of its length. I beg +you to write me any further details you may possess, and any you may +hereafter obtain." + +Following are a number of extracts from letters addressed to Mr. Corydon +E. Fuller:-- + + "WARRENSVILLE, Jan. 16, 1852. + +"MY DEAR CORYDON: Well, I quit writing that evening to attend the +Warrensville Literary Club, of which I am a member. We had a very good +time considering the 'timber.' We have resolved ourselves into a senate, +each member representing some State in the Union. I am not only +President, but also a representative from South Carolina, to watch the +interests of my nullifying constituents. The bill before our senate for +our next evening is, 'That we will assist financially the Hungarian +exiles, Kossuth and his compatriots, from our national Treasury.' We +shall undoubtedly have a warm time. By the way, what do you think of the +effect of the excitement in reference to Kossuth upon our Nation and +popular liberty? How far may our Government safely interfere in the +Hungarian struggle? But I am certainly rhapsodical this time. You must +write to me and trim me up. I am seated in my school-house, a room about +18 by 20, with a stove in the centre and in school, the scholars being +all around me--forty on the list. With these facts before me I am led to +exclaim,-- + + "Of all the trades by men pursued + There's none that's more perplexing + Than is the country's pedagogue's-- + It's every way most vexing. + + Cooped in a little narrow cell, + As hot as black Tartarus, + As well in Pandemonium dwell, + As in this little schoolhouse. + + "Your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + +The following is taken from a letter dated Feb. 2, 1852, written near +the close of the village school at Warrensville, Ohio,-- + +"Oh, that I possessed the power to scatter the firebrands of ambition +among the youth of the rising generation, and let them see the +greatness of the age in which they live and the destiny to which mankind +are rushing, together with the part which they are destined to act in +the great drama of human existence. But, if I cannot inspire them with +that spirit, I intend to keep it predominant in my own breast, and let +it spur me forward to action. But let us remember that knowledge is only +an increase of power, and is only good when directed to good ends. +Though a man may have all knowledge, and have not the love of God in his +heart, he will fall far short of true excellence." + +Here is an extract from a letter written in April, 1853,-- + + "To my mind the whole catalogue of fashionable friendships + and polite intimacies are not worth one honest tear of + sympathy or one heartfelt emotion of true friendship. Unless + I can enter the inner chambers of the soul and read the + inscriptions there upon those ever-during tablets, and thus + become acquainted with the inner life and know the inner + man, I care not for intercourse, for nothing else is true + friendship.... I have no very intimate associates here, and + hence, if it please you, I will be social with my pen and be + often cheered by a letter from you. Let us in all the varied + fortunes of human life look forward to that lamp which will + enlighten the darkness of earth, the valley of death, and + then become the bright and morning star in the heaven of + heavens. Give my love to your father and mother for they + seem like mine also, and you know you have the love of your + brother, + + JAMES." + +The following shows how keenly sensitive Garfield was, even as a boy, +and how early in life he determined to make a name for himself,-- + + "WILLIAMSTOWN, Jan. 28, 1854. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: I wish you were here to-night; I feel like + waking up the ghosts of the dead past, and holding communion + with spirits of former days. In this calm "night that + broodeth thoughts" the shadows of by-gone days flit past, + and I review each scene. That long strange story of my + boyhood, the taunts, jeers, and cold, averted looks of the + rich and the proud, chill me again for a moment, as did the + real ones of former days. Then comes the burning heart, the + high resolve, the settled determination, and the days and + nights of struggling toil, those dreary days when the + heavens seemed to frown and the icy heart of the cold world + seemed not to give one throb in unison with mine.... With + regards, I remain, as ever, your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "NIAGARA, Nov 5, 1853. + + "CORYDON, MY BROTHER: I am now leaning against the trunk of + an evergreen tree on a beautiful island in the midst of + Niagara's foaming waters. I am alone. No breath of wind + disturbs the leaves of evergreen, which hang mute and + motionless around me. Animated nature is silent, for the + voice of God, like the "sound of many waters," is lifted up + from the swathing clouds of hoary foam that rest upon the + dark abyss below. + + 'Oh, fearful stream. + How do thy terrors tear me from myself + And fill my soul with wonder.' + + I gaze upon the broad green waters as they come placid and + smooth, like firm battalions of embattled hosts, moving in + steady columns, till the sloping channel stirs the depths + and maddens all the waters. Then with angry roar the legions + bound along the opposing rocks, until they reach the awful + brink, where, all surcharged with frantic fury, they leap + bellowing down the fearful rocks which thunder back the + sullen echoes of thy voice, and shout God's power above the + cloudy skies! Oh man! frail child of dust thou art to lift + thy insect voice upon this spot where the Almighty thunders + from the swelling floods that lift to heaven their hoary + breath, like clouds of smoking incense. Oh, that the + assembled millions of the earth could now behold this scene + sublime and awful, and adore the everlasting God whose + fingers piled these giant cliffs, and sent his sounding + seas to thunder down and shout in deafening tones, 'We come + from out the hollow of His hand, and haste to do His + bidding.' + + "Your friend and brother, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + +Here are a few lines written in 1859, just after his nomination to the +Senate of Ohio,-- + + "Long ago, you know, I had thought of a public career, but I + fully resolved to forego it all, unless it could be obtained + without wading through the mire into which politicians + usually plunge. The nomination was tendered me, and by + acclamation, though there were five candidates. I never + solicited the place, nor did I make any bargain to secure + it. I shall endeavor to do my duty, and if I never rise any + higher, I hope to have the consolation that my manhood is + unsullied by the past." + + "WLLLIAMSTOWN, June 19, 1855. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: Your favor of the 4th inst. was received + about ten days ago, but I have been entirely unable to + answer until this time. A day or two after it came I left + for Pittstown, N. Y., to attend a yearly meeting of + Disciples, where I spent some four days, and last Saturday I + left again for Poestenkill, and spoke to the people Saturday + evening and three discourses on Lord's Day.... We had good + meetings in each place, and much interest. I cannot resist + the appeals of our brethren for aid while I have the + strength to speak to them.... I tell you, my dear brother, + the cause in which we are engaged must take the world. It + fills my soul when I reflect upon the light, joy, and love + of the ancient Gospel, and its adaptation to the wants of + the human race.... I long to be in the thickest of the + fight, and see the army of truth charge home upon the + battalions of hoary-headed error. But I must be content to + be a spy for a time, till I have reconnoitred the enemy's + stronghold, and then I hope to work. Ever your friend and + classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "DORCHESTER HEIGHTS, Jan. 5, 1856. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON AND MARY: I want to pencil a few lines to + you from this enchanting spot on the sea-shore, six miles + from Boston, and when I return, perhaps I will ink it in a + letter to you. I am spending the night here with a classmate + of mine, one of the dearest friends I have in college. I am + in an old house--every timber of oak--built more than one + hundred years ago. To one who has seen cities rise from the + wild forest in the space of a dozen years, and has hardly + ever seen a building older than himself, you may be assured + that many reflections are awakened by the look of antiquity + that everything has around me. The quaint old beams and + panelled walls, the heavy double windows that look out + oceanward, in short, the whole air of the building speaks of + the days of the olden time. To think that these walls have + echoed to the shouts of loyalty to George the King---have + heard all the voices of the spirit-stirring Revolution, the + patriotic resolve, the tramp of the soldier's foot, the + voice of the beloved Washington, (for within a few rods of + here he made his first Revolutionary encampment,) the cannon + of Bunker Hill, the lamentations of defeat and shouts of + victory--all these cannot but awaken peculiar reflections. + To how many that are now sleepers in the quiet church-yard, + or wanderers in the wide, cold world, has this been the dear + ancestral hall where all the joys of childhood were + clustered. Within this oaken-ceiled chamber how many bright + hopes have been cherished and high resolves formed; how many + hours of serene joy, and how many heart-throbs of bitter + anguish! If these walls had a voice I would ask them to tell + me the mingled scenes of joy and sorrow they have witnessed. + But even their silence has a voice, and I love to listen. + But without there is no silence, for the tempest is howling + and snows are drifting. The voice of the great waves, as + they come rolling up against the wintry shore, speak of Him + 'whose voice is as the sound of many waters.' Only a few + miles from here is the spot where-- + + 'The breaking waves dashed high + On a stern and rock-bound coast, + And the woods against a stormy sky + Their giant branches tossed; + And the heavy night hung dark, + The hills and waters o'er, + When a band of pilgrims moored their bark + On the wild New-England shore.' + + "But the coal has sunk to the lowest bar in the grate beside + me--'tis far past the noon of night, and I must close.... As + ever, your own affectionate + + JAMES." + +The following letter, written to Mr. Fuller while Gen. Garfield was +chief-of-staff to Gen. Rosecrans, will be of special historical value,-- + + "HEADQUARTERS DEPT, OF THE CUMBERLAND, + + "MURFREESBORO, Tenn., May 4, 1863. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: Yours of April 1 was received by the hand + of Lieut. Beeber, and I assure you it was read with great + pleasure. When I was in Washington last winter I saw Mr. + Colfax, who spoke very kindly and highly of you. I have now + fully recovered my health, and for the last three months + have been very hardy and robust. My duties are very full of + work here, and I have never been more pressingly crowded + with labor than now. I have not retired on an average before + two o'clock for the last two months and a half. Gen. + Rosecrans shares all his counsels with me, and places a + large share of the responsibility of the management of this + wing upon me; even more than I sometimes wish he did. This + army is now in admirable condition. The poor and weak + material has been worked out, and what we now have is hard + brawn and solid muscle. It is in an admirable state of + discipline, and when its engineries are fully set in motion, + it will make itself felt. From all the present indications + it cannot be long before we meet the rebel army now in our + front, and try its strength again. When that day arrives, it + bids fair to be the bloodiest fighting of the war. One thing + is settled in my mind. Direct blows at the rebel army, + bloody fighting is all that can end the rebellion. In + European wars, if you capture the chief city of a nation, + you have substantially captured the nation. The army that + holds London, Paris, Vienna or Berlin, holds England, + France, Austria or Prussia. Not so in this war. The rebels + have no city the capture of which will overthrow their + power. If we take Richmond, the rebel Government can be put + on wheels and trundled away into the interior with all its + archives in two days. Hence our real objective point is not + any place or district, but the rebel army, wherever we find + it. We must crush and pulverize them, and then all places + and territories fall into our hands as a consequence. These + views lead me to a hope and belief that before many days we + shall join in a death-grapple with Bragg and Johnson. God + grant that we may be successful. The armies are nearly equal + in number, and both are filled with veteran soldiers well + drilled and disciplined. The little circumstance you related + to me of the soldier in the Fifty-first Indiana touches my + heart." [A soldier who was killed had written home to his + wife to name their child, born during the former's absence, + after Gen. Garfield.] "I wish you would write a letter for + me to Joseph Lay, the young man's father, and express my + sympathy with him for the loss of his brave son, who was + many times with me under the fire of the enemy. I want to + know of the health of his family, and especially of that + little one to whom the affection of the father gave my name. + With the love of other days, I am, as ever, your brother, + + JAMES." + +Here is a glimpse of his home life,-- + + "WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 1876. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: On Saturday last I addressed a large + Republican meeting at Hackensack, four miles from + Schraalenburg, where I went with you twenty-two years ago. I + have never been so near there before, and it brought up the + old memories to be so near. I was called here by telegraph + to the bedside of our little boy Edward, who is very ill + and I fear will not recover. He was recovering from the + whooping cough, and his disease went to his brain. He has + now been lying in an unconscious state nearly four days, and + unless the pressure can soon be removed, he cannot last + long. He is a beautiful child of two years, and the thought + of losing him rives our hearts. But he is in the keeping of + our good Father, who knows what is best for us. All the rest + of us are well. I have worked very hard this campaign, + having spoken almost constantly for two months. You have + probably seen that I was re-elected by about 9,000 majority, + this being my eighth election; but of what avail is public + honor in the presence of death? It has been a long time + since I have heard from you, and I hope that you will write + soon. 'Crete joins me in love to you and Mary. + + "Ever your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 1876. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: I arrived in this city yesterday afternoon + and found that your kind letter of the 2d inst. was awaiting + me. Our precious little Eddie died on the 25th of October, + and the same evening 'Crete and I left with the body, and on + the 27th we buried him beside our little girl who died + thirteen years ago. Both are lying in the graveyard at + Hiram, and we have come back to those which are still left + us, but with a desolation in our hearts known only to those + who have lost a precious child. It seems to me that we are + many years older than we were when the dear little boy died. + His little baby ways so filled the house with joy that the + silence he has left is heartbreaking. It needs all my + philosophy and courage to bear it. It was very hard to go on + with the work of the great campaign with so great a grief in + my heart, but I knew that it was my duty, and I did it as + well as I could. I spoke almost every day till the election, + but it now appears that we are defeated. What the future of + our country will be no one can tell. The only safety we can + rely on lies in the closeness of the vote both on the + Presidency and on the members of the House of + Representatives. We have so far reduced the strength of the + Democratic House that I hope they will not be able to do + much harm. Still we shall have a hard, uncomfortable + struggle to save the fruits of our great war. We shall need + all the wisdom and patriotism the country possesses to save + ourselves from irretrievable calamity. If we had carried the + House of Representatives it was almost certain that I should + have been elected Speaker; but, of course, that has gone + down in the general wreck. 'Crete joins me in kindest + regards to you and May. I hope the time may come when we can + sit down and renew the memories of other days and enjoy a + long visit. I am here now for the winter, and shall soon be + at work in the Supreme Court, where I am having a number of + important cases. With as much love as ever, I am your friend + and brother, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + + Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.--Of one of the Pupils at + Hiram Institute.--Garfield's Keen Observation.--His Kindness + of Heart.--Anecdote of the Game of Ball.--Of the Lame Girl + in Washington.--Of Brown, the ex-Scout and old Boat + Companion. + + +Mr. Corydon E. Fuller, to whom the letters in the preceding chapter were +addressed, was one of the most intimate of the late President Garfield's +friends, and shared with him the early privations of his academic and +collegiate life. Mr. Fuller said: "My first acquaintance with Mr. +Garfield was in the Eclectic Institute at Hiram College in the year +1851. We entered the school at the same time. My first recollection of +him is as a young man, looking all of twenty years old, about six feet +in height, powerfully built, with a head of bushy hair, and weighing +about one hundred and eighty-five pounds. I remember him attired in +Kentucky jean clothes with calico sleeves, ringing the bell for the +opening of recitations. We very soon became acquainted, and that was +during the Fall term of 1851. At this time the Boynton boys and girls, +numbering six, were also at the school. These were closely related to +Garfield. One of them was the Mrs. Arnold, killed at the Newberg +railroad disaster at the same time with Thomas Garfield, uncle of the +late President. In the winter of 1851-2 Mr. Garfield taught school at +Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, and I at Hamilton, Geauga County. At that +time we commenced corresponding, and kept it up until the time of his +assassination." + +"I remember once asking him," said one of Garfield's pupils, "what was +the best way to pursue a certain study, and he said: 'Use several +textbooks. Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that +way you can plow a broader furrow. I always study in that way.' He tried +hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke out one +day in the midst of a lesson with 'Henry how many posts are there under +the building downstairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and the question +went around the class, hardly one getting it right. Then it was: 'How +many boot-scrapers are there at the door?' 'How many windows in the +building?' 'How many trees in the field!' 'What were the colors of +different rooms, and the peculiarities of any familiar objects?' He was +the keenest observer I ever saw, I think he noticed and numbered every +button on our coats." + +"There was one grand thing about President Garfield," said one who knew +him well, "and that was he never felt ashamed to work, no matter what +position he filled. He was always engaged in something, and I have never +seen him alone when his thoughts were not deeply engaged in something. +One great thing that was no doubt the greatest secret of his success, +was his constant desire to be elevated to a higher position. He was +always reaching for something, and never gave up until he received that +for which he was working. Again, he never was ashamed of his low +condition or poverty, and I have often heard him say, during the course +of conversations, that 'there never was a grander thing to see than a +man or woman in earnest in anything they undertake. No matter whether +they may be right or wrong, to see them in dead earnest and working for +dear life for the object of their desire is a noble sight to witness.' +I'll call your attention to another fact: he always went along with his +eyes and ears open, catching up every opportunity to learn something. He +would walk along the street, and to merely glance at a stranger would +not satisfy him, but he would watch a person and try to discover +something in his countenance, and he couldn't look at a lady without +being able to tell you the color of every ribbon on her hat. He has +often told me that the great keeness of his perceptive faculties were +often painful to him. If travelling on a railroad train, and the cars +by chance would stop a short time, he was out inquiring the cause of the +delay, and while walking leisurely along some highway he would meet a +German or Irishman working, when he would stop and interrogate them, and +then tell his friends what he had learned. He was always determined to +learn something." + +At one time when walking with a friend through the streets of Cleveland, +Garfield suddenly stopped and then darted down a cellar-way. Over the +door was the sign "Saws and Files," and a clicking sound could be heard +below. + +"I think this fellow is cutting files," said Garfield, "and I have never +seen a file cut." + +He was right; there was a man below stairs who was re-cutting an old +file, so the two friends stayed there some ten minutes, until the whole +process of file-cutting was thoroughly understood. + +"Garfield would never go by anything," said his friend, "without +understanding it." + +His native kindness of heart is seen in an incident that occurred while +he was principal at Hiram Institute. Ruling in the schoolroom with great +firmness, he was always ready to join the boys in their games on the +playground. One day, when he had taken his place in a game of ball, he +happened to see some small boys close by the fence, who were looking on +with wistful eyes. + +"Are these boys not in the game?" he said to the players. + +"What! those little tads? Of course not. They'd spoil the game." + +"But they want to play," said the principal, "just as much as we do. Let +them come in." + +"Oh no!" was the exclamation; "it's no use to spoil the game; they can't +play." + +"Well," said Garfield, laying down his bat, "if they can't play I +won't." + +"All right, then, let them come in," was the answer, and so the +kind-hearted teacher won the day. + +Another story is told as follows: Two Southern ladies engaged in +charitable work connected with their church society became interested in +the case of a family consisting of a blind man, his invalid wife, and a +lame daughter. The latter was at work in the fourth story of a +government building in Washington, at a salary of $400 per annum, and to +get this small amount she was obliged to walk (using a crutch) nearly +three miles each way daily between her house and the printing-room, and +to climb four nights of stairs to her labors. This so exhausted the poor +child that she was fast losing her health. These two Southern ladies +looked about them to see who, among the influential men in Washington, +had the broadest human sympathy, and decided that General James A. +Garfield, then M. C. was the man most likely to help them in benefiting +this afflicted family. They accordingly visited General Garfield's +house, and found a carriage before the door. Though complete strangers +to him, they sent their cards to the general, who immediately came down +stairs. He had his overcoat thrown over his arm, but very courteously +greeted the ladies and asked what he could do for them. They said,-- + +"We notice you appear to be about leaving, and perhaps we detain you." +He replied, "I am about to take the cars, but I will delay till next +train if I can in any way be of service to you;" and he showed them into +the parlor and introduced them to his wife. When he was told the case he +replied that he should be away from Washington for two or three days, +but if they would remind him on his return, he would do all he could to +assist them. Mrs. Garfield engaged to remind the general on his return, +which she did, and through his kindness and effort this lame girl was +transferred from the fourth floor to the first, and her salary made +$1200 instead of $400. + +Still another instance of Garfield's kindness of heart is shown in the +following story:-- + +One time when he was about to deliver an address at Cornell, a heavy +hand was laid upon his shoulder, and turning about, he saw Brown, his +ex-scout and old boat companion. He was a sad-looking wreck--with +bleared eyes, bloated face, and garments that were half tatters. He had +come, he said, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, to that quiet +place to die, and now he could die in peace because he had seen his +'gineral.' + +Garfield gave him money and got him quarters among some kind people, and +left him, telling him to try to be a man; but, in any event, to let him +know if he ever needed further help. A year or more passed, and no word +came from Brown; but then the superintendent of the public hospital at +Buffalo wrote the general that a man was there very sick, who, in his +delirium, talked of him, of the Ohio Canal, and of the Sandy Valley +expedition. Garfield knew at once that it was Brown, and immediately +forwarded funds to the hospital, asking that he should have every +possible care and comfort. The letter which acknowledged the remittance +announced that the poor fellow had died--died, muttering, in his +delirium, the name 'Jim Garfield.' + +Garfield paid his funeral expenses. + +"Poor Brown!" he exclaimed, "he had a rare combination of good and bad +qualities, with strong traits, a ruined man; and yet, underneath the +ruins, a great deal of generous, self-sacrificing noble-heartedness." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + + Remarks of a Personal Friend.--Reminiscences of the + President's Cousin Henry Boynton.--Garfield as a Freemason. + + +Said a personal friend,-- + +"No one who saw President Garfield after his installation in the White +House can fail to have observed the great change which his accession to +power had occasioned in him. Only at intervals did his bright joyousness +shine out again, as at the pleasant home at Mentor. The very day after +he became President, the struggle for the spoils of office began with a +fierceness hitherto unparalleled in all the strife of that kind which +has been seen at Washington. He was half-maddened by his desire to do +justice to all the contending factions. It was this feeling which made +him slow to give irrevocable decisions. I was at the White House one +morning, and he referred to his anxiety not to take a step in haste +which he might repent at leisure. The humor of his own cautious slowness +brought back the twinkle in his eye, the smile on the rosy lip. 'I don't +know when I shall get around to that,' he said. 'You know, there's no +telling when the Mississippi River will reach a given point.' The +sluggish movement of the great Father of Waters was hit off to the life +by this impromptu epigram." + +Hardly had Garfield been nominated for the presidency, when his +neighbors, those who had known him from boyhood, together with his +kinsmen, gathered, and raised upon his old home, near the spot where he +was born, a pole, and placed thereon the candidate's name. The pole was +erected where the house stood which Garfield with his brother erected +for their mother and sisters with their own hands, after the log hut, a +little farther out in the field nearer the wood, had become unfit for +habitation. Thomas Garfield, an old man eighty years of age, the one who +was killed in a railroad accident soon after Gen. Garfield had been +inaugurated President, directed the manual labor of rearing the shaft, +and was proud of his work. Soon after it was erected Garfield himself +came from Mentor to look over the old place again, and with proud +satisfaction looked upon this expression of friendship of his old +neighbors. There is nothing except this pole left to mark his +birthplace, and the old well, not two rods off, which he and his brother +dug to furnish water for the family. On the day of the funeral services, +the torn and tattered banner which those who knew him from childhood to +manhood had erected in his honor, was lazily floating in the breeze +half-way down the pole, showing in its plain way the sorrow of those who +so gladly erected it less than twelve months ago. In the little maple +grove to the left, children played about the country school-house, which +has replaced the log one where the dead President first gathered the +rudiments upon which he built to such purpose. The old orchard in its +sere and yellow leaf, the dying grass, and the turning maple-leaves, +seemed to join in the general mourning. + +Adjoining the field where the flag floats is an unpretentious farm +almost as much identified with General Garfield's early history as the +one he helped to clear of the forest timber while he was a child, but it +is now free of buildings. Near by is the home of Henry B. Boynton, +cousin of the dead President, and a brother of Dr. Boynton, who has been +so conspicuously connected with the Garfield family since Mrs. +Garfield's illness last spring. "General Garfield and I were like +brothers," said he to a visitor, as he turned from giving some +directions to his farm hands, now sowing the fall grain upon ground +which the dead President first helped to break. He looked off tearfully, +as he spoke, toward the flag at half-mast, marking the birthplace of his +life-long friend. "His father died yonder, within a stone's throw of us, +when the son was but one and a half years old and I was but three and a +half. He knew no other father than mine, who watched over the family as +if it had been his own. I bore a peculiar relation to the general. His +father and my father were half-brothers, and his mother and my mother +were sisters. This very house in which I live was as much his home as it +was mine." They walked toward the house as he spoke, and had here +reached the plain mansion which was the house of the speaker's +ancestors, as well as General Garfield's, and passed inside, to find his +good housewife silent and tearful, and whose swollen eyes told plainer +than words the terrible sorrow they all felt. + +"Over there," said he, pointing to the brick schoolhouse in the grove of +maples, around which the happy children were playing, "is where he and I +first went to school. I have read a statement that he could not read or +write until he was nineteen. He could do both before he was nine; and +before he was twelve, so familiar was he with the Indian history of the +country, that he had named every tree in the orchard, which his father +planted before he was born, with the name of some Indian chief. One +favorite tree of his he named 'Tecumseh,' and the branches of many of +those old trees have been cut since his promotion to the presidency by +relic hunters and carried away. General Garfield was a remarkable boy, +sir, as well as man. It is not possible to tell you the fight he made +amid poverty for a place in life, and how gradually he obtained it. When +he was a boy he would rather read than work. But he became a great +student. He had to work after he was twelve years of age. In those days +we were all poor, and it took hard knocks to get on. He worked clearing +the fields yonder with his brother, and then cut cordwood and did other +farm labor to get the necessaries of life for his mother and sisters. + +"His experience upon the canal was a severe one, but perhaps useful. I +can remember the winter when he came home after the summer's service +there. He had the chills all that fall and winter, yet he would shake, +and get his lessons at home; go over to the school and recite, and thus +keep up with his class. The next spring found him weak from constant +ague. Yet he intended to return to the canal. Here came the turning +point in his life. Mr. Bates, who taught the school, pleaded with him +not to do so, and said that, if he would continue in school until the +next fall, he could get a certificate. I received my certificate about +the same time. The next year we went to the seminary at Chester, only +twelve miles distant. Here our books were furnished us, and we cooked +our own victuals. We lived upon a dollar a week each. Our diet was +strong, but very plain; mush and molasses, pork and potatoes. Saturdays +we took our axes and went into the woods and cut cordwood; during +vacations we labored in the harvest field, or taught a district school, +as we could. Yonder," said he, pointing off toward a beautiful valley, +"about two miles distant stands the school-house where Garfield first +taught school. He got twelve dollars a month and boarded around. I also +taught school in a neighboring town. You see," continued the farmer, +"that the general and myself were very close to one another from the +time either of us could lisp until he became President. He visited me +here just before election, and looked with gratification upon that pole +yonder and its flag, erected by his neighbors and kinsmen. He wandered +over the fields he himself had helped clear, and pointed out to me +trees, from the limbs of which he had shot squirrel after squirrel, and +beneath the branches of which he had played and worked in the years of +his infancy and boyhood. + +"I forgot to say that one of General Garfield's striking characteristics +while he was growing up was that, when he saw a boy in the class excel +him in anything, he never gave up until he reached the same standard, +and even went beyond it. It got to be known that no scholar could be +ahead of him. Our association as men has been almost as close as that of +boys, although not as constant. The general never forgot his neighbors +or less fortunate kinsmen, and often visited us, as we did him. + +"Just before he was inaugurated I had a conversation with him, which +impressed me more than any other talk of our lives. He said: 'Henry, I +approach the duties of the Presidency with much reluctance. I had +thought that at some future time it might be possible for me to aspire +to that position, but I had been elected to the Senate, and should have +preferred to serve the six years in that body to which my own State +people had elected me. It would have been six years of comparative rest, +for service in the Senate is much easier than in the House. I hope I may +discharge the duties of the Presidency with satisfaction. There is one +thing, however, that distresses me more than all else. All my life I +have been making friends, and I have a great many sincere ones. But from +the hour I assume the Presidency I must necessarily begin making +enemies. Any man who wants an office and does not get it, will feel +himself aggrieved.' Our conversation at this time was long and earnest, +and seemed like returning to the days when we were schoolboys together." + +Garfield was made a Mason in Magnolia Lodge, No. 20, at Columbus, Nov. +22, 1861, while he was commander at Camp Chase. His affiliation at the +time of his death was with Pentalpha Lodge, No. 23, and Columbia +Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templars, at Washington, D. C. Suitar says +that he was the eighth Mason, but the first Knight Templar, who was +ever honored with the Presidency. He was a true and courteous knight, +and was not only an earnest supporter, but a charter member of Pentalpha +Lodge. After his election to the Presidency, his commandery sought to +express their esteem for him by attending the inauguration, and, +although the Masonic law forbids any interference with or participation +in politics, the occasion was regarded by the right eminent grand +commander as sufficiently important and devoid of partisan coloring to +grant the desired permission for five platoons of sixteen knights each +to attend President Garfield. On the 19th of July, 1881, he was elected +an honorary member of Hanselmann Commandery, No. 16, at Cincinnati, and +they sent him handsomely engraved resolutions of sympathy, which were +brought to his personal notice during his sickness, to which he +appropriately replied through his private secretary. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + + Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.--George + Parsons Lathrop.--From _London Spectator_.--Oliver + Wendell Holmes.--N. Bernard Carpenter.--John Boyle + O'Reilly.--Joaquin Miller. M. J. Savage.--Julia Ward + Howe.--Rose Terry Cooke.--Prize Ode.--Kate Tannett Woods. + + +To the tributes we have already given, we add a few of the many fine +poems published in memory of the martyred President. + + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD. + +BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. + +"_E venni dal martirio a questa pace._" + + These words the poet heard in Paradise, + Uttered by one who, bravely dying here, + In the true faith, was living in that sphere, + Where the Celestial Cross of sacrifice + Spread its protecting arms athwart the skies; + And, set thereon, like jewels crystal clear, + The souls magnanimous, that knew not fear, + Flashed their effulgence on his dazzled eyes. + Ah, me! how dark the discipline of pain, + Were not the suffering followed by the sense + Of infinite rest and infinite release! + This is our consolation; and again + A great soul cries to us in our suspense: + "I come from martyrdom unto this peace!" + + CAMBRIDGE, MASS, Sept 26, 1881. + + _The Independent._ + + +GARFIELD, PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE. + +(Died Sept. 19, 1881.) + + What is this silence, that calls? + What is this deafness that hears? + The silence is Death. Like a voice it falls; + It rings in the heedless ears + + That never shall hearken again + To the words of our blame or praise, + Nor the low-hushed moan of a nation's pain + As it rolls through the darkened days! + + And the motionless body must yield + To the spell of that hushed command. + Oh, that one of us, dying, had been the shield + To save that life for our land! + + Man that was trusted of men-- + Brave, and not fearing to die + More than to face life's meanness, when + It clamored its partisan lie! + + Though you leave us, we lose you not! + In the Republic you live + Sacred, and part of its deathless lot, + For whose life your life you give. + + Garfield--the name so plain, + The name we knew so well!-- + The name we shall never forget again, + Of the man who for honesty fell! + + Like another Winkelried, + You drew to yourselves the spears + Of tyrannous hate, though yourself must bleed; + And left us--our pride and our tears. + + Legacy meet and rare, + Of one who dared to be pure! + In the hearts of the people who love what is fair, + That precious renown shall endure. + + O sorrow that falls like a stone + In the midst of the calm of our peace, + As the waves of pity around you have grown, + So may our truth increase! + + GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. + + IN ENGLAND, Sept. 20, 1881. + + _New York Tribune._ + + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD. + + The hush of the sick-room; the muffled tread; + Fond, questioning eye; mute lip, and listening ear; + Where wife and children watch 'twixt hope and fear, + A father's, husband's living-dying bed!-- + The hush of a great nation, when its head + Lies stricken! Lo! along the streets he's borne, + Pale, through rank'd crowds, this gray September morn, + 'Mid straining eyes, sad brows unbonneted, + And reverent speechlessness!--a "people's voice!" + Nay but a peoples silence! through the soul + Of the wide world its subtler echoes roll, + O brother nation England for her part + Is with thee: God willing she whose heart + Throbbed with thy pain shall with thy joy rejoice. + + SEPT. 6, 1881. + + _London Spectator._ + + +AFTER THE BURIAL. + +BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + + Fallen with autumns falling leaf, + Ere yet his summers noon was past, + Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief,-- + What words can match a woe so vast? + + And whose the chartered claim to speak + The sacred grief where all have part, + When sorrow saddens every cheek, + And broods in every aching heart? + + Yet nature prompts the burning phrase + That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall, + The loud lament, the sorrowing praise, + The silent tear that love lets fall. + + In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme, + Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir,-- + The singers of the new born time, + And trembling age with outworn lyre. + + No room for pride, no place for blame-- + We fling our blossoms on the grave, + Pale, scentless, faded,--all we claim, + This only,--what we had we gave. + + Ah, could the grief of all who mourn + Blend in one voice its bitter cry, + The wail to heaven's high arches borne + Would echo through the caverned sky. + + + II. + + O happiest land whose peaceful choice + Fills with a breath its empty throne! + God, speaking through thy people's voice, + Has made that voice for once his own. + + No angry passion shakes the State + Whose weary servant seeks for rest,-- + And who could fear that scowling hate + Would strike at that unguarded breast? + + He stands, unconscious of his doom, + In manly strength, erect, serene,-- + Around him summer spreads her bloom: + He falls,--what horror clothes the scene! + + How swift the sudden flash of woe + Where all was bright as childhood's dream! + As if from heaven's ethereal bow + Had leaped the lightning's arrowy gleam. + + Blot the foul deed from history's page,-- + Let not the all-betraying sun + Blush for the day that stains an age + When murder's blackest wreath was won. + + + III. + + Pale on his couch the sufferer lies, + The weary battle-ground of pain; + Love tends his pillow, science tries + Her every art, alas! in vain. + + The strife endures how long! how long! + Life, death, seem balanced in the scale; + While round his bed a viewless throng + Awaits each morrow's changing tale. + + In realms the desert ocean parts, + What myriads watch with tear filled eyes, + His pulse beats echoing in their hearts, + His breathings counted with their sighs! + + Slowly the stories of life are spent, + Yet hope still battles with despair,-- + Will heaven not yield when knees are bent? + Answer, O Thou that hearest prayer! + + But silent is the brazen sky,-- + On sweeps the meteor's threatening train,-- + Unswerving Nature's mute reply + Bound in her adamantine chain. + + Not ours the verdict to decide + Whom death shall claim or skill shall save: + The hero's life though Heaven denied, + It gave our land a martyr's grave. + + Nor count the teaching vainly sent + How human hearts their griefs may share,-- + The lesson woman's love has lent + What hope may do, what faith can bear! + + Farewell! the leaf-strewn earth enfolds + Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears, + And autumn's golden sun beholds + A nation bowed, a world in tears. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +SONNET--JAMES A. GARFIELD. + +BY REV. H. BERNARD CARPENTER + + Lo! as a pure white statue wrought with care + By some strong hand, which moulds from Life and Death + Beauty more beautiful than blood or breath, + And straight 'tis veiled, and, whilst all men repair + To see this wonder in the workshops there! + Behold it gleams unveiled to curious eye + Far-seen, high-placed in Art's pale gallery, + Where all stand mute before a work so fair: + So he, our man of men, in vision stands, + With Pain and Patience crowned imperial, + Death's veil has dropped, far from this house of woe + He hears one love chant out of many lands, + Whilst from his mystic noon-height he lets fall + His shadow o'er these hearts that bleed below. + + SEPT. 26, 1881. + + _The Independent._ + + +MIDNIGHT. + +SEPTEMBER 19, 1881. + +BY JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. + + Once in a lifetime we may see the veil + Tremble and lift, that hides symbolic things: + The spirit's vision, when the senses fail, + Sweeps the weird meaning that the outlook brings. + + Deep in the midst of turmoil it may be,-- + A crowded street, a forum, or a field,-- + The soul inverts the telescope, to see + To-day's event in future years revealed. + + Back from the present, let us look at Rome; + Now see what Cato meant, what Brutus said. + Hark! the Athenians welcome Cimon home! + How clear they are, those glimpses of the dead! + + But we hard toilers, we who plan and weave + Through common days the web of common life, + What word, alas! shall teach us to receive + The mystic meaning of our peace and strife? + + Whence comes our symbol? Surely God must speak; + No less than he can make us heed or pause: + Self-seekers we, too busy or too weak + To search beyond our daily lives and laws. + + 'Gainst things occult our earth-turned eyes rebel; + No sound of destiny can reach our ears; + We have no time for dreaming--Hark! a knell,-- + A knell at midnight! All the nation hears! + + A second grievous throb! The dreamers wake; + The merchant's soul forgets his goods and ships; + The humble workmen from their slumbers break; + The women raise their eyes with quivering lips; + + The miner rests upon his pick to hear; + The printer's type stops midway from the case; + The solemn sound has reached the roisterer's ear, + And brought the shame and sorrow to his face. + + Again it booms! Oh, mystic veil, upraise!-- + Behold, 'tis lifted! On the darkness drawn, + A picture, lined with light! The people's gaze, + From sea to sea, beholds it till the dawn: + + A death-bed scene--a sinking sufferer lies, + Their chosen ruler, crowned with love and pride; + Around, his counsellors, with streaming eyes; + His wife, heart-broken, kneeling by his side: + + Death's shadow holds her, it will pass too soon; + She weeps in silence--bitterest of tears; + He wanders softly--Nature's kindest boon, + And as he whispers all the country hears. + + For him the pain is past, the struggle ends: + His cares and honors fade: his younger life + In peaceful Mentor comes, with dear old friends; + His mother's arms take home his sweet young wife; + + He stands among the students, tall and strong, + And teaches truths republican and grand: + He moves--ah, pitiful!--he sweeps along, + O'er fields of carnage leading his command! + + He speaks to crowded faces; round him surge + Thousands and millions of excited men: + He hears them cheer, sees some great light emerge, + Is borne as on a tempest: then--ah, then! + + The fancies fade, the fever's work is past; + A moment's pang--then recollections thrill: + He feels the faithful lips that kiss their last, + His heart beats once in answer, and is still! + + The curtain falls; but hushed, as if afraid, + The people wait, tear-stained, with heaving breast; + 'Twill rise again, they know, when he is laid + With Freedom, in the Capitol, at rest. + + Once more they see him, in his coffin there, + As Lincoln lay in blood-stained martyr sleep; + The stars and stripes across his honored bier, + While Freedom and Columbia o'er him weep. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +REJOICE. + +BY JOAQUIN MILLER. + +"_Bear me out of the battle, for lo! I am sorely wounded._" + + + I. + + From out my deep, wide-bosomed West, + Where unnamed heroes hew the way + For worlds to follow, with stern zest,-- + Where gnarled old maples make array, + Deep-scarred from red men gone to rest,-- + Where pipes the quail, where squirrels play + Through tossing trees, with nuts for toy,-- + A boy steps forth, clear-eyed and tall, + A bashful boy, a soulful boy, + Yet comely as the sons of Saul,-- + A boy, all friendless, poor, unknown, + Yet heir-apparent to a throne. + + + II. + + Lo! Freedom's bleeding sacrifice! + So like some tall oak tempest-blown + Beside the storied stream he lies + Now at the last, pale-browed and prone. + A nation kneels with streaming eyes, + A nation supplicates the throne, + A nation holds him by the hand, + A nation sobs aloud at this: + The only dry eyes in the land + Now at the last, I think, are his. + Why, we should pray, God knoweth best, + That this grand, patient soul should rest. + + + III. + + The world is round. The wheel has run + Full circle. Now behold a grave + Beneath the old loved trees is done. + The druid oaks lift up, and wave + A solemn welcome back. The brave + Old maples murmur, every one, + "Receive him, Earth!" In centre land, + As in the centre of each heart, + As in the hollow of God's hand, + The coffin sinks. And with it part + All party hates! Now, not in vain + He bore his peril and hard pain. + + + IV. + + Therefore, I say, rejoice! I say, + The lesson of his life was much,-- + This boy that won, as in a day, + The world's heart utterly; a touch + Of tenderness and tears; the page + Of history grows rich from such; + His name the nation's heritage,-- + But oh! as some sweet angel's voice + Spake this brave death that touched us all, + Therefore, I say, Rejoice! rejoice! + Run high the flags! Put by the pall! + Lo! all is for the best for all! + + _Boston Globe._ + + +J. A. G. + +HUMANITAS REGNANS. + +BY M. J. SAVAGE. + + With finger on lip, and breath bated + With an eager and sad desire, + The world stood hushed, as it waited + For the click of the fateful wire,-- + + "_Better_:" and civilization + Breathed freer and hoped again; + "_Worse_:" and through every nation + Went throbbing a thrill of pain. + + A cry at midnight! and listening-- + "_Dead!_" tolled out the bells of despair; + And millions of eyelids were glistening + As sobbed the sad tones on the air. + + But who is he toward whom all eyes are turning. + And who is he for whom all hearts are yearning? + + What is the threat at which earth holds its breath + While one lone man a duel fights with death? + + No thrones are hanging in suspense; + No kingdoms totter to their fall. + Peace, with her gentle influence, + Is hovering over all. + + 'Tis just one man at Elberon, + Who waiteth day by day, + Whose patience all our hearts hath won + As ebbs his life away. + + His birthday waked no cannon-boom; + No purple round him hung; + A backwoods cabin gave him room; + And storms his welcome sung. + + He seized the sceptre of that king + Who treads a freehold sod; + He wore upon his brow that ring + That crowns a son of God. + + By his own might he built a throne, + With no unhuman arts, + And by his manhood reigned alone + O'er fifty millions hearts. + + Thus is humanity's long dream, + Its highest, holiest hope begun + To harden into fact, and gleam + A city 'neath the sun-- + + A city, not like that which came + In old-time vision from the skies; + But wrought by man through blood and flame, + From solid earth to rise,-- + + Man's city; the ideal reign + Where every human right hath place; + Where blood, nor birth, nor priest again + Shall bind the weary race,-- + + _In which no king but man shall be_. + 'Twas this that thrilled with loving pain + The heart of all the earth, as he + Died by the sobbing main. + + For, mightiest ruler of the earth, + He was the mightiest, not because + Of priestly touch or blood, or birth. + But by a people's laws. + + * * * * * + + O Garfield! brave and patient soul! + Long as the tireless tides shall roll + About the _Long Branch_ beaches, where + Thy life went out upon the air, + So long thy land, from sea to sea, + Will hold thy manhood's legacy. + + There _were_ two parties: there were those, + In thine own party, called thy foes; + There _was_ a North; there _was_ a South, + Ere blazed the assassin's pistol-mouth. + + But lo! thy bed became a throne: + And as the hours went by, at length + The weakness of thine arm alone + Grew mightier than thy strongest strength. + + No petulant murmur; no vexed cry + Of balked ambitions; but a high, + Grand patience! And thy whisper blent + In one heart all the continent. + To-day there are no factions left, + But _one America_ bereft. + + * * * * * + + O Garfield! fortunate in death wast thou, + Though at the opening of a grand career! + Thou wast a meteor flashing on the brow + Of skies political, where oft appear, + + And disappear, so many stars of promise. Then, + While all men watched thy high course, wondering + If them wouldst upward sweep, or fell again, + Thee from thine orbit mad hands thought to fling; + + And lo! the meteor, with its fitful light, + All on a sudden stood, and was a star,-- + A radiance fixed, to glorify the night + There where the world's proud constellations are. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +J. A. G. + +BY JULIA WARD HOWE. + + Our sorrow sends its shadow round the earth. + So brave, so true! A hero from his birth! + The plumes of Empire moult, in mourning draped, + The lightning's message by our tears is shaped. + + Life's vanities that blossom for an hour + Heap on his funeral car their fleeting flower. + Commerce forsakes her temples, blind and dim, + And pours her tardy gold, to homage him. + + The notes of grief to age familiar grow + Before the sad privations all must know; + But the majestic cadence which we hear + To-day, is new in either hemisphere. + + What crown is this, high hung and hard to reach, + Whose glory so outshines our laboring speech? + The crown of Honor, pure and unbetrayed; + He wins the spurs who bears the knightly aid. + + While royal babes incipient empire hold, + And, for bare promise, grasp the sceptre's gold, + This man such service to his age did bring + That they who knew him servant hailed him king. + + In poverty his infant couch was spread; + His tender hands soon wrought for daily bread; + But from the cradle's bound his willing feet + The errand of the moment went to meet. + + When learning's page unfolded to his view, + The quick disciple straight a teacher grew; + And, when the fight of freedom stirred the land, + Armed was his heart and resolute his hand. + + Wise in the council, stalwart in the field! + Such rank supreme a workman's hut may yield. + His onward steps like measured marbles show, + Climbing the height where God's great flame doth glow. + + Ah! Rose of joy, that hid'st a thorn so sharp! + Ah! Golden woof, that meet'st a severed warp! + Ah! Solemn comfort, that the stars rain down! + The hero's garland his, the martyr's crown! + +NEWPORT, Sept. 25, 1881. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +HOME AT LAST. + +BY ROSE TERRY COOK. + + So long he prayed to come, + Lingered so long away; + Now, with the muffled beat of drum + And solemn dirges, at last he hath come, + Come home to stay. + + Yes, he has come to stay! + The homesick heart is still, + The hurried pulse and the aching breast + Now in the lap of home shall rest; + He has his will. + + No more of heat or chill, + No frost or evil blight, + The work of living a life is done, + The long fight over, the victory won, + He sleeps to-night. + + Silent is home's delight, + Peaceful its tranquil cheer; + Here is the cool, unbroken calm, + The soft wind's breath and the fir-tree's balm, + All, all are here. + + He and the dying year + Lie in their slumber deep. + Safe in the heart of home at last, + Anxious slumber nor grievous past + Shall stir his sleep. + + Woe for us to keep, + For him a joy to last! + Woe for the land in years to come, + Wail, O trumpet! and mutter, drum! + The dead comes home at last! + +WINSTED, CONN. + + _The Independent._ + + +AN ODE ON THE ASSASSINATION. + +[A prize offered by a London weekly for the best poem on the attempted +assassination of President Garfield was awarded to the author of the +following.] + + Veil now, O Liberty! thy blushing face, + At the fell deed that thrills a startled world; + While fair Columbia weeps in dire disgrace, + And bows in sorrow o'er the banner furled. + + No graceless tyrant falls by vengeance here, + 'Neath the wild justice of a secret knife; + No red Ambition ends its grim career, + And expiates its horrors with its life. + + Not here does rash Revenge misguided burn, + To free a nation with the assassin's dart; + Or roused Despair in angry madness turn, + And tear its freedom from a despot's heart. + + But where blest Liberty so widely reigns, + And Peace and Plenty mark a smiling land, + Here the mad wretch its fair white record stains, + And blurs its beauties with a "bloody hand." + + Here the elect of millions, and the pride + Of those who own his mild and peaceful rule,-- + Here virtue sinks and yields the crimson tide, + Beneath the vile unreason of a fool! + + +FATHERLESS. + +BY KATE TANNATT WOODS. + + Over the land the tidings sped, + "The leader has fallen, our chief is dead." + And over the land a cry of pain + Began and ended with Garfield's name. + + "He is dead," said each, with tearful eye: + "So strong, so true, why must he die?" + And the children paused that autumn day + To talk of the good man passed away. + + Over the land when the tidings came, + Even the babies lisped his name; + And youthful eyes grew sad that day + For the fatherless children far away. + + Fatherless,--word with a life of pain; + Fatherless,--never complete again; + Always to miss, and never to know, + The joy of his greeting,--his love below. + + Missing the cheerful smile each day, + Missing his care in studies or play, + Missing each hour, each day, each year, + The sound of a voice so tender and dear. + + Fatherless! only the children can tell + The sound of that dreary funeral knell; + For only they, in all coming years, + Find the roses of youth bedewed with tears. + + Over the land from shore to shore, + The prayer of the children is echoed o'er,-- + "God of the fatherless, help we pray, + The wards of our mourning nation to-day." + + _Boston Globe._ + +SALEM, Sept. 24, 1881. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + + Currency.--Lincoln.--Forms of Government.--The + Draft.--Slavery.--Human Progress.--Independence.-- + Republicanism and Democracy.--The Rebellion.--Protection + and Free Trade.--Radicalism.--Education.--Reconstruction.-- + William H. Seward.--Fourteenth Amendment.--Classical + Studies.--History.--Law.--Liberty.--Statistical + Science.--Poverty.--Growth.--Ethics.--The Salary + Clause.--The Railway Problem.--Church and State.-- + Courage.--Art.--Literature.--Character.--Public + Opinion.--The Revenue.--Statesmanship.--Science.-- + Truth.--Elements of Success.--Suffrage.--Gustave + Schleicher.--Appeal to Young Men.--The Union.--Inaugural. + +[Speech on the Currency.--46th Congress.] + + +No man can doubt that within recent years, and notably within recent +months, the leading thinkers of the civilized world have become alarmed +at the attitude of the two precious metals in relation to each other; +and many leading thinkers are becoming clearly of the opinion that, by +some wise, judicious arrangement, both the precious metals must be kept +in service for the currency of the world. And this opinion has been very +rapidly gaining ground within the past six months to such an extent, +that England, which for more than half a century has stoutly adhered to +the single gold standard, is now seriously meditating how she may +harness both these metals to the monetary car of the world. And yet +outside of this capital, I do not this day know of a single great and +recognized advocate of bi-metallic money who regards it prudent or safe +for any nation largely to increase the coinage standard of silver at the +present time beyond the limits fixed by existing laws.... Yet we, who +during the past two years have coined far more silver dollars than we +ever before coined since the foundation of the Government; ten times as +many as we coined during half a century of our national life; are to-day +ignoring and defying the enlightened universal opinion of bi-metallism, +and saying that the United States, single-handed and alone, can enter +the field and settle the mighty issue. We are justifying the old proverb +that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread." It is sheer madness, +Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a great stack of hay that had been +floated out into the wild overflowed stream of a river, with its +stack-pen and foundation still holding together, but ready to be +wrecked. For a little while the animal appeared to be perfectly happy. +His hay-stack was there, and the pen around it, and he seemed to think +the world bright and his happiness secure, while the sunshine fell +softly on his head and hay. But by and by he began to discover that the +house and the barn, and their surroundings were not all there, as they +were when he went to sleep the night before; and he began to see that he +could not command all the prospect, and peacefully dominate the scene as +he had done before. + +So with this House. We assume to manage this mighty question which has +been launched on the wild current that sweeps over the whole world, and +we bark from our legislative hay-stacks as though we commanded the whole +world. In the name of common sense and sanity, let us take some account +of the flood; let us understand that a deluge means something, and try +if we can to get our bearings before we undertake to settle the affairs +of all mankind by a vote of this House. To-day we are coining one-third +of all the silver that is being coined in the round world. China is +coining another third; and all other nations are using the remaining +one-third for subsidiary coin. And if we want to take rank with China, +and part company with all of the civilized nations of the Western world, +let us pass this bill, and then "bay the moon" as we float down the +whirling channel to take our place among the silver mono-metallists of +Asia. + + +[Letter to B. A. Kimball.] + + COLUMBUS, OHIO, February 16, 1861. + +Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every +point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and +republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair +of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no +appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am +greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the +marks of western life; but there is no touch of affectation in him, and +he has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, direct, and +thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style +of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give me great +hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's +weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and +vigorous leader. + + +[To the Same.] + +A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, because its +sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful +enough, will crush it. + +As an abstract theory, the doctrine of Free Trade seems to be +universally true, but as a question of practicability, under a +government like ours, the protective system seems to be indispensable. + + +[Speech on a Draft Bill, June 21, 1864.] + +It has never been my policy to conceal a truth _merely_ because it is +unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is +neither well nor wise to let danger approach unchallenged and +unannounced. A brave nation, like a brave man, desires to see and +measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American +people to know the necessities of the Republic when they are called upon +to make sacrifices for it. It is this lack of confidence in ourselves +and the people, this timid waiting for events to control us when they +should obey us, that makes men oscillate between hope and fear; now in +the sunshine of the hill-tops, and now in the gloom and shadows of the +valley. To such men the bulletin which heralds success in the army gives +exultation and high hope; the evening dispatch, announcing some slight +disaster to our advancing columns, brings gloom and depression. Hope +rises and falls by the accidents of war, as the mercury of the +thermometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather +take for our symbol the sailor's barometer, which faithfully forewarns +him of the tempest, and gives him unerring promise of serene skies and +peaceful seas. + + +[Speech in New York City, 1865, on the Assassination of President +Lincoln.] + +By this last act of madness, it seems as though the Rebellion had +determined that the President of the soldiers should go with the +soldiers who have laid down their lives on the battle-field. They slew +the noblest and gentlest heart that ever put down a rebellion upon this +earth. In taking that life they have left "the iron" hand of the people +to fall upon them. Love is on the front of the throne of God, but +justice and judgment, with inexorable dread, follow behind; and where +law is slighted and mercy despised, when they have rejected those who +would be their best friends, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eye, +and with the sword and scales. From every gaping wound of your dead +chief, let the voice go up for the people to see to it that our house is +swept and garnished. I hasten to say one thing more. For mere vengeance +I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. +But for security of the future I would do everything. + + +[Speech in Congress on the Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery, +January 13, 1865] + +On the 21st day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by +the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still +resides, and for its preservation our armies are to-day in the field. In +all these stages of development, from colonial dependence to full-orbed +nationality, the people, not the States, have been omnipotent. _They_ +have abolished, established, altered, and amended, as suited their +sovereign pleasure. _They_ made the Constitution. That great charter +tells its own story best: + + "We, _the people_ of the United States, in order to form a + more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic + tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the + general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to + ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this + Constitution for the United States of America." + + * * * * * + +That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest and the greatest +utterance of American sovereignty. The hour is now at hand when that +majestic sovereign, for the benignant purpose of securing still farther +the 'blessings of liberty,' is about to put forth another oracle; is +about to declare that universal freedom shall be the supreme law of the +land. Show me the power that is authorized to forbid it.... They made +the Constitution what it is. They could have made it otherwise then: +they can make it otherwise now. + + * * * * * + +In the very crisis of our fate, God brought us face to face with the +alarming truth, that we must lose our own freedom, or grant it to the +slave. In the extremity of our distress, we called upon the black man to +help us save the Republic, and amidst the very thunder of battle we made +a covenant with him, sealed both with his blood and ours, and witnessed +by Jehovah, that when the nation was redeemed, he should be free, and +share with us the glories and blessings of freedom. In the solemn words +of the great proclamation of emancipation, we not only declared the +slaves forever free, but we pledged the faith of the nation "to maintain +their freedom"--mark the words, "_to maintain their freedom_." The +Omniscient witness will appear in judgment against us if we do not +fulfil that covenant. Have we done it? Have we given freedom to the +black man? What is freedom? Is it a mere negation? the bare privilege of +not being chained, bought, and sold, branded, and scourged? If this be +all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion, and it may well +be questioned whether slavery were not better. + +But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality. It +is the realization of those imperishable truths of the Declaration, +"that all men are created equal," that the sanction of all just +government is "the consent of the governed." Can these truths be +realized until each man has a right to be heard on all matters relating +to himself? + +Mr. Speaker, we did more than merely to break off the chains of the +slaves. The abolition of slavery added four million citizens to the +Republic. By the decision of the Supreme Court, by the decision of the +attorney-general, by the decision of all the departments of our +government, those men made free are, by the act of freedom, made +citizens. + + * * * * * + +If they are to be disfranchised, if they are to have no voice in +determining the conditions under which they are to live and labor, what +hope have they for the future? It will rest with their late masters, +whose treason they aided to thwart, to determine whether negroes shall +be permitted to hold property, to enjoy the benefits of education, to +enforce contracts, to have access to the courts of justice--in short, to +enjoy any of those rights which give vitality and value to freedom. Who +can fail to foresee the ruin and misery that await this race to whom the +vision of freedom has been presented only to be withdrawn, leaving them +without even the aid which the master's selfish, commercial interest in +their life and service formerly afforded them? Will these negroes, +remembering the battle-fields on which nearly two hundred thousand of +their number have so bravely fought, and many thousands have heroically +died, submit to oppression as tamely and peaceably as in the days of +slavery? Under such conditions there could be no peace, no security, no +prosperity. The spirit of slavery is still among us; it must be utterly +destroyed before we shall be safe. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Speaker, I know of nothing more dangerous to a Republic than to put +into its very midst four million people, stripped of every attribute of +citizenship, robbed of the right of representation, but bound to pay +taxes to the government. If they can endure it, we can not. The murderer +is to be pitied more than the murdered man; the robber more than the +robbed. And we who defraud four million citizens of their rights are +injuring ourselves vastly more than we are injuring the black man whom +we rob. + + * * * * * + +Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the golden +thread of human progress toward a higher and better estate. + + * * * * * + +The life and light of a nation are inseparable. + + * * * * * + +We confront the dangers of suffrage by the blessings of universal +education. + + * * * * * + +We should do nothing inconsistent with the spirit and genius of our +institutions. We should do nothing for revenge, but everything for +security: nothing for the past; everything for the present and future. + + * * * * * + +There are two classes of forces whose action and reaction determine the +condition of a nation--the forces of Repression and Expression. The one +acts from without; limits, curbs, restrains. The other acts from within; +expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional forms, statutory limitations, +conservative customs, belong to the first. The free play of individual +life, opinion, and action, belong to the second. If these forces be +happily balanced, if there be a wise conservation and correlation of +both, a nation may enjoy the double blessing of progress and permanence. + + * * * * * + +It matters little what may be the forms of National institutions, if the +life, freedom, and growth of society are secured. + + * * * * * + +There is no horizontal stratification of society in this country like +the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and +let another come to the surface to stay there forever. Our +stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free +to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop +may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls. + + * * * * * + +The Union and the Congress must share the same fate. They must rise or +fall together. + + * * * * * + +Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political +parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real +political issues of the day declare themselves and come out of the depth +of that deep which we call public opinion. The nation has a life of its +own as distinctly defined as the life of an individual. The signs of its +growth and the periods of its development make issues declare +themselves; and the man or the political party that does not discover +this, has not learned the character of the nation's life. + + +[Reply to Mr. Lamar, in a Committee of the Whole.] + +Mr. Chairman, great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as +the gods, whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence was a +war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two hundred years of slow and +silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as +self-evident truths the declaration that all men are created equal, and +the only just power of governments is derived from the consent of the +governed, they uttered a doctrine that no nation had ever adopted, that +not one kingdom on the earth then believed. Yet to our fathers it was so +plain that they would not debate it. They announced it as a truth +"self-evident." + +Whence came the immortal truths of the Declaration? To me this was for +years the riddle of our history. I have searched long and patiently +through the books of the _doctrinaires_ to find the germs from which the +Declaration of Independence sprang. I find hints in Locke, in Hobbes, in +Rousseau, and Fénelon; but they were only the hints of dreamers and +philosophers. The great doctrines of the Declaration germinated in the +hearts of our fathers, and were developed under the new influences of +this wilderness world, by the same subtile mystery which brings forth +the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to themselves, +the great truths were growing under the new conditions, until, like the +century-plant, they blossomed into the matchless beauty of the +Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, +we enjoy to-day. + + * * * * * + +It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak of the gigantic revolution +through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and +settled by a change of administration. It was cyclical, epochal, +century-wide, and to be studied in its broad and grand perspective--a +revolution of even wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the +Revolution of 1776. We have been dealing with elements and forces which +have been at work on this continent more than two hundred and fifty +years. I trust I shall be excused if I take a few moments to trace some +of the leading phases of the great struggle. And in doing so, I beg +gentlemen to see that the subject itself lifts us into a region where +the individual sinks out of sight and is absorbed in the mighty current +of great events. It is not the occasion to award praise or pronounce +condemnation. In such a revolution men are like insects that fret and +toss in the storm, but are swept onward by the resistless movements of +elements beyond their control. I speak of this revolution not to praise +the men who aided it, or to censure the men who resisted it, but as a +force to be studied, as a mandate to be obeyed. + +In the year 1620 there were planted upon this continent two ideas +irreconcilably hostile to each other. Ideas are the great warriors of +the world; and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. +The two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock, from the _Mayflower_, +and the other from a Dutch brig at Jamestown, Virginia. One was the old +doctrine of Luther, that private judgment, in politics as well as +religion, is the right and duty of every man; and the other, that +capital should own labor, that the negro had no rights of manhood, and +the white man might justly buy, own, and sell him and his offspring +forever. Thus freedom and equality on the one hand, and on the other the +slavery of one race and the domination of another, were the two germs +planted on this continent. In our vast expanse of wilderness, for a long +time, there was room for both; and their advocates began the race across +the continent, each developing the social and political institutions of +their choice. Both had vast interests in common; and for a long time +neither was conscious of the fatal antagonisms that were developing. + +For nearly two centuries there was no serious collision; but when the +continent began to fill up, and the people began to jostle against each +other; when the Roundhead and the Cavalier came near enough to measure +opinions, the irreconcilable character of the two doctrines began to +appear. Many conscientious men studied the subject, and came to the +belief that slavery was a crime, a sin, or, as Wesley said, 'the sum of +all villanies.' This belief dwelt in small minorities for a long time. +It lived in the churches and vestries, but later found its way into the +civil and political organizations of the country, and finally found its +way into this chamber. A few brave, clear-sighted, far-seeing men +announced it here, a little more than a generation ago. A predecessor of +mine, Joshua R. Giddings, following the lead of John Quincy Adams, of +Massachusetts, almost alone held up the banner on this floor, and from +year to year comrades came to his side. Through evil and through good +report he pressed the question upon the conscience of the nation, and +bravely stood in his place in this House, until his white locks, like +the plume of Henry of Navarre, showed where the battle of freedom raged +most fiercely. + +And so the contest continued; the supporters of slavery believing +honestly and sincerely that slavery was a divine institution; that it +found its high sanctions in the living oracles of God and in a wise +political philosophy; that it was justified by the necessities of their +situation; and that slave-holders were missionaries to the dark sons of +Africa, to elevate and bless them. We are so far past the passions of +that early time that we can now study the progress of the struggle as a +great and inevitable development, without sharing in the crimination and +recrimination that attended it. If both sides could have seen that it +was a contest beyond their control; if both parties could have realized +the truth that "unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of +nations," much less for the fate of political parties, the bitterness, +the sorrow, the tears, and the blood might have been avoided. But we +walked in the darkness, our paths obscured by the smoke of the conflict, +each following his own convictions through ever-increasing fierceness, +until the debate culminated in "the last argument to which kings +resort." + +This conflict of opinion was not merely one of sentimental feeling; it +involved our whole political system; it gave rise to two radically +different theories of the nature of our government; the North believing +and holding that we were a nation, the South insisting that we were only +a confederation of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had +the right, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and constantly +threatening secession where the full rights of slavery were not +acknowledged. + +Thus the defence and aggrandizement of slavery, and the hatred of +abolitionism, became not only the central idea of the Democratic party, +but its master passion,--a passion intensified and inflamed by +twenty-five years of fierce political contest, which had not only driven +from its ranks all those who preferred freedom to slavery, but had +absorbed all the extreme pro-slavery elements of the fallen Whig party. +Over against this was arrayed the Republican party, asserting the broad +doctrines of nationality and loyalty, insisting that no State had a +right to secede, that secession was treason, and demanding that the +institution of slavery should be restricted to the limits of the States +where it already existed. But here and there many bolder and more +radical thinkers declared, with Wendell Phillips, that there never could +be union and peace, freedom and prosperity, until we were willing to see +John Hancock under a black skin. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender its truncheon of +command to the Democracy? The gentleman from Mississippi says, if this +were England, the ministry would go out in twenty-four hours with such a +state of things as we have here. Ah, yes! that is an ordinary case of +change of administration. But if this were England, what would she have +done at the end of the war? England made one such mistake as the +gentleman asks this country to make, when she threw away the +achievements of the grandest man that ever trod her highway of power. +Oliver Cromwell had overturned the throne of despotic power, and had +lifted his country to a place of masterful greatness among the nations +of the earth; and when, after his death, his great sceptre was +transferred to a weak though not unlineal hand, his country, in a moment +of reactionary blindness, brought back the Stuarts. England did not +recover from that folly until, in 1689, the Prince of Orange drove from +her island the last of that weak and wicked line. Did she afterward +repeat the blunder? + + * * * * * + +I am aware that there is a general disposition "to let by-gones be +by-gones," and to judge of parties and of men, not by what they have +been, but by what they are and what they propose. + +That view is partly just and partly erroneous. It is just and wise to +bury resentments and animosities. It is erroneous in this, that parties +have an organic life and spirit of their own--an individuality and +character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of a nation. + + * * * * * + +I will close by calling your attention again to the great problem before +us. Over this vast horizon of interests North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand, onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate +its glory, to save liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles, until they +shall have crystalized into the form of enduring law, and become +inwrought into the life and the habits of our people. + +And, until these great results are accomplished, it is not safe to take +one step backward. It is still more unsafe to trust interests of such +measureless value in the hands of an organization whose members have +never comprehended their epoch, have never been in sympathy with its +great movements, who have resisted every step of its progress, and whose +principal function has been + + "'To lie in cold obstruction' + +across the pathway of the nation. + +"No, no, gentlemen, our enlightened and patriotic people will not follow +such leaders in the rearward march. Their myriad faces are turned the +other way; and along their serried lines still rings the cheering cry, +'Forward! till our great work is fully and worthily accomplished.'" + + +[From a Speech in Congress, 1866.] + +Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with +the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection.... I am for a +protection that leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade +which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection. + + +[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale.] + + WASHINGTON, January 1, 1867. + +I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I +have been for a long time.... Really there seems to be a fear on the +part of many of our friends that they may do some absurdly extravagant +thing to prove their radicalism. I am trying to do two things: dare to +be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibitions +around me, is a matter of no small difficulty.... My own course is +chosen, and it is quite probable it will throw me out of public life. + +We provide for the common defence by a system which promotes the general +welfare. + + +[From an Address at Hiram College, June 14, 1867.] + +It is to me a perpetual wonder how any child's love of knowledge +survives the outrages of the school-house. I, for one, declare that no +child of mine shall ever be _compelled_ to study one hour, or to learn +even the English alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at +least seven years of muscle and bone. + + +[From the Same.] + +The student should study himself, his relations to society, to nature, +and to art, and above all, in all, and through all these, he should +study the relations of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the +Author of them all. + + +[From the Same] + +It is well to know the history of those magnificent nations whose origin +is lost in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a thousand years +ago--but if we cannot know both, it is far better to study the history +of our own nation, whose origin we can trace to the freest and noblest +aspirations of the human heart--a nation that was formed from the +hardiest, purest, and most enduring elements of European civilization--a +nation that, by its faith and courage, has dared and accomplished more +for the human race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the +first thousand years of the Christian era. The New England township was +the type after which our Federal Government was modelled, yet it would +be rare to find a college student who can make a comprehensive and +intelligible statement of the municipal organization of the township in +which he was born, and tell you by what officers its legislative, +judicial, and executive functions were administered. One half of the +time which is now almost wasted, in district schools, on English +Grammar, attempted at too early an age, would be sufficient to teach our +children to love the Republic, and to become its loyal and life-long +supporters. After the bloody baptism from which the nation has arisen to +a higher and nobler life, of this shameful defect in our system of +education be not speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite +contempt of future generations. I insist that it should be made an +indispensable condition of graduation in every American college, that +the student must understand the history of this continent since its +discovery by Europeans, the origin and history of the United States, its +constitution of government, the struggles through which it has passed, +and the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine its destiny +and share its glory. + +Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary to life, health, +industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared to enter a wider and +grander field of thought. If he desires that large and liberal culture, +which will call into activity all his powers, and make the most of the +material God has given him, he must study deeply and earnestly the +intellectual, the moral, the religious, and the æsthetic nature of man; +his relations to nature, to civilization, past and present, and above +all, his relations to God. These should occupy nearly, if not fully, +half the time of his college course. In connection with the philosophy +of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathematics, and the +general laws of thought. In connection with moral philosophy, he should +study political and social ethics--a science so little known either in +colleges or congresses. Prominent among all the rest should be his +study of the wonderful history of the human race, in its slow and +toilsome march across the centuries--now buried in ignorance, +superstition and crime; now rising to the sublimity of heroism and +catching a glimpse of a better destiny; now turning remorselessly away +from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations in which it had +invested its faith, and courage, and boundless energy for a thousand +years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Britain, to +build for itself new empires, better fitted for its new aspirations; +and, at last, crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, and building +in the wilderness of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments. + + +[Speech in the House of Representatives, February 12, 1867.] + +I cannot forget that we have learned slowly.... I cannot forget that +less than five years ago I received an order from my superior officer +commanding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave, and if found, to +deliver him up to a Kentucky captain who claimed him as his property; +and _I had the honor to be perhaps the first officer in the army who +peremptorily refused to obey such an order_. We were then trying to save +the Union without hurting slavery.... It took us two years to reach a +point where we were willing to do the most meagre justice to the black +man, and to recognize the truth that + + "A man's a man for a' that!" + +Sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work, leading us by +degrees out of the blindness of our prejudices, to see that the fortunes +of the Republic and the safety of the party of liberty are inseparably +bound up with the rights of the black man. At last our party must see +that if it would preserve its political life, or maintain the safety of +the Republic, we must do justice to the humblest man in the Nation, +whether black or white. I thank God that to-day we have struck the rock; +we have planted our feet upon solid earth. Streams of light will gleam +out from the luminous truth embodied in the legislation of this day. +This is the _ne plus ultra_ of reconstruction, and I hope we shall have +the courage to go before our people everywhere with "This or nothing" +for our motto. + +Now, sir, as a temporary measure, I give my support to this military +bill properly restricted. It is severe. It was written with a steel pen +made out of a bayonet; and bayonets have done us good service hitherto. +All I ask is that Congress shall place civil governments before these +people of the rebel States, and a cordon of bayonets behind them. + + * * * * * + +Now, what does this bill propose? It lays the hands of the Nation upon +the rebel State governments, and takes the breath of life out of them. +It puts the bayonet at the breast of every rebel murderer in the South +to bring him to justice. It commands the army to protect the life and +property of citizens whether black or white. It places in the hands of +Congress absolutely and irrevocably the whole work of reconstruction. + +With this thunderbolt in our hands shall we stagger like idiots under +its weight? Have we grasped a weapon which we have neither the courage +nor the wisdom to wield? + + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD.[D] + +When in Europe in 1867, my attention was particularly drawn to the +significant fact that the pictures of Lincoln and Seward were the only +portraits of American statesmen that were notably prominent, and that +these were everywhere seen together. I asked a Frenchman of distinction +why Seward was held in such high estimation; and his answer most +seriously impressed me with the thought that perhaps, after all the +slanders of his detractors, Mr. Seward had builded for the future more +wisely than we knew. This gentleman said: "Mr. Seward is the American +statesman who looms up the most prominently from over the water. His +diplomacy in Mexico has placed the imprint of greatness upon his name. +Halting for a moment in the midst of the turmoil of the civil war, with +his pen he dismembered the coalition organized to place Maximilian upon +the Mexican throne, and thus placed the first mine under the throne of +the Third Bonaparte. He has undertaken what the combined powers of +Europe have not ventured to essay--to break the sceptre of the Second +Empire." The views entertained by this distinguished Frenchman seem also +to have been held in Mexico, for upon the occasion of the death of Mr. +Seward, the press of that country all made the most grateful mention of +his services in that regard. + +The enthusiasm of this Frenchman, continued General Garfield, had not +perished from my memory later when public duties called me to the State +Department. The Alaska treaty had just been signed. I found the Sage of +Auburn alone, in the thoughtful mood so common to him when meditating +upon great subjects. Our conversation fell upon himself, and I found +that he had been meditating upon his withdrawal from public life. He had +been eight years in the second highest place in this Nation. He had +almost had the Presidency within his grasp; but the displeasure of his +party had fallen upon him, and he was about to retire from the political +arena. He told me that power was sweet to him; that he clung even then +fondly to its shadow; and that he relinquished his sceptre with regret. +His exact language, in speaking of his past career was: "It is +unpleasant to yield up power." The conversation turned upon Alaska. The +Secretary fell into the dream-like attitude that was never seen except +by those who were familiar with him, and commenced to explain his theory +of the Alaska purchase in forcible, prophetic, almost pathetic words +which I never shall forget. I left the room then with grander ideas of +the man than I had ever entertained before. His conversation indicated +that he had been following a particular course of study, for he remarked +that, to his notion, the two greatest books of the century were Marsh's +"Man in Nature," and the Duke of Argyll's "Reign of Law." The +application of Argyll's theory of law as applied to political +development, Mr. Seward had evidently studied with much care. He had +been reasoning upon natural laws as they affect a nation. He had been +speculating upon the elementary forces of a nation's grandeur, and upon +the contrivance in combining them to make them operate in a direction +desired. This theory was founded upon the possibility of tracing these +forces in history, and of discovering the operation of these laws under +conditions which had actually determined the course of mankind and +nations in definite directions. The text of his theory was the history +of the world's seas. History had taught him that the grandest +achievements of man had been associated with the shores of the world's +seas. To go back no further than the beginning of the Christian era, the +most sacred, solemn story of the hopes of man had been written in +wanderings on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. With the progress of +Christian civilization, thus sea-born, the advancing tide of human +progress was staid by the banks of the Mediterranean. It was along the +borders of this sea that the Byzantine Empire flourished and was +destroyed; that Rome attained her supremacy, and fell. With the progress +of time, and the advance of civilization westward, the Atlantic took the +place of the Galilean Sea and of the Mediterranean. It is the sea of +the present. But unless the laws of political geography are false, the +contests of the future are to be around the shores of the "still sea," +now our own Pacific. The nation of the future is the nation that holds +the key of those waters. The purchase of Alaska has given our Republic a +foothold on both sides of that sea. It is a geographical impossibility +that any other nation can occupy a position in its own territory upon +both sides of the Pacific. This is the theory of the purchase. It +secures the control of the Pacific to the young Republic. It assures the +future of the world's dominion to Yankee civilization. This was the +theory. + +And his outlook, said General Garfield, with enthusiasm, was grand. In +his political horoscope, he saw the Republic enjoying a prosperity of +which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; he saw our +country rising to the place of umpire among the world's powers; he saw +how, by wise statesmanship, our material prosperity and peaceful +conquests grew together; how our increasing commerce made us mistress of +the seas; how Western civilization and Oriental decrepitude were staid +upon the borders of that Pacific sea, and compelled to render homage to +Young America, who had become the keeper of the world's keys. + +These were the grand thoughts of Mr. Seward as he was about to +relinquish the mantle of his power, and, continued General Garfield, +his views have left a lasting impression upon me. Mr. Seward could not +have died more successfully than he did. He passed away in the lull +between two elections, and received the merited eulogiums of both +parties. He bore success followed by failure better than any American I +know. He was for nearly a decade next to the source of power, and missed +the place which was the goal of his later years, retiring from public +life suffering the displeasure of his party. But he quietly retired to +private life, and never lost his genial spirit or his noble ways. + +[This report of the conversation is indorsed by General Garfield as "in +the main correct." + +J. C] + + +[Speech on the Currency Question, 1868.] + +As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what +ships are to the transportation of merchandise. If a hundred vessels, of +a given tonnage, are just sufficient to carry all the commodities +between two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will +correspondingly decrease the value of each as an instrument of commerce; +any decrease below one hundred will correspondingly increase the value +of each. If the number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual +freight, will be worth but half its former value for that trade. There +is so much work to be done, and no more. A hundred vessels can do it +all. A thousand can do no more than all. + + * * * * * + +When the money of the country is gold and silver, it adapts itself to +the fluctuations of business without the aid of legislation. If at any +time we have more than is needed, the surplus flows off to other +countries through the channels of international commerce. If less, the +deficiency is supplied through the same channels. Thus the monetary +equilibrium is maintained. So immense is the trade of the world, that +the golden streams pouring from California and Australia into the specie +circulation are soon absorbed in the great mass, and equalized +throughout the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon +the surface of all the seas. + +Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting the +specie used in payment of customs and the interest on our public debt, +we are cut off from the money currents of the world. Our currency +resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in +stagnation or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gate-keeper. + + +[A Speech on Currency and the Banks, 1870.] + +The business of the country is like the level of the ocean, from which +all measurements are made of heights and depths. Though tides and +currents may for a time disturb, and tempests vex and toss its surface, +still through calm and storm the grand level rules all its waves and +lays its measuring-lines on every shore. So the business of the country, +which, in the aggregated demands of the people for the exchange of +values, marks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of the currents of +trade, and forms the base-line from which to measure all our financial +legislation, and is the only safe rule by which the volume of our +currency can be determined. + + * * * * * + +The State bank system was a chaos of ruin, in which the business of the +country was again and again ingulfed. The people rejoice that it has +been swept away, and they will not consent to its re-establishment. In +its place we have the National-bank system, based on the bonds of the +United States, and sharing the safety and credit of the government. +Their notes are made secure, first, by a deposit of government bonds, +worth at least ten per cent. more than the whole value of the notes; +second, by a paramount lien on all the assets of the banks; third, the +personal liability of all the shareholders to an amount equal to the +capital they hold; and, fourth, the absolute guarantee by the government +to redeem them at the National Treasury if the banks fail to do so. +Instead of seven thousand different varieties of notes, as in the State +system, we have now but ten varieties, each uniform in character and +appearance. Like our flag, they bear the stamp of nationality, and are +honored in every part of the Union. + + +[From a Speech in the House, April 1, 1870.] + +As an abstract theory of political economy free-trade has many +advocates, and much can be said in its favor; nor will it be denied that +the scholarship of modern times is largely on that side; that a large +majority of the great thinkers of the present day are leading in the +direction of what is called free-trade. + +While this is true, it is equally undeniable that the principle of +protection has always been recognized and adopted in some form or +another by all nations, and is to-day, to a greater or less extent, the +policy of every civilized government.... + +Protection, in its practical meaning, is that provident care for the +industry and development of our own country which will give our own +people an equal chance in the pursuit of wealth, and save us from the +calamity of being dependent upon other nations with whom we may any day +be at war. + +In so far as the doctrine of free-trade is a protest against the old +system of oppression and prohibition, it is a healthy and worthy +sentiment. But underlying all theories, there is a strong and deep +conviction in the minds of a great majority of our people in favor of +protecting American industry.... + + +[Speech on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, April 4, 1871.] + +... Nothing more aptly describes the character of our Republic than the +solar system, launched into space by the hand of the Creator, where the +central sun is the great power around which revolve all the planets in +their appointed orbits. But while the sun holds in the grasp of its +attractive power the whole system, and imparts its light and heat to +all, yet each individual planet is under the sway of laws peculiar to +itself. + +Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all the +tenantries of the planet live and move. So, sir, the States move on in +their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central government by +this Constitution, which is their supreme law; while each State is +making laws and regulations of its own, developing its own energies, +maintaining its own industries, managing its local affairs in its own +way, subject only to the supreme but beneficent control of the Union. +When State-rights ran mad, put on the form of secession, and attempted +to drag the States out of the Union, we saw the grand lesson, taught in +all the battles of the late war, that a State could no more be hurled +from the Union, without ruin to the nation, than could a planet be +thrown from its orbit without dragging after it, to chaos and ruin, the +whole solar universe. + +In 1865 we had a debt of two billions seven hundred and seventy-two +millions of dollars upon our hands, the debt accumulated from the great +results of the war; we were compelled to pay from that debt one hundred +and fifty-one millions of dollars in coin a year as interest, and that +was a dreadful annual burden. In the year after the war ended, we paid +five hundred and ninety millions of dollars over our counter in settling +the business of the war and maintaining the ordinary expenses of the +government. These tremendous burdens it seemed for a time we could not +carry, and there were wicked men, and despairing men, and men who said +we ought not to try to carry the burdens; but the brave nation said, +This burden is the price of our country's life, all through it there is +the price of blood and the price of liberty, and, therefore, we will bow +our knees to the burden, we will carry it upon the stalwart shoulders of +the nation. + + +[Letter to Professor Demmon December 16, 1871.] + +... Since I entered public life, I have constantly aimed to find a +little time to keep alive the spirit of my classical studies, and to +resist that constant tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty +in literary studies, and particularly in the classical studies. I have +thought it better to select some one line of classical reading, and, if +possible, do a little work on it each day. For this winter I am +determined to review such parts of the Odes of Horace as I may be able +to reach. And, as preliminary to that work, I have begun by reading up +the bibliography of Horace. + +The Congressional Library is very rich in materials for this study, and +I am amazed to find how deep and universal has been the impress left on +the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writings. + + * * * * * + +The Student should study himself his relation to Society, to Nature and +to Art--and above all, in all, and through all these, he should study +the relations of Himself, Society, Nature, and Art to God the Author of +them all. + + * * * * * + +Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument of Thought ever invented by +Man, and its Literature has never been equalled in purity of style and +boldness of expression. + + * * * * * + +History is but the unrolled scroll of Prophecy. The world's history is a +divine Poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every +man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and +though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying +men, yet to the Christian, Philosopher, and Historian--the humble +listener--there has been a divine melody running through the song which +speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. + + * * * * * + +The lesson of History is rarely learned by the actors themselves. + + * * * * * + +Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material +universe, and from its inanimate existences demonstrated the Power, +Wisdom, and Goodness of God; but we know of no one who has demonstrated +the same attributes from the History of the human race. + + * * * * * + +Mankind have been slow to believe that order reigns in the universe, +that the world is a Cosmos, not a chaos. + +The assertion of the reign of Law has been stubbornly resisted at every +step. The divinities of Heathen superstition still linger in one form or +another in the faith of the ignorant, and even many intelligent men +shrink from the contemplation of one Supreme Will acting regularly, not +fatuitously, through laws beautiful and simple, rather than through a +fitful and capricious Providence. + + * * * * * + +English liberty to-day rests not so much on the government as on those +rights which the people have wrested from the government. The rights of +the Englishman outnumber the rights of the Englishman's king. + + * * * * * + +Poetry is the language of Freedom. + + * * * * * + +Liberty can be safe only when Suffrage is illuminated by education. + + +[Speech on the last Census.] + +The developments of statistics are causing history to be re-written. +Till recently the historian studied nature in the aggregate, and gave us +only the story of princes, dynasties, sieges, and battles. Of the people +themselves--the great social body, with life, growth, forces, elements, +etc.--he told us nothing. Now, statistical inquiry leads us into the +hovels, houses, workshops, mines, fields, prisons, hospitals, and all +places where human nature displays its weakness and strength. In these +explorations he discovers the seeds of national growth and decay, and +thus becomes the prophet of his generation. + +Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In +legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be understood +that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The +legislator must formulate in his statistics not only the national will +but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics. He must +study society rather than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth +that "society usually prepares the crime, and the criminal is only the +instrument that completes it," that statesmanship consists rather in +removing causes than in punishing, or evading results. + + +[Speech on National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872.] + +We look sometimes with great admiration at a government like Germany, +that can command the light of its education to shine everywhere, that +can enforce its school laws everywhere throughout the Empire. Under our +system we do not rejoice in that, but we rather rejoice that here two +forces play with all their vast power upon our system of education. The +first is that of the local municipal power under our State government. +There is the centre of responsibility. There is the chief educational +power.... + +But there is another force even greater than that of the State and the +local governments. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that +force which has built up the multitude of private schools, academies, +and colleges throughout the United States, not always wisely, but always +with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. + + * * * * * + +I am considering what is the best system of organizing the educational +work of a nation, not from the political stand-point alone, but from the +stand-point of the school-house itself. This work of public education +partakes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the human mind in its +efforts for culture. The mind must be as free from extraneous control as +possible; must work under the inspiration of its own desires for +knowledge; and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the +fullest and highest success must spring from the power of self-help. + +So the best system of education is that which draws its chief support +from the voluntary effort of the community, from the individual effort +of citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily +impose upon themselves.... Government shall be only a help to them, +rather than a commander, in the work of education. + + * * * * * + +I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong. + + * * * * * + +Present evils always seem greater than those that never come. + + * * * * * + +Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten +the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard +and compelled to sink or swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I +never knew a man to be drowned who was worth the saving. + + * * * * * + +For the noblest man that lives there still remains a conflict. + + * * * * * + +No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes +up from a thousand minds that acts upon him and makes the speech. + + * * * * * + +After the battle of Arms comes the battle of History. + + * * * * * + +There is a fellowship among the Virtues by which one great, generous +passion stimulates another. + + * * * * * + +Growth is better than Permanence, and permanent growth is better than +all. + + * * * * * + +The principles of Ethics have not changed by the lapse of years. + + * * * * * + +The possession of great power no doubt carries with it a contempt for +mere external show. + + +[From a Speech on Repealing the Salary Clause, 1873.] + +One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation [Louis +Agassiz], a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life +as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule +of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became +commercially valuable; that others would utilize what he had discovered; +that his field of work was above the line of commercial values, and when +he brought down the great truths of science from the upper heights to +the level of commercial values, a thousand hands would be ready to take +them, and make them more valuable in the markets of the world. He +entered upon his great career, not for the salary it gave him, for that +was meagre compared with the pay of those in the lower walks of life; +but he followed the promptings of his great nature, and worked for the +love of truth and the instruction of mankind. + + +[Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, 1874.] + +The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been +greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work +relating to others. + + +[Speech on the Currency and the Public Faith, April 8, 1874.] + +There never did exist on this earth a body of men wise enough to +determine by any arbitrary rule how much currency is needed for the +business of a great country. The laws of trade, the laws of credit, the +laws of God impressed upon the elements of this world, are superior to +all legislation; and we can enjoy the benefits of these immutable laws +only by obeying them. + + * * * * * + +It has been demonstrated again and again that upon the artisans, the +farmers, the day-laborers falls at last the dead weight of all the +depreciation and loss that irredeemable paper-money carries in its +train. Let this policy be carried out, and the day will surely and +speedily come when the nation will clearly trace the cause of its +disaster to those who deluded themselves and the people with what +Jefferson fitly called "legerdemain tricks of paper-money." + + +[Speech on the Railway Problem, June 22, 1874.] + +We are so involved in the events and movements of society that we do not +stop to realize--what is undeniably true--that during the last forty +years all modern societies have entered upon a period of change more +marked, more pervading, more radical than any that has occurred during +the last three hundred years. In saying this, I do not forget our own +political and military history, nor the French Revolution of 1793. The +changes now taking place have been wrought, and are being wrought, +mainly, almost wholly, by a single mechanical contrivance, the steam +locomotive. Imagine, if you can, what would happen if to-morrow morning +the railway locomotive, and its corollary, the telegraph, were blotted +from the earth. At first thought, it would seem impossible to get on at +all with the feeble substitutes we should be compelled to adopt in place +of these great forces. To what humble proportions mankind would be +compelled to scale down the great enterprises they are now pushing +forward with such ease! But were this calamity to happen, we should +simply be placed where we were forty-three years ago. + +There are many persons now living who well remember the day when Andrew +Jackson, after four weeks of toilsome travel from his home in Tennessee, +reached Washington and took his first oath of office as President of the +United States. On that day the railway locomotive did not exist. During +that year Henry Clay was struggling to make his name immortal by linking +it with the then vast project of building a national road--a +turnpike--from the national capital to the banks of the Mississippi. + +In the autumn of that very year George Stephenson ran his first +experimental locomotive, the "Rocket," from Manchester to Liverpool and +back. The rumble of its wheels, redoubled a million times, is echoing +to-day on every continent. + + * * * * * + +The American people have done much for the locomotive, and it has done +much for them. We have already seen that it has greatly reduced, if not +wholly destroyed, the danger that the government will fall to pieces by +its own weight. The railroad has not only brought our people and their +industries together, but it has carried civilization into the +wilderness, has built up States and Territories, which, but for its +power, would have remained deserts for a century to come. "Abroad and at +home," as Mr. Adams tersely declares, "it has equally nationalized +people and cosmopolized nations." It has played a most important part in +the recent movement for the unification and preservation of nations. + +It enabled us to do what the old military science had pronounced +impossible--to conquer a revolted population of eleven millions, +occupying a territory one-fifth as large as the continent of Europe. In +an able essay on the railway system, Mr. Charles F. Adams, Jr. has +pointed out some of the remarkable achievements of the railroad in our +recent history. For example, a single railroad track enabled Sherman to +maintain eighty thousand fighting men three hundred miles beyond his +base of supplies. Another line, in a space of seven days, brought a +re-enforcement of two fully equipped army corps around a circuit of +thirteen hundred miles, to strengthen an army at a threatened point. He +calls attention to the still more striking fact that for ten years past, +with fifteen hundred millions of our indebtedness abroad, an enormous +debt at home, unparalleled public expenditures, and a depreciated paper +currency, in defiance of all past experience, we have been steadily +conquering our difficulties, have escaped the predicted collapse, and +are promptly meeting our engagements; because, through energetic +railroad development, the country has been producing real wealth, as no +country has produced it before. Finally, he sums up the case by +declaring that the locomotive has "dragged the country through its +difficulties in spite of itself." + + * * * * * + +In the darkness and chaos of that period, the feudal system was the +first important step toward the organization of modern nations. Powerful +chiefs and barons intrenched themselves in castles, and, in return for +submission and service, gave to their vassals rude protection and ruder +laws. But as the feudal chiefs grew in power and wealth, they became the +oppressors of their people, taxed and robbed them at will, and finally, +in their arrogance, defied the kings and emperors of the Mediæval +States. From their castles, planted on the great thoroughfares, they +practised the most capricious extortions on commerce and travel, and +thus gave to modern language the phrase, "levy blackmail." + +The consolidation of our great industrial and commercial companies, the +power they wield, and the relations they sustain to the State and to the +industry of the people, do not fall far short of Fourier's definition of +commercial or industrial feudalism. The modern barons, more powerful +than their military prototypes, own our greatest highways, and levy +tribute at will upon all our vast industries. And, as the old feudalism +was finally controlled and subordinated only by the combined efforts of +the kings and the people of the free cities and towns, so our modern +feudalism can be subordinated to the public good only by the great body +of the people, acting through their governments by wise and just laws. + +I shall not now enter upon the discussion of methods by which this great +work of adjustment may be accomplished. But I refuse to believe that the +genius and energy which have developed these new and tremendous forces, +will fail to make them, not the masters, but the faithful servants of +society. It will be a disgrace to our age and to us, if we do not +discover some method by which the public functions of these +organizations may be brought into full subordination to the public, and +that, too, without violence, and without unjust interference with the +rights of private individuals. It will be unworthy of our age, and of +us, if we make the discussion of this subject a mere warfare against +men. For in these great industrial enterprises have been, and still are +engaged, some of the noblest and worthiest men of our time. It is the +system--its tendencies and its dangers--which society itself has +produced, that we are now to confront. And these industries must not be +crippled, but promoted. The evils complained of are mainly of our own +making. States and communities have willingly and thoughtlessly +conferred these great powers upon railways; and they must seek to +rectify their own errors without injury to the industries they have +encouraged. + + * * * * * + +It depends upon the wisdom, the culture, the self-control of our people +and their representatives, to determine how wisely and how well this +question shall be settled. But that it will be solved, and solved in the +interest of liberty and justice, I do not doubt. And its solution will +open the way to a solution of a whole chapter of similar questions that +relate to the conflict between capital and labor. + + +[From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June, 1874.] + +The division between church and state ought to be so absolute that no +church property anywhere, in any State or in the nation, should be +exempt from taxation; for, if you exempt the property of any church +organization, to that extent you impose a church-tax upon the whole +community. + + * * * * * + +Occasion may be the bugle-call that summons an army to battle, but the +blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories. + + * * * * * + +Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. + + * * * * * + +We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing ourselves into +communion with the spirit of art which pervades and fills the universe. + + * * * * * + +If there be one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire +better than another, it is a brave man; it is a man who dares to look +the devil in the face, and tell him he is a devil. + + * * * * * + +It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish thought. + + * * * * * + +True art is but the anti-type of nature, the embodiment of discovered +beauty in utility. + + * * * * * + +In order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must +resolve to carry into your work a fulness of knowledge; not merely a +sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. + + * * * * * + +Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. + + * * * * * + +If you are not too large for the place, you are too small for it. + + * * * * * + +What the arts are to the world of matter, literature is to the world of +mind. + + * * * * * + +Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony between the +rushing of the train and the haste of the author; but to enjoy standard +works, we need the quiet of a winter evening; an easy-chair before a +cheerful fire, and all the equanimity of spirits we can command. + + * * * * * + +He who would understand the real spirit of literature should not select +authors of any one period alone, but rather go to the fountain-head, add +trace the little rill as it courses along down the ages, broadening and +deepening into the great ocean of thought which the men of the present +are exploring. + + * * * * * + +The true literary man is no mere gleaner, following in the rear and +gathering up the fragments of the world's thought; but he goes down +deep into the heart of humanity, watches its throbbings; analyzes the +forces at work there; traces out, with prophetic foresight, their +tendencies, and thus, standing out far beyond his age, holds up the +picture of what it is and is to be. + + +[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale, 1876.] + +I have followed this rule [as a lawyer]: whenever I have had a case, I +have undertaken to work out thoroughly the principles involved in it; +not for the case alone, but for the sake of comprehending thoroughly +that branch of the law. + + +[From "Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth," June 22, 1876.] + +We can study no life intelligently except in its relation to causes and +results. Character is the chief element; for it is both a result and a +cause--the result of all the elements and forces that combined to form +it, and the chief cause of all that is accomplished by its possessor.... + +Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture. By the +first, we mean those inborn qualities of body and mind inherited from +parents, or rather from a long line of ancestors. Who shall estimate the +effect of those latent forces, enfolded in the spirit of a new-born +child, which may date back centuries, and find their origin in the +unwritten history of remote ancestors--forces, the germs of which, +enveloped in the solemn mystery of life, have been transmitted silently, +from generation to generation, and never perish? All-cherishing Nature, +provident and unforgetting, gathers up all these fragments that nothing +may be lost, but that all may reappear in new combinations. Each new +life is thus the "heir of all the ages," the possessor of qualities +which only the events of life can unfold. + +By the second element, nurture, culture, we designate all those +influences which act upon this initial force of character, to retard or +strengthen its development. There has been much discussion to determine +which of these elements plays the more important part in the formation +of character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes the one and +sometimes the other is the greater force; but so far as life and +character are dependent upon voluntary action, the second is no doubt +the element of chief importance. + + +[From the Same.] + +Not enough attention has been paid to the marked difference between the +situation and possibilities of a life developed here in the West, during +the first half of the present century, and those of a life nurtured and +cultivated in an old and settled community like that of New England. + +Consider, for example, the measureless difference between the early +surroundings of John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Both were +possessed of great natural endowments. Adams was blessed with parents +whose native force of character, and whose vigorous and thorough culture +have never been surpassed by any married pair in America. Young Adams +was thoroughly taught by his mother until he had completed his tenth +year; and then, accompanying his father to France, he spent two years in +a training-school at Paris and three years in the University at Leyden. +After two years of diplomatic service, under the skilful guidance of his +father's hand, he returned to America, and devoted three years to study +at Harvard, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-one; and, three +years later, was graduated in the law, under the foremost jurist of his +time. With such parentage and such opportunities, who can wonder that by +the time he reached the meridian of his life, he was a man of immense +erudition, and had honored every great office in the gift of his +country? + +How startling the contrast, in every particular, between his early life +and that of Abraham Lincoln.... Born to an inheritance of the extremest +poverty, wholly unaided by his parents, surrounded by the rude forces of +the wilderness, only one year at any school, never for a day master of +his own time until he reached his majority, forcing his way to the +profession of the law by the hardest and roughest road, and beginning +its practice at twenty-eight years of age, yet, by the force of +unconquerable will and persistent hard work, he attained a foremost +place in his profession. + + "And, moving up from high to higher, + Became, on fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire." + + +[From the Same.] + +It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish work. + + * * * * * + +A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. Let not poverty stand as an +obstacle in your way. + + * * * * * + +Here is the volume of our laws. More sacred than the twelve tables of +Rome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above the +people and the President, above the courts, above Congress, commanding +everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority. + + * * * * * + +That man makes a vital mistake who judges truth in relation to financial +affairs from the changing phases of public opinion. He might as well +stand on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, and from the ebb and flow of a +single tide attempt to determine the general level of the sea, as to +stand upon this floor, and from the current of public opinion on any +one debate, judge of the general level of the public mind. It is only +when long spaces along the shore of the sea are taken into account that +the grand level is found from which the heights and depths are measured. +And it is only when long spaces of time are considered, that we find at +last that level of public opinion which we call the general judgment of +mankind. + + * * * * * + +Bad faith on the part of an individual, a city, or even a State, is a +small evil in comparison with the calamities which follow bad faith on +the part of a sovereign government. + + * * * * * + +In the complex and delicately adjusted relations of modern society, +confidence in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of trade and +commerce. It is the vital air Labor breathes. It is the light which +shines on the pathway of prosperity. + + * * * * * + +An act of bad faith on the part of a State or municipal corporation, +like poison in the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding +generations. + + * * * * * + +We are accustomed to hear it said that the great powers of government in +this country are divided into two classes; National powers and State +powers. That is an incomplete classification. Our fathers carefully +divided all governmental powers into three classes; one they gave to +the States, another to the Nation; but the third great class, +comprising the most precious of all powers, they refused to confer on +the State or Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third class of +powers has been almost uniformly overlooked by men who have written and +discussed the American system. + + * * * * * + +Congress must always be the exponent of the political character and +culture of the people, and if the next centennial does not find us a +great Nation with a great and worthy Congress, it will be because those +who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the +Nation do not aid in controlling the political forces which are employed +to select the men who shall occupy the great places of trust and power. + + * * * * * + +There is scarcely a conceivable form of corruption or public wrong that +does not at last present itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. +The Legislature therefore, that stands at the cashier's desk and watches +with its Argus eyes the demands for payment over the counter is most +certain to see all the forms of public rascality. + + * * * * * + +A steady and constant Revenue drawn from sources that represent the +prosperity of the nation,--a Revenue that grows with the growth of +national wealth, and is so adjusted to the expenditures, that a +constant and considerable surplus is annually left in the Treasury above +all the necessary current demands, a surplus that keeps the Treasury +strong, that holds it above the fear of sudden panic, that makes it +impregnable against all private combinations, that makes it a terror to +all stock-jobbing and gold-gambling,--this is financial health. + + +[From the "Atlantic Monthly," July, 1877.] + +The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact, that so many +citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention +to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall +make their laws.... It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in +our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our +system. Corrupt and incompetent presidents, judges, and legislators can +be removed, but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, +when voters themselves become venal, and elections fraudulent, there is +no remedy except by awakening the public conscience, and bringing to +bear upon the subject the power of public opinion and the penalties of +the law.... In a word, our national safety demands that the fountains of +political power shall be made pure by intelligence, and kept pure by +vigilance; that the best citizens shall take heed to the selection and +election of the worthiest and most intelligent among them to hold seats +in the national legislature; and that when the choice has been made, the +continuance of their representative shall depend upon his faithfulness, +his ability, and his willingness to work. + + +[Speech on the presentation to Congress of Carpenter's painting of +President Lincoln and his Cabinet, at the time of his first reading of +the Proclamation of Emancipation, January 16, 1878.] + +Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force of +character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience of +public affairs, and in national reputation, the cabinet that sat around +that council-board has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our history. +Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the great leader of +the senate, had come to crown his career with those achievements which +placed him in the first rank of modern diplomatists. Chase, with a +culture and a frame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and pillar of +the public credit, the noble embodiment of the public faith. Stanton was +there, a very Titan of strength, the great organizer of victory. Eminent +lawyers, men of business, leaders of states, and leaders of men, +completed the group. + +But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided its +determinations, was a character so unique that he stood alone, without +a model in history, or a parallel among men. Born on this day, +sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance of extremest poverty, surrounded +by the rude forces of the wilderness; wholly unaided by parents; only +one year in any school; never, for a day, master of his own time until +he reached his majority; making his way to the profession of the law by +the hardest and roughest road; yet, by force of unconquerable will and +persistent, patient work, he attained a foremost place in his +profession, + + "And, moving up from high to higher, + Became, on fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire." + +At first it was the prevailing belief that he would be only the nominal +head of his administration; that its policy would be directed by the +eminent statesmen he had called to his council. How erroneous this +opinion was, may be seen from a single incident. Among the earliest, +most difficult, and most delicate duties of his administration, was the +adjustment of our relations with Great Britain. Serious complications, +even hostilities, were apprehended. On the 21st day of May, 1861, the +Secretary of State presented to the President his draught of a letter of +instructions to Minister Adams, in which the position of the United +States and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth with the +clearness and force which long experience and great ability had placed +at the command of the Secretary. + +Upon almost every page of that original draught are erasures, additions, +and marginal notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit +a sagacity, a breadth of wisdom, and a comprehension of the whole +subject, impossible to be found except in a man of the very first order. +And these modifications of a great state-paper were made by a man who, +but three months before, had entered, for the first time, the wide +theatre of executive action. + +Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have +called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the +logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in his own +quaint, original way, without ostentation or offence to his associates, +he was pilot and commander of his administration. He was one of the few +great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, and whose spirit +grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied. + + +[From the "North American Review," May-June, 1878.] + +The Secretary of War is a civil officer; one of the constitutional +advisers of the President--his civil executive to direct and control +military affairs, and conduct army administration for the President.... +This was clearly understood in our early history, and it is worthy of +note that our most eminent Secretaries of War have been civilians, who +brought to the duties of the office great political and legal +experience, and other high qualities of statesmanship. + +Perhaps it was wise in Washington to choose as the first Secretary of +War, a distinguished soldier, for the purpose of creating and setting in +order the military establishment; but it may well be doubted if any +subsequent appointment of a soldier to that position has been wise. In +fact, most of the misadjustments between the Secretary of War and the +army, so much complained of in recent years, originated with a Secretary +of War who had been a soldier, and could hardly refrain from usurping +the functions of command.... + +No very serious conflict of jurisdiction and command occurred until +Jefferson Davis became Secretary of War. His early training as a +soldier, his spirit of self-reliance and habits of imperious command, +soon brought him into collision with General Scott, and were the +occasion of a correspondence, perhaps the most acrimonious ever carried +on by any prominent public man of our country. + + +[From a Speech at Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 11, 1878.] + +The Republican party of this country has said, and it says to-day, that, +forgetting all the animosities of the war, forgetting all the fierceness +and the passion of it, it reaches out both its hands to the gallant men +who fought us, and offers all fellowship, all comradeship, all feelings +of brotherhood, on this sole condition, and on that condition they will +insist forever: That in the war for the Union we were right, forever +right, and that in the war against the Union they were wrong, forever +wrong. We never made terms, we never will make terms, with the man who +denies the everlasting rightfulness of our cause. That would be treason +to the dead and injustice to the living; and on that basis alone our +pacification is complete. We ask that it be realized, and we shall +consider it fully realized when it is just as safe and just as honorable +for a good citizen of South Carolina to be a Republican there as it is +for a good citizen of Massachusetts to be a Democrat here. + + +[From an Address at Hiram College.] + +Our great dangers are not from without. We do not live by the consent of +any other nation. We must look within to find elements of danger. + + +[From a Speech on the Ninth Census.] + +Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing, or +evading results. + + +[From a Speech, December 10, 1878.] + +The man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of +its leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, +commerce, industry, sound political economy, hard money, and the payment +of all obligations; and the man who can add anything in the direction of +accomplishing any of these purposes is a public benefactor. + + * * * * * + +The scientific spirit has cast out the Demons and presented us with +Nature, clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It +has given us for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of +chemistry; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths of +astronomy; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of +geology; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God. + + * * * * * + +We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of Adam, +but to bad nursing and ignorance. + + * * * * * + +Truth is so related and correlated that no department of her realm is +wholly isolated. + + * * * * * + +Truth is the food of the human spirit, which could not grow in its +majestic proportions without clearer and more truthful views of God and +his universe. + + * * * * * + +Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no ideas +behind it is simply brutality. + + * * * * * + +I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the +characters of men are moulded and inspired by what their fathers have +done; that, treasured up in American souls are all the unconscious +influences of the great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from Agincourt to +Bunker Hill. + + * * * * * + +Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to +the peerless and immortal name of Washington. + + * * * * * + +I doubt if any man equalled Samuel Adams in formulating and uttering the +fierce, clear, and inexorable logic of the Revolution. + + * * * * * + +The last eight decades have witnessed an Empire spring up in the full +panoply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness. + + * * * * * + +In their struggle with the forces of nature, the ability to labor was +the richest patrimony of the colonist. + + * * * * * + +The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea. + + * * * * * + +To him a battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of +brave men and frantic horses involved in vast explosions of gunpowder. +It was rather a calm rational combination of force against +force.--_Oration on Geo. H. Thomas._ + + * * * * * + +After the fire and blood of the battle-fields have disappeared, nowhere +does war show its destroying power so certainly and so relentlessly as +in the columns which represent the taxes and expenditures of the nation. + + +[From a Speech, June 2, 1879.] + +The Resumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our +history since the birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty-one and +eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that +turbulent sea whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the +prosperity, the honor, and the life of the nation. But the horrors and +dangers of the middle-passage have at last been mastered; and out of the +night and tempest the Republic has landed on the shore of this new year, +bringing with it union and liberty, honor and peace. + + * * * * * + +Our country needs not only a national but an international currency. + + * * * * * + +Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of +our political creed shall be--equal States, equal men, and equal dollars +throughout the Union. + + +[Address, at the Memorial Meeting, in the House of Representatives, +January 16, 1879.] + +No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record +of those early influences which develop the character and direct the +lives of eminent men. To every man of great original power, there comes +in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery--of self recognition--when +his own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, for the first +time, a strain of that immortal song to which his own spirit answers, +and which becomes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of his life-- + + "Like noble music unto noble words." + +More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg, on the Rhine, in obedience +to the commands of his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying the +mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his spirit as best he could upon +the formal and artificial poetry of his native land, when a page of +William Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the whole current of his +life. Abandoning the law, he created and crowned with an immortal name +the grandest epoch of German literature. + +Recording his own experience, he says: + + At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius, I made the glad + confession that something inspiring hovered above me.... The + first page of his that I read made me his for life; and when + I had finished a single play, I stood like one born blind, + on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a moment. I saw, + I felt, in the most vivid manner that my existence was + infinitely expanded. + +This Old World experience of Goethe's was strikingly reproduced, though +under different conditions and with different results, in the early life +of Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident worthily recounted; +but let us linger over it a moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough +Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the handicraft of the +jeweler, unconscious of his great power, delighted with romance and the +drama, dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his attention was +suddenly arrested by a single page of an humble book of science which +chanced to fall into his hands. It was not the flash of a poetic vision +which aroused him. It was the voice of great Nature calling her child. +With quick recognition and glad reverence his spirit responded; and from +that moment to the end of his long and honored life, Joseph Henry was +the devoted student of science, the faithful interpreter of nature. + +To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not surprising that ever +afterward he kept the little volume near him, and cherished it as the +source of his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame he recorded +on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his words: + + This book, under Providence, has exerted a remarkable + influence on my life.... It opened to me a new world of + thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost + unnoticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the + study of nature, and caused me to resolve, at the time of + reading it, that I would devote my life to the acquisition + of knowledge. + +We have heard from his venerable associates with what resolute +perseverance he trained his mind and marshalled his powers for the +higher realms of science. He was the first American after Franklin who +made a series of successful original experiments in electricity and +magnetism. He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, Oërsted, Davy, +and Ampère, the great exploring philosophers of the world, and added to +their work a final great discovery, which made the electro-magnetic +telegraph possible. + +It remained only for the inventor to construct an instrument and an +alphabet. Professor Henry refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from his +great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what nature and science had +given to him. The venerable gentleman of almost eighty years, who has +just addressed us so eloquently, has portrayed the difficulties which +beset the government in its attempt to determine how it should wisely +and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. It was a perilous moment for +the credit of America when that bequest was made. In his large +catholicity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the bequest with +conditions. In nine words he set forth its object--"for the increase and +diffusion of knowledge among men." He asked and believed that America +would interpret his wish aright, and with the liberal wisdom of +science.... + +For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine words of Smithson and +could not handle them. Some political philosophers of that period held +that we had no constitutional authority to accept the gift at all +[laughter] and proposed to send it back to England. Every conceivable +proposition was made. The colleges clutched at it; the libraries wanted +it; the publication societies desired to scatter it. The fortunate +settlement of the question was this: that, after ten years of wrangling, +Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own ignorance, and +authorized a body of men to find some one who knew how to settle it. +[Applause.] And these men were wise enough to choose your great comrade +to undertake the task. Sacrificing his brilliant prospects as a +discoverer, he undertook the difficult work. He drafted a paper, in +which he offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, mapped out a +plan which would meet the demands of science, and submitted it to the +suffrage of the republic of scientific scholars. After due deliberation +it received the almost unanimous approval of the scientific world. With +faith and sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan and steadily +resisted all attempts to overthrow it. + +In the thirty-two years during which he administered the great trust, he +never swerved from his first purpose; and he succeeded at last in +realizing the ideas with which he started. + + The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell + from which they were evolved, was in the New England town, + and the vital force, the informing soul of the town, was the + Town Meeting, which for all local concerns was king, lords, + and commons in all. + + It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend + the reputation of worthy public servants as to detect public + rascals. + + Political parties, like poets, are born, not made. No act of + political mechanics, however wise, can manufacture to order + and make a platform, and put a party on it which will live + and flourish. + + +[On the Relation of the Government to Science, February 11, 1879.] + +What ought to be the relation of the National Government to science? +What, if anything, ought we to do in the way of promoting science? For +example, if we have the power, would it be wise for Congress to +appropriate money out of the Treasury, to employ naturalists to find out +all that is to be known of our American birds? Ornithology is a +delightful and useful study; but would it be wise for Congress to make +an appropriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment, +manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored class of men the +rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private way, following +the bent of their genius, may be working out the results of science in +that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our Treasury +for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement of +science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work +injury to religion. + +Generally, the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to work +in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop +their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to +have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise. + +As a general principal, therefore, the United States ought not to +interfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the +free, voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. + +In this non-interference theory of the Government, I do not go to the +extent of saying that we should do nothing for education--for primary +education. That comes under another consideration--the necessity of the +nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and +wiser to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of +the higher sciences. + +To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious +exceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the +subject. In the first place, the Government should aid all sorts of +scientific inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its +own functions. + +For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled by +necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish +fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in +reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws--to do whatever in +the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting +our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building +iron-clads for our navy or casting guns for our army, we ought to know +all that is scientifically possible to be known about the strength of +materials and the laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In +short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary functions of the +Government scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest +extent, and at the public expense. + +There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the +voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, +affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, +imperatively need scientific investigation, and private enterprise +cannot accomplish it, we may wisely intervene and help where the +Constitution gives us authority. For example, in discovering the origin +of yellow-fever and the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation +should do, for the good of all, what neither the States nor individuals +can accomplish. I might perhaps include in a third exception those +inquiries which, in consequence of their great magnitude and cost, +cannot be successfully made by private individuals. Outside these three +classes of inquiries, the Government ought to keep its hands off, and +leave scientific experiment and inquiry to the free competition of those +bright, intelligent men whose genius leads them into the fields of +research. + +And I suspect, when we read the report of our commissioner to the late +Paris Exposition, which shows such astonishing results, so creditable +to our country, so honorable to the genius of our people, it will be +found, in any final analysis of causes, that the superiority of +Americans in that great Exposition resulted mainly from their superior +freedom, and the greater competition between mind and mind untrammelled +by Government interference; I believe it will be found we are best +serving the cause of religion and science, and all those great primary +rights which we did not delegate to the Congress or the States, but left +the people free to enjoy and maintain them. + + +[Speech on the National Election.] + +The great danger which threatens this country is, that our sovereign may +be dethroned or destroyed by corruption. In any monarchy of the world, +if the sovereign be slain or become lunatic, it is easy to put another +in his place, for the sovereign is a person. But our sovereign is the +whole body of voters. If you kill, or corrupt, or render lunatic our +sovereign, there is no successor, no regent to take his place. The +source of our sovereign's supreme danger, the point where his life is +vulnerable, is at the ballot-box, where his will is declared; and if we +cannot stand by that cradle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and protect +it to the uttermost against all assassins and assailants, we have no +government and no safety for the future. + + +[Remarks, in the House of Representatives, February 11, 1879, on the +Life and Character of Gustave Schleicher.] + +We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he [Gustave +Schleicher] was born on foreign soil. In one sense that is true; and yet +in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of +the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the +declaration that England is not the fatherland of the English-speaking +people, but the ancient home, the real fatherland of our race, is the +ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by +Montesquieu long ago, when he declared in his Spirit of Laws that the +British constitution came out of the woods of Germany. + +To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that +Tacitus describes in his admirable history of the manners and character +of the Germans. We may therefore say that the friend whose memory we +honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to +America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our own fathers, by +the way of England. + +We who were born and have passed all our lives in this wide New World +can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early life. +Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald, +filled as it is with the memories and traditions of centuries, in which +are mingled Scandinavian mythology, legends of the middle ages, romances +of feudalism and chivalry, histories of barons and kings, and the +struggles of a brave people for a better civilization; reared under the +institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government; devoting his early +life to personal culture, entering at an early age the University of +Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of existence, with +a library of four hundred thousand volumes at his hand, with a great +museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his +eager spirit upon the rich culture which that Old World could give him, +and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty-seven +young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost +to the verge of communism--and who of us would not be communists in a +despotism?--he came to this country, attracted by one of the most wild +and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it +existed near forty years ago; the country discovered by La Salle at the +end of his long and perilous voyage from Quebec to the northern lakes +and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; the country possessed +alternately by the Spanish and the French and then by Mexico; the +country made memorable by such names as Blair, Houston, Albert Sidney +Johnson, and Mirabeau Lamar, perhaps as adventurous and daring spirits +as ever assembled on any spot of the earth; a country that achieved its +freedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous +independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European +intrigues. + +It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its +membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the +purpose of colonizing the new Republic of the Lone Star, and making it a +dependency of Europe under their patronage; but without sharing in their +designs, some twenty thousand Germans found their way to the new +Republic, and among these young Schleicher came. + + +[From the "North American Review," March, 1879.] + +The ballot was given to the negro not so much to enable him to govern +others as to prevent others from misgoverning him. Suffrage is the sword +and shield of our law, the best armament that liberty offers to the +citizen. + + +[From the Same, June, 1879.] + +If our republic were blotted from the earth and from the memory of +mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of our +revenue laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the +political philosopher would be able from these materials alone to +reconstruct a large part of our history, and sketch with considerable +accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions. + + +[Speech in Congress, on the first anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death.] + +There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so +near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, +and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and +feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time +has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave +spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the +presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the +martyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the republic, +the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by +the children of men. Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people +knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with God and each +other that this nation should be saved from its enemies; that all its +glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the +temples of freedom and justice should be built, and stand forever. It +remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant +with God, to keep the faith, to go forward in the great work until it +shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying +the high behests of God, let us remember + + "He has sounded forth his trumpet, that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat; + Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet; + For God is marching on." + +Every great political party that has done this country any good has +given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of +that party. + + +[Speech at Cleveland, Ohio, October 11, 1879.--Resumption of Specie +Payments.] + +Now, what has been the trouble with us? 1860 was one shore of +prosperity, and 1879 the other; and between these two high shores has +flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster +through which this nation has been compelled to wade, and in whose +depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of +that terrible passage we carried liberty in our arms; we bore the Union +on our shoulders; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was +even better than liberty and Union--we bore the faith, and honor, and +public trust of this mighty Nation. And never, until we came up out of +the dark waters, out of the darkness of that terrible current, and +planted our feet upon the solid shore of 1879--never, I say, till then +could this country look back to the other shore and feel that its feet +were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of +perpetual peace and prosperity that should know no diminution in the +years to come. + + +[Speech at Cleveland, October 11, 1879.--Appeal to Young Men.] + +Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just +because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if +he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are +about to pitch your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life +is full and buoyant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your +tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at +all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that +party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where +I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you +to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than +like a camp for the living. Look at it! It is billowed all over with the +graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of +disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in such a place. Why, +look here! Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read, +"Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott +decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has +been dead fifteen years--died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here +it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you. + +But look a little farther. Here is another monument--a black tomb--and +beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a +monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of +slaves, and I read on its little headstone this: "Sacred to the memory +of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic +party taught that it was divine--God's institution. They defended it, +they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But +here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Dead by the power of +the Republican party. Dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp +there, young man. + +But here is another--a little brimstone tomb--and I read across its +yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words: "Sacred to the memory of +State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve millions of Democrats mustered +around it in arms to keep it alive; but here it lies, shot to death by +the million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its shrine burnt to +ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead! +I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night +air, to look at such a place. + +But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little +mound--short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I +see torn pieces of paper with the word "fiat" on them, and I look down +in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it: +"Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby nursed in the brain of all the +fanaticism of the world, rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton, +Samuel Cary, and a few others throughout the land." But it died on the +1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty millions of gold +that God made, and not fiat power, he upon its little carcass to keep it +down forever. + +Oh, young man, come out of that! That is no place in which to put your +young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order, +of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glorious under these +night stars. + +Is there any death here in our camp? Yes! yes! Three hundred and fifty +thousand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to +make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty forever. + +But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead ideas here. Hang +out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep +the green turf under your feet! It hangs over our camp. Read away up +under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo! these +twenty-five years. + +Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to Liberty, and +this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. A worthily married pair +love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the +day of their first espousals; and we are truer to Liberty to-day, and +dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of liberty. Read +away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we +uttered twenty-five years ago! What was it? "Slavery shall never extend +over another foot of the territories of the great West." Is that dead or +alive? Alive, thank God, forevermore! And truer to-night than it was the +hour it was written! Then, it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night +it is equal with the stars--immortal history and immortal truth. + +Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have +made we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the +ground, and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put in your +young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but the +heroes that defended it! I think these young men will do that. + + +[From a Speech, January 14, 1880.] + +I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden-wall of +party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the +gardens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy +their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. + + +[Letter of Acceptance, July 10, 1880.] + +Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without +which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its +interests are intrusted to the States, and to the voluntary action of +the people. Whatever help the Nation can justly afford should be +generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; but it +would be unjust to our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to +apply any portion of the revenues of the Nation or of the States to the +support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State +in everything relating to taxation should be absolute. + + * * * * * + +Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant +natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, +arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all +the necessary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the +founders of the Government to provide for the common defence, not by +standing armies alone, but by raising among the people a greater army of +artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to +the safety and glory of the nation. + + * * * * * + +Over this vast horizon of interests, North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its +glory, to save Liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles until they +shall have crystallized into the form of enduring law and become +inwrought into the life and habits of our People. + + * * * * * + +I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one +in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that +the darkness through which we have travelled was but a part of that +stern but beneficent discipline by which the great Disposer of events +has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life. + + * * * * * + +The hope of our National perpetuity rests upon that perfect individual +Freedom which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual change. + + * * * * * + +Whatever opinions we may now entertain of the Federalists as a party, it +is unquestionably true that we are indebted to them for the strong +points of the Constitution and for the stable government they founded +and strengthened during the administration of Washington and Adams. + + * * * * * + +While it is true that no party can stand upon its past record alone, yet +it is also true that its past shows the spirit and character of the +organization, and enables us to judge what it will probably do in the +future. + + * * * * * + +Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own--an individuality +and character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of the nation. + + * * * * * + +It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever +the people can do without legislation will be better done than by the +intervention of the State and Nation. + + +[From a Speech, at the unveiling of a Soldiers' Monument Painesville, +Ohio, July 4, 1880.] + +I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where over its doors were +two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its +owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried +by the English grand-sire of the wife on the same field, and on the +other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored +harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy and contented and free family, +under the light of our republican liberties. I trust the time is not far +distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of +Americans, north and south, our people shall sleep in peace and rise in +liberty, love, and harmony, under the union of our flag of the stars and +stripes. + + +[Speech to a Delegation of four hundred Young Men--First Voters--of +Cleveland, Ohio, at Mentor, October 8, 1880.] + +... I have not so far left the coast of youth to travel inland but that +I can very well remember the state of young manhood, from an experience +in it of some years, and there is nothing to me in this world so +inspiring as the possibilities that lie locked up in the head and breast +of a young man. The hopes that lie before him the great inspirations +around him, the great aspirations above him, all these things, with the +untried pathway of life opening up its difficulties and dangers, inspire +him to courage, and force, and work. + + +[From a Speech in New York, August 6, 1880.] + +... Ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, and you who fought in +the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you +crowned our war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for +the fruits that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet to-night as +veterans and comrades, to stand sacred guard around the truths for which +we fought, and while we have life to meet and grasp the hands of a +comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war; and, comrades, +among the convictions of that war which have sunk deep in our hearts +there are some that we can never forget. Think of the great elevating +spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms, and +shops, and stores, and schools, and homes, from all over the Republic, +and they went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster +of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of those soldiers of Henry +at Agincourt, of whom he said, "Who this day sheds his blood with me, +to-day shall be my brother. Were he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle +his condition;" and it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart +of every working soldier who fought in it, and he shall be our brother +for evermore; and this thing we will remember; we will remember our +allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began we looked +behind the army of white rebels and saw 4,000,000 of black people +condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies, and we found that the +hearts of this 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of freedom, +and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag +and fight to kill the Union, but in all that long, dreary war we never +saw a traitor in a black skin. Our prisoners, escaping from the +starvation of prison, and fleeing to our lines by the light of the +North-star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for +bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was +ever betrayed by a black man or woman, and now that we have made them +free, so long as we live we will stand by these black citizens. We will +stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our +Constitution, shall shine with equal rays upon every man, black or +white, throughout the Union. Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in +this there is all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we +will stand forever. + + +[Remarks at Chatauqua August 1, 1880] + +I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion. + + +[From an Address at the Anniversary of Hiram College, directly after the +Chicago Convention, 1880.] + +FELLOW-CITIZENS, NEIGHBORS, AND FRIENDS OF MANY YEARS: It always has +given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has +always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large +share of that richness that belongs to those things out of which come +the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, +watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address which +has just been delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have +that all men envy--I mean all men who have reached the meridian of +life--is, perhaps, the thing that you care for less, and that is your +leisure,--the leisure you have to think, the leisure you have to be let +alone, the leisure you have to throw the plummet with your hand, and +sound their depths and find out what is below, the leisure you have to +walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are, or +how weak they are, and determine what needs building up, and determine +how to shape them, that you may make the final being that you are to be. +Oh, these hours of building! If the superior beings of the universe +would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it +would be the unfinished, unformed character of young men, or of young +women. These behind me have, probably, in the main settled such +questions. Those who have passed into middle manhood and middle +womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is little left +of interest or curiosity as to our development. But to your young and +yet uninformed natures no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured +up in your hearts and intellects; and while you are working up these +possibilities with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all +classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your +leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your +means, out of which you can demand all the possible treasures that God +laid down when He formed your nature, and unveiled and developed the +possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to +trust myself to speak upon, and I will not; but I draw again to-day, as +I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection +from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the +permission to see you, and meet you, and greet you, as I have done +to-day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] "nother talk that I recall was at a social gathering. It was at a +dinner party after the failure of Greeley's campaign. The host was, +perhaps the most original genius in Washington. He was an old companion +of Greeley at Brook Farm. He was giving the dinner in payment of a bet +he had lost by reason of Greeley's defeat. The conversation embraced all +the topics of the day and in the course of it turned to Seward. A member +of the company thought that Seward had been dead years before he was put +into the grave. General Garfield thought differently, and delivered, on +the spur of the moment, a remarkable eulogy on the dead statesman. Soon +afterward, I reduced to notes the outlines of that eulogy, so far as my +memory served me, and I reproduce it here. General Garfield possesses +rare conversational powers, and uses, in social discourse, a diction not +less eloquent and elegant than that to which he is accustomed in the +forum."--_Washington Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune._ + + + + +THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S FIRST OFFICIAL WORDS TO THE COUNTRY. + + +Fellow Citizens,--We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a +hundred years of national life, a century crowded with perils, but +crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the +onward march, let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our +faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our +people have travelled. It is now three days more than a hundred years +since the adoption of the first written Constitution of the United +States, the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The new +Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered +a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for +independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully +celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were +struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against +the settled opinions of mankind, for the world did not believe that the +supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the +guardianship of the people themselves. We cannot overestimate the +fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage and the saving common +sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of +self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the +confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous +and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead +established a national union founded directly upon the will of the +people, endowed with future powers of self-preservation, and with ample +authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under this +Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the +foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth in +all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of +the founders, and given new hopes to their descendants. Under this +Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger +from without, and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights +on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been +added to the Union, with constitutions and laws framed and enforced by +their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local +self-government. The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an +area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States, and +a population twenty times greater than that of 1780. The supreme trial +of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil +war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood +and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the +beneficent purposes of good government. + +And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the +inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately +reviewed the condition of their nation, passed judgment upon the conduct +and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will +concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and +to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the +paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is +manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to +employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the +future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good +government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind +them all those bitter controversies, including things which have been +irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir +up strife and delay the onward march. The supremacy of the nation and +its laws should be no longer a subject of debate. That discussion which +for half a century threatened the existence of the Union was closed at +last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal, +that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and +shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the +States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the +States nor interfere with any of their necessary rules of local +self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy +of the Union. The will of the nation speaking with the voice of battle +and through the amended Constitution has fulfilled the great promise of +1776 by proclaiming "Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants +thereof." + +The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of +citizenship is the most important political change we have known since +the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to +appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It +has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has +added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has +liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged +and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the +manhood of more than 5,000,000 of people, and has opened to each one of +them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration +to the power of self-help in both races, by making labor more honorable +to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force +will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years. No doubt +the great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern +community. This is to be deplored, though it was unavoidable. But those +who resisted the change should remember, that under our institutions +there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal +citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the +United States; freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long +as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacles in the +pathway of any virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has already made +remarkable progress; with unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a +patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light +as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material +foundations for self-support, widening the circle of intelligence, and +beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of +industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good +men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the +full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws. + +The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank +statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged, that in many +communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the +ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is +answered, that in many places honest local government is impossible if +the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave +allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation +that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local +government is certainly a great evil which ought to be prevented, but to +violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil; +it is a crime, which, if persisted in, will destroy the government +itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to +compass the death of the king, it should be counted no less a crime here +to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said +that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It +should be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question of the +suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States of the nation, +until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes, and keeps the ballot +free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger which +arises from ignorance in the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field +far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of that +race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains +of power in every State. We have no standard by which to measure the +disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the +citizens, when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. The +voters of the Union who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whom +will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme +authority to no successor save the coming generation of voters, who are +the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its +inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the +republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded +the alarm, in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the +tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children. To the +South, this question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility +for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone; the +nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is +under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has +added to the voting population. + +For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the +constitutional power of the nation and of the States, and all the +volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet this danger +by the saving influence of universal education. It is the high +privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their +successors, and fit them by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance +which awaits them. In this beneficent work, sections and races should be +forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new +meaning in the Divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall +lead them," for our little children will soon control the destinies of +the republic. + +My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the +controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children +will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They +will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union +was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were +made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot +prevent the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make +a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict? +Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material +well-being invite us and offer ample scope for the employment of our +best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields +of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and the +restored Union win the grander victories of peace. + +The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history; +fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done +all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie +payments, so successfully attained by the administration of my +predecessor, has enabled our people to secure the blessings which the +seasons brought. By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it +has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for +a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in +the relative value of the two metals. But I confidently believe that +arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which +will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that +the compulsory coinage of silver, now required by law, may not disturb +our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If +possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of +every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in +all the markets of the world. The chief duty of the national government, +in connection with the currency of the country, is to coin and declare +its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is +authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal +tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by +the necessities of war, but such paper should depend for its value and +currency upon its convenience in use, and its prompt redemption in coin +at the will of its holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. +These notes are not money, but promises to pay money if the holders +demand it. These promises should be kept. + +The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be +accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national bank +notes and thus disturbing the business of the country. I venture to +refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a +long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have +strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects. +The finances of the government shall suffer no detriment which it may be +possible for my administration to prevent. + +The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the government +than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes +and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the +largest part of all our exports. As the government lights our coasts for +the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should +give to the tillers of the soil the lights of practical science and +experience. Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially +independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable +fields of employment. This steady and healthy growth should still be +maintained. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the +continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways, and +by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the +world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great +sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canals or railways +across the isthmus which unites the two continents. Various plans to +this end have been suggested, and will need consideration, but none of +them have been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in +extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will +immediately engage the attention of the government, with a view to a +thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow +policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges on any commercial +route, but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the +right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such +supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the +isthmus that connects North and South America, as will protect our +national interests. + +The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is +prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, +or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The territories of the United +States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and +hence the general government is responsible for any violation of the +Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the +government, that in the most populous of the territories, the +constitutional guarantee is not enjoyed by the people, and the authority +of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the +moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the +administration of justice through the ordinary instrumentalities of law. +In my judgment, it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the +uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every +citizen, to prohibit, within its jurisdiction, all immoral practices, +especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger +social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely +permitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the functions and powers of +the national government. + +The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis, until it +is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the +protection of those who are entrusted with this appointing power, +against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business, +caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of +incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask +Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive +departments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made +during terms for which incumbents have been appointed. + +Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the +Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved +rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to +maintain its authority, and in all places within its jurisdiction, to +enforce obedience to all laws of the Union in the interest of the +people, to demand rigid economy in all expenditures of the government, +and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive +officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit +of the incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the +government. And now, fellow citizens, I am about to assume the great +trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that +earnest and thoughtful support, which makes this government, in fact as +it is in law, a government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the +wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who may share with me +the responsibilities and duties of administration; and above all, upon +our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their +government, I reverentially invoke the support and blessings of Almighty +God. + + + + +ADDENDA. + + +I. + + HEADQUARTERS DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, + MURFREESBORO, June 12, 1864. + +_General_: In your confidential letter of the 8th inst., to the corps +and division commanders and generals of cavalry, of this army, there +were substantially five questions propounded for their consideration and +answer, viz:-- + +1. Has the enemy of our front been materially weakened by detachments to +Johnston, or elsewhere? + +2. Can this army advance on him at this time, with strong reasonable +chances of fighting a great and successful battle? + +3. Do you think an advance of our army at present likely to prevent +additional reinforcements being sent against General Grant by the enemy +in our front? + +4. Do you think an immediate advance of the army advisable? + +5. Do you think an early advance advisable? + +Many of the answers to these questions are not categorical, and cannot +be clearly set down either as affirmative or negative. Especially in +answer to the first question, there is much indefiniteness resulting +from the difference of judgment as to how great a detachment could be +considered a material reduction of Bragg's strength. For example, one +officer thinks it has been reduced ten thousand and not "materially +weakened." The answers to the second question are modified in some +instances by the opinion that the rebels will fall back behind the +Tennessee River, and thus no battle can be fought, either successful or +unsuccessful. + +So far as these opinions can be stated in tabular form, they will stand +thus,-- + + Yes. No. + Answer to first question, 6 11 + " " second " 2 11 + " " third " 4 10 + " " fourth " - 15 + " " fifth " - 2 + +On the fifth question, three gave it as their opinion that this army +ought to advance as soon as Vicksburg falls, should that event happen. +The following is a summary of the reasons assigned why we should not at +this time advance upon the enemy:-- + +1. With Hooker's army defeated, and Grant's bending all its energies in +a yet undecided struggle, it is bad policy to risk our only reserve army +to the chances of a general engagement. A failure here would have most +disastrous effect on our lines of communication and on politics in the +loyal States. + +2. We should be compelled to fight the enemy on his own grounds or +follow him in a fruitless chase; or, if we attempted to outflank him and +turn his position, we should expose our line of communication, and run +the risk of being pushed back into a rough country well known to the +enemy and little to ourselves. + +3. In case the enemy should fall back without accepting battle he could +make our advance very slow, and with a comparatively small force posted +in the gaps of the mountains could hold us back while he crossed the +Tennessee River, where he would be measurably secure and free to send +reinforcements to Johnston. His force in East Tennessee could seriously +harass our left flank and constantly disturb our communication. + +4. The withdrawal of Burnside's ninth army corps deprives us of an +important reserve and flank protection, thus increasing the difficulty +of an advance. + +5. General Hurlburt has sent the most of his force away to General +Grant, thus leaving West Tennessee uncovered, and laying our right +flank and rear open to raids of the enemy. + +The following incidental opinions are expressed,-- + +1. One officer thinks it probable that the enemy has been strengthened +rather than weakened, and that he (the enemy) would have reasonable +prospect of victory in a general battle. + +2. One officer believes the result of a general battle would be +doubtful, a victory barren, and a defeat most disastrous. + +3. Three officers believe that an advance would bring on a general +engagement. Three others believe it would not. + +4. Two officers express the opinion that the chances of success in a +general battle are nearly equal. + +5. One officer expresses the belief that our army has reached its +maximum strength and efficiency, and that inactivity will seriously +impair its effectiveness. + +6. Two officers say that an increase of our cavalry by about six +thousand men would materially change the aspect of our affairs, and give +us a decided advantage. + +In addition to the above summary, I have the honor to submit an estimate +of the strength of Bragg's army, gathered from all the data I have been +able to obtain, including the estimate of the general commanding, in +his official report of the battle of Stone River, and facts gathered +from prisoners, deserters, and refugees, and from rebel newspapers. +After the battle Bragg consolidated many of his decimated regiments and +irregular organizations; and at the time of his sending reinforcements +to Johnston, his army had reached the greatest effective strength. It +consisted of five divisions of infantry, composed of ninety-four +regiments, and two independent battalions of sharp-shooters,--say +ninety-five regiments. By a law of the confederate Congress, regiments +are consolidated when their effective strength falls below two hundred +and fifty men. Even the regiments formed by such consolidation (which +may reasonably be regarded as the fullest) must fall below five hundred. +I am satisfied that four hundred is a large estimate of the average +strength. + +The force, then, would be,-- + + Infantry, 95 regiments, 400 each, 38,000 + Cavalry, 35 regiments, say 500 each, 17,500 + Artillery, 26 batteries, say 100 each, 2,600 + ------ + Total 58,600 + +This force has been reduced by detachments to Johnston. It is as well +known as we can ever expect to ascertain such facts, that three brigades +have gone from McConn's division, and two or three from +Breckinridge's,--say two. It is clear that there are now but four +infantry divisions in Bragg's army, the fourth being composed of +fragments of McConn's and Breckinridge's divisions, and must be much +smaller than the average. Deducting the five brigades, and supposing +them composed of only four regiments each, which is below the general +average, it gives an infantry reduction of twenty regiments, four +hundred each--eight thousand--leaving a remainder of thirty thousand. It +is clearly ascertained that at least two brigades of cavalry have been +sent from Van Dorn's command to the Mississippi, and it is asserted in +the Chattanooga _Rebel_, of June 11th, that General Morgan's command has +been permanently detached and sent to eastern Kentucky. It is not +certainly known how large his division is, but it is known to contain at +least two brigades. Taking this minimum as the fact, we have a cavalry +reduction of four brigades. + +Taking the lowest estimate, four regiments to the brigade, we have a +reduction, by detachment, of sixteen regiments, five hundred each, +leaving his present effective cavalry force nine thousand five hundred. +With the nine brigades of the two arms thus detached, it will be safe to +say there have gone,-- + + Six batteries, 80 men each, 480 + Leaving him 20 batteries, 2,120 + Making a total reduction of 16,480 + Leaving, of the three arms, 41,680 + +In this estimate of Bragg's strength, I have placed all doubts in his +favor, and I have no question that my estimate is considerably beyond +the truth. General Sheridan, who has taken great pains to collect +evidence on this point, places it considerably below these figures. But +assuming these to be correct, and granting what is still more +improbable, that Bragg would abandon all his rear posts, and entirely +neglect his communications, and could bring his last man into battle, I +next ask: What have we with which to oppose him? + +The last official report of effective strength now on file in the office +of the assistant adjutant-general, is dated from June 11th, and shows +that we have in this department, omitting all officers and enlisted men +attached to department, corps, division and brigade headquarters,-- + +1. Infantry--One hundred and seventy-three regiments; ten battalions +sharp-shooters; four battalions pioneers; and one regiment of engineers +and mechanics, with a total effective strength of seventy thousand nine +hundred and eighteen. + +2. Cavalry--Twenty-seven regiments and one unattached company, eleven +thousand eight hundred and thirteen. + +3. Artillery--Forty-seven and a half batteries field artillery, +consisting of two hundred and ninety-two guns and five hundred and +sixty-nine men,--making a general total of eighty-seven thousand eight +hundred. + +Leaving out all commissioned officers, this army represents eighty-two +thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven bayonets and sabres. This report +does not include the Fifth Iowa cavalry, six hundred strong, lately +armed; nor the First Wisconsin cavalry; nor Coburn's brigade of +infantry, now arriving; nor the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four convalescents, now on light duty in "Fortress Monroe." + +There are detached from this force as follows,-- + + At Galatin, 969 + At Carthage, 1,149 + At Fort Donelson, 1,485 + At Clarkesville, 1,138 + At Nashville, 7,292 + At Franklin, 900 + At Lavergne, 2,117 + ------ + Total 15,130 + +With these posts as they are, and leaving two thousand five hundred +efficient men, in addition to the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four convalescents, to hold the works at this place, there will +be left sixty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-seven bayonets and +sabres to show, against Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and +eighty. + +I beg leave, also, to submit the following considerations,-- + +1. Bragg's army is weaker now than it has been since the battle of Stone +River, or is likely to be, at present; while our army has reached its +maximum strength, and we have no right to expect reinforcements for +several months, if at all. + +2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its fate +will give large reinforcements to Bragg. If Grant is successful, his +army will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of his +late campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force sufficient +to insure the safety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will +inevitably follow, so far as Bragg's army is concerned. + +3. No man can predict, with a certainty, the results of any battle, +however great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hand of +God. But, reviewing the question in the light of human calculation, I +refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last +defeated Bragg's superior numbers, cannot overwhelm his present greatly +inferior forces. + +4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take, would be to +fall back without giving us battle; but this would be very disastrous to +him. Besides the loss of material of war, and the abandonment of the +rich and abundant harvest, now nearly ripe in Central Tennessee, he +would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a wide-spread +dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They are +already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly increase +both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very +materially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would +lengthen our communication, it would give us possession of McMinnville, +and enable us to threaten Chattanooga and East Tennessee; and it would +not be unreasonable to expect an early occupation of the former place. + +5. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid movement +would compel a general engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would be, in +the highest degree, disastrous to the rebellion. + +6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loyal States renders a +decisive blow against the enemy, at this time, of the highest importance +to the success of the government at the polls, and in the enforcement of +the Conscript Act. + +7. The government and the War Department believe that this army ought +to move upon the enemy. The army desire it, and the country is anxiously +hoping for it. + +8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, whose last reserves are +substantially in the field, and an effective blow will crush the shell, +and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government. + +9. You have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a general movement hitherto, +till your army could be massed, and your cavalry could be mounted. Your +mobile force can now be concentrated in twenty-four hours, and your +cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of the enemy, is +greatly superior in efficiency and morale. For this reason I believe an +immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under +the providence of God, will be successful. + +Very respectfully, your obedient servant, + + J. A. GARFIELD, + _Brigadier-General, Chief of Staff_. + + Major-General ROSECRANS, + Commanding Dept. of Cumberland. + + +II. + + _The following is the official record of the post-mortem + examination of the body of President_ JAMES A. GARFIELD, + _made Sept. 20, 1881, commencing at 4:30 P. M. eighteen + hours after death, at Francklyn Cottage, Elberon, N. J._ + +There were present and assisting, Dr. D. W. Bliss; Surgeon-General J. K. +Barnes, U. S. A.; Surgeon J. J. Woodward, U. S. A.; Dr. Robert Reyburn; +Dr. Frank H. Hamilton; Dr. D. Hayes Agnew; Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of +Elberon and New York, and acting as the assistant surgeon, and D. S. +Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. + +Before commencing the examination a consultation was held by the +physicians in the room adjoining that in which the body lay, and it was +unanimously agreed that the dissection should be made by Dr. Lamb, and +that Surgeon Woodward should record the observations made. It was +further unanimously agreed that the cranium should not be opened. +Surgeon Woodward then proposed that the examination should be conducted +as follows: That the body should be viewed externally, and any morbid +appearances existing recorded; that a catheter should then be passed +into the wound, as was done during life to wash it out, for the purpose +of assisting to find the position of the bullet; that a long incision +should next be made from the superior extremity of the sternum to the +pubis, and this crossed by a transverse one just below the umbilicus; +that the abdominal flaps thus made should then be turned back and the +abdominal viscera examined; that after the abdominal cavity was opened, +the position of the bullet should be ascertained, if possible, before +making any further incision, and that, finally, the thoracic viscera +should be examined. This order of procedure was unanimously agreed to, +and the examination was proceeded with. + +[Illustration: Dr. Woodward. Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Barnes. Dr. Bliss. Dr. +Hamilton. Dr. Agnew.] + +The following external appearances were first observed: The body was +considerably emaciated, but the face was much less wasted than the +limbs. A preservative fluid had been injected by the embalmer a few +hours before into the left femoral artery. The pipes used for the +purpose were still in position. The anterior surface of the body +presented no abnormal appearances, and there was no ecchymosis or other +discoloration of any part of the front of the abdomen. Just below the +right ear, and a little behind it, there was an oval ulcerated opening +about half an inch in diameter, from which some sanious pus was +escaping, but no tumefaction could be observed in the parotid region. A +considerable number of purpura-like spots were scattered thickly over +the left scapula, and thence forward as far as the axilla. They ranged +from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, were slightly +elevated and furfuraceous on the surface, and many of them were +confluent in groups of two to four or more. A similar, but much less +abundant, eruption was observed sparsely scattered over the +corresponding region on the right side. An oval excavated ulcer, about +an inch long, the result of a small carbuncle, was seated over the +spinous process of the tenth dorsal vertebra. Over the sacrum there were +four small bed sores, the largest about half an inch in diameter. A few +acute pustules and a number of irregular spots of post-mortem hypostatic +congestion were scattered over the shoulders, back and buttocks. The +inferior part of the scrotum was much discolored by hypostatic +congestion. A group of hemorrhoidal tumors rather larger than a walnut +protruded from the anus. The depressed cicatrix of the wound made by the +pistol bullet was recognized over the tenth intercostal space at three +and a half inches to the right of the vertebral spines. A deep linear +incision made in part by the operation of July 24, and extended by that +of August 8, occupied a position closely corresponding to the upper +border of the right twelfth rib. It commenced posteriorly about two +inches from the vertebral spines and extended forward a little more +than three inches. At the anterior extremity of this incision there was +a deep, nearly square, abraded surface, about an inch across. A flexible +catheter, fourteen inches long, was then passed into this wound, as had +been done to wash it out during life. More resistance was at first +encountered than had usually been the case, but after several trials the +catheter entered, without any violence, its full length. It was then +left in position, and the body disposed supinely for the examination of +the viscera. The cranium was not opened. A long incision was made from +the superior extremity of the sternum to the pubis, followed by a +transverse incision crossing the abdomen, just below the umbilicus. The +four flaps thus formed were turned back, and the abdominal viscera +exposed. The subcutaneous adipose tissue, divided by the incision, was +little more than one-eighth of an inch thick over the thorax, but was +thicker over the abdomen, being about a quarter of an inch thick along +the linear alba and as much as half an inch thick towards the outer +extremity of the transverse incision. On inspection of the abdominal +viscera in situ, the transverse colon was observed to lie a little above +the line of the umbilicus. It was firmly adherent to the anterior edge +of the liver. The greater omentum covered the intestines pretty +thoroughly from the transverse colon almost to the pubis. It was still +quite fat and was very much blackened by venous congestion. On both +sides its lateral margins were adherent to the abdominal parietes +opposite the eleventh and twelfth ribs. On the left side the adhesions +were numerous, firm, well organized, and probably old. [A foot-note here +says: These adhesions and the firm ones on the right side, as well as +those of the spleen, possibly date back to an attack of chronic +dysentery, from which the patient is said to have suffered during the +civil war.] On the right side there were a few similar adhesions and a +number of more delicate and probably recent ones. A mass of black, +coagulated blood covered and concealed the spleen and the left margin of +the greater omentum. On raising the omentum it was found that a blood +mass extended through the left lumbar and iliac regions, and dipped down +into the pelvis, in which there was some clotted blood and rather more +than a pint of bloody fluid. [A foot-note here says: A large part of +this fluid had probably transuded from the injection material of the +embalmer.] The blood coagula, having been turned out and collected, +measured very nearly a pint. It was now evident that secondary +hemorrhage had been the immediate cause of death, but the point from +which the blood had escaped was not at once apparent. The omentum was +not adherent to the intestines, which were moderately distended with +gas. No intestinal adhesions were found other than those between the +transverse colon and the liver, already mentioned. + +The abdominal cavity being now washed out as thoroughly as possible, a +fruitless attempt was made to obtain some indication of the presence of +the bullet before making any further incision. By pushing the intestines +aside, the extremity of the catheter, which had been pressed into the +wound, could be felt between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, +but it had evidently doubled upon itself, and, although a prolonged +search was made, nothing could be seen or felt to indicate the presence +of the bullet, either in that region or elsewhere. The abdominal viscera +were then carefully removed from the body, placed in suitable vessels +and examined seriatim, with the following result: The adhesions between +the liver and the transverse colon proved to bound an abscess cavity +between the under surface of the liver, the transverse colon and the +transverse mesocolon, which involved the gall-bladder, and extended to +about the same distance on each side of it, measuring six inches +transversely, and four inches from before backward. This cavity was +lined by a thick pyogenic membrane, which completely replaced the +capsule of that part of the under surface of the liver occupied by the +abscess. It contained about two ounces of greenish-yellow fluid, a +mixture of pus and biliary matter. This abscess did not involve any +portion of the substance of the liver, except the surface with which it +was in contact. No communication could be traced between it and any part +of the wound. Some recent peritoneal adhesions existed between the upper +surface of the right lobe of the liver and the diaphragm. The liver was +larger than normal, weighing eighty-four ounces; its substance was firm, +but of a pale yellowish color on its surface, and throughout the +interior of the organ, from fatty degeneration. No evidence that it had +been penetrated by the bullet could be found, nor were there any +abscesses or infractions in any part of its tissue. The spleen was +connected to the diaphragm by firm, probably old, peritoneal adhesions. +There were several rather deep congenial fissures in its margins, giving +it a lobulated appearance. It was abnormally large, weighing eighteen +ounces, of a very dark, lake-red color. Its parenchyma was soft and +flabby, but contained no abscesses or infractions. There were some +recent peritoneal adhesions between the posterior wall of the stomach +and the posterior abdominal parietes. With this exception, no +abnormities were discovered in the stomach or intestines, nor were any +other evidences of general or acute peritonitis found besides those +already specified. The right kidney weighed six ounces, the left kidney +seven. Just beneath the capsule of the left kidney, at about the middle +of its convex border, there was a little abscess one-third of an inch in +diameter. There were three small serous cysts on the convex border of +the right kidney, just beneath its capsule. In other respects the tissue +of both kidneys was normal in appearance and in texture. The urinary +bladder was empty. Behind the right kidney, after the removal of that +organ from the body, the dilated track of the bullet was discovered. It +was found that, from the point at which it had fractured the right +eleventh rib, three inches and a half to the right of the vertebral +spines, the missile had gone to the left obliquely forward, passing +through the body of the first lumbar vertebra, and lodging in the +adipose collective tissue, immediately below the lower border of the +pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spinal column, +and behind the peritoneum. It had become completely encysted. The track +of the bullet between the point at which it had fractured the eleventh +rib and that at which it entered the first lumbar vertebra was +considerably dilated, and the pus had burrowed downward through the +adipose tissue behind the right kidney, and thence had found its way +between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, making a descending +channel, which extended almost to the groin. The adipose tissue behind +the kidney, in the vicinity of the descending channel, was much +thickened and condensed by inflammation. In the channel, which was found +almost free from pus, lay the flexible catheter introduced into the +wound at the commencement of the autopsy. Its extremity was found +doubled upon itself immediately beneath the peritoneum, reposing upon +the iliac fossa, where the channel was dilated into a pouch of +considerable size. This long descending channel, now clearly seen to +have been caused by the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed, +during life, to have been the track of the bullet. The last dorsal, +together with the first and second lumbar vertebra and the twelfth rib, +were then removed from the body for more thorough examination. When this +examination was made, it was found that the bullet had penetrated the +first lumbar vertebra in the upper part of the right side of the body. +The aperture by which it entered the intervertebral cartilage next +above, was situated just below and anterior to the intervertebral +foramen, from which the upper margin was about one-quarter of an inch +distant. Passing obliquely to the left, and forward through the upper +part of the body of the first lumbar vertebra, the bullet emerged by the +aperture, the centre of which was about half an inch to the left of the +median line, and which also involved the intervertebral cartilage next +above. The cancellated tissue of the body of the first lumbar vertebra +was very much comminuted, and the fragments somewhat displaced. Several +deep fissures extended from the track of the bullet into the lower part +of the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. Others extended through the +first lumbar vertebra into the intervertebral cartilage, between it and +the second lumbar vertebra. Both this cartilage and the next above were +partly destroyed by ulceration. A number of minute fragments from the +fractured lumbar vertebra had been driven into the adjacent soft parts. +It was further found that the right twelfth rib also was fractured at a +point one and a quarter inches to the right of the transverse process of +the twelfth dorsal vertebra. This injury had not been recognized during +life. On sawing through the vertebra, a little to the right of the +median line, it was found that the spinal canal was not involved by the +track of the ball. The spinal cord and other contents of this portion of +the spinal canal presented no abnormal appearance. The rest of the +spinal cord was not examined. Beyond the first lumbar vertebra, the +bullet continued to go to the left, passing behind the pancreas to the +point where it was found. Here it was enveloped in a firm cyst of +connective tissues, which contained, beside the ball, a minute quantity +of inspissated somewhat cheesy pus, which formed a thin layer of a +portion of the surface of the lead. There was also a black shred +adherent to a part of the cyst wall, which proved, on microscopal +examination, to be the remains of a blood clot. For about an inch from +this cyst, the track of the ball behind the pancreas was completely +obliterated by the healing process. Thence as far backward as the body +of the first lumbar vertebra the track was filled with coagulated blood, +which extended on the left into an irregular space rent in the adjoining +adipose tissue behind the peritoneum and above the pancreas. The blood +had worked its way to the left, bursting finally through the peritoneum +behind the spleen into the abdominal cavity. + +The rending of the tissues by the extravasation of this blood was +undoubtedly the cause of the paroxysms of pain which occurred a short +time before death. This mass of coagulated blood was of irregular form, +and nearly as large as a man's fist. It could be distinctly seen from in +front through the peritoneum, after the greater curvature of the stomach +had been exposed by the dissolution of the greater omentum from the +stomach, and especially after some delicate adhesions between the +stomach and the part of the peritoneum covering the blood mass had been +broken down by the fingers. From the relations of the mass, as thus +seen, it was believed that the hemorrhage had proceeded from one of the +mesenteric arteries; but, as it was clear that a minute dissection +would be required to determine the particular branch involved, it was +agreed that the infiltrated tissues and the adjoining soft parts should +be preserved for subsequent study. On the examination and dissection +made in accordance with this agreement, it was found that the fatal +hemorrhage proceeded from a rent, nearly four tenths of an inch long, in +the main trunk of the splenic artery, two inches and a half to the left +of the coeliac axis. The rent must have occurred at least several days +before death, since the everted edges in the slit in the vessel were +united by firm adhesions to the surrounding connective tissue, thus +forming an almost continuous wall, bounding the adjoining portion of the +blood clot. Moreover, the peripheral portion of the clot in this +vicinity was disposed in pretty firm concentric layers. It was further +found that the cyst below the lower margin of the pancreas, in which the +bullet was found, was situated three and one-half inches to the left of +the coeliac axis. Beside the mass of coagulated blood just described, +another about the size of a walnut was found in the greater omentum, +near the splenic extremity of the stomach. The communication, if any, +between this and the larger hemorrhagic mass could not be made out. + +The examination of the thoracic viscera resulted as follows: The heart +weighed eleven ounces. All the cavities were entirely empty, except the +right ventrical, in which a few shreds of soft reddish coagulated blood +adhered to the internal surface. On the surface of the mitral valve +there were several spots of fatty degeneration. With this exception the +cardiac valves were normal. The muscular tissues of the heart were soft +and tore easily. A few spots of fatty degeneration existed in the lining +membrane of the aorta, just above the semilunar valves, and a slender +clot of fibrine was found in the aorta, where it was divided, about two +inches from these valves, for the removal of the heart. On the right +side slight pleuritic adhesions existed between the convex surface of +the lower lobe of the lung and the costal pleura, and firm adhesions +between the anterior edge of the lower lobe, the pericardium and the +diaphragm. The right lung weighed thirty-two ounces. The posterior part +of the fissure between its upper and lower lobes was congenitally +incomplete. The lower lobe of the right lung was hypostatically +congested, and considerable portions, especially toward its base, were +the seat of broncho-pneumonia. The bronchial tubes contained a +considerable quantity of stringy mucous pus. Their mucous surface was +reddened by catarrhal bronchitis. The lung tissue was oedematous. [A +foot-note here says: A part at least of this condition was doubtless due +to the extravasation of the injecting fluids by the embalmer. But it +contained no abscesses or infractions.] On the left side the lower lobe +of the lung was bound behind to the costal pleura, above to the upper +lobe, and below to the diaphragm by pretty firm pleuritic adhesions. The +left lung weighed twenty-seven ounces. The condition of its bronchial +tubes and of the lung tissues was very nearly the same as on the right +side, the chief difference being that the area of broncho-pneumonia in +the lower lobe was much less extensive in the left lung than in the +right. In the lateral part of the lower lobe of the left lung, and about +an inch from its pleural surface, there was a group of four minute areas +of gray hepatization, each about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. +There were no infractions and no abscesses in any part of the lung +tissue. + +The surgeons assisting at the autopsy were unanimously of the opinion +that, in reviewing the history of the case in connection with the +autopsy, it was quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, +and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnished a +sufficient explanation of the septic conditions which existed during +life. About an hour after the post-mortem examination was completed the +physicians named at the commencement of this report assembled for +further consultation in an adjoining cottage. A brief outline of the +results of the post-mortem examination was drawn up, signed by all the +physicians, and handed to Private Secretary J. Stanley Brown, who was +requested to furnish copies to the newspaper press. + + D. W. BLISS. + J. K. BARNES. + J. J. WOODWARD. + ROBERT REYBURN. + D. S. LAMB. + +As the above report contains paragraphs detailing the observations made +at Washington on the pathological specimens preserved for that purpose, +the names of Drs. J. H. Hamilton, D. Hayes Agnew, and A. H. Smith, are +not appended to it. It has, however, been submitted to them, and they +have given their assent to the other portions of the report. + + +III. + +SENATOR HOAR'S ADDRESS. + +I should indulge myself in a strange delusion if I hoped to say anything +of President Garfield which is not already well known to his countrymen, +or to add further honor to a name to which the judgment of the world, +with marvelous unanimity, has already assigned its place. The public +sorrow and love have found utterance, if not adequate, yet such as +speech, and silence, and funeral rite, and stately procession, and +prayers, and tears could give. On the twenty-sixth day of September, the +day of the funeral, a common feeling stirred mankind as never before in +history. That mysterious law, by which, in a great audience, every +emotion is multiplied in each heart by sympathy with every other, laid +its spell on universal humanity. At the touch which makes the whole +world kin, all barriers of rank, or party, or State, or Nation +disappeared. His own Ohio, the State of his birth and of his burial, New +England, from whose loins came the sturdy race from which he descended, +whose college gave him his education, can claim no pre-eminence in +sorrow. + +From farthest south comes the voice of mourning for the soldier of the +Union. Over fisherman's hut and frontiersman's cabin is spread a gloom +because the White House is desolate. The son of the poor widow is dead, +and palace and castle are in tears. As the humble Campbellite disciple +is borne to his long home, the music of the requiem fills cathedral +arches and the domes of ancient synagogues. On the coffin of the +canal-boy a queen lays her wreath. As the bier is lifted, word comes +beneath the sea that the nations of the earth are rising and bowing +their heads. From many climes, in many languages they join in the solemn +service. This is no blind and sudden emotion, gathering and breaking +like a wave. It is the mourning of mankind for a great character already +perfectly known and familiar. If there be any persons who fear that +religious faith is dying, that science has shaken the hold of the moral +law upon the minds of men, let them take comfort in asking themselves if +any base or ignoble passion could have so moved mankind. Modern science +has called into life these mighty servants, press and telegraph, who +have created a nerve which joins together all human hearts and pulses +simultaneously over the globe. To what conqueror, to what tyrant, to +what selfish ambition, to what mere intellectual greatness would it not +have refused response? The power in the universe that makes for evil, +and the power in the universe that makes for righteousness, measure +their forces. A poor, weak fiend shoots off his little bolt, a single +human life is stricken down, and a throb of divine love thrills a +planet. + +Every American State has its own story of the brave and adventurous +spirits who were its early settlers; the men who build commonwealths, +the men of whom commonwealths are builded. The history of the settlement +of Massachusetts, of central New York, and of Ohio, is the history of +the Garfield race. They were, to borrow a felicitous phrase, "hungry for +the horizon." They were natural frontiersmen. Of the seven generations +born in America, including the President, not one was born in other than +a frontiersman's dwelling. + +Two of them, father and son, came over with Winthrop in 1630. Each of +the six generations who dwelt in Massachusetts has left an honorable +record still preserved. Five in succession bore an honorable military +title. Some were fighters in the Indian wars. "It is not in Indian +wars," Fisher Ames well says, "that heroes are celebrated, but it is +there they are formed." At the breaking out of the Revolution the male +representatives of the family were two young brothers. One, whose name +descended to the President, was in arms at Concord bridge, at sunrise, +on the 19th of April. The other, the President's great grandfather, +dwelling thirty miles off, was on his way to the scene of action before +noon. When the Constitution rejected by Massachusetts in 1778 was +proposed, this same ancestor, with his fellow-citizens of the little +town of Westminster, voted unanimously for the rejection, and put on +record their reasons. "It is our opinion that no constitution whatever +ought to be established till previously thereto a bill of rights be set +forth, and the constitution be framed therefrom, so that the lowest +capacity may be able to determine his natural rights, and judge of the +equitableness of the constitution thereby." "And as to the Constitution +itself, the following appears to us exceptionable, viz, the fifth +article," [Excepting negroes, mulattoes and Indians from the right to +vote], "which deprives a portion of the human race of their natural +rights on account of their color, which, in our opinion, no power on +earth has a just right to do. It therefore ought to be expunged the +Constitution." No religious intolerance descended in the Garfield race. +But the creed of this Westminster catechism they seem never to have +forgotten. When the war was over, the same ancestor took his young +family and penetrated the forest again. He established his home in +Otsego county, in central New York, at the period and amid the scenes +made familiar by Cooper, in his delightful tale, _The Pioneers_. Again +the generations moved westward, in the march of civilization, keeping +ever in the van, until in 1831, James Garfield was born, in a humble +Ohio cabin where he was left fatherless in his infancy. In a new +settlement the wealth of the family is in the right arm of the father. +To say that the father, who had himself been left an orphan when he was +an infant, left his son fatherless in infancy, is to say that the family +was reduced to extreme poverty. + +I have not given this narrative as the story of a mean or ignoble +lineage. Such men, whether of Puritan, or Huguenot, or Cavalier stock, +have ever been the strength and the security of American States. From +such homes came Webster, and Clay, and Lincoln and Jackson. It is no +race of boors that has struck its axes into the forests of this +continent. These men knew how to build themselves log houses in the +wilderness. They were more skillful still to build constitutions and +statutes. Slow, cautious, conservative, sluggish, unready, in ordinary +life, their brains move quick and sure as their rifles flash, when great +controversies that determine the fate of States are to be decided, when +great interests that brook no delay are at stake, and great battles that +admit no indecision, are to be fought. The trained and disciplined +soldiers of England could not anticipate these alert farmers. On the +morning of the Revolution they were up before the sun. When Washington +was to be defended in 1861 the scholar, or the lawyer, or the man of the +city, dropped his book, left his court-house or his counting-room, and +found his company of yeomen waiting for him. They are ever greatest in +adversity. I would not undervalue the material of which other republics +have been built. The polished marbles of Greece and Italy have their own +grace. But art or nature contain no more exquisite beauty than the color +which this split and unhewn granite takes from the tempest it +withstands. There was never a race of men on earth more capable of +seeing clearly, of grasping, and of holding fast the great truths and +great principles which are permanent, sure, and safe for the government +of the conduct of life, alike in private and public concerns. If there +be, or ever shall be, in this country, a demos, fickle, light-minded, +easily moved, blind, prejudiced, incapable of permanent adherence to +what is great or what is true, whether it come from the effeminacy of +wealth or the scepticism of a sickly and selfish culture, or the poverty +and ignorance of great cities, it will find itself powerless in this +iron grasp. + +Blending with this Saxon stock, young Garfield inherited on the mother's +side the qualities of the Huguenots, those gentle but not less brave or +less constant Puritans, who, for conscience sake, left their beloved +and beautiful France, whose memory will be kept green so long as Maine +cherishes Bowdoin College, or Massachusetts Faneuil Hall; or New York +the antique virtue of John Jay, or South Carolina her Revolutionary +history--who gave a lustre and a glory to every place and thing they +touched. The child of such a race, left fatherless in the wilderness, +yet destined to such a glory, was committed by Providence to three great +teachers, without either of whom he would not have become fitted for his +distinguished career. These teachers were a wise Christian mother, +poverty, and the venerable college president who lived to watch his +pupil through the whole of his varied life, to witness his inauguration +amid such high hopes, and to lament his death. To no nobler matron did +ever Roman hero trace his origin. Few of the traditions of his Puritan +ancestry could have come down to the young orphan. It is said there were +two things with which his mother was specially familiar--the Bible and +the rude ballads of the war of 1812. The child learned the Bible at his +mother's knee, and the love of country from his cradle-hymns. + +I cannot, within the limits assigned to me, recount every circumstance +of special preparation which fitted the young giant for the great and +various parts he was to play in the drama of our republican life. It +would be but to repeat a story whose pathos and romance are all known by +heart to his countrymen. The childhood in the cabin; the struggle with +want almost with famine, the brother proudly bringing his first dollar +to buy shoes for the little bare feet; the labor in the forest, the +growth of the strong frame and the massive brain; the reading of the +first novel; the boy's longing for the sea; the canal-boat; the +carpenter's shop; the first school; the eager thirst for knowledge; the +learning that an obstacle seems only a thing to be overcome; the +founding of the college at Hiram; the companionship in study of the +gifted lady whose eulogy he pronounced; the Campbellite preaching; the +ever-wise guidance of the mother; the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate; we know them better even, than we know the youth +of Washington and of Webster. General Garfield said in 1878, that he had +not long ago conversed with an English gentleman, who told him that in +twenty-five years of careful study of the agricultural class in England +he had never known one who was born and reared in the ranks of farm +laborers that rose above his class and became a well-to-do citizen. The +story of a childhood passed in poverty, of intellect and moral nature +trained in strenuous contests with adversity, is not unfamiliar to those +who have read the lives of the men who have been successful in this +country in any of the walks of life. It is one of the most beneficent +results of American institutions that we have ceased to speak of poverty +and hardship, and the necessity for hard and humble toil as +disadvantages to a spirit endowed by nature with the capacity for +generous ambitions. In a society where labor is honorable, and where +every place in social or public life is open to merit, early poverty is +no more a disadvantage than a gymnasium to an athlete, or drill and +discipline to a soldier. + +General Garfield was never ashamed of his origin. He + + "Did not change, but kept in lofty place + The wisdom which adversity had bred." + +The humblest friend of his boyhood was ever welcome to him when he sat +in the highest seats, where Honor was sitting by his side. The poorest +laborer was sure of the sympathy of one who had known all the bitterness +of want and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of the brow. He +was ever the simple, plain, modest gentleman. When he met a common +soldier it was not the general or military hero that met him, but the +comrade. When he met the scholar, it was not the learned man, or the +college president, but the learner. It was fitting that he who found +open the road through every gradation of public honor, from the log +cabin to the Presidency, simply at the price of deserving it, should +have answered in the same speech the sophistries of communism and the +sinister forebodings of Lord Macaulay. "Here," he said, "society is not +fixed in horizontal layers, like the crust of the earth, but as a great +New England man said years ago, it is rather like the ocean, broad, +deep, grand, open, and so free in all its parts that every drop that +mingles with the yellow sand at the bottom, may ride through all the +waters, till it gleams in the sunshine on the crest of the highest +waves. So it is here in our free society, permeated with the light of +American freedom. There is no American boy, however poor, however +humble, orphan though he may be, that, if he have a clear head, a true +heart, a strong arm, he may not rise through all the grades of society, +and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the State. Here there is +no need for the Old World war between capital and labor. Here is no need +of the explosion of social order predicted by Macaulay." + +When seeking a place of education in the East, young Garfield wrote to +several New England colleges. The youth's heart was touched, and his +choice decided by the tone of welcome in the reply of Dr. Hopkins, the +president of Williams. It was fortunate that his vigorous youth found +itself under the influence of a very great but very simple and sincere +character. The secret of Dr. Hopkins' power over his pupils lay, first, +in his own example, profound scholarship, great practical wisdom, +perfect openness and sincerity, and humility, second, in a careful study +of the disposition of each individual youth, third, justice, absolute, +yet accompanied by sympathy and respect, seldom severity, never scorn, +in dealing with the errors of boyhood. No harsh and inflexible law, cold +and pitiless as a winter's sea, dealt alike with the sluggish and the +generous nature. No storm of merciless ridicule greeted the shy, +awkward, ungainly, backwoodsman. And, beyond all, Dr. Hopkins taught his +pupils that lesson in which some of our colleges so sadly +fail--reverence for the republican life of which they were to form a +part, and for the great history of whose glory they were inheritors. It +was my fortune, on an evening last spring, to see the illustrious pupil, +I suppose for the last time on earth, take leave of the aged teacher +whose head the frosts of nearly fourscore winters had touched so +lightly, and to hear him say at parting, "I have felt your presence at +the beginning of my administration like a benediction." The President +delighted in his college. He kept unbroken the friendships he formed +within her walls. He declared that the place and its associations were +to him a fountain of perpetual youth. He never forgot his debt to her. +When he was stricken down he was on his way, all a boy again, to lay his +untarnished laurels at her feet. + +It would have been hard to find in this country a man so well equipped +by nature, by experience, and by training, as was Garfield when he +entered the Ohio Senate, in 1860, at the age of twenty-eight. He was in +his own person the representative of the plainest life of the backwoods +and the best culture of the oldest eastern community. He had been used +in his youth to various forms of manual labor. The years which he +devoted to his profession of teacher and of college president, were +years of great industry, in which he disciplined his powers of public +speaking and original investigation. Dr. Hopkins said of him: "There was +a large general capacity applicable to any subject and sound sense. What +he did was done with facility, but by honest and avowed work. There was +no pretence of genius or alternation of spasmodic effort and of rest, +but a satisfactory accomplishment in all directions of what was +undertaken." His sound brain and athletic frame could bear great labor +without fatigue. He had a thoroughly healthy and robust intellect, +capable of being directed upon any of the pursuits of life or any of the +affairs of State in any department of the public service. We have no +other example in our public life of such marvellous completeness of +intellectual development. He exhibited enough of his varied mental +capacity to make it sure that he could have attained greatness as a +metaphysician or a mathematician in any of the exact sciences, as a +linguist, as an executive officer, as he did in fact attain it as a +military commander, as an orator, as a debater and a parliamentary and +popular leader. + +The gigantic scale on which the operations of our late war were +conducted, has dwarfed somewhat the achievements of individual actors. +If in the history of either of the other wars in which our people have +engaged, whether before or after the Declaration of Independence, such a +chapter should be found as the narrative of Garfield's Kentucky +campaign, it would alone have made the name of its leader immortal. It +is said that General Rosecrans received the young schoolmaster with some +prejudice. "When he came to my headquarters," he says, "I must confess +that I had a prejudice against him, as I understood he was a preacher +who had gone into politics, and a man of that cast I was naturally +opposed to." In his official report Rosecrans says:-- + + "I especially mention Brigadier-General Garfield, ever + active, prudent and sagacious. I feel much indebted to him + for both counsel and assistance in the administration of + this army. He possesses the energy and the instinct of a + great commander." + +We must leave to soldiers and to military historians to assign then +relative historic importance to the movements of the war. But we may +safely trust the popular judgment which pronounces Garfield's role at +Chickamauga one of the most conspicuous instances of personal heroism, +and the Kentucky campaign a most brilliant example of fertility of +resource, combined audacity and prudence, sound military judgment, and +success against great odds. We may safely trust, too, the judgment of +the accomplished historian, who pronounces his report in favor of the +advance that ended with the battle of Chickamuauga "the ablest military +document submitted by a chief of staff to his superior during the war." +We may accept, also, the award of Lincoln, who made him major-general +for his brilliant service at Chickamauga, and the confidence of Thomas, +who offered him the command of an army corps. Great as was his capacity +for military service, the judgment of Abraham Lincoln did not err, when +it summoned him to the field of labor where his greatest laurels were +won. It is the fashion, in some quarters, to lament the decay of +statesmanship, and to make comparisons, by no means complimentary, +between persons now entrusted with the conduct of public affairs, and +their predecessors. We may at least find consolation in the knowledge +that when any of our companions die they do not fail to receive full +justice from the hearts of the people. + +Suppose any of the statesmen who preceded the war, or some intelligent +and not unfriendly foreign observer--some De Tocqueville or Macaulay--to +look forward with Garfield to the duties which confronted him when he +entered Congress in 1863. With what despair, in the light of all past +experience, would he have contemplated the future. How insignificant the +difficulties which beset the men of the preceding seventy years compared +with those which have crowded the seventeen which were to follow. How +marvellous the success the American people have achieved in dealing with +these difficulties compared with that which attended the statesmanship +of the times of Webster and Clay and Calhoun, giants as they were. The +greatness of these men is not likely to be under-valued anywhere, least +of all in Massachusetts. They contributed each in his own way those +masterly discussions of the great principles by which the Constitution +must be interpreted, and the economic laws on which material prosperity +depends, which will abide as perpetual forces so long as the republic +shall endure. Mr Webster, especially, aided in establishing in the +jurisprudence of the country the great judgments, which, on the one +hand, asserted for the national government its most necessary and +beneficent powers, and, on the other hand, have protected property and +liberty from invasion. He uttered in the Senate the immortal argument +which convinced the American people of the unity of the republic and the +supremacy and indestructibility of the national authority. It has been +well said that the cannon of the nation were shotted with the reply to +Hayne. But the only important and permanent measure with which the name +of Webster is connected is the Ashburton treaty--an achievement of +diplomacy of little consequence in comparison with those which obtained +from the great powers of Europe the relinquishment of the doctrine of +perpetual allegiance, or with the Alabama treaty of 1871. Mr. Clay's +life was identified with two great policies--the protection of American +industry and the compromise between slavery and freedom in their strife +for control of the Territories. When he died the free-trade tariff of +1844 was the law of the land, and within two years the Missouri +compromise was repealed. Mr Calhoun has left behind him the memory of a +stainless life, great intellectual power and a lost cause. + +To each generation is committed its peculiar task. To these men it was +given to wake the infant republic to a sense of its own great destiny, +and to teach it the laws of its being, by which it must live or bear no +life. To the men of our time the abstract theories, which were only +debated in other days, have come as practical realities, demanding +prompt and final decision on questions where error is fatal. From the +time of Jay's treaty no such problem has presented itself to American +diplomacy as that which the war left as its legacy. The strongest power +on earth, accustomed, in dealing with other nations, to take counsel +only of her pride and her strength, had inflicted on us vast injury, of +which the honor of this country seemed pledged to insist on reparation, +which England conceived hers equally pledged to deny. But in domestic +affairs, the difficulties were even greater. For six of the sixteen +years that followed the death of Lincoln, the President was not in +political accord with either house of Congress. For four others the +house was of different politics from President and Senate. During the +whole time the dominant party had to encounter a zealous and able +opposition, and to submit its measures to a people having apparently the +strongest inducements to go wrong. The rights of capital were to be +determined by the votes of labor, debtors to fix the value of their +payments to their creditors, a people under no constraint but their own +sense of duty to determine whether they would continue to bear the +weight of a vast debt, the policy of dealing with the conquered to be +decided at the close of a long war by the votes of the conquerors, among +whom every other family was in mourning for its dead, finance and +currency with their subtleties, surpassing the subtleties of +metaphysics to be made clear to the apprehension of plain men; business +to be recalled from the dizzy and dangerous heights of speculation to +moderate gains and safe laws; great public ways connecting distant +oceans to be built; commerce to be diverted into unaccustomed channels; +the mouth of the Mississippi to be opened; a great banking system to be +devised and put in operation, such as was never known before, alike +comprehensive and safe, through whose veins and arteries credit, the +life-blood of trade should ebb and flow in the remotest extremities of +the land; four millions of people to be raised from slavery to +citizenship; millions more to be welcomed from foreign lands; a disputed +presidential succession to be settled, after an election contest in +which the country seemed turned into two hostile camps, by a tribunal +for which the founders of the government had made no provision; all this +to be accomplished under the restraints of a written Constitution. + +When this list has been enumerated the eulogy of Garfield the statesman +has been spoken. There is scarcely one of these questions, certainly not +more than one or two, which he did not anticipate, carefully and +thoroughly study for himself before it arose, and to which he did not +contribute an original argument, unsurpassed in persuasive force. +Undoubtedly there were others who had more to do with marshalling the +political forces of the house. But almost from the time he entered it he +was the leader of its best thought. He was ever serious, grave, +addressing himself only to the reason and conscience of his auditors. + +He lived in a State whose people were evenly divided in politics, and on +whose decision, as it swayed alternately from side to side, the fate of +the country often seemed to depend. You will search his speeches in vain +for an appeal to a base motive or an evil passion. Many men who are +called great political leaders are really nothing but great political +followers. They study the currents of a public sentiment which other men +form. They use as instruments opinions which they never espoused till +they became popular. General Garfield always consulted with great care +the temper of the house in the conduct of measures which were under his +charge. But he was remarkably independent in forming his judgments, and +inflexible in adhering to them on all great essential questions. His +great friend and commander, General Thomas, whose stubborn courage saved +the day in the great battle for the possession of Tennessee, was +well-called the "rock of Chickamauga." In the greater battle in 1876 for +the nation's honor, Garfield well deserved to be called the "rock of +Ohio." Everything he did and said manifested the serious, reverent love +of excellent. He had occasion often to seek to win to his opinions +masses of men composed largely of illiterate persons. No man ever heard +from his lips a sneer at scholarship. At the same time, he never made +the scholar's mistake of undervaluing the greatness of the history of +his own country, or the quality of his own people. + +The limits of this discourse do not permit me to enter into the detail +of the variety and extent of his service in debate, in legislation, and +in discussions before the people. I could detain you until midnight were +I to recount from my own memory the great labors of the twelve years +that it was my privilege to share with him in the public service, for +four of which I sat almost by his side. Everybody who had a new thought +brought it to him for hospitable welcome. Did science or scholarship +need anything of the government, Garfield was the man to whom they came. +While charged with the duty of supervising the details of present +legislation he was always foreseeing and preparing for the future. In +the closing years of the war, while chairman of the committee of +military affairs, he was studying finance. Later he had prepared himself +to deal with the defects in the civil service. I do not think the +legislation of the next twenty years will more than reach the ground +which he had already occupied in his advanced thought. + +General Garfield gave evidence of vast powers of oratory on some very +memorable occasions. But he made almost no use of them as a means of +persuading the people to conclusions where great public interests were +at stake. Sincerity, directness, full and perfect understanding of his +subject, clear logic, manly dignity, simple and apt illustration, marked +all his discourse. But on a few great occasions, such as that in New +York, when the people were moved almost to frenzy by the assassination +of Lincoln, or in the storm which moved the great human ocean at the +convention at Chicago, he showed that he could touch with a master's +hands the chords of that mighty instrument-- + + "Such as raised + To height of noblest temper heroes old, + Arming to battle, and instead of rage + Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved + With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; + Nor wanting power to mitigate and suage + With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase + Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain + From mortal or immortal minds." + +When General Garfield took the oath of office as President, he seemed to +those who knew him best, though in his fiftieth year, still in the prime +of a splendid and vigorous youth. He was still growing. We hoped for him +eight years of brilliant administration, and then, in some form or place +of service, an old age like that of Adams, whom, in variety of +equipment, alone of our Presidents he resembled. What was best and +purest and loftiest in the aspiration of America seemed at last to have +laid its hand on the helm. Under its beneficent rule we hoped, as our +country entered on its new career of peace and prosperity, a nobler +liberty, a better friendship, a purer justice, a more lasting +brotherhood. But he was called to a sublimer destiny. He had ascended +along and up the heights of service, of success, of greatness, of glory; +ever raised by the people to higher ranks for gallant and meritorious +conduct on each field, until by their suffrages he stood foremost among +men of the foremost among nations. But in the days of his sickness and +death he became the perpetual witness and example how much greater than +the achievements of legislative halls, or the deeds of the field of +battle, are the household virtues and simple family affections which all +men have within their reach; how much greater than the lessons of the +college or the camp, or the congress, are the lessons learned at +mother's knees. The honors paid to Garfield are the protest of a better +age and a better generation against the vulgar heroisms of the past. Go +through their mausoleums and under their triumphal arches, and see how +the names inscribed there shrink and shrivel compared with that of this +Christian soldier, whose chiefest virtues, after all, are of the +fireside and the family circle, and of the dying bed. Here the hero of +America becomes the hero of humanity. + +We are justified, then, in saying of this man that he has been tried and +tested in every mode by which the quality of a human heart and the +capacity of a human intellect can be disclosed; by adversity, by +prosperity, by poverty, by wealth, by leadership in deliberative +assemblies, and in the perilous edge of battle, by the height of power +and of fame. The essay was to be completed by the certain and visible +approach of death. As he comes out into the sunlight, more and more +clearly does his country behold a greatness and symmetry which she is to +see in their true and full proportions only when he lies in the repose +of death. + + "As sometimes in a dead man's face, + To those that watch it more and more, + A likeness, hardly seen before, + Comes out, to some one of his race, + + So, dearest, now thy brows are cold, + I see thee what thou art, and know + Thy likeness to the wise below, + Thy kindred with the great of old." + +Let us not boast at the funeral of our dead. Such a temper would be +doubly odious in the presence of such expressions of hearty sympathy +from governments of every form. But we should be unfaithful to ourselves +if in asking for this man a place in the world's gallery of illustrious +names we did not declare that we offer him as an example of the +products of Freedom. With steady and even step he walked from the +log-cabin and the canal-path to the school, to the college, to the +battle-field, to the halls of legislation, to the White House, to the +chamber of death. The ear in which the voices of his countrymen, hailing +him at the pinnacle of human glory had scarcely died out, heard the +voice of the dread archangel, and his countenance did not change. Is not +that country worth dying for whose peasantry are of such a strain? Is +not the Constitution worth standing by under whose forms Freedom calls +such men to her high places? Is not the Union worth saving which gives +all of us the property of countrymen in such a fame? + + +IV. + +HON. JAMES G. BLAINE'S EULOGY. + +MR. PRESIDENT: For the second time in this generation the great +departments of the Government of the United States are assembled in the +Hall of Representatives to do honor to the memory of a murdered +President. Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty struggle in which the +passions of men had been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his +great life added but another to the lengthened succession of horrors +which had marked so many lintels with the blood of the first born. +Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled +to brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the land. +"Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it +as it has been exhibited where such example was last to have been looked +for, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by +revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a +decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an example of +human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an +infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his +character." + + * * * * * + +From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the uprising against +Charles First, about twenty thousand emigrants came from Old England to +New England. As they came in pursuit of intellectual freedom and +ecclesiastical independence rather than for worldly honor and profit, +the emigration naturally ceased when the contest for religious liberty +began in earnest at home. The man who struck his most effective blow for +freedom of conscience by sailing for the colonies in 1620 would have +been accounted a deserter to leave after 1640. The opportunity had then +come on the soil of England for that great contest which established the +authority of Parliament, gave religious freedom to the people, sent +Charles to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver Cromwell the +Supreme Executive authority of England. The English emigration was never +renewed, and from these twenty thousand men with a small emigration from +Scotland and from France are descended the vast numbers who have New +England blood in their veins. + +In 1685 the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to +other countries four hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the +most intelligent and enterprising of French subjects--merchants of +capital, skilled manufacturers and handicraftsmen, superior at the time +to all others in Europe. A considerable number of these Huguenot French +came to America, a few landed in New England and became honorably +prominent in its history. Their names have in large part become +anglicized, or have disappeared, but their blood is traceable in many of +the most reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated in honorable +memorials and useful institutions. + +From these two sources, the English-Puritan and the French-Huguenot, +came the late President--his father, Abram Garfield, being descended +from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. + +It was good stock on both sides--none better, none braver, none truer. +There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable +love of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. Garfield was proud +of his blood, and, with as much satisfaction as if he were a British +nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he +spoke of himself as ninth in descent from those who would not endure the +oppression of the Stuarts, and seventh in descent from the brave French +Protestants who refused to submit to tyranny even from the Grand +Monarque. + +General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits, and, during his +only visit to England, he busied himself in discovering every trace of +his forefathers in parish registries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting +with a friend in the gallery of the House of Commons one night after a +long day's labor in this field of research, he said with evident elation +that in every war in which for three centuries patriots of English blood +had struck sturdy blows for constitutional government and human liberty, +his family had been represented. They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, +and at Preston, they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and at Monmouth, +and in his own person had battled for the same great cause in the war +which preserved the Union of the States. + +Losing his father before he was two years old, the early life of +Garfield was one of privation, but its poverty has been made +indelicately and unjustly prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined +him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality too often greets the +eye in the squalid sections of our large cities. General Garfield's +infancy and youth had none of their destitution, none of their pitiful +features appealing to the tender heart and to the open hand of charity. +He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy; +in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy; in which Daniel Webster was a +poor boy: in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of +America in all generations, have been poor boys. Before a great +multitude of men, in a public speech, Mr Webster bore this testimony; + +"It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder +brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin raised amid the snowdrifts +of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first +from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills there was no +similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the +settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to +it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the +hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love +to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early +affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with +all I know of this primitive family abode." + +With the requisite change of scene, the same words would aptly portray +the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier, where all are +engaged in a common struggle, and where a common sympathy and hearty +co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty; +different in kind, different in influence and effect, from that +conscious and humiliating indigence which is every day forced to +contrast itself with neighboring wealth, on which it feels a sense of +grinding dependence. The poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty. +It is but the beginning of wealth, and has the boundless possibilities +of the future always opening before it. No man ever grew up in the +agricultural regions of the West, where a house-raising, or even a +corn-husking, is matter of common interest and helpfulness, with any +other feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence. This +honorable independence marked the youth of Garfield, as it marks the +youth of millions of the best blood and brain now training for the +future citizenship and future government of the republic. Garfield was +born heir to land, to the title of free-holder, which has been the +patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo Saxon race ever since +Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England. His adventure on the +canal--an alternative between that and the deck of a Lake Erie +schooner--was a farmer boy's device for earning money, just as the New +England lad begins a possibly greater career by sailing before the mast +on a coasting vessel or on a merchantman bound to the farther India or +to the China Seas. + +No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles +with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when +he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble +mould desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, +as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having +suffered the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of +charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family +love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations +which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those +which were recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with +pride. + +Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely +limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to +learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the +advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found +within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart. +While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and +became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his +speech in his maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At +eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his +ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his +efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in +the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. +While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies, +and was so successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to +enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of +the venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his +powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable +service. + +The history of Garfield's life to this period, presents no novel +features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-reliance, +self-sacrifice, and ambition, qualities, which, be it said for the honor +of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of +America. But from his graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of his +tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly +working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when +twenty-four years of age, he seemed as one bound to spring into +conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively +president of a college, State Senator of Ohio, major-general of the army +of the United States, and Representative elect to the National Congress. +A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief +and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history +of the country. + +Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than +such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his +march to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regiment, +the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume +command of a brigade, and to operate as an independent force in Eastern +Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey +Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of +occupying, in connection with other confederate forces, the entire +territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into secession. +This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young +college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and discouraging +position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it +himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of +men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country, +among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force under +the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen +active and important service in two preceding wars. + +The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the +endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he +imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted +to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated +estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, +the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force, and the +emancipation of an important territory from the control of the +rebellion. Coming at the close of a long series of disasters to the +Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance, +and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to the rank of +a military hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire command, +with a mobilized force of only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had +met an army of five thousand and defeated them--driving Marshall's +forces successively from two strongholds of their own selection, +fortified with abundant artillery. Major-General Buell, commanding the +Department of the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the regular +army, published an order of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant +result of the Big Sandy campaign, which would have turned the head of a +less cool and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared that his +services had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and +President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the more +substantial reward of a brigadier-general's commission, to bear date +from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall. + +The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sustained its brilliant +beginning. With his new commission he was assigned to the command of a +brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in the second and +decisive day's fight in the great battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the +year 1862 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the +armies with which he was serving. His practical sense was called into +exercise in completing the task assigned him by General Buell, of +reconstructing bridges and reëstablishing lines of railway communication +for the army. His occupation in this useful but not brilliant field was +varied by service on courts-martial of importance, in which department +of duty he won a valuable reputation attracting the notice and securing +the approval of the able and eminent Judge Advocate General of the Army. +That of itself was warrant to honorable fame; for among the great men +who in those trying days gave themselves, with entire devotion, to the +service of their country, one who brought to that service the ripest +learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who +labored with modesty and shunned applause, who, in the day of triumph, +sat reserved and silent and grateful--as Francis Deak in the hour of +Hungary's deliverance--was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who, in his +honorable retirement, enjoys the respect and veneration of all who love +the Union of the States. + +Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly important and +responsible post of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then at the +head of the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military +campaign no subordinate officer requires sounder judgment and quicker +knowledge of men than the chief of staff to the commanding general. An +indiscreet man in such a position can sow more discord, breed more +jealousy, and disseminate more strife, than any other officer in the +entire organization. When General Garfield assumed his new duties, he +found various troubles already well developed and seriously effecting +the value and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The energy, the +impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these +dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position, +will always remain one of the most striking proofs of his great +versatility. His military duties closed on the memorable field of +Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave +to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare +distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on a +field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a major-general in +the army of the United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the +battle of Chickamauga. + +The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General +Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He was +extremely desirous to accept the position, but was embarrassed by the +fact that he had, a year before, been elected to Congress, and the time +when he must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in +the military service, and had within his own breast the largest +confidence of success in the wider field which his new rank opened to +him. Balancing the argument on the one side and the other, anxious to +determine what was for the best, desirous above all things to do his +patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice of President +Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could, +at that time, be of especial value in the House of Representatives. He +resigned his commission of major-general on the fifth day of December, +1863, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the seventh. +He had served two years and four months in the army, and had just +completed his thirty-second year. + +The Thirty-eighth Congress is preëminently entitled in history to the +designation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was +flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the issues involved in the +continuance of the struggle. The Thirty seventh Congress had, indeed, +legislated to a large extent on war measures, but it was chosen before +any one believed that secession of the States would be actually +attempted. The magnitude of the work which fell upon its successor was +unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the +support of the army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of +legislation which it was forced to exercise. Only twenty-four States +were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members were upon its +roll. Among these were many distinguished party leaders on both sides, +veterans in the public service, with established reputations for +ability, and with that skill which comes only from parliamentary +experience. Into this assemblage of men Garfield entered without special +preparation, and it might almost be said unexpectedly. The question of +taking command of a division of troops under General Thomas or taking +his seat in Congress, was kept open till the last moment, so late, +indeed, that the resignation of his military commission and his +appearance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the uniform +of a major-general of the United States army on Saturday, and on Monday +in civilian's dress he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in +Congress from the State of Ohio. + +He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected him. +Descended almost entirely from New England stock, the men of the +Ashtabula district were intensely radical on all questions relating to +human rights. Well-educated, thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, +acutely discerning of character, not quick to bestow confidence, and +slow to withdraw it, they were at once the most helpful and most +exacting of supporters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom they have +once confided, is illustrated by the unparalleled fact that Elisha +Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings and James A. Garfield represented the +district for fifty-four years. + +There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public life +more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no +place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously +acquired, or to eminence won outside; no place where so little +consideration is shown for the feelings or the failures of beginners. +What a man gains in the House, he gains by sheer force of his own +character, and if he loses and falls back he must expect no mercy, and +will receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the survival of the +strongest is the recognized rule, and where no pretense can deceive and +no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is +impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed. + +With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest member in +the House when he entered, and was but seven years from his college +graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his +ability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front +with the confidence of one who belonged there. The House was crowded +with strong men of both parties; nineteen of them have since been +transferred to the Senate, and many of them have served with distinction +in the gubernatorial chairs of their respective States, and on foreign +missions of great consequence; but among them all none grew so rapidly, +none so firmly as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan of his parliamentary +hero, Garfield succeeded "because all the world in concert could not +have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he +played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that +were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy, on +which it was his power to draw." Indeed the apparently reserved force +which Garfield possessed, was one of his great characteristics. He never +did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He +never expended so much strength but that he seemed to be holding +additional power to call. This is one of the happiest and rarest +distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in +persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument. + +The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the +House of Representatives. His military life, illustrated by honorable +performance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely +terminated, and necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might +have done in a field where the great prizes are so few, cannot be +profitable. It is sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his duty +bravely; he did it intelligently; he won an enviable fame, and he +retired from the service without blot or breath against him. As a +lawyer, though admirably equipped for the profession, he can scarcely be +said to have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at the bar +were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhibited +on every field where he was put to the test, and if a man may be +accepted as a competent judge of his own capacity and adaptations, the +law was the profession to which Garfield should have devoted himself. +But fate ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest +largely upon his service in the House of Representatives. That service +was exceptionally long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to the +House, an honor enjoyed by not more than six other Representatives of +the more than five thousand who have been elected from the organization +of the government until this hour. + +As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, +where the position had been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield +must be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, than any man with +whom he was associated in public life, he gave careful and systematic +study to public questions, and he came to every discussion in which he +took part, with elaborate and complete preparation. He was a steady and +indefatigable worker. Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply +the place or achieve the results of labor, can find no encouragement in +Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, rapid, and skillful. He +possessed in a high degree the power of readily absorbing ideas and +facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from a book all +that was of value in it, by a reading apparently so quick and cursory +that it seemed like a mere glance at the table of contents. He was a +preëminently fair and candid man in debate, took no petty advantages, +stooped to no unworthy methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely +appealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame passion. He had a quicker +eye for the strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and +on his own side he so marshaled his weighty arguments as to make his +hearers forget any possible lack in the complete strength of his +position. He had a habit of stating his opponent's side with such +amplitude of fairness and such liberality of concession that his +followers often complained that he was giving his case away. But never +in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of the House did he +give his case away or fail, in the judgment of competent and impartial +listeners, to gain the mastery. + +These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a great debater, did +not, however, make him a great parliamentary leader. A parliamentary +leader, as that term is understood wherever free representative +government exists, is necessarily and very strictly the organ of his +party. An ardent American defined the instinctive warmth of patriotism +when he offered the toast, "Our country, always right, but right or +wrong, our country." The parliamentary leader who has a body of +followers that will do and dare and die for the cause, is one who +believes his party always right, but right or wrong, is for his party. +No more important or exacting duty devolves upon him than the selection +of the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely how to +strike, but where to strike and when to strike. He often skillfully +avoids the strength of his opponent's position and scatters confusion in +his ranks by attacking an exposed point when really the righteousness of +the cause and the strength of logical intrenchment are against him. He +conquers often both against the right and the heavy battalions; as when +young Charles Fox, in the days of his toryism, carried the House of +Commons against justice, against its immemorial rights, against his own +convictions, if, indeed, at that period Fox had convictions, and, in +the interest of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a tyrannical +sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat to which the electors of Middlesex +had chosen him, and installed Luttrell, in defiance, not merely of law +but of public decency. For an achievement of that kind Garfield was +disqualified--disqualified by the texture of his mind, by the honesty of +his heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and aspiration of +his nature. + +The three most destinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in +this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each +was a man of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense +personality, differing widely, each from the others, and yet with a +signal trait in common--the power to command. In the give and take of +daily discussion, in the art of controling and consolidating reluctant +and refractory followers; in the skill to overcome all forms of +opposition, and to meet, with competency and courage the varying phases +of unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defection, it would be difficult +to rank with these a fourth name in all our Congressional history. But +of those Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be impossible to +find in the parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, in +1841, when, at sixty-four years of age, he took the control of the Whig +party from the President who had received their suffrages, against the +power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the +Senate, against the Herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise +in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plentitude of +power, he hurled against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass of that +conquering column which had swept over the land in 1840, and drove his +administration to seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. +Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful, when, in 1854, +against the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise +counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts and even +the moral sense of the country, he forced a reluctant Congress into a +repeal of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens in his contests +from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his parliamentary leadership into +Congress, tied the hands of the President, and governed the country by +its own will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be discharged by the +Executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his hands at the +opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the +Cabinet and the moral power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew Johnson could +not command the support of one-third in either House against the +parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating +spirit and the unquestioned leader. + +From these three great men Garfield differed radically; differed in the +quality of his mind, in temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. +He could not do what they did, but he could do what they could not, and +in the breadth of his Congressional work he left that which will longer +exert a potential influence among men, and which, measured by the severe +test of posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring and more +enviable fame. + +Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and ignorant of the details +of his work, may, in some degree, measure them by the annals of +Congress. No one of the generation of public men to which he belonged +has contributed so much that will be valuable for future reference. His +speeches are numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them well studied, +carefully phrased, and exhaustive of the subject under consideration. +Collected from the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo volumes of +_Congressional Record_, they would present an invaluable compendium of +the political history of the most important era through which the +national government has ever passed. When the history of this period +shall be impartially written, when war legislation, measures of +reconstruction, protection of human rights, amendments to the +Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps toward specie +resumption, true theories of revenue may be reviewed, unsurrounded by +prejudice and disconnected from partisanism, the speeches of Garfield +will be estimated at their true value, and will be found to comprise a +vast magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis and sound +conclusion. Indeed, if no other authority were accessible, his speeches +in the House of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 1880, +would give a well-connected history and complete defence of the +important legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute +his parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be found to +forecast many great measures yet to be completed--measures which he knew +were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but which he confidently +believed would secure popular approval within the period of his own +lifetime, and by the aid of his own efforts. + +Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant parliamentary leaders, +it is not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the record of +American public life. He, perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr. Seward in +his supreme faith in the all-conquering power of a principle. He had the +love of learning, and the patient industry of investigation to which +John Quincy Adams owes his prominence and his Presidency. He had some of +those ponderous elements of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster, and +which, indeed, in all our public life, have left the great +Massachusetts senator without an intellectual peer. + +In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders in the +House of Commons present points of essential difference from Garfield. +But some of his methods recall the best features in the strong, +independent course of Sir Robert Peel, and striking resemblances are +discernible in that most promising of modern conservatives, who died two +early for his country and his fame, the Lord George Bentick. He had all +of Burke's love for the sublime and the beautiful, with, possibly, +something of his superabundance; and in his faith and his magnanimity, +in his power of statement, in his subtle analysis, in his faultless +logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth and world of +illustration, one is reminded of that great English statesman of to-day, +who, confronted with obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, +reviled by those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose +supposed rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene courage +for the amelioration of Ireland, and for the honor of the English name. + +Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or +anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in +Congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened by his +then recent election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as +a man occupying the very highest rank among those entitled to be called +statesmen. It was not mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We +must," says Mr. Emerson, "reckon success a constitutional trait. If Eric +is in robust health and has slept well and is at the top of his +condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland, he will +steer west, and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But take Eric out and +put in a stronger and bolder man, and the ships will sail six hundred, +one thousand, fifteen hundred miles farther, and reach Labrador and New +England. There is no chance in results." + +As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popular favor. He was met with +a storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomination, and it +continued, with increasing volume and momentum, until the close of his +victorious campaign: + + "No might nor greatness in mortality + Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny + The whitest virtue strikes. What King so strong + Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue." + +Under it all he was calm and strong, and confident; never lost his +self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered +word. Indeed, nothing in his whole life is more remarkable or more +creditable than his bearing through those five full months of +vituperation--a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant +and cruel draught upon the powers of moral endurance. The great mass of +these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, and with the general debris +of the campaign fell into oblivion. But, in a few instances, the iron +entered his soul, and he died with the injury unforgotten, if not +unforgiven. + +One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprecedented. Never before in +the history of partisan contests in this country had a successful +presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events and current +issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash, and even +desperate. The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate Alabama +letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his political +death warrant. They remembered, also, the hot-tempered effusion by which +General Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his +nomination, and the unfortunate speeches which rapidly consumed the +remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley, in a series of +vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway for his own +defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the advice of friends, +Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in +August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and +deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the summer and +autumn. With innumerable critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase +that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that might be +distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or +halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the more +remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write what he said, and +yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought and such +admirable precision of phrase as to defy the accident of misreport and +the malignity of misrepresentation. + +In the beginning of his presidential life, Garfield's experience did not +yield him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a +portion of the President's time were distasteful to him, and were +unfavorably contrasted with his legislative work. "I have been dealing +all these years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, "and here +I am dealing only with persons. I have been heretofore treating of the +fundamental principles of government, and here I am considering all day +whether A or B shall be appointed to this or that office." He was +earnestly seeking some practical way of correcting the evils arising +from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy patronage--evils always +appreciated and often discussed by him, but whose magnitude had been +more deeply impressed upon his mind since his accession to the +Presidency. Had he lived, a comprehensive improvement in the mode of +appointment and in the tenure of office, would have been proposed by +him, and, with the aid of Congress, no doubt perfected. + +But, while many of the executive duties were not grateful to him, he was +assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From the very outset he +exhibited administrative talent of a high order. He grasped the helm of +office with the hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he constantly +surprised many who were most intimately associated with him in the +government, and especially those who had feared that he might be lacking +in the executive faculty. His disposition of business was orderly and +rapid. His power of analysis, and his skill in classification, enabled +him to dispatch a vast mass of detail with singular promptness and ease. +His cabinet meetings were admirably conducted. His clear presentation of +official subjects, his well-considered suggestion of topics on which +discussion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, +combined to show a thoroughness of mental training, as rare as his +natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of +labor. + +With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a +cool calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a +generous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done by his +administration toward restoring harmony between the different sections +of the Union. He was anxious to go South and speak to the people. As +early as April he had ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to +Nashville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he was again +disappointed a few weeks later to find that he could not go to South +Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of the victory of the +Cowpens. + +But for the autumn he definitely counted on being present at three +memorable assemblies in the South--the celebration at Yorktown, the +opening of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army +of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was already turning over in his +mind his address for each occasion, and the three taken together, he +said to a friend, gave him the exact scope and verge which he needed. At +Yorktown he would have before him the associations of a hundred years +that bound the South and the North in the sacred memory of a common +danger and a common victory. At Atlanta he would present the material +interests and the industrial development which appealed to the thrift +and independence of every household, and which should unite the two +sections by the instinct of self-interest and self-defence. At +Chattanooga he would revive memories of the war only to show that, after +all its disaster and all its suffering, the country was stronger and +greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, through the +agony and blood of one generation, made brighter and better for all. + +Garfield's ambition for the success of his administration was high. With +strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of +attempting rash experiments, or of resorting to the empiricism of +statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer attention should +be given to questions affecting the material interests and commercial +prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our continental +relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, involved +responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be +abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He believed, with +equal confidence, that an essential forerunner to a new era of national +progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, +and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would +be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and +ambition may do under Republican institutions, he loved his country with +a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to +her advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he +looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the +philosophic composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of +John Adams. + +The political events which disturbed the President's serenity, for many +weeks before that fateful day in July, form an important chapter in his +career, and, in his own judgment, involved questions of principle and of +right which are vitally essential to the constitutional administration +of the federal government. It would be out of place here and now to +speak the language of controversy; but the events referred to, however +they may continue to be a source of contention with others, have become, +so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a matter of history as his +heroism at Chickamauga, or his illustrious service in the House. Detail +is not needful, and personal antagonism shall not be rekindled by any +word uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing him are not to be +here adversely interpreted nor their course harshly characterized. But +of the dead President this is to be said, and said because his own +speech is forever silenced and he can be no more heard except through +the fidelity and the love of surviving friends. From the beginning to +the end of the controversy he so much deplored, the President was never +for one moment actuated by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to +others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge; rarely did he even show +resentment, and malice was not in his nature. He was congenially +employed only in the exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly +deeds. + +There was not an hour, from the beginning of the trouble till the fatal +shot entered his body, when the President would not gladly, for the sake +of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he had taken, if such +retracing had merely involved consequences personal to himself. + +The pride of consistency, or any supposed sense of humiliation that +might result from surrendering his position, had not a feather's weight +with him. No man was ever less subject to such influences from within or +from without. But, after most anxious deliberation, and the coolest +survey of all the circumstances, he solemnly believed that the true +prerogatives of the executive were involved in the issue which had been +raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he +failed to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional rights and +dignities of his great office. He believed this in all the convictions +of conscience, when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed it in +his suffering and prostration in the last conscious thought which his +wearied mind bestowed on the transitory struggles of life. + +More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. +Justice to the dead, the highest obligation that devolves upon the +living, demands the declaration that, in all the bearings of the +subject, actual or possible, the President was content in his mind, +justified in his conscience, immovable in his conclusions. + +The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In +his early youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that +great Baptist communion, which, in different ecclesiastical +establishments, is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts +of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his +active spirit of inquiry were early apparent, and carried him beyond the +dogmas of sect and the restraint of association. In selecting a college +in which to continue his education, he rejected Bethany, though presided +over by Alexander Campbell, the great preacher of his church. His +reasons were characteristic; first, that Bethany leaned too heavily +toward slavery; and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the son +of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance with people of other +beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own +words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle +and be under new influences. + +The liberal tendency which he anticipated, as the result of wider +culture, was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian +belief, and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the +direction of modern progressive thought. He followed with quickening +step in the paths of exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden +by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other living scientists of the +radical and advanced type. His own church binding its disciples by no +formulated creed, but accepting the Old and New Testaments as the word +of God, with unbiased liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it +did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its members profess with +sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind and one faith with those +who immediately followed the Master, and who were first called +Christians at Antioch. + +But however high Garfield reasoned of "fixed fate, free will, +foreknowledge absolute," he was never separated from the Church of the +Disciples in his affections and in his associations. For him it held the +ark of the covenant. To him it was the gate of heaven. The world of +religious belief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A philosophic +observer declares that men by the thousand will die in defence of a +creed whose doctrines they do not comprehend, and whose tenets they +habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousands will +cling to church organizations with instinctive and undying fidelity, +when their belief in maturer years is radically different from that +which inspired them as neophytes. + +But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, +Garfield came back always with freshness and delight to the simpler +instincts of religious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest +survive. Not many weeks before his assassination, walking on the banks +of the Potomac with a friend, and conversing on those topics of personal +religion, concerning which noble natures have an unconquerable reserve, +he said that he found the Lord's prayer and the simple petitions learned +in infancy, infinitely restful to him, not merely in their stated +repetition, but in their casual and frequent recall as he went about the +daily duties of life. Certain texts of scriptures had a very strong hold +on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years +ago, an eminent Scotch preacher, who prefaced his sermon with reading +the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the +subject of careful study with Garfield during all his religious life. He +was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher, and declared +that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances +of St. Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, +and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant promise and the +assured hope with which the great apostle of the Gentiles was +"persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, +nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor +depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." + +The crowning characteristic of General Garfield's religious opinions, +as, indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he +had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities which he possessed himself--sincerity of conviction and +frankness of expression. With him the inquiry was not so much what a man +believes, but does he believe it? The lines of his friendship and his +confidence encircled men of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the +end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list of friends, were to be +found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and +generous hearted Free-Thinker. + +On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and +happy man--not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, +happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in +conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of +leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in a +grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial +his administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in +popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties +confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed; that trouble +lay behind him and not before him; that he was soon to meet the wife +whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately +disquieted and at times almost unnerved him; that he was going to his +Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young +manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest +had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered +upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in +the gift of his countrymen. + +Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this +world, on that quiet July morning, James A. Garfield may well have been +a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition +of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. +One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching +peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, +doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. + +Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the +very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he +was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, +its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death--and +he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned +and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, +but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony that were not +less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he +looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, +whose lips may tell--what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high +ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendships, what +bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him, a proud expectant +nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy +mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the +wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet +emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the +sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every +day, and every day rewarding, a father's love and care; and in his heart +the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation +and great darkness! and his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were +thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in +his moral weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined +in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could +not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With +unfaltering front he faced death; with unfailing tenderness he took +leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard +the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree. + +As the end drew near his early craving for the sea returned. The stately +mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he +begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling +air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the +love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing +of the sea, to live or die, as God should will, within sight of its +heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered +face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon +the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning +light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward, to break and die +beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to +the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us +think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning, which only the rapt +and parting soul may know. Let us believe that, in the silence of the +receding world, he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, +and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal +morning. + + +IV. + +A THRENODY ON GARFIELD. + +BY MRS. ELLEN KEY BLUNT. + + How beautiful it was to die as he has died, + Taking a calm around him by the force + Of his great soul, commanding peace from strife, + And changing all the discord into rest,-- + A heavenly music heard as life departs! + + How wonderful it was that the accursed hate + Which smote him brought forth only loyal love; + Like to some holy bell that being struck + Resounds with wondrous sweetness, sounding on + Through all the spaces to eternity. + + How noble was his dauntless fortitude + Which, as he lay expiring, day by day, + Made him almost control his destiny + And look upon his torture with a smile. + + As his life wasted, in great patience, wonderingly + His watchers watched him. They were not alone + Of his own people, but his watchers were the world, + From far-off shores and seas with pitiful + Sad yearnings towards him as his star went down. + + Nine times ten million souls in his own tongue + Prayed to the Almighty for his single life; + But he had risen too near to heaven in his great flight + To stoop again to earth, and so God took him, + Like a star folded in more perfect light. + + And he is dead, and multitudes have come + To his dead presence, and, with solemn care, + Moving in silence to the measured strain + He loved, in mournful sweet monotony + Repeated as they bore him step by step + Through harvest-fields of ripening trodden grain, + They laid him reverently, gently down + Where all the sheaves of earth are garnered at the last. + + Upon his pulseless form are richly piled + Wreaths, garlands, of the late yet lavish bloom + Of the perfected summer, with the exquisite thrill + Of life so fresh upon their shining leaves + Banners are furled around him, and the flag + We love droops mourning o'er the mourning land. + + And from afar beyond our land and lakes, + From the great world that watched him wonderingly + Come kind farewells and tender sympathies. + Pity has told her tale in every tongue + And kings have claimed him comrade, hand in hand. + + Fame has recorded him, + Love has rewarded him, + Mother, wife, children and people wept over him. + England accounted him + Kindred by blood. + All that are great and good + Have as his mourners stood + While he lay, day by day, passing away. + + A Queen sends comforting words of cheer, + And flowers to fade on his bloody bier. + God save the Queen when her last hour is near! + + The North was his by birth, + The South is his by death! + He conquered by suffering grandly borne + Our long-cherished strifes; they are gone, and now + Standing together we look on his pale dead face, + To whom we had given, the elected, a power more great + Than any king's. Together we revere + The majesty with which he laid it down + At God's command. Together we shall love + His memory, and each other for his sake, + And for the heart so high that it "could hate no man." + + God rest him! He has rested him! + Nothing can "hurt" him more, + "Nothing can touch him further." + + More than a king he lies + With the strong blaze of the world's homage + Full on his closed eyes. + + American, born in the forest, + The great lake for him sighs, + And England, crowned and sceptered, + Loves him as he dies. + + He fought in the deathly valley + From morn till the set of sun, + Till eighty days had run. + Then he folded his arms + And his day was done. + + Oh, the bloom is off of the prairie, + The butterfly's change is begun, + The pine cone flowers eternal, + The eagle has soared to the sun! + + * * * * * + +JUDGE BURNHAM'S DAUGHTERS. By "Pansy." + +(Mrs G. R. Alden), Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50. The multitude of +readers of Mrs. Alden's stories will remember _Ruth Erskine's Crosses_, +and will be glad to meet its principal character once more in her new +character of wife and mother, ripened by experience and strengthened by +trial. Her marriage will be remembered, and the radiant prospects of the +future which attended it. Her husband was kindness itself, but he cared +little for religious matters, and could not sympathize with what seemed +to him the very ridiculous and puritanical ideas of his wife regarding +many things. Still he always gave way to her. The great trouble of her +new life, however, was the disposition evinced by her two step-daughters +to resist her authority and cause her pain by their recklessness and +disobedience. Her husband, Judge Burnham, was wealthy, and occupied a +high social position. He was exceedingly proud of his family and +sensitive as to his reputation. He was strongly opposed to Ruth's being +actively connected with religious or temperance movements, and this fact +sometimes brought them dangerously near serious misunderstanding. The +pressure was constant, and made many unhappy hours for her, especially +when questions of right and propriety arose between her and her +step-daughters and an appeal was made to the father. Suddenly a blow +fell upon the house. The younger daughter fled from home to marry a +gambler and forger, and was disowned by her father and forbidden the +house. A few months later the other daughter fell a victim to quick +consumption, but in her later days turned to the mother whom she had +disliked and disobeyed, and finally died in her arms. The story with its +later incidents is a sad one, but its darkness is lighted by the +surprise which awaits the reader at the close. It is written in Mrs. +Alden's usual fascinating style and like all her books, is transfixed +with a purpose. + + +OLD CONCORD: HER HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. Ill. By Margaret Sidney. Boston, +D. Lothrop Co. Price $3.00. Of all the books of the year there is not +one which carries within it such an aroma of peculiar delight as this +series of sketches and descriptions of the highways and byways of that +most picturesque of towns, Old Concord. Concord is like no other place +in New England. There may be other places as beautiful in their way, +there are others, perhaps, of more importance in the Commonwealth and we +know there are hundreds of places where there is more active life to the +square foot, but with all these admissions Concord still remains a place +of special charm, the result and consequence of more causes than we care +to analyze. Its picturesqueness and a certain quaintness of the village +has always been noticed by visitors, no matter from what part of the +globe they may have come. Added to this is the flavor of Revolutionary +history, and the atmosphere created by the daily lives and presence for +years of three or four of the giants in American literature. Here lived +Hawthorne and Emerson, and Thoreau, and the Alcotts, father and +daughter, and the work that they did here has made it a literary Mecca +for all time. + +These sketches have all the accuracy of photographs, together with that +charm of color and life which a photograph never possesses. The author +is a resident of Concord, and a dweller in one of its historic mansions, +and is thoroughly acquainted with every nook and corner of the town as +well as with every legend which belongs to them. The task which she +assumes of guiding readers to the places made famous by pen and sword is +a labor of love. She tells us how the pilgrimage should be undertaken, +and what should be seen. We visit with her the ancient landmarks which +belong to past generations, and the more modern ones which have even +more interest to the multitude. + + +THE STORY OF OHIO. By Alexander Black. Being the second volume of the +new series, the "Story of the States," edited by Elbridge S. Brooks. One +volume, 8vo, fully illustrated. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50 + +The fact that Ohio has just passed her hundredth birthday, and that she +will throughout the year be engaged in various interesting forms of +civic celebration, renders singularly opportune the appearance of this +compact and picturesque narrative in which the reader will find a +complete picture of Buckeye progress, a picture etched rather than +painted, for the book is not of formidable length, and the author has +been compelled to adopt a crisp and nimble style to tell his story in +due space. The term "story" is an elastic, and perhaps not always an +accurately descriptive one. In this instance the author has given it a +simple and effective definition by making it stand for a direct, natural +and often dramatic account of Ohio's romantic origin and extraordinary +development. While a preference for the picturesque phases of the story +is shown even in the treatment of the most practical elements of State +character, there is an obvious selection of those pictorial traits which +have in themselves a special significance, and which, taken in the +group, present the essential characteristics of the commonwealth. Indeed +the narrative affords an excellent opportunity for discovering the +immense individuality of Ohio in the great family of States. The great +diversity of character among the States, diversities engendered by +geographical as well as by ancestral conditions, is, perhaps not very +generally recognized. The promising series of which this volume forms +the second issue cannot fail, if each author continues to work with care +and sincerity, to broaden our knowledge of all the elements that go to +form our character as a nation, and to deepen that sense of fraternal +sympathy, the cultivation of which has become a point of national +pride. + + +SOME SUCCESSFUL WOMEN. By Sarah K. Bolton. With Portraits. Boston. D. +Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton is the author of several +interesting books which have given her a wide reputation and this new +volume from her pen will be warmly welcomed. It consists of twelve brief +biographies of American women who have in various walks and professions +earned success so marked as to make their names familiar to every +household in the country, and who have done much to inspire others of +their sex to follow in their footsteps. Among them are Marion Harland +(Mrs. Terhune), Mrs. G. R. Allen (Pansy), Clara Barton, the +philanthropist, Alice Freeman, the former president of Wellesley +College, Rachel Bodley, dean of the Woman's Medical College, +Philadelphia, Frances E. Willard, whose labors in behalf of temperance +have given her a place among the foremost of American women. Mrs. +Candace Wheeler and her daughter Dora who have done so much to develop +the love for decorative art in this country and to create opportunities +for its practical application, with others who have gained equally +distinguished places in other departments of art, literature and +industry. The portraits add greatly to the interest of the sketches. + + +THE LOST EARL. By J. T. Trowbridge. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$2.00. This volume will be warmly welcomed by the admirers of Mr. +Trowbridge--and they are legion. Although Mr. Trowbridge is better known +as a successful novelist and writer of juvenile stories he is one of the +truest of our American poets and it is to be regretted that he has not +oftener turned his attention to verse. His themes, though not ambitious, +are always high and his poems are marked by feeling, naturalness and +exquisite finish. _The Lost Earl_ has never before been printed in book +form. It is the story of the revolt of a strong soul against +conventional society life and the casting aside of rank for social +freedom. + + +THE SECRETS AT ROSELADIES. By Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Boston, D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.00. This charming story of the life on the +Wabash, which originally appeared as a serial in WIDE AWAKE, will be +read by boys and girls with equal pleasure, for the action of the story +is pretty well divided between the two. The boys will be immensely +entertained with the adventures of the four young treasure-seekers, +particularly with that which ends in their capture by the crazy +half-breed Shawnee, who proposes to cut off their thumbs to bury in the +excavation they have made in the burial mound. The girls' secret, which +is of a very different character, is just as amusing in its way. Mrs. +Catherwood has a wonderful fund of humor, and a talent for description +which many a better known author might envy. The character of old Mr. +Roseladies is capitally drawn, and the account of his journey to the +depot after Aunt Jane's trunk is really mirth provoking. Cousin Sarah +and "Sister" and little Nonie are all charming and the reader will close +the book with regret that there is not more of it. + + +BROWNIES AND BOGLES. By Louise Imogen Guiney. Ill. Boston, D. Lothrop +Co. Price $1.00. This little volume might be fitly styled a fairy +handbook, as in it the author describes every kind of the "little +people" that is found in traditions or literature in all the countries +of the world. There are the brownies and waterkelpies of Scotland, the +troll and necken of Sweden, the German kobalds, the English fairies, +pixies and elves, the Norwegian and Danish dwarfs and bjorgfalls, the +Irish leprechauns, and a score of others, some of whom are mischievous, +some malicious, some house-helpers, and some who are always waiting to +do a good turn to those they like. The author mingles her descriptions +with anecdotes illustrative of the different qualities and dispositions +of the various fairy folk described. + + +STORY OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. By E. S. Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop +Co. Price $2.50. Although several volumes have been written descriptive +of the rise and development of the American navy, this is the first and +only work of which we have knowledge that takes wide ground, and deals +with the American sailor. In its preparation Mr. Brooks has not been +actuated by a desire to merely make a readable book for boys, he has +given it the attention which the subject demands as a part of the +history of the country. + +It would be a difficult matter to get at the first American sailor, or +to even guess when he existed but that our continent was once well +populated, and that its prehistoric inhabitants sailed the lakes and +seas as well as trod the land, is a matter of certainty. Later when +America became known to Europeans, the new comers found Indians well +provided with excellent canoes, built of bark or fashioned from logs, +but they were "near shore" sailors. The author quotes one instance where +a deep sea voyage was undertaken by them in the early days of the +English settlers. Certain Carolina Indians he says, wearied of the white +man's sinful ways in trade, thought themselves able to deal direct with +the consumers across the "Big Sea Water." So they built several large +canoes and loading these with furs and tobacco paddled straight out to +sea bound for England. But their ignorance of navigation speedily got +the best of their valor. They were never heard of more. + +The early white navigators of our waters can hardly be considered +American sailors. The new found continent was to them of value only for +what could be brought away from them in treasure or in merchantable +produce, and it was only when an actual and permanent colonization began +that a race of native-born sailors was developed on the Atlantic +coasts. + + +NED HARWOOD'S VISIT TO JERUSALEM. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$1.25. This is a story, instructively told of a young boy who made a +visit to Jerusalem, and other places in the Holy Land, and saw many of +the places made interesting in the Biblical narrative. The author's +personal knowledge of the localities visited enables her to give vivid +and accurate descriptions of them. The book is very handsomely bound in +colored cover from original designs. + + +LONGFELLOW REMEMBRANCE BOOK. By Samuel Longfellow. Introduction by E. S. +Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. It needs no special +memorial to perpetuate the memory of Longfellow and yet this little +volume has an interest and a mission which are sufficient reasons for +its existence. Its narrative testifies to the love and admiration which +the whole English-speaking people felt for that sweetest of poets and +most admirable of men, and it touches upon those qualities which, apart +from his song, endeared him to every one that knew him. "Old and young," +says Mr. Brooks in his brief introduction, "rich and poor, found in him +inspiration, counsel, sympathy and help, and his words touched more +closely the great, beating human heart than did those of even greater +and diviner poets." With the exception of the introduction, Whittier's +poem called out by the death of Longfellow,--"The Poet and the +Children"--"An International Episode" and Miss Guiney's "Longfellow in +Westminster Abbey"--the contents of the book are from the pen of the +Rev. Samuel Longfellow. In loving detail he writes of the childhood and +boyhood of his brother, his later years, his love for children and of +his life at his charming home at Cambridge. A closing chapter from +another hand describes the unveiling of the poet's bust in Westminster +Abbey, March 1, 1884. The volume is beautifully illustrated. + + +A STRANGE COMPANY. By Charles Frederick Holder. Illustrated. Boston. D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.25. No American naturalist of late years has +written more comprehensively or entertainingly than Dr. Holder. The +books and magazine articles from his pen would make a small library and +an exceedingly valuable one. For seven years he was assistant in the +American Museum of Natural History in New York and later was connected +with the New York Aquarium, in whose interests he made extensive +journeys for rare specimens. In the present volume, which is prepared +for young readers, he describes some of the more remarkable specimens of +animal life and their peculiarities. Many of the facts he cites will be +new to older readers such, for instance, as that of fishes climbing +trees and traveling considerable distances overland from water to water, +of birds that fly under water the same as in the air, of four footed +animals with bills and of birds with teeth. In a chapter devoted to the +speech of animals we are told how some of the noises made by insects are +produced undoubtedly for purposes of communication and how birds, fishes +and animals convey intelligence one to another. In another chapter the +sports and games of animals are dealt with. The author says, "I doubt if +an animal can be found which does not in some way or at some time show a +desire for what we term amusement. The Malayan sun bear is remarkable +for its fun loving natur. The common black bear is almost equally +playful and in some of its rough and tumble games in a tree top are some +of the most interesting performances I have ever witnessed. Even crabs +have a sense of humor and go through certain performance, presumably +games. In Australia there are birds that build playhouses, aside from +their nests, in the form of an arbor sometimes two or three feet long, +which they decorate with bright objects." + + +A YOUNG PRINCE OF COMMERCE. By Selden R. Hopkins. Boston. D. Lothrop +Company. Price $1.25. We do not know of a better book to put into the +hands of boys for the purpose of teaching them the fundamental +principles of business than this little volume, which Mr. Hopkins has so +ingeniously prepared. Most boys grow into young men without the +slightest knowledge of business matters excepting mere buying and +selling. The very things that should have been taught them in school at +the same time with grammar and geography they know nothing about, and +while their heads may be stocked with the rules of syntax and the names +and boundaries of all the countries in the world, they may be helpless +as babies in the transaction of any business that requires the use of +forms or legal methods. It is one of the senseless peculiarities of our +school system that it excludes certain subjects of study that are +absolutely necessary and gives place to others that are practically +useless. It is on that account that we strongly commend this little work +as a supplementary reader in schools. In its pages Mr. Hopkins tells an +interesting story and sandwiches in between its incidents just the +information to which we have reference. The boy who reads it has +obtained, when he has finished it, a clear understanding of the +principles of trade. He knows the character of mortgages, notes, drafts, +stocks and bonds, the theory of banking, discount, exchange and +collateral, he learns all about the mysteries of Wall Street and how the +brokerage business is conducted; in fine, he gets an excellent +understanding of the way business is carried on in general. All this +knowledge comes in incidentally, and in connection with the story. The +book is very handsomely printed and bound. + + +MARY THE MOTHER. Compiled by Rose Porter. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. +Price $3.00. The purpose of this beautiful volume is to give an outline +story of Mary the Mother Maid, as told in the Holy Book, and by +historical and legendary art, and in poetry. The theme, says the +compiler in her preface, "though it lies within prescribed limits, is +wide enough to embrace a broad field of thought, for it deals with all +the most beautiful and precious productions of human genius and human +skill as manifested by art which the Middle Ages and the Renaissance +have bequeathed to us, and in them we can trace, present in shape before +us, or suggested through inevitable associations, one prevailing idea. +It is that of an impersonation in the feminine character of beneficence, +purity and power, clothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our +Lord." + +The story is told in the purest devotional spirit. The curious legends +which have been handed down or created by the religious writers of the +Middle Ages are put into consecutive order, and illustrated by +reproductions of pictures by the old masters, and of those by two or +three modern painters. Deger's famous picture of "The Annunciation" +serves as the frontispiece. Then follows in order Ittenbach's "St. Mary +the Virgin," Titian's "Presentation," the "Annunciation," by Murillo, +"The Salutation," by Albertinelli, "St. John and the Virgin," by Dobson; +"The Assumption," by Titian, "Mater Dolorosa," by Guido Reni, "Mater +Dolorosa," by Carlo Dolce, and "The Madonna Addolorata," by +Sassaferrato. These are exquisitely reproduced, and are printed, as well +as the text, on heavy, hot-pressed paper. The volume is bound in cloth, +with a cover of special design. + + +THE ART OF LIVING. From the Writings of Samuel Smiles. With Introduction +by the venerable Dr. Peabody of Harvard University and Biographical +Sketch by the editor Carrie Adelaide Cooke. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. +Price $1.00. + +Samuel Smiles is the Benjamin Franklin of England. His sayings have a +similar terseness, aptness and force, they are directed to practical +ends, like Franklin's, they have the advantage of being nearer our time +and therefore more directly related to subjects upon which practical +wisdom is of practical use. + +Success in life is his subject all through The Art of Living, and he +confesses on the very first page that "happiness consists in the +enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life, +which in the eager search for some great and exciting joy we are apt to +overlook. It finds delight in the performance of common duties +faithfully and honorably fulfilled." + +Let the reader go back to that quotation again and consider how contrary +it is to the spirit that underlies the businesses that are nowadays +tempting men to sudden fortune, torturing with disappointments nearly +all who yield, and burdening the successful beyond their endurance, +shortening lives and making them weary and most of them empty. + +Is it worth while to join the mad rush for the lottery, or to take the +old road to slow success? + +This book of the chosen thoughts of a rare philosopher leads to +contentment as well as wisdom, for, when we choose the less brilliant +course because we are sure it is the best one, we have the most complete +and lasting repose from anxiety. + + +TILTING AT WINDMILLS. A Story of the Blue Grass Country. By Emma M. +Connelly. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. 12mo, $1.50. + +Not since the days of "A Fool's Errand" has so strong and so +characteristic a "border novel" been brought to the attention of the +public as is now presented by Miss Connelly in this book which she so +aptly terms "Tilting at Windmills". Indeed, it is questionable whether +Judge Tourgee's famous book touched so deftly and yet so practically the +real phases of the reconstruction period and the interminable +antagonisms of race and section. + +The self sufficient Boston man, a capital fellow at heart, but tinged +with the traditions and environments of his Puritan ancestry and +conditions, coming into his strange heritage in Kentucky at the close of +the civil war, seeks to change by instant manipulation all the equally +strong and deep-rooted traditions and environments of Blue Grass +society. + +His ruthless conscience will allow of no compromise, and the people whom +he seeks to proselyte alike misunderstand his motives and spurn his +proffered assistance. + +Presumed errors are materialized and partial evils are magnified. +Allerton tilts at windmills and with the customary Quixotic results. He +is, seemingly, unhorsed in every encounter. + +Miss Connelly's work in this, her first novel, will make readers anxious +to hear from her again and it will certainly create, both in her own and +other States, a strong desire to see her next forthcoming work announced +by the same publishers in one of their new series--her "Story of the +State of Kentucky." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James +A. Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + +***** This file should be named 34217-8.txt or 34217-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/1/34217/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34217-8.zip b/34217-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..30c11c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-8.zip diff --git a/34217-h.zip b/34217-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..62b7bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h.zip diff --git a/34217-h/34217-h.htm b/34217-h/34217-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..90109d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/34217-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,15658 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield, by E. E. Brown. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .tocnum {position: absolute; top: auto; right: 10%;} + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: .5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i16 {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i20 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i8 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James A. +Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield + Twentieth President of the United States. + +Author: Emma Elizabeth Brown + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="650" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>THE</h4> + +<h2>LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES</h2> + +<h4>OF</h4> + +<h1>JAMES A. GARFIELD,</h1> + +<h3>TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.</h3> + +<h4>INCLUDING</h4> + +<h3><i>FULL AND ACCURATE DETAILS OF HIS EVENTFUL ADMINISTRATION, +ASSASSINATION, LAST HOURS, DEATH, Etc.</i></h3> + +<h4>TOGETHER WITH</h4> + +<h3>NOTABLE EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES AND LETTERS</h3> + +<h2>BY E. E. BROWN.</h2> + +<p class="center">BOSTON<br /><br /> + + +D. LOTHROP COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +32 FRANKLIN STREET<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1881,<br /> +By D. Lothrop & Co.</span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>DEDICATION.</h2> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To one who joined with us in sorrow true,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And bowed her crowned head above our slain."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2> + +<h3>BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D. D.</h3> + + +<p>More eloquent voices for Christ and the gospel have never come from the +grave of a dead President than those which we hear from the tomb of our +lamented chief magistrate.</p> + +<p>Twenty six years ago this summer a company of college students had gone +to the top of Greylock Mountain, in Western Massachusetts, to spend the +night. A very wide outlook can be gained from that summit. But if you +will stand there with that little company to-day, you can see farther +than the bounds of Massachusetts or the bounds of New England, or the +bounds of the Union. James A. Garfield is one of that band of students, +and as the evening shades gather, he rises up among the group and says, +"Classmates, it is my habit to read a portion of God's Word before +retiring to rest. Will you permit me to read aloud?" And then taking in +his hand a pocket Testament, he reads in that clear, strong voice a +chapter of Holy Writ, and calls upon a brother student to offer prayer. +"How far the little candle throws its beams!" It required real principle +to take that stand even in such a company. Was that candle of the Lord +afterward put out amid the dampening and unfriendly influences of a long +political life? It would not be strange. Many a Christian man has had +his religious testimony smothered amid the stifling and vitiated air of +party politics, till<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span> instead of a clear light, it has given out only +the flicker and foulness of a "smoking wick."</p> + +<p>But pass on for a quarter of a century. The young student has become a +man. He has been in contact for years with the corrupting influences of +political life. Let us see where he stands now. In the great Republican +Convention at Chicago he is a leading figure. The meetings have been +attended with unprecedented excitement through the week. Sunday has +come, and such is the strain of rivalry between contending factions that +most of the politicians spend the entire day in pushing the interests of +their favorite candidates. But on that Lord's day morning Mr. Garfield +is seen quietly wending his way to the house of God. His absence being +remarked upon to him next day, he said, in reply, "I have more +confidence in the prayers to God which ascended in the churches +yesterday, than in all the caucusing which went on in the hotels."</p> + +<p>He had great interests at stake as the promoter of the nomination of a +favorite candidate When so much was pending, might he not be allowed to +use the Sunday for defending his interest? So many would have reasoned +But no! amid the clash of contending factions and the tumult of +conflicting interests, there is one politician that heard the Word of +God sounding in his ear "<i>Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy +work</i>, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou +shall not do any work." And, at the bidding of the Divine command, his +conscience marches him away to the house of God. Not, indeed, to enjoy +the luxury of hearing some famous preacher, or of listening to some +superb singing, but he goes to one of the obscurest and humblest +churches<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span> in the city, because there is where he belongs, and that is +the church which he has covenanted to walk with, as a disciple of Jesus +Christ. "How far" again "that little candle threw its beams!" It was a +little thing, but it was the index of a principle, an index that pointed +the whole American people upward when they heard of it. Here was a man +who did not carry a pocket conscience—a bundle of portable convictions +tied up with a thread of expediency. Nay! here was a man whose +conscience carried him—his master, not his menial, his sovereign, not +his servant.</p> + +<p>And when, during the last days in his home at Mentor, just before going +to Washington to assume his office, he was entertaining some political +friends at tea, he did not forego evening prayers, for fear he might be +charged with cant, but, according to his custom, drew his family +together and opened the Scriptures and bowed in prayer in the midst of +his guests. And his was a religious principle that found expression in +action as well as in prayer. A lady residing in Washington told us that +while a member of the House of Representatives, he was accustomed to +work faithfully in the Sunday school, and that among his last acts was +the recruiting of a class of young men and teaching them in the Bible. +We know from his pastor that he was not too busy to be found often in +the social meetings of the church, nor too great to be above praying and +exhorting in the little group of Christians with whom he met. A +practical Christian, did we say? He must have been a spiritual Christian +also. There is one address of his in Congress that made a great +impression on our mind as we read it. He was delivering a brief eulogy +on some deceased Senator—I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> think it was Senator Ferry. He spoke of him +as a Christian, not a formalist, but a devout and godly disciple of +Christ. And then he spoke of the rest into which he had entered, and +quoted with great effect that beautiful hymn of Bonar's—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Beyond the smiling and the weeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">I shall be soon.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the waking and the sleeping,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the sowing and the reaping,<br /></span> +<span class="i8">I shall be soon.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Love rest, and home sweet home,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lord, <i>tarry not, but come</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And taking the key from these last words, he said: "Yes, when the Lord +comes there will be no more weeping, no more sorrow, no more death. +'<i>Even so come, Lord Jesus.</i>'"</p> + +<p>We believe that only a man of real spiritual, evangelical faith could +have uttered those words. And when we think how rarely such a man has +filled the presidential chair, we feel overwhelmed at the loss.</p> + +<p>Let us praise God that for once we have had a President who could shine +in the most illustrious position in the nation, and yet light up for us +the humblest walks of Christian obedience. Here is one who ruled and who +served, who was a leader of the people and a follower of Christ. The +seat where he sat as ruler of fifty millions will speak to generations +yet to come, telling them how righteousness exalteth a ruler, and the +little stream where he was baptized will tell perpetually, as it flows +on, how it "becometh us to fulfil all righteousness."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<p> +CHAPTER I.<br /> +<br /> +The "Great Heart of the People."—Bereaved of their Chief.—Universal +Mourning.—Wondering Query of Foreign Nations.—Humble +Birth in Log Cabin.—The Frontier Settlements +in Ohio.—Untimely death of Father.—Struggles of +the Family. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER II.<br /> +<br /> +Boyhood of James.—Attempts at Carpentry.—First Earnings.—His +Thirst for Knowledge.—The Garfield Coat-of-Arms.—Ancestry, +etc. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER III.<br /> +<br /> +Life at the "Black-Salter's".—James wants to go to Sea.—His +Mother will not give her Consent.—Hires out as a Woodchopper.—His +Powerful Physique.—His Strength of Character. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER IV.<br /> +<br /> +James still longs for the Sea.—Experience with a Drunken Captain.—Change +of Base.—Life on the Canal. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_30'>30</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER V.<br /> +<br /> +Narrow Escape from Drowning.—Return Home.—Severe Illness.—James +determines to fit himself for a Teacher.—Geauga +Seminary.—Personal Appearance.—Dr Robinson's +Verdict. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER VI.<br /> +<br /> +Low state of Finances.—James takes up Carpentry again.—The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>Debating Club.—Bread and Milk Diet.—First Experience +in School-Teaching.—Becomes Interested in Religious +Topics.—Creed of the Disciples.—James joins the New +Sect. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_42'>42</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER VII.<br /> +<br /> +Return to Geauga Seminary.—Works at Haying through the +Vacation.—Teaches a Higher Grade of School.—First +Oration.—Determines to go to College.—He visits the +State Capitol at Columbus. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER VIII.<br /> +<br /> +Hiram Institute.—The faithful Janitor.—Miss Almeda Booth.—James +is appointed Assistant Teacher.—Critical habit of +Reading.—Moral and Religious Growth.—Debating Club. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_53'>53</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER IX.<br /> +<br /> +Ready for College.—His Uncle lends him Five Hundred Dollars.—Why +he decides to go to Williams.—College Life. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_58'>58</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER X.<br /> +<br /> +Return Home.—Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram +Institute.—His Popularity as a Teacher.—Answers Prof +Denton.—Marriage. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_67'>67</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XI.<br /> +<br /> +Law Studies.—Becomes Interested in Politics.—Delivers Oration +at the Williams Commencement.—Elected State Senator.—His +Courage and Eloquence. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_74'>74</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XII.<br /> +<br /> +War Declared Between the North and South.—Garfield Forms a +Regiment from the Western Reserve.—Is Appointed Colonel.—General +Buell's Order.—Garfield Takes Charge of the +18th Brigade.—Jordan's Perilous Journey.—Bradley +Brown.—Plan of a Campaign.—March Against Marshall, <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIII.<br /> +<br /> +Opening of Hostilities.—Brave Charge of the Hiram Students.—Giving +the Rebels "Hail Columbia".—Sheldon's Reinforcement.—The +Rebel Commander Falls.—His Army +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>Retreats in Confusion. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIV.<br /> +<br /> +Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.—Starvation Stares them in +the Face.—Garfield Takes Command of the Sandy +Valley.—Perilous Trip up the River.—Garfield's Address +to the Citizens of Sandy Valley.—Pound Gap.—Garfield +Resolves to Seize the Guerillas.—The Old Mountaineer.—Successful +Attack.—General Buell's Message.—Garfield is +Appointed Brigadier General. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XV.<br /> +<br /> +Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.—Battles of +Shiloh and Corinth.—The Fugitive Slave.—Attack of +Malaria.—Home Furlough.—Summoned to Washington.—Death +of his Child.—Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.—Kirke's +Description of Garfield. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_110'>110</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVI.<br /> +<br /> +Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.—Garfield as +Mediator.—Remarkable Military Document.—The Tullahoma +Campaign.—Insurrection Averted.—Chattanooga.—Battle +of Chickamauga.—Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.—Garfield's +Famous Ride. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_115'>115</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVII.<br /> +<br /> +Rosecran's Official Report.—Sixteen Years Later.—Promotion +to Major General.—Elected to Congress.—Resigns his +Commission in the Army.—Endowed by Nature and Education +for a Public Speaker.—Moral Character.—Youngest +Member of House of Representatives.—One Secret of Success.—First +Speech.—Wade Davis Manifesto.—Extracts +from Various Speeches. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_125'>125</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XVIII.<br /> +<br /> +Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.—The New York Mob.—Garfield's +Memorable Words.—Eulogy upon Lincoln.—Memorial +Oration.—Eulogy upon Senator Morton.—Extracts +from other Orations. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_138'>138</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XIX.<br /> +<br /> +The Home in Washington.—Fruit Between Leaves.—Classical +Studies.—Mrs. Garfield.—Variety of Reading.—Favorite +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>Verses. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_147'>147</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XX.<br /> +<br /> +Tide of Unpopularity.—Misjudged.—Vindicated.—Re-elected.—The +De Golyer Contract.—The Salary Increase Question.—Incident +Related by President Hinsdale. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_154'>154</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXI.<br /> +<br /> +The Credit Mobilier.—Garfield entirely Cleared of all Charges +Against him.—Tribute to him in Cincinnati Gazette.—Elected +U. S. Senator.—Extract from Speech.—Sonnet. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXII.<br /> +<br /> +After the Ordeal.—Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of +Ohio.—Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.—Purchase +of the Farm at Mentor.—Description of the New +House.—Life at Mentor.—The Garfield Household.—Longing +for Home in his Last Hours. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_167'>167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXIII.<br /> +<br /> +Republican Convention at Chicago.—The Three Prominent Candidates.—Description +of Conkling.—Logan.—Cameron.—Description +of Garfield.—Resolution Introduced by Conkling.—Opposition +of West Virginians.—Garfield's Conciliatory +Speech.—His Oration in Behalf of Sherman.—Opinions +of the Press. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_174'>174</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXIV.<br /> +<br /> +The Battle still Undecided.—Sunday among the delegates.—Garfield's +Remark.—Monday another Day of Doubt.—The +Dark Horse.—The Balloting on Tuesday.—Garfield's Remonstrance.—He +is Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth +Ballot.—Enthusiastic Demonstrations, Congratulatory +Speeches and Telegrams.—His Speech of Acceptance. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXV.<br /> +<br /> +Return Home.—Ovations on the Way.—Address at Hiram Institute.—Impromptu +Speech at Washington.—Incident of +the Eagle.—The Tract Distributor. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXVI.<br /> +<br /> +News of the Nomination Received with Delight.—Mr Robeson +speaks for the Democrats in the House of Representatives.—Ratification +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span>Meeting at Williams College.—Governor Long's +Opinion.—Hotly-contested Campaign.—Garfield Receives the +Majority of Votes.—Is Elected President on the Second of +November, 1880.—Extract from Letter of an Old Pupil.—Review +of Garfield's Congressional Life.—His own Feelings +in Regard to the Election. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_201'>201</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXVII.<br /> +<br /> +At Mentor.—The Journey to Washington.—Inauguration Day.—Immense +Concourse of People.—The Address.—Sworn +into Office.—Touching Scene.—Grand Display.—Inauguration +Ball.—Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.—Two +Great Problems.—How they were Solved.—Disgraceful +Rupture in the Senate.—Prerogative of the Executive +Office vindicated. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_207'>207</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXVIII.<br /> +<br /> +The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.—Morning of +the Fateful Day.—Secretary Blame Accompanies him to the +Station.—A Mysterious-looking Character.—Sudden Report +of a Pistol.—The President Turns and Receives the Fatal +Shot.—Arrest of the Assassin.—The President Recovers +Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_214'>214</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXIX.<br /> +<br /> +At the White House.—The Anxious Throngs.—Examination of +the Wounds.—The President's Questions.—His Willingness +to Die.—Waiting for his Wife.—Sudden Relapse.—A +Glimmer of Hope.—A Sunday of Doubt.—Independence +Day.—Remarks of George William Curtis. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_218'>218</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXX.<br /> +<br /> +The Assassin.—What were his motives.—His own Confessions.—Statement +of District-Attorney Corkhill.—Sketch of Guiteau's +Early Life. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXI.<br /> +<br /> +Night of the Fourth.—Extreme Solicitude at the White House.—Description +of an Eye-witness.—Attorney McVeagh's +Remark.—Sudden Change for the Better.—Steady Improvement.—The +Medical Attendance. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXII.<br /> +<br /> +A Relapse.—Cooling Apparatus at the White House.—The +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>President writes a Letter to his Mother.—Evidences of +Blood Poisoning.—Symptoms of Malaria.—Removal to +Long Branch.—Preparation for the Journey.—Incidents by +the Way. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_238'>238</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXIII.<br /> +<br /> +Description of the Francklyn Cottage.—The Arrival at Long +Branch.—The President is Drawn up to the Open Window.—Enjoys +the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.—The Surgical +Force Reduced.—Incident on the Day of Prayer. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_245'>245</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXIV.<br /> +<br /> +Hopeful Symptoms.—Official Bulletin.—Telegram to Minister +Lowell.—Incidents at Long Branch.—Sudden Change for +the Worse.—Touching Scene with his Daughter.—Another +Gleam of Hope.—Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.—The +Closing Scene. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_252'>252</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXV.<br /> +<br /> +The Midnight Bells.—Universal Sorrow.—Queen Victoria's +Message.—Extract from a London Letter.—The Whitby +Fishermen.—The Yorkshire Peasant.—World wide Demonstrations +of Grief. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_260'>260</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXVI.<br /> +<br /> +The Services at Elberon.—Journey to Washington.—Lying in +State.—Queen Victoria's Offering.—Impressive Ceremonies +in the Capitol Rotunda. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_266'>266</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXVII.<br /> +<br /> +Journey to Cleveland.—Lying in State in the Catafalque in the +Park.—Immense Concourse.—Funeral Ceremonies.—Favorite +Hymn.—At the Cemetery. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_273'>273</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXVIII.<br /> +<br /> +Lakeview Cemetery.—Talk with Garfield's Mother.—First +Church where he Preached.—His Religious Experience.—Garfield +as a Preacher. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_280'>280</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XXXIX.<br /> +<br /> +The Sunday Preceding the Burial.—The Crowded Churches.—The +one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.—Across the +Water.—At Alexandra Palace.—At St. Paul's Cathedral.—At +Westminster Abbey.—Paris.—Berlin.—Extract from +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span>London Times. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_287'>287</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XL.<br /> +<br /> +National Day of Mourning.—Draping of Public Buildings and +Private Residences.—Touching Incident.—Tributes to Garfield.—Senator +Hoar's Address.—Whittier's Letter.—Senator +Dawes' Remarks. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_290'>290</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLI.<br /> +<br /> +Subscription Fund for the President's Family.—Ready Generosity +of the People.—Touching Incident.—Total Amount of the +Fund.—How the Money was Invested.—Project for Memorial +Hospital in Washington.—Cyrus W. Field's Gift of +Memorial Window to Williams College.—Garfield's Affection +for his Alma Mater.—Reception given Mark Hopkins and the +Williams Graduates.—Garfield's Address to his Classmates. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_301'>301</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLII.<br /> +<br /> +Removal of the President's Remains.—Monument Fund Committee.—Garfield +Memorial in Boston.—Extracts from +Address by Hon. N. P. Banks. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_306'>306</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLIII.<br /> +<br /> +Southern Feeling.—Memorial Services at Jefferson, Kentucky.—Extracts +from Address by Henry Watterson.—Senator Bayard.—Ex-Speaker +Randall.—Senator Hill.—Extracts from +some of the Southern Journals. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_328'>328</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLIV.<br /> +<br /> +Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a Friend +in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.—To Corydon E. +Fuller, a College Classmate. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_336'>336</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLV.<br /> +<br /> +Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.—Of one of the Pupils at +Hiram Institute.—Garfield's Keen Observation.—His Kindness +of Heart.—Anecdote of the Game of Ball.—Of the +Lame Girl in Washington.—Of Brown the ex-Scout and old +Boat Companion. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_353'>353</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLVI.<br /> +<br /> +Remarks of a Personal Friend.—Reminiscences of the President's +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xvi" id="Page_xvi">[Pg xvi]</a></span>Cousin, Henry Boynton.—Garfield as a Freemason.<span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_360'>360</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLVII.<br /> +<br /> +Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.—George Parsons +Lathrop.—From <i>London Spectator</i>.—Oliver Wendell Holmes.—H. +Bernard Carpenter—John Boyle O'Reilly—Joaquin +Miller.—M. J. Savage.—Julia Ward Howe.—Rose Terry +Cooke.—Prize Ode.—Kate Tannett Woods. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_368'>368</a></span><br /> +<br /> +CHAPTER XLVIII.<br /> +<br /> +Currency.—Lincoln.—The Draft.—Slavery.—Independence.—The +Rebellion.—Protection and Free-Trade.—Education.—William +H. Seward.—Fourteenth Amendment.—Classical +Studies.—History.—Liberty.—Statistics.—Poverty.—The +Salary Question.—The Railway Problem.—Elements of +Success.—Law.—The Revenue.—Statesmanship.—Relation +of Government to Science.—Gustave Schleicher.—Suffrage.—Union +of the North and South.—Appeal to Young +Men.—Inaugural. <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_388'>388</a></span><br /> +<br /> +ADDENDA.<br /> +<br /> +Remarkable Military Document by Garfield <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_494'>494</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Official report of the post-mortem examination of Garfield's body <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_505'>505</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Senator Hoar's Address <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_520'>520</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hon. James G. Blame's Eulogy <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_544'>544</a></span><br /> +<br /> +A Threnody <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_584'>584</a></span><br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> +<h2>LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The "Great Heart of the People."—Bereaved of their +Chief.—Universal Mourning.—Wondering Query of Foreign +Nations.—Humble Birth in Log Cabin.—The Frontier +Settlements in Ohio.—Untimely Death of Father.—Struggles +of the Family.</p></div> + + +<p>"<i>The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!</i>"</p> + +<p>So murmured the brave, patient sufferer in his sleep that terrible July +night, when the whole nation, stricken down with grief and consternation +at the assassin's deed, watched, waited, prayed—as one man—for the +life of their beloved President.</p> + +<p>And all through those weary eighty days that followed, of alternate hope +and fear, how truly the great, loving, sympathetic heart of the people +did battle, with millions of unseen weapons, for the strong, heroic +spirit that never faltered, never gave up "the one chance," even while +he whispered: "God's will be done; I am ready to go if my time has +come."</p> + +<p>Party differences were all forgotten; there was no longer any North or +South—only one common<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> brotherhood, one great, sorrowing household +watching with tender solicitude beside the death-bed of their loved one.</p> + +<p>How anxiously the varying bulletins were studied! How eagerly the +faintest glimmer of hope was seized! And when, on that +never-to-be-forgotten anniversary of Chickamauga's battle, the midnight +bells tolled out their solemn requiem,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i16">"The nation sent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like Egypt, in her tenth and final blow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the land a loud and bitter cry;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And felt, like her, as o'er her dead she bent,<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>There is in every home a present woe</i>!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And yet, with renewed fervor, we repeat those pathetic words:</p> + +<p>"<i>The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!</i>"</p> + +<p>While bowing reverently, submissively to the decree of the Almighty +Disposer of human affairs, the nation feels that "no canon of earth or +Heaven can forbid the enshrining of his manly virtues and grand +character, so that after-generations may profit by the contemplation of +them."</p> + +<p>A halo of immortal glory already gathers around the name of James A. +Garfield.</p> + +<p>The remembrance of his brave, self-forgetting endurance of pain, his +strong, indomitable will, his tender regard for his aged mother, his +simple,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> unaffected piety, his cheerful resignation, will never be +effaced from the heart of the people.</p> + +<p>And when expressions of sympathy and regret came to America from all +parts of the world, the wondering query arose:</p> + +<p>"How is it that republican manners and republican institutions can +produce such a king among men as President Garfield?"</p> + +<p>Let us go back to that humble log cabin in the wilds of Ohio where, +fifty years ago, a little fair-haired, blue-eyed boy was born.</p> + +<p>It is a bleak, bitter day in November, and the whistling of the winds +through the crevices, mingles with the howl of hungry wolves in the +woods close by.</p> + +<p>But the new baby finds a warm welcome waiting him in that rough cabin +home. The mother's love is fully reflected in the honest face of the +great, warm-hearted father, as he folds the little stranger in his +strong arms, and declares he is "worth his weight in gold."</p> + +<p>Thomas, a boy of nine years, with Mehetabel and Mary, the two little +sisters, look wonderingly upon their baby brother, and then run out to +spread the good news through the neighborhood.</p> + +<p>In those early days the frontier settlements seemed like one family, so +interested were all in the joys and sorrows of each.</p> + +<p>Eighteen months later, when the brave, strong<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> father was cut down in +the midst of his work, a circle of true-hearted, sympathizing friends +stood, like a body-guard, around the little family.</p> + +<p>One of those dreaded forest fires had been raging for days through the +tract of country adjoining the Garfield farm. With the aid of his older +children, Mehetabel and Thomas, the father had at last checked the +flames, but, sitting down to rest by the open door, he took a severe +cold which brought on congestion of the throat.</p> + +<p>Before a physician could be called he was past all human aid, and, +looking wistfully upon his children and heart-broken wife, he said, with +dying breath,—</p> + +<p>"I am going to leave you, Eliza. I have planted four saplings in these +woods, and I must now leave them to your care."</p> + +<p>The blue-eyed baby, who bore his father's name, could not understand the +sorrowful faces about him, and, toddling up to the bedside, he put his +little hands on the cold lips, and called "Papa! Papa!" till the weeping +mother bore him out of the room.</p> + +<p>"What will become of those poor, fatherless children?" said one neighbor +to another.</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> a strange providence," was the reply. "The mother is too young +and too frail to carry on the farm alone. She will have to sell +everything, and find homes for the children among her friends."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Eliza Garfield was not the weak, dependent woman they had imagined. +Moreover, she had one brave little helper close at hand.</p> + +<p>"Don't cry, mother dear," said Thomas, making a great effort to keep +back his own tears. "I am ten years old now, you know. I will take care +of you. I am big enough to plough and plant, and cut the wood and milk +the cows. Don't let us give up the farm. I will work ever so hard if we +can only keep together!"</p> + +<p>Noble little fellow! No wonder the mother's heart grew lighter as she +watched his earnest face.</p> + +<p>"You are not strong enough, dear child, to do all that," she said, "but +God helping us, we will keep together. I will sell off part of the farm +to pay our debts, and we shall then have thirty acres left, which will +be quite enough for you and me to take care of."</p> + +<p>It was now late in the spring, but Thomas managed to sow the wheat, +plant the corn and potatoes and with the help of a kind neighbor +complete the little barn his father had begun to build.</p> + +<p>In cultivating the ground, his mother and sisters were always ready to +help, and together they split the rails, and drove the stakes for the +heavy fence around the wheat-field.</p> + +<p>With such example of untiring industry and perseverance constantly +before his eyes, it is no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> wonder the restless baby brother soon tried +to lend a helping hand.</p> + +<p>"Me do it too," he would cry, when Thomas took down the rake or the hoe, +and started off for his work in the fields.</p> + +<p>"One of these days, Jimmy," the boy-farmer would reply, with a merry +smile: though even then he could not help hoping there might be better +things in store for the little brother he loved so dearly.</p> + +<p>Walking all the way to Cleveland, Thomas secures a little job, and +brings home his first earnings, with a bounding heart.</p> + +<p>"Now Jimmy can have a pair of shoes," he says to his mother who cannot +keep back her tears as she looks at his own bare feet.</p> + +<p>The old cobbler comes and boards at the cabin while he makes the little +shoes, and when they are completed it is hard to tell which is the +happier boy,—Thomas or little Jimmy.</p> + +<p>Four years after the father's death, a school-house is built a mile and +a half away.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy and the girls must go," says Thomas.</p> + +<p>"Yes," replies the mother, "but I wish you could go, too."</p> + +<p>"It wouldn't do for me to leave the farm, mother dear," says the noble +boy. "One of these days, perhaps I can study at home."</p> + +<p>The mile and a half walk to the school-house<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> was a long, hard pull for +little Jimmy, in spite of those new shoes; and many a time Mehetabel +might have been seen, carrying him back and forth on her broad +shoulders.</p> + +<p>It was a happy day for all the children when the new log school-house +was put up on one corner of the Garfield farm. The land had been given +by Mrs. Garfield, and the neighbors clubbed together and built the +house, which was only twenty feet square, with a slab roof, a puncheon +floor, and log benches without backs.</p> + +<p>The master was a young man from New Hampshire. He boarded with Mrs. +Garfield, and between him and little James a warm friendship was soon +established.</p> + +<p>The bright active child was never tired of asking questions.</p> + +<p>"He will make his mark in the world, one of these days—you may take my +word for it!" exclaimed the teacher, as he recounted James' wonderful +progress at school.</p> + +<p>The happy mother never forgot these words, and determined to give her +little boy every possible advantage.</p> + +<p>But the Ohio schools in those days were very poor. The three "R's," with +spelling and geography, were the only branches taught, and oftentimes +the teachers knew but little more than the scholars.</p> + +<p>As soon as James could read, he eagerly devoured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> every book that came +within his reach. The family library comprised not more than half a +dozen volumes, but among these, Weems' "Life of Marion" and Grimshaw's +"Napoleon" were especial favorites with the eager enthusiastic boy.</p> + +<p>Every night the mother would read to her children from her old, +well-worn Bible: and oftentimes James would puzzle his little playmates +with unexpected scripture questions. His wonderful memory held a strange +variety of information in its tenacious grasp. He delighted to hear his +mother read poetry, and would often commit long passages by heart. His +vivid imagination peopled the old orchard with all sorts of strange +characters. Each tree was named after some noted Indian chief, or some +favorite hero he had read about; and from a high ledge of rocks in the +neighborhood, he would sometimes deliver long harangues to his imaginary +audiences. Thomas watched the progress of his little brother with +fatherly pride and admiration, and James looked up to him with loving +confidence.</p> + +<p>He could now help about the farm in many ways, and when Thomas got an +opportunity to work out and earn a few extra pennies, James would look +after the stock, chop the wood, hoe the corn, and help his mother churn +and milk.</p> + +<p>"One of these days, James," she said to him, as he was working +diligently by her side, "I expect<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> Thomas will go out into the world to +earn his living, and then you will have to take his place here on the +farm."</p> + +<p>"But, how soon will that be, mother?" asked the little fellow, who felt +then that he could not possibly get along without his big brother.</p> + +<p>"Not until Thomas is twenty-one, and then you will be twelve years +old—older by two years than Thomas was when your father died."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could be as good a farmer as he," said James; "but I think I +would rather be a carpenter."</p> + +<p>"And I would rather have you a teacher or a preacher," said his mother; +"but we must take our work just as Providence gives it to us, and +farming, my boy, comes first to you."</p> + +<p>It was a trying day to the whole family when Thomas left the little home +to work on a clearing, "way off in Michigan." He would be gone six +months, at least, and there was very little communication in those days +between Ohio and the farther west.</p> + +<p>"I wish you could have found work nearer home," said the fond mother.</p> + +<p>"But I shall earn higher wages there—twelve dollars a month,"—answered +the self-forgetting son; "and, when I get back, I shall have money +enough to build you a frame house."</p> + +<p>The little log cabin was fast coming to pieces,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> and for five years +Thomas had been cutting and seasoning lumber for the new house, but they +had never been able to hire a carpenter to put it up.</p> + +<p>James tried very hard to fill his brother's place, but he could never +throw his whole soul into farming as Thomas had done. He read and +studied all the time he could get out of working hours, and his thirst +for knowledge was constantly increasing. But how was he to procure the +education for which he longed?</p> + +<p>"Providence will open the way," said the good mother; "though how and +when I cannot tell."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Boyhood of James.—Attempts at Carpentry.—First +Earnings.—His Thirst for Knowledge.—The Garfield +Coat-of-Arms.—Ancestry, etc.</p></div> + + +<p>True to his promise, Thomas returned in a few months with seventy-five +dollars in gold, which seemed a great sum to the little family.</p> + +<p>"Now you shall have the new house, mother," he exclaimed; and it was not +many days after, that the carpenter was hired and the work begun.</p> + + +<p>James watched the building with keen, observant eyes. Before the house +was completed he had learned a good part of the trade and practised it +besides.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll have to employ you when I want an extra hand," laughed the +good-natured mechanic, as he noticed how cleverly James used the mallet, +chisel and plane.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would; I like the trade," exclaimed the boy, with sudden +earnestness.</p> + +<p>After the family had moved into the new house, which consisted of three +rooms below and two above, Thomas went back to his work in Michigan, and +James returned to his labor on the farm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the boy's restless spirit longed for a wider field. If he could only +earn a little money, perhaps he would be able to buy a few books.</p> + +<p>Passing the carpenter's shop one day, he saw a pile of boards at the +door waiting to be planed. He stepped inside and asked for the job, +which was readily given him.</p> + +<p>"I will give you a cent a board," said the carpenter, "for I know you +will do them well."</p> + +<p>"How soon do you want them done?" asked James.</p> + +<p>"Oh! it doesn't matter," answered the carpenter; "take your own time for +them."</p> + +<p>"All right!" said the boy, "I'll begin early to-morrow morning, just as +soon as I get through with the chores on the farm."</p> + +<p>Before night he had planed a hundred boards, and each board was twelve +feet long!</p> + +<p>He asked the carpenter to come and count them, lest he had made a +mistake.</p> + +<p>"That is too hard a day's work for a little fellow like you," exclaimed +the astonished man; "but here are a hundred pennies, as I promised you."</p> + +<p>This was the first money that James had ever earned, and it was with a +proud, happy heart he emptied his load of coppers that night into his +mother's lap.</p> + +<p>It was not a difficult matter to find jobs after that. A boy who could +plane a hundred boards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> in a day was just the sort of help the +enterprising carpenter wanted. Not long after, he engaged James to help +him put up a barn, paying him about twenty dollars for the job.</p> + +<p>By this time James had learned about all he could in the district +schools. He had performed problems in arithmetic that puzzled his +teachers, and could repeat by heart the greater part of his reading +books. A copy of "Josephus" came into his hands, and he read it over and +over until long passages were indelibly impressed upon his memory.</p> + +<p>"Robinson Crusoe," "Alonzo and Melissa," he devoured that winter with +all a boy's enthusiasm, and the little home in Orange seemed smaller to +him than ever. He longed to go out into the world and find a wider +sphere of labor. The blood of his old Welsh ancestors was burning in his +veins. He had often looked at the old Garfield coat of arms, which his +father had kept with loyal pride, and wondered what it meant. Now he +seemed to understand, as if by a sudden intuition, the crimson bars on +the golden shield, with that strong arm, just above, wielding a sword, +whose motto read, "<i>In cruce vinco</i>."</p> + +<p>"Tell me about my great-great-grandfathers," he said one day to his +mother, as they were sitting together by the open fire.</p> + +<p>"Your father's family came from Wales," she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> answered, "and the first +James Garfield was one of the brave knights of Gaerfili Castle. But that +is going a long way back. I know your father used to say he was more +proud of having an ancestor who had fought in the Revolutionary War, and +that was Solomon Garfield, your own great-grandfather."</p> + +<p>"How splendid it is to be a soldier!" exclaimed James.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said his mother, "but there are many grand victories won in the +world besides those upon the battle-field."</p> + +<p>And just here it may be said that it was not only from his father's side +that James Garfield inherited so many sterling traits of character. His +mother is a descendant of Maturin Ballou, a French Huguenot, who joined +the colony of Roger Williams, and settled in Cumberland, Rhode Island. +From this pioneer preacher, a great many eminent men have sprung, among +them the celebrated Hosea Ballou, a cousin of Eliza Ballou Garfield.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Life at the "Black-Salter's".—James wants to go to +Sea.—His mother will not give her Consent.—Hires out as a +Woodchopper.—His Powerful Physique.—His Strength of +Character.</p></div> + + +<p>About ten miles from the little settlement at Orange, and not far from +Cleveland, was a large potash factory, owned by a certain Mr. Barton. +The neighboring farmers, when they cleared their lands, would draw the +refuse logs and branches into a great pile and burn them. The ashes thus +collected, they sold to this Mr. Barton, who went by the name of +"black-salter," because the potash he manufactured was called in its +crude state, "black salts." At one time he needed a new shed where the +ashes were leached, and James assisted the carpenter who put it up.</p> + +<p>The bright, industrious lad pleased the old black-salter, and he offered +him fourteen dollars a month, if he would come and work in his ashery.</p> + +<p>This was two dollars more than Thomas was earning "away off in +Michigan," and James was greatly delighted at the prospect of earning +one hundred and sixty-eight dollars a year!</p> + +<p>It was not, however, just the sort of work he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> would have chosen; and +the mother dreaded for her son the rough companionship of the +black-salters.</p> + +<p>But James did not associate with the rude, coarse men out of +working-hours. Their profanity shocked him; and he gladly turned to the +books he found on an upper shelf at Barton's house.</p> + +<p>As might have been expected, however, these books were very different +from any he had read before. "Marryatt's Novels," "Jack Halyard," "Lives +of Eminent Criminals," and "The Pirate's Own Book," were in fact more +dangerous companions for him than the coarse, brutal men would have +been. The printed page carried with it an authority that the excited boy +did not stop to question. He would sit up all night to follow in +imagination some reckless buccaneer in his wild exploits, till at last +an insatiable longing to be a sailor fired his brain.</p> + +<p>"A life on the ocean wave" seemed to him, at that time, the "ultima +thule" of all his dreams. He longed to see some more of the world, and +to the inexperienced lad this seemed the quickest and surest way.</p> + +<p>One day, he happened to hear Mr. Barton's daughter speak of him in a +sneering tone as her father's "hired servant." This was more than the +high spirit of James could bear. Years after, he said to a friend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"That girl's cutting remark proved a great blessing to me. I was too +much annoyed by it to sleep that night; I lay awake under the rafters of +that old farm-house, and vowed, again and again, that I <i>would</i> be +somebody; that the time should come when that girl would not call me a +'<i>hired servant</i>.'"</p> + +<p>The next morning James informed his employer that he had concluded to +give up the black-salter's business.</p> + +<p>In vain Mr. Barton urged him to stay, by the offer of higher wages.</p> + +<p>Much as he needed the money, the boy was determined to find some other +and more congenial way of earning a living. If he could only go to sea!</p> + +<p>Fortunately none of the family favored this wild scheme of James.</p> + +<p>His mother declared that she could never give her consent. "If you ever +go to sea, James," she said in her firm, decided tones, "remember it +will be entirely against my will. Do not mention the subject to me +again."</p> + +<p>James was a dutiful son. He did not want to oppose his mother's will, +and yet he did want to go to sea.</p> + +<p>A few days after he heard that his uncle, who was clearing a large tract +of forest near Cleveland, wanted to hire some wood-choppers. After +talking the matter over with his mother, he decided to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> offer his +services. He could not be idle, and wood-chopping was certainly +preferable to leaching ashes.</p> + +<p>His sister Mehetabel, who was now married, lived near this uncle, so +James could make his home with her.</p> + +<p>Altogether the plan pleased Mrs. Garfield, although she was loath to +part with her boy, even for a few months.</p> + +<p>James engaged to cut a hundred cords of wood for his uncle, at the rate +of fifty cents a cord, and declared he could easily cut two cords a day.</p> + +<p>Now it so happened that the edge of the forest where James' work lay +overlooked the blue waters of Lake Erie. With stories from "The Pirate's +Own Book" still haunting his brain, it was not strange that he often +stopped in his work to count the sail, and watch the changing color of +the beautiful waters.</p> + +<p>By and by he noticed that the old German by his side, who seemed to +wield his axe so slowly, was getting ahead of him in the amount of work +accomplished. He began to realize that he was wasting a deal of time by +these "sea dreams," and resolutely turned his back upon the fascinating +waters.</p> + +<p>It was not so easy, however, to drive out of his mind the bewitching +sea-faring tales he had read; and when those hundred cords of wood were +cut,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> he returned home with the old longing to be a sailor only +intensified.</p> + +<p>He said nothing, for he did not wish to grieve his mother, and as it was +now the last week in June he hired himself out to a farmer for the +summer months, to help in haying and harvesting.</p> + +<p>James was now a strong, muscular boy in his teens. He possessed, +naturally, a fine constitution, and his simple life and vigorous +exercise in the open air had greatly enhanced his powers of endurance. +Whatever he undertook he was determined to carry through successfully. +His strong, indomitable will conquered every difficulty, while his stern +integrity was a constant safeguard.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>James still longs for the Sea.—Experience with a Drunken +Captain.—Change of Base.—Life on the Canal.</p></div> + + +<p>James went on with his work at home, attending school in the winter, +reading whatever books he could find, and taking odd jobs in carpentry +to add to the family income.</p> + +<p>His heart, however, was still on the sea.</p> + +<p>At last he said to his mother:</p> + +<p>"If I should be <i>captain</i> of a ship some day, you wouldn't mind that, +would you?"</p> + +<p>Now Mrs. Garfield, like a wise mother, had been studying her restless +boy and was not unprepared for this returning desire on his part "to +follow the sea."</p> + +<p>"You might try a trip on Lake Erie," she replied, "and see how you like +it; but if you want to be 'somebody,' as you say, I would look higher +than to a sea-captain's position."</p> + +<p>James hardly heard his mother's last words, so delighted was he to have +this unexpected permission.</p> + +<p>He packed up his things as quickly as possible and walked the whole +distance to Cleveland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>Boarding the first schooner he found lying at the wharf, he asked one of +the crew if there was any chance for another hand on board.</p> + +<p>"If you can wait a little," was the answer, "the captain will soon be up +from the hold."</p> + +<p>James had a very exalted idea of this important personage; he expected +to see a fine, noble-looking man such as he had read about in his books.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, he heard a fearful noise below, followed by terrible oaths. +Stepping aside to let the drunken man pass him, he was greeted by the +gruff question,—</p> + +<p>"What d'yer want here, yer green land-lubber, yer?"</p> + +<p>"I was waiting to see the captain," replied James.</p> + +<p>"Wall, don't yer know him when yer do see him?" he shouted. "Get off my +ship, I tell yer, double quick!" James needed no second invitation. +Could this besotted brute be a specimen of the monarchs of the sea? The +boy was so shocked and disgusted that he made no further effort to find +a place on board ship. He began to think his story-books might be a +little different from the reality in other things as well as captains!</p> + +<p>Wandering through the city, he came to the canal which at that time was +a great thoroughfare between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. One of the +boats, called the "Evening Star," was tied to the bank, and James was +greatly surprised to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> find that the captain of it was a cousin of his, +Amos Letcher.</p> + +<p>"Well, James, what are you doing here?" said the canal-boat captain.</p> + +<p>"Hunting for work," replied the boy.</p> + +<p>"What kind of work do you want?"</p> + +<p>"Anything to make a living. I came here to ship on the lake, but they +bluffed me off and called me a country greenhorn."</p> + +<p>"You'd better try your hand on smaller waters first," said his cousin; +"I should like to have you work for me, but I've nothing better to offer +you than a driver's berth at twelve dollars a month."</p> + +<p>"I must do something," answered James, "and if that is the best you can +offer me, I'll take the team."</p> + +<p>"It was imagination that took me upon the canal," he said, years after; +and it is easy to see how fascinating the trips from Cleveland to +Pittsburgh seemed at that time to the inquiring boy.</p> + +<p>The "Evening Star" had a capacity of seventy tons, and it was manned, as +most of the canal-boats were, with two steersmen, two drivers, a +bowsman, and a cook. The bowsman stood in the forward part of the boat, +made ready the locks, and threw the bow-line around the snubbing-post. +The drivers had two mules each, which were driven tandem, and, after +serving a number of hours on the tow-path, they took turns in going on +board with their mules.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/facing44.jpg" width="650" height="449" alt="On the Tow-Path." title="" /> +<span class="caption">On the Tow-Path.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>James had hardly taken his place behind "Kit and Nance," as his team was +called, when he heard the captain call out,—</p> + +<p>"Careful, Jim, there's a boat coming." The boy had seen it, and was +trying to pass it to the best of his ability. But his inexperience and +haste occasioned a sudden tightening of the reins, and, before any one +quite knew what had happened, both driver and mules were jerked into the +canal. For a few seconds it seemed as if they would go to the bottom, +but James was equal to the emergency, and, getting astride the forward +mule, kept his head above water until rescue came. This was his +initiation in canal-boat driving, and the adventure was a standing joke +among his comrades for a long time.</p> + +<p>When they came to the "Eleven-Mile Lock," the captain ordered a change +of teams, and James went on board with his mules.</p> + +<p>Letcher, who is still living in Bryan, Ohio, gives the following account +of his talk with the boy as they were passing the locks:</p> + +<p>"I thought I'd sound Jim on education—in the rudiments of geography, +arithmetic and grammar. For I was just green enough in those days to +imagine I knew it all. I had been teaching school for three months in +the backwoods of Steuben County, Indiana. So I asked him several +questions, and he answered them all; and then he asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> me several that +I could not answer. I told him he had too good a head to be a common +canal-hand."</p> + +<p>One evening when the "Evening Star" was drawing near the twenty-one +locks of Akron, the captain sent his bowsman to make the first lock +ready. Just as he got there, a voice hailed him through the darkness. It +was from a boat above that had reached the locks first.</p> + +<p>"We are just around the bend," said her bowsman, "all ready to enter."</p> + +<p>"Can't help it!" shouted the bowsman of the "Evening Star," with a +volley of oaths; "we've got to hev this lock first!"</p> + +<p>The captain was so used to these contests on the canal that he did not +often interfere, but it was a new experience to James. He tapped his +cousin Amos on the shoulder, and said,—</p> + +<p>"Does that lock belong to us?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose not, according to law," was the answer, "but we will +have it, anyhow."</p> + +<p>"No! we will not!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"But why?" said the captain.</p> + +<p>"Why?" he repeated, "because it don't belong to us."</p> + +<p>Struck with the boy's sense of right, and ashamed of his own +carelessness, the captain called out to his men,—</p> + +<p>"Hold on, hold on! Let them have the lock."</p> + +<p>When the boatmen knew that their fight had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> been prevented by James's +interference they were greatly incensed, and began to call him "coward" +and all sorts of derogatory names.</p> + +<p>The boy only smiled; he knew he could vindicate his rights when the time +came, and it was not long before he had an opportunity.</p> + +<p>The boat had just reached Beaver, and James was on deck with his +setting-pole against his shoulder; a sudden lurch wrenched it from him +and threw it upon one of the boat-hands, who was standing close by.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, Dave," said the boy quickly; "it was an accident."</p> + +<p>The great, rough man, however, would take no apology, and rushed upon +James with clenched fists. A fight seemed inevitable, but with one +well-directed blow, the boy of sixteen threw down his burly antagonist, +and held him fast.</p> + +<p>"Pound him, James! Give him a good thrashing!" exclaimed the captain.</p> + +<p>"Not when he is down and in my power," said the boy. Then, letting his +conquered foe rise, he said,—</p> + +<p>"Come, Dave, give us your hand!" and from that time forth they were the +best of friends.</p> + +<p>"He's dif'rent from the rest on us—that's sartin—but he's a good un, +got a mighty sight o'pluck," said the whole crew.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Narrow Escape from Drowning.—Return Home.—Severe +Illness.—James determines to fit Himself for a +Teacher.—Geauga Seminary.—Personal Appearance.—Dr +Robinson's Verdict.</p></div> + + +<p>One dark, stormy night, just as the "Evening Star" was leaving a long +reach of slack water, James was called out of his berth to tend the +bow-line. As he began to uncoil the rope, it caught on the edge of the +deck; he pulled several times before he could extricate it, but suddenly +it gave way with such force as to throw him headlong into the water.</p> + +<p>The whole crew were soundly sleeping, the boat glided over him, and as +he could not swim he felt there was no hope. Suddenly he caught hold of +something hard; it was the rope which had become entangled in a crevice +of the deck and become so tight that it was an easy matter to climb up +by it into the boat.</p> + +<p>As he stood there in his dripping clothes, rescued from a watery grave, +he took the rope and tried to see how it happened to catch in the +crevice. Six hundred times he threw it, but it would not kink in the +same manner again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No one but God could have saved my life by such a thread as that!" he +exclaimed, and then he began to wonder if he could not make a better use +of his miraculously-spared life than by spending it upon a canal-boat.</p> + +<p>A severe attack of chills and fever followed this night's drenching and +exposure. He thought of his mother and her hopes for him, and made up +his mind to return home as soon as he was able.</p> + +<p>His mother was overjoyed when, a few weeks later, he stood before her +and told her of his changed plans. But again the malaria asserted its +sway over him, and for a long time he lay between life and death. It was +six months before he was able to do anything, and then to his mother's +delight he told her he was going to fit himself to be a teacher.</p> + +<p>A young man named Samuel Bates (now a clergyman in Madison, Ohio,) had +charge that winter of the district-school in Orange. He was a frequent +visitor at Mrs. Garfield's, and between James and himself there sprang +up a warm friendship. The young teacher had attended the Geauga Seminary +in Chester, and was full of his school experiences. He told James how +economically one could live, by clubbing together with other students, +and the result was that in the following spring, Garfield and his two +cousins, William<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> and Henry Boynton, went to Chester and rented a room +just across the street from the seminary. The house belonged to a poor +widow, who agreed to look after their room and do their washing for a +small sum. They bought their own cooking-stove, and immediately set up +house-keeping. James had only eleven dollars in his pocket, but he hoped +to earn more before that was gone.</p> + +<p>The academy was a plain wooden building of three stories, and could +accommodate about a hundred pupils. The library connected with it +contained a hundred and fifty volumes, which seemed to James a perfect +mine of wealth. Among the pupils at that time attending the academy was +a studious young girl by the name of Lucretia Rudolph, but the boys and +girls seldom saw each other except in their classes, and James was so +shy and awkward he did not care much for the society of young ladies. He +watched Miss Rudolph, however, with quiet admiration. Her sweet face, +her pleasant manners, and fine scholarship, made her a universal +favorite, and little by little a hearty friendship sprang up between the +two students who had so many aims in common.</p> + +<p>The principal of the academy at that time was an eccentric old gentleman +by the name of Daniel Branch. His wife, who was his chief assistant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> and +equally eccentric, was trying to introduce into the school a grammar of +her own construction, which was totally at variance with all other +systems. For instance, she insisted that <i>but</i> should be parsed as a +verb, in the imperative mood, with the sense of <i>to be out</i>; she also +declared that <i>and</i> was another verb in the imperative mood, and meant +<i>add</i>!</p> + +<p>Young Garfield, who had been thoroughly drilled in Kirkman's Grammar at +the district school, constantly contended against these new ideas which, +to his clear, well-balanced brain, presented nothing but absurdity. It +is to be hoped that the other scholars followed his sage example, and +that Branch's idiosyncrasy was soon banished from the school curriculum.</p> + +<p>James' personal appearance at this time is thus described by one of his +friends:</p> + +<p>"His clear, blue eyes, and free, open countenance were remarkably +prepossessing. His height was exaggerated by the coarse, satinet +trousers he wore, which were far outgrown, and reached only half-way +down the tops of his cowhide boots. It was his one suit, and the +threadbare coat was so short in the sleeves that his long arms had a +singularly awkward look. His coarse, slouched hat, much the worse for +wear, covered a shock of unkempt yellow hair that fell down over his +shoulders like a Shaker's."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>Without consulting any one, James resolved to be examined by a physician +before going on with his studies.</p> + +<p>He went to Dr. J. P. Robinson, of Bedford, who happened to be in the +neighborhood, and said to him,—</p> + +<p>"You are a physician, and know the fibre that is in men. I want you to +examine me, and then say frankly whether or no it is worth while for me +to take a course of liberal study. It is my earnest desire to do so, but +if you advise me not to attempt it, I shall feel content."</p> + +<p>The doctor, in speaking of this incident, says:—</p> + +<p>"I felt that I was on my sacred honor, and the young man looked as +though he felt himself on trial. I had had considerable experience as a +physician, but here was a case much different from any other I had ever +had. I examined his head, and saw that there was a magnificent brain +there. I sounded his lungs, and found them strong and capable of making +good blood. I felt his pulse, and saw that there was an engine capable +of sending the blood up to the brain. I had seen many strong, physical +systems with warm feet, but cold, sluggish brain; and those who +possessed such systems would simply sit around and doze. At the end of a +fifteen minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and I said: +'Go on; follow the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> promptings of your ambition. You have the brain of a +Webster, and you have the physical proportions that will back you in the +most herculean efforts. Work, work hard, do not be afraid of +overworking; and you will make your mark.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Low State of Finances.—James Takes up Carpentry again.—The +Debating Club.—Bread and Milk Diet.—First Experience in +School-Teaching.—Becomes Interested in Religious +Topics.—Creed of the Disciples.—James Joins the New Sect.</p></div> + + +<p>After buying his school-books and some other necessary articles, James +found his small amount of funds rapidly decreasing. But this did not +discourage him in the least.</p> + +<p>"I have never yet had any difficulty in finding work, and I don't +believe I shall now," he said to his cousins, as he started off one +Saturday afternoon to find a carpenter's shop.</p> + +<p>In those days planing was always done by hand, and Mr. Woodworth, the +one carpenter at Chester, was very glad to engage so willing and capable +an assistant as the young student.</p> + +<p>By working at his shop before and after school, and all day upon +Saturday, James earned enough money to pay all his bills that term, and +carry home a few dollars besides. From that time forward he never failed +to pay his own way, although to do it he was obliged to work very hard +and deny himself many comforts.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> + +<p>The studies of his first term at Chester included English grammar, +natural philosophy, arithmetic and algebra. It was one of the +regulations of the school to write a composition every fortnight upon +subjects chosen sometimes by the principal, and sometimes by the +students themselves. These essays were occasionally read before the +whole school, and the first time that James read his, he trembled so +that he was "very glad," he writes, "of the short curtain across the +platform that hid my shaking legs from the audience."</p> + +<p>In the Debating Society James always took an active part. He was a +little diffident at first, but soon astonished himself as much as his +friends by his ready command of language. Whatever question came up +before the club he studied as he would a problem in mathematics. The +school library supplied him with books of reference, and his ready +memory never failed him. The students at Geauga listened with +astonishment to the eloquent appeals of their rough, ungainly +schoolmate. The secret of his power was largely due to the thorough +preparation with which he armed himself. He was so full of his subject +he could not help imparting it in the strongest and most impressive +manner. Here it was that he laid the basis of his future success as a +public speaker.</p> + +<p>Having taken from the library the "Life of Henry C. Wright," he became +quite interested in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the author's experiment of living upon a bread and +milk diet. He told his cousins they had been too extravagant in their +mode of living, that milk was better than meat for students, and that +another term they must try it.</p> + +<p>The boys, always ready to follow James, acquiesced; and after a trial of +four weeks, found their expenses had been reduced to thirty-one cents +each, per week. But their strength also had become reduced; and while +still making milk their principal article of diet, they concluded to +increase their table to the amount of fifty cents each for the remainder +of the term.</p> + +<p>When the long vacation came James was very anxious to teach school. The +principal at Geauga had told him that he was fully competent, and with +his usual energy and determination he started out to find a school.</p> + +<p>"What! you don't expect we want a <i>boy</i> to teach in our district?" was +the first reply to his modest application.</p> + +<p>It was of no use to show the committee his excellent recommendation from +Mr. Branch—they wanted a man, not a boy.</p> + +<p>Somewhat discouraged, James walked on to the next district, only to find +that a teacher had already been engaged. About three miles north was +another school, but here, too, they were just supplied with a graduate +from Geauga.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>Two days of persistent school-hunting followed, but James was unable to +find any position as teacher.</p> + +<p>"It may be that Providence has something better in store for you," said +his mother; but James was so tired and discouraged he had not a word to +say.</p> + +<p>Early next morning he was surprised by a call from one of the committee +men belonging to their own district.</p> + +<p>"We want some one to teach at the 'Ledge,'" he said to James, "and we +heard that you were looking for a school. Now, the boys all know you in +this district, and they are a pretty hard lot to manage, but I reckon +you are stout enough to thrash them all."</p> + +<p>Not a very encouraging outlook for James, surely! But after talking the +matter over with his Uncle Amos Boynton, he concluded to undertake the +school.</p> + +<p>Beginning as "Jim Garfield," he determined to win the respect of both +pupils and parents until he was known as "Mr. Garfield." To do this a +deal of firmness was required, and his first day at school was a series +of battles with naughty boys. After that a most friendly relation was +established between pupils and teacher. They felt he had no desire to +domineer over them, but that he would maintain order and decorum at any +cost. In<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> "boarding around," as was the custom for district school +teachers in those days, he became well acquainted with all the families +in the neighborhood and gained a still firmer hold upon the affections +of his pupils. Before the winter was over, <i>Mr</i>. Garfield had won the +reputation of being "the best teacher who had ever taught at the +'Ledge.'"</p> + +<p>It was a great delight to his mother to have him so near her. Every +Sunday he spent at home, and it was at this time that he became deeply +interested in religious questions. His mother was a member of the Church +of Disciples, or Campbellites, as they were sometimes called, from +Alexander Campbell, the founder of the sect.</p> + +<p>Their creed is as follows:</p> + +<p>I. We believe in God, the Father.</p> + +<p>II. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the +only Saviour.</p> + +<p>III. That Christ is a Divine Being.</p> + +<p>IV. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent in the conversion of +sinners, and the sanctification of Christians.</p> + +<p>V. That the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the inspired word of +God.</p> + +<p>VI. That there is future punishment for the wicked, and future reward +for the righteous.</p> + +<p>VII. That the Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God.</p> + +<p>VIII. That the Bible is our only creed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p> + +<p>The founder of the sect was for a long time a member of the Baptist +Church, and declared that he differed from them only in his "disbelief +in the binding force of the church creed, and in the necessity of +ministerial ordinations."</p> + +<p>The new church grew very rapidly, notwithstanding the persecutions it +received from both the Baptist and Freewill Baptist denominations, and +it numbers now over half a million members.</p> + +<p>It is not strange that James was drawn to this single-hearted, +struggling sect of "Disciples." The earnest, persuasive arguments of one +of its preachers led him to Christ, and when, that same winter, he was +baptized in the little river at Orange, he became at once an earnest +champion of the new church. In all religious discussions, he claimed the +right of following the Bible according to the convictions of his own +conscience, and declared that every one else should have the same right.</p> + +<p>His consistent Christian life added strength to his spoken words, and +the Disciples felt that a bright and shining light had been added to +their ranks.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return to Geauga Seminary.—Works at Haying through the +Vacation.—Teaches a higher Grade of School.—First +Oration.—Determines to Go to College.—He visits the State +Capitol at Columbus.</p></div> + + +<p>When James returned to the academy, he made an arrangement with Mr. +Woodworth, by which he could have a comfortable boarding-place at one +dollar and six cents a week. This was at Mr. Woodworth's own house, and +the payment was to be taken out in labor at the carpenter's shop. It was +an excellent plan, and gave James more time for his studies, in spite of +the hard manual labor he performed out of school-hours. He could use the +square and the scratch-awl now, as well as the plane; and his wages were +correspondingly increased.</p> + +<p>In the summer vacation of his third term at Geauga, James and a +schoolmate resolved to earn a little money at haying. They accordingly +hired themselves out to a neighboring farmer who wanted some extra +hands. Noticing how vigorously the boys worked, the farmer turned to his +men and said,—</p> + +<p>"Lookee here, you lubbers! these boys are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> gitting way ahead of you. +They make broader swaths, and they mow a sight better than you do!"</p> + +<p>When the haying was done, and the settling day came, the farmer asked +the boys what wages they expected.</p> + +<p>"Whatever you think is right," replied James.</p> + +<p>"Wall," said the farmer, "as yer only boys, of course yer won't expect +men's wages."</p> + +<p>"But didn't you say yourself," argued James, "that we did more work than +your men? If that is so, why should you pay us less?"</p> + +<p>The farmer was nonplussed, and gave the boys the same wages he paid his +men, remarking, as he did so,—</p> + +<p>"It's the fust time I ever paid boys so much, but you've fairly earned +it—that's a fact!"</p> + +<p>It was just about this time that the anti-slavery contest began to +assert itself throughout the country.</p> + +<p>In the little Debating Club at Geauga, the question was given out, +"<i>Ought slavery to be abolished in this republic?</i>" It was a subject +that roused James to his best efforts; and his school-mates, as they +listened to his fiery denunciations against slavery, declared that "Jim +ought to go to Congress!"</p> + +<p>The following winter James procured a school at Warrensville, where he +was paid sixteen dollars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> a month and his board, which was more than he +had ever earned before. It was in this school that one of the pupils +wanted to take up geometry—a branch of mathematics that James had never +studied.</p> + +<p>As usual, however, he was equal to the emergency. Buying a text-book, he +studied geometry after school-hours, until he had mastered the science, +and his pupils never once dreamed but that he was as familiar with it as +with algebra or arithmetic.</p> + +<p>It was at the annual exhibition of Geauga Seminary, in November, 1859, +that James delivered his first oration. It was prepared with his usual +carefulness, and delivered with so much magnetic earnestness that the +whole audience were held spell-bound.</p> + +<p>"He is bound to make his mark in the world," said every one who had +listened to the earnest, enthusiastic student.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garfield noted with grateful joy that her son no longer spoke of +"going to sea." The one great aim of his life now was to procure a +liberal education. A deeper, broader ocean was stretching out before +him, and already his pulses thrilled with the mighty, incoming tide.</p> + +<p>It was during his last term at Geauga Seminary that James met a young +man who was a graduate of a New England college. From him he learned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> +that it was possible to work one's way through college as well as +through school. It was a new thought to James. His poverty had seemed to +him before an insurmountable obstacle in gaining a university education. +Now, he began to study Latin and other branches that might pave the way +to a college examination.</p> + +<p>On his return home, he found his mother was just about to start on a +journey to Muskingum County, where some of her relatives lived. She was +very anxious that James should go with her, and, when he found that he +could obtain a school near Zanesville, he was quite ready to go. The +Cleveland and Columbus Railroad had just been opened, and this was +James' first ride in the cars. When they reached Columbus they visited +the legislature, which was then in session; and, as James remarked +afterwards, "That alone was worth a month's schooling to me."</p> + +<p>The mother and son spent three months in this part of Ohio, James +teaching the little school at Harrison, and studying hard himself all +the time. Having met a student from the Eclectic Institute at Hiram, +Portage County, Ohio, he learned that opportunities were there afforded +for studying the branches of the first two college years. The expenses +of tuition were no greater than at Geauga Seminary, and the Institute +was under the direction of the Church of the Disciples.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>It seemed a providential opening, and, after talking over the matter +with his mother, he determined to seek admission there the following +autumn.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hiram Institute.—The faithful Janitor.—Miss Almeda +Booth.—James is appointed Assistant Teacher.—Critical +habit of Reading.—Moral and Religious Growth.—Debating +Club.</p></div> + + +<p>It was towards the latter part of August, 1851, and James was nearly +twenty years of age when he first presented himself at Hiram Institute. +The board of trustees was then in session, and he was directly +introduced into the room where they were seated. Notwithstanding his +shabby clothes and awkward manners, his earnest, intelligent face at +once prepossessed them in his favor.</p> + +<p>"I must work my way," he began; "but I am very anxious to get an +education. I thought, perhaps, you would let me ring the bell and sweep +the floors to pay part of my bills."</p> + +<p>"How do we know that you can do the work well?" asked one of the +trustees.</p> + +<p>"If, at the end of a couple of weeks," replied James, "you find that my +work does not suit you, I will not ask to keep the place."</p> + +<p>"I think we had better try the young student," said another of the +trustees, and so the question was settled, and James was duly installed +as janitor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>The town of Hiram was at that time twelve miles from the railroad, and +consisted of a straggling collection of houses, with two churches and a +few stores at the cross-roads. Its natural advantages, however, were +wonderfully fine, and to-day it is sometimes called "the crown of Ohio." +Its location is very near the line where the waters divide, one part +flowing northward to Lake Erie, the other southward to the Ohio river.</p> + +<p>The Institute was a plain, brick building on the top of a hill, whose +slopes were thickly planted with corn; from this eminence a charming +panorama of the whole surrounding country could be obtained. It was +built for the special accommodation of the sons and daughters of the +Western Reserve farmers, and among its founders was Mr. Zebulon Rudolph, +the father of James' old school-mate, Lucretia Rudolph. The Rev. A. S. +Hayden was, at this time, its principal, and Thomas Munnell and Norman +Dunshee were assistant teachers.</p> + +<p>The aims of the school were,—</p> + +<p>1st. To provide a sound, scientific and literary education.</p> + +<p>2d. To temper and sweeten such education with moral and scriptural +knowledge.</p> + +<p>3d. To educate young men for the ministry.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/facing54.jpg" width="650" height="428" alt="Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>The charter of the Institute, according to the peculiar tenet of the +religious movement in which it originated, was based upon the study of +the Holy Scriptures. The Disciples believed that the Bible ought to take +a larger place in general culture than had as yet been accorded to it. +In the course of study, the system pursued was strictly elective. It was +just the place for James to fit for college, and pursue, if he chose, +branches that would enable him to enter a university two years in +advance.</p> + +<p>Among the pupils at Hiram, when James entered the Institute, was a Miss +Almeda Booth, some nine years his senior, who proved an invaluable +friend and helper. She was a teacher as well as scholar, but James, at +the end of a few months, found himself pursuing the same studies and +ranking in the same classes as Miss Booth. "I was far behind her," he +writes, "in mathematics and the physical sciences, but we were nearly in +the same place in Greek and Latin."</p> + +<p>Miss Booth was a lady of rare talent. Upon the death of the young man to +whom she was engaged, she resolved to consecrate her life to higher +intellectual attainments, in order to increase her usefulness.</p> + +<p>In a tribute to her memory, a few years ago, Garfield said,—</p> + +<p>"She exerted a more powerful influence over me than any other teacher, +except President Hopkins.... The few spare hours which schoolwork left +us were devoted to such pursuits as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> each of us preferred, but much +study was done in common. I can name twenty or thirty books, which will +be doubly precious to me because they were read and discussed in company +with her. I can still read between the lines the memories of her first +impressions of the page, and her judgment of its merits."</p> + +<p>Whenever James had a thesis to prepare, he would talk over the subject +for hours with Miss Booth, and together they read during one term a +hundred pages of Herodotus and a hundred of Livy.</p> + +<p>At the close of his first year at Hiram, James was given the position of +assistant teacher of the English department and ancient languages. He +had also secured regular work with the carpenter in Hiram, so it was no +longer necessary for him to serve as janitor. But many of his old +schoolmates still remember the faithfulness with which he performed the +menial services of his first position. He was promptness itself at the +ringing of every bell, and seemed the personification of Herbert's +servant, in making "drudgery divine"—for truly,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Who sweeps a room as to Thy laws,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Makes that and the action fine!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was while at Hiram Institute that he formed the habit of taking +critical notes from all the books he read. It proved of invaluable +service to him in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> after years, for no matter upon what topic he desired +to speak, these indexes served as so many finger-posts in his library, +and directed him at once to the subject-matter in hand.</p> + +<p>All this time the moral and religious faculties of the young student +were developing no less rapidly than his intellectual powers. At the +frequent meetings of the Disciples he was a ready speaker, and his +earnest appeals are remembered to this day by his school-mates. Every +one seemed to think, as a matter of course, that he would become a +preacher in the Church of the Disciples, but, as the months went by, he +seemed disinclined to express any decision upon that point.</p> + +<p>The Debating Club at Hiram called out his best powers. His practice at +Geauga had fitted him to express his opinions upon whatever subject +might be under discussion, in the clearest and most impressive manner. +At one time the contest over some public question became so bitter and +excited that James finally rose and declared he would no longer waste +his time over such nonsensical things as the majority proposed. A +division of the club was the final result, and James was chosen +president of the new society.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Ready for College.—His Uncle lends him Five Hundred +Dollars.—Why he Decides to go to Williams.—College Life.</p></div> + + +<p>After spending three years at Hiram in faithful, persistent study, James +felt he was prepared to enter the junior class at almost any college. +But how was he to procure the means to carry on his studies? Thus far he +had defrayed all his expenses by his own exertions as janitor, +carpenter, and teacher; but, to enter college, he would need a little +money in advance. His proud, independent spirit shrank from borrowing +even from his friends. At last, he went to his uncle, Thomas Garfield, +and asked for the use of five hundred dollars until he could earn enough +money by teaching to pay it back.</p> + +<p>His uncle Thomas had always shown a kindly interest in his efforts to +obtain an education, and now gladly advanced him the sum he desired. In +order to make sure the payment in case of his death, James procured a +policy upon his life to the value of five hundred dollars, and presented +it to his uncle.</p> + +<p>He had now, as he thought, the necessary means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> to enter college, but +which of the many inviting doors should he enter? Every one seemed to +take it for granted that he would go to Bethany College; which was under +the patronage of his own denomination, but, in a letter to a friend, he +gave his final decision as follows:—</p> + +<p>"After thinking it all over, I have made up my mind to go to +Williamstown, Mass.... There are three reasons why I have decided not to +go to Bethany:—1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough +as in eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. +3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but +little acquaintance with people of other views; and having always lived +in the West, I think it will make me more liberal both in my religious +and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall +be under new influence. Therefore, I wrote to the presidents of Brown +University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had +done, and asking how long it would take me to finish their course.</p> + +<p>"Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two +years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins +concludes with this sentence: 'If you come here we shall be glad to do +what we can for you.' Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, +which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled +that question for me. I shall start for Williams next week."</p> + +<p>It was at the close of the summer term in 1854 that James presented +himself before President Hopkins for examination. He is described at +this time "as a tall, awkward youth, with a great shock of light hair, +rising nearly erect from a broad, high forehead, and an open, kindly, +and thoughtful face, which showed no traces of his long struggle with +poverty and privation."</p> + +<p>He passed the examination without difficulty, and soon became a great +favorite with his class in spite of his shabby clothes and Western +provincialisms. "Old Gar" and the "Ohio giant" were the names by which +he was best known in college, and a classmate says of him that "he +immediately took a stand above all his companions for accurate +scholarship, and won high honors as a writer, reasoner, and debater."</p> + +<p>The beautiful, mountainous scenery about Williamstown was a constant +delight to the young Westerner. He would frequently climb to the top of +Greylock and feast his eyes upon the magnificent panorama below. He was +no longer obliged to work at the carpenter's bench, or perform the +duties of janitor, and these long walks gave him needful exercise as +well as pleasant recreation.</p> + +<p>President Hopkins became greatly interested in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> the earnest, +enthusiastic student. The "friendly hand-grasp" was extended to him in +many ways, and, when the summer vacation came, he offered him the free +use of the college library.</p> + +<p>James gladly availed himself of this privilege, and browsed among the +books to his heart's content. It was the first time in his life that he +had ever found leisure to read the works of Shakespeare, consecutively. +During the summer vacation he not only read and thoroughly studied the +plays, but committed large portions of them to memory. He also varied +his heavier reading with works of fiction, allowing himself one novel a +month. Dickens and Thackeray were favorite authors, and Tennyson's poems +were read with ever-increasing pleasure.</p> + +<p>He completed his classical studies the first year he was at +Williamstown, as he had entered far in advance of the other pupils. He +then took up German as an elective study, and, in the space of a few +months, had made such rapid progress that he could read Goethe and +Schiller, and converse with fluency.</p> + +<p>In the "Williams Quarterly," a magazine published by the students, James +took great interest, and was a frequent contributor both in prose and +poetry.</p> + +<p>The following poem, entitled "Memory," he wrote the last year he was at +Williams College:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Tis beauteous night, the stars look brightly down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No light gleams at the window save my own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And leads me gently through her twilight realms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The enchanted shadowy land where Memory dwells?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It has its valleys, cheerless lone and drear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dark shaded by the mournful cypress tree,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet its sunlit mountain tops are bathed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Robed in the dreamy light of distant years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are clustered joys serene of other days,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon its gently sloping hillsides bend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weeping willows o'er the sacred dust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of dear departed ones, and yet in that land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whene'er our footsteps fall upon the shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They that were sleeping rise from out the dust<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of death's long silent years, and round us stand,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As erst they did before the prison tomb<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Received their clay within its voiceless halls<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heavens that bend above that land are hung<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With clouds of various hues some dark and chill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Surcharged with sorrow, cast then sombre shade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the sunny, joyous land below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Others are floating through the dreamy air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">White as the falling snow their margins tinged<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With gold and crimson hues, then shadows fall<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Soft as the shadows of angel's wing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When the rough battle of the day is done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And evening's peace falls gently on the heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I bound away across the noisy years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where woke the first-remembered sounds that fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the ear in childhood's early morn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And wandering thence, along the rolling years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see the shadow of my former self<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gliding from childhood up to man's estate.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The path of youth winds down through many a vale<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on the brink of many a dread abyss,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From out whose darkness comes no ray of light,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And beckons toward the verge. Again the path<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>He was also a prominent member of the Philologian Society, of which he +was afterwards elected president.</p> + +<p>While James was at Williamstown, the anti-slavery contest was at a white +heat. Charles Sumner had aroused the whole nation by his stirring, +eloquent speeches in Congress; and when the tidings came of the attack +made upon him by Preston Brooks of South Carolina, indignation meetings +were held everywhere throughout the North. At the gathering in +Williamstown, Garfield made a most powerful speech, denouncing slavery +in the strongest terms.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah for 'Old Gar!'" exclaimed his classmates; "the country will hear +from him yet!"</p> + +<p>When the fall term closed, James looked about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> for some position as +teacher, and finally opened a writing-school in Pownal, Vermont. This +brought him in quite a sum of money, and enlarged his circle of +acquaintance. His sunny disposition, his energy, his warm-hearted, +sympathetic nature, made him a great favorite wherever he went, and +President Hopkins, writing of him at this time, says,—</p> + +<p>"He was prompt, frank, manly, social, in his tendencies; combining +active exercise with habits of study, and thus did for himself what it +is the object of a college to enable every young man to do,—he made +himself a <span class="smcap">MAN</span>."</p> + +<p>Professor, now President, Chadbourne adds his testimony as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The college life of James Garfield was so perfect, so +rounded, so pure, so in accordance with what it ought to be +in all respects, that I can add nothing to it by eulogizing +him. It was a noble college life; everything about him was +high and noble and manly. He was one whom his teachers would +never suspect as guilty of a dishonest or mean act, and one +whom a dishonest or mean man would not approach. His moral +and religious character, and marked intellectual ability, +gave great promise of success in the world."</p></div> + +<p>At the end of his first collegiate year, James visited his mother, who +was then living with her married daughter in Solon, Ohio. What a tall,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> +manly fellow he had grown to be! What a power he would be in the church, +in the world! Her heart was full of grateful joy as she realized how +abundantly God had answered her earnest prayers.</p> + +<p>The next winter vacation James taught a school in Poestenkill, a little +village some six miles from Troy, N.Y. There was a Church of the +Disciples in the place, and James was a frequent attendant at the +conference meetings. His able remarks and earnest exhortations excited +so much comment that the pastor, Mr. Streeter, invited him to occupy his +pulpit. After hearing him preach once, the people declared that they +must hear him again, and so it came about that almost every Sunday found +the young student in the desk.</p> + +<p>"He will become the most noted preacher in the Disciples' Church," said +his friends and classmates.</p> + +<p>One day a certain Mr. Brooks, belonging to the school committee at Troy, +called upon him and said,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Our high school needs a new teacher, Mr. Garfield, and we +want you to supply the vacancy. You will not find it a +difficult position, and we will pay you a salary of twelve +hundred dollars."</p></div> + +<p>It was a tempting offer, and would relieve James at once of the +pecuniary difficulties that hung like weights about his feet. After +taking some days to consider the matter, he finally said to Mr. +Brooks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Much as I need the money, I feel it would not be right for me to accept +the position. It would prevent me from finishing my college course, and +so cramp me, intellectually, for life. Then, again, I feel under some +obligation to Hiram Institute, where the trustees expect me to return. +My roots seem to be fixed in Ohio, and the transplanting might not +succeed; it is best for me to complete my studies here, and then return +to my homework, even for smaller pay."</p> + +<p>Abiding by this decision, James applied himself to his books with +renewed energy. President Hopkins had established the metaphysical +oration as the highest honor of the class, and James' essay upon "The +Seen and the Unseen" bore off the palm.</p> + +<p>He graduated in August, 1856, and among the forty-two members that +composed his class, are a number of names that have since won an +enviable distinction.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return Home.—Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram +Institute.—His Popularity as a Teacher.—Answers Prof. +Denton.—Marriage.</p></div> + + +<p>Upon his return home, Garfield was immediately appointed Professor of +Ancient Languages and Literature at Hiram Institute. Writing to a friend +at this time, he says,—</p> + +<p>"I have attained to the height of my ambition. I have my diploma from an +eastern college, and my position here at Hiram as instructor; and now I +shall devote all my energies to this Institution."</p> + +<p>The following year, upon the resignation of A. L. Hayden, Garfield was +appointed President of Hiram Institute. He was now twenty-six years of +age, and one of his pupils writing of him at this time, says,—</p> + +<p>"He was a tall, strong man, full of animal spirits, and many a time he +used to run out on the green and play cricket with us. He combined an +affectionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most +successful manner. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof +or approbation, he would generally manage to get one arm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> around him and +draw him close up to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, +giving a twist to your arm and drawing you right up to him. This +sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. He took very kindly to +me, and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor and was janitor +of the buildings, and swept them out in the morning, and built the fires +as he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil at the same +school.</p> + +<p>"Once when he assigned me a task that I feared was beyond my powers, I +said,—</p> + +<p>"'I am afraid I cannot do that.'</p> + +<p>"'What!' he exclaimed, 'you are not going to give up without trying! It +seems to me, Darsie, when one is in a place he can easily fill, it is +time for him to shove out of it into one that requires his utmost +exertion.'"</p> + +<p>The present principal at Hiram, President Hinsdale, was one of +Garfield's pupils, and it was through his advice and constant +encouragement that the struggling student undertook the work of a +liberal education.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," he writes Hinsdale, "do you not feel a spirit stirring within +you that longs to <i>know, to do, and to dare</i>, to hold converse with the +great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble object +to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may be +given? Do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> you not have longings like these which you breathe to no one, +and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life +unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will +forever cling around your heart till you obey their mandate.... God has +endowed some of His children with desires and capabilities for an +extended field of labor and influence, and every life should be shaped +according to 'what the man hath.' <i>I know</i> you have capabilities for +occupying positions of high and important trust in the scenes of active +life. I sincerely hope you will not, without an earnest struggle, give +up a course of liberal study."</p> + +<p>Hinsdale, as we all know, followed the advice of his earnest, +sympathetic teacher, and is now ranked among the foremost scholars of +the day.</p> + +<p>A favorite mode of instruction with Garfield was by means of lectures.</p> + +<p>"They were upon all sorts of subjects," writes one of his pupils, "and +were usually the result of his readings and observation. One season he +took a pleasure trip, and, on his return, gave a very interesting series +on 'The Chain of Lakes,' including Niagara, The Thousand Isles, and +sub-historic points. One lecture on ærolites I shall never forget. About +the time of the attack on Fort Sumter, he gave several lectures upon +'Ordnance'; and the natural sciences, æsthetics, etc., always came in +for a share of his effective treatment."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>At one time a certain Prof. Denton, who was a strong advocate of +spiritualism, gave a series of lectures in Northern Ohio, by which he +attempted to prove the inaccuracy of the Scriptures. He was something of +a scholar, and stated his theories in so plausible a manner that many +weak minds were misled. At last he became so bold that he offered a +challenge to any and every believer of the Bible in Ohio to refute his +statements.</p> + +<p>The Churches of the Disciples were greatly troubled. Many of their young +men were falling away, and the false doctrines were gaining a rapid +ascendancy throughout the community. They must have a strong champion, +who could meet Professor Denton with sharp weapons upon his own ground. +They applied to Garfield, who, after some persuasion, finally agreed to +meet the professor upon the appointed evening and take up his challenge. +He had only three days to prepare for the contest, but, selecting six of +his most advanced students, he told them the plan of argument he had +devised, and then sent them to the college library to look up the +separate points. He also procured copies of all the previous lectures +that Professor Denton had delivered, and sent in various directions for +the latest scientific works. When the evening came he was thoroughly +prepared at every point. A large and excited audience had gathered to +hear the discussion. Professor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> Denton opened the debate. Supposing his +opponent would not dare to attack him on scientific ground, he neglected +to be precisely accurate in all his statements. Garfield waited until he +had finished, and then, with overwhelming authority, took up each point +of the discussion and refuted all the Professor's arguments with the +very weapons he had himself been using. It was a complete victory, and +Professor Denton had the manliness to acknowledge that he had never +before met with so gifted and powerful an adversary.</p> + +<p>As the Institute at Hiram was under the special patronage of the +Disciples, a large number of the students in attendance were young men +who were fitting for the ministry. Garfield's position, therefore, as +principal, gave him a close connection with church-work. He was a +preacher as well as a teacher, and at one time filled the pulpits at +Solon and Newberg every Sunday. At the morning devotions it was his +custom to deliver a short, impressive address; his favorite hymn at +these services was, "Ho, reapers of life's harvest," and his pupils +recall how, at the singing of the last verse, he would always rap upon +his desk and request the whole school to rise. He frequently preached at +the Disciples' Church in Hiram, and everyone believed that he would +eventually choose the ministry for his profession.</p> + +<p>Lucretia Rudolph, the bright, attractive school-mate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> to whom his +thoughts had so often reverted, was now a teacher at Hiram. They had +corresponded all the time he was in college, their long friendship had +ripened into a deep and tender love, and on the 11th of November, 1858, +they were united in marriage.</p> + +<p>A poet-student at Hiram celebrates the event in the following ode:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Again</i> a Mary? Nay, <i>Lucretia</i>;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The noble, classic name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That well befits our fair ladie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our sweet and gentle dame<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With heart as leal and loving<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As e'er was sung in lays<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of high-born Roman nation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In old, heroic days;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy her lord illustrious, whom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Honor and fame attend;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy her soldier's name to wear.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy the civic wreath to share<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That binds her Viking's tawny hair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Right proud are we the world should know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As hers, him whom we long ago<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Found truest helper, friend."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In a humble little cottage, just in front of the college campus, they +began their wedded life,—a life whose wonderful beauty, strength, and +devotion was soon to be seen and known of all the world.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garfield became as great a favorite in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> college as her husband. +One of the graduates thus writes:—</p> + +<p>"There are men and women scattered over the United States, holding +positions of honor and wealth, who began the life that led them upward +by the advice and with the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Garfield."</p> + +<p>The wife was always the ready and efficient helpmeet of her husband. +Whenever he had a lecture or speech to prepare, she would search the +whole library, consulting every book that pertained to the subject in +hand, and then together they would discuss the topic from every point of +view. One, in every thought and purpose, their quiet life at Hiram +presented the same beautiful home picture that after honors could never +dim nor tarnish.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Law Studies.—Becomes Interested in Politics.—Delivers +Oration at the Williams Commencement.—Elected State +Senator.—His Courage and Eloquence.</p></div> + + +<p>Shortly after his marriage, Garfield entered his name in the law office +of Riddle and Williamson, attorneys in Cleveland, Ohio, as a student of +law. This formality was necessary in order to ensure admission to the +bar. It was not here, however, that he studied, and for a long time his +friends knew nothing of the step he had taken. After his hours of +teaching, at odd moments through the day, and often far into the night, +he pored over his law-books with the same intensity of purpose he had +shown in all his other undertakings.</p> + +<p>It was his patriotic interest in the measures which were then before the +legislature of Ohio that first led him to take up a critical study of +law. He always wanted to go to the bottom of things, and his college +training under President Hopkins had developed a wonderful power of +synopsizing. In entering upon a course of law studies, it was not so +much with the thought of becoming a lawyer, as to make himself +conversant with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> principles of law. When, however, he was admitted +to the bar, he was so thoroughly equipped for practice, that he could go +into courts of any grade and try the most intricate cases.</p> + +<p>In later years a friend said of him:—</p> + +<p>"Had Garfield gone to the bar for a living, his gift of oratory, his +strong analytical powers, and his ability to do hard work, would soon +have made him eminent. In the few law cases he took during vacation +seasons he held his own with some of the best lawyers of the country. In +one of them his ability to grasp successfully with an unexpected +situation was signally demonstrated. The case was tried in Mobile, and +involved the ownership of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Garfield had +prepared himself upon an important and difficult question of law +involved, and felt a comfortable sense of readiness for the trial; but +after he reached Mobile the court ordered the consolidation of three +suits concerning the road, and the question upon which he had prepared +himself passed wholly out of sight; and, as he wrote to a friend, 'the +whole entanglement of an insolvent railroad twenty-five years old, lying +across four states and costing $20,000,000, came upon us at once.' He +was assigned the duty of summing up the case for his side. During the +trial he did five days and five nights of the hardest work he ever did +in his life. Then he made his argument and won the case."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<p>It will be remembered that when at college, Garfield always took an +active part in political discussions, although he did not cast a vote +until four years after his majority. At that time the new Republican +party was formed on the anti-slavery platform, with Fremont and Dayton +as their candidates. Garfield heartily sympathized with this party that +"drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which God has +lighted in every human heart," and from that time forward became its +earnest and ready champion. During the campaign of 1856 he was +constantly called upon for speeches and lectures. A pupil at Hiram at +that time says:—</p> + +<p>"He would attend to his duties at the Institute through the day, jump +into a buggy at night, taking me or some other student to keep him +company, put his arm around me, talk all the way to the place where the +meeting was to be held, be it ten or twenty miles. It would not be +conversation on politics, but on history, general literature, or some +great principle. He was always welcomed upon the platform, and after +speaking would return, taking up the theme we had dropped, getting home +in the small hours in the morning.</p> + +<p>"At nine o'clock the next day he would be in the school as fresh as +ever. When Sunday came he would have a sermon as fresh and vigorous as +if it had been the study of the week. All the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> while he was carrying on +the study of law and attending to the duties incumbent on him as the +president of the Institute, keeping up a course of general reading, and +his acquaintance with the classics."</p> + +<p>In 1859, only three years after his graduation, the faculty of Williams +College honored Garfield with an invitation to deliver the master's +oration at Commencement. The able, brilliant speaker was constantly in +demand, and he won fresh laurels wherever he went.</p> + +<p>Upon his return to Ohio, he found to his surprise that his name had been +proposed in Portage county for the state senatorship. The unanimous +support he received was very gratifying, yet his first thought was of +the Institute.</p> + +<p>"You will be away but a few weeks at a time," said the trustees; "your +influence is greatly needed at the Capitol, and Hiram must be content to +wait."</p> + +<p>So, after much persuasion, Garfield accepted the nomination, and the +Institute jealously kept his name, though deprived of his presence.</p> + +<p>It was in January, 1860, that Garfield first took his seat in the state +senate. Secession and a civil war seemed imminent, but the North +continued strong and steadfast in its denunciations against slavery. +Garfield, scarcely thirty years of age at this time, was the youngest +member of the senate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> Jacob D. Cox, another radical member, and +Professor Monroe of Oberlin College, were his intimate friends, and +zealous coadjutors. The 'radical triumvirate,' they were called by the +opposite party, and when the constitutional amendment which would give +the slave states the continuation of slavery, was submitted to the Ohio +legislature, Garfield led the brave minority with marked ability and +courage.</p> + +<p>In less than ten years from the time he visited Columbus with his +mother, he had become one of the most prominent members of the state +senate!</p> + +<p>The following extract from the Fourth of July oration he delivered that +year at Ravenna gives us a passing glimpse of his patriotic eloquence—</p> + +<p>"The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety. Trees may +flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while +silently the trickling rain-drops are filling the deep cavern behind its +rocky barriers, which, by-and-by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild +ruin its treacherous peace. It is true that in our land there is no such +outer quiet, no such deceitful repose. Here society is a restless and +surging sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the wave, is forever +in our ears. Even the angry hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But +there is an understratum of deep, calm sea,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> which the breath of the +wildest tempest can never reach. There is, deep down in the hearts of +the American people, a strong and abiding love of our country and its +liberty, which no surface-storms of passion can ever shake. That kind of +instability which arises from a free movement and interchange of +position among the members of society, which brings one drop up to +glisten for a time in the crest of the highest wave, and then gives +place to another while it goes down to mingle again with the millions +below, such instability is the surest pledge of permanence. On such +instability the eternal fixedness of the universe is based. Each planet, +in its circling orbit, returns to the god of its departure, and on the +balance of these wildly rolling spheres God has planted the base of His +mighty works. So the hope of our national perpetuity rests upon that +perfect individual freedom, which shall forever keep up the circuit of +perpetual change. God forbid that the waters of our national life should +ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the +stagnation of death—the ocean grave of individual liberty."</p> + +<p>Garfield was elected to a second term in the senate, and among the +difficult questions he was obliged to discuss the following year that of +"State Rights" was one of the most perplexing.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>War declared between the North and South.—Garfield forms a +regiment from the Western Reserve.—Is appointed +Colonel.—General Buell's Order.—Garfield takes charge of +the 18th Brigade.—Jordan's perilous journey.—Bradley +Brown.—Plan of a Campaign.—March against Marshall.</p></div> + + +<p>The Ohio legislature was still in session when, upon that +never-to-be-forgotten April day, in 1861, Fort Sumter received the first +rebel shot. The news was quickly followed by a call from President +Lincoln for seventy-five thousand men. This, proclamation was read in +the Ohio senate, and amid deafening applause, Garfield immediately +sprang to his feet, and moved that Ohio should contribute twenty +thousand men and three million dollars as the quota of the state.</p> + +<p>Although the preservation of the Union was the first thought that +presented itself to the minds of the people, another and deeper +impulse—the overthrow of slavery—filled their hearts and nerved their +hands for the coming conflict.</p> + +<p>To his old pupil, Mr. Hinsdale, Garfield writes—</p> + +<p>"My heart and thought are full almost every moment with the terrible +reality of our country's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> condition. We have learned so long to look +upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible +here, that the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be +any breaking up of our institutions; but stern, awful certainty is +fastening upon the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a +miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its attendant +horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed I cannot +say that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by +the South would be hypocritical and sinful; they would neither be obeyed +nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one +of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no +remission."</p> + +<p>Garfield, always as quick to act as to speak, immediately offered his +services to Gov. Dennison, who at once sent him to Missouri to obtain +five thousand stands of arms that General Lyon had placed there.</p> + +<p>These having been safely shipped to Columbus, Gov. Dennison then sent +Garfield to Cleveland to organize the seventh and eighth regiments of +Ohio infantry. He would have appointed him colonel of one of them, but +Garfield, with his usual modesty, declined because he had had no +military experience. He agreed, however, to take a subordinate position +if he could serve under a West Point graduate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p> + +<p>The governor then appointed him lieutenant-colonel, and commissioned him +to raise a regiment from the Western Reserve. He hoped to have his old +schoolmate, Captain Hazen, of the regular army, for colonel, but when +the governor sent on for his transfer, General Scott refused to release +him.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the Hiram students had laid aside their books, and flocked +with patriotic ardor to the standard of their old leader. The greater +part of this forty-second regiment, indeed, was made up of Campbellites, +whose noble self-sacrifice in the days that followed will never be +forgotten.</p> + +<p>When the regiment went into camp at Columbus it was still without a +colonel. Again the governor begged Garfield to assume the command, and +after repeated requests he finally consented.</p> + +<p>After making the decision, he wrote thus to a friend:—</p> + +<p>"One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are +found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give +place to the new structure of military life. It is not without a regret, +almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, as the +result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of thousands +of American citizens, we can see on the ruins of our own national errors +a new and enduring fabric arise, based on a larger freedom and higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +justice it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented +with such a prospect, and, regarding my life as given to the country, am +only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage upon +it is foreclosed."</p> + +<p>Great noble heart! How grand and pathetic these words seem to-day as we +read them in the light of the last sad tragedy!</p> + +<p>The Forty-second regiment did not leave for the South until the middle +of September. It was then ordered to join General Buell's forces at +Louisville. While in camp near Columbus, Garfield applied himself to the +study of military tactics. With his carpenter's tools he cut out of some +maple blocks a whole regiment, and with these ingenious marionnettes he +mastered the art of infantry. Then, forming a school for his officers, +he required regular recitations in military tactics and illustrated the +different movements of an army by means of his blocks. After this he +could easily institute all sorts of drills, and his regiment soon gained +the reputation of being the best disciplined in Ohio.</p> + +<p>When the regiment reached Cincinnati, a telegram was received from +General Buell, requesting a personal interview with Colonel Garfield. +The latter hastened on to Louisville and presented himself at the +General's headquarters, the following evening.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>Looking the young colonel through and through with his clear, piercing +eye, General Buell took down a map, and pointed out the position of +Humphrey Marshall's forces in East Kentucky. He then marked the +locations where the Union's troops were posted, described the country, +capabilities, etc., and said to his visitor,—</p> + +<p>"If you were in command of the sub-department of Eastern Kentucky, what +would you do? Come here at nine o'clock to-morrow morning and tell me."</p> + +<p>Garfield went back to his hotel, found a map of Kentucky, the latest +census report, etc., and then with paper, pen, and ink, sat down to his +problem. When daylight came he was still at work, but nine o'clock found +him at General Buell's headquarters with the sketch of his plans all +completed.</p> + +<p>The elder officer read it, and immediately made it the foundation of a +special order by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was +organized, and Colonel Garfield was made its commander.</p> + +<p>Soon after, the new brigadier received his letter of instructions from +General Buell, which was in substance an order to unite in the face of +the enemy two small companies of soldiers that were stationed far apart, +and drive the rebel General Marshall out of Kentucky.</p> + +<p>Garfield set out for Catlettsburg without delay,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> and found his regiment +had gone on to the little town of Louisa, some twenty-eight miles up the +Big Sandy river.</p> + +<p>The whole surrounding country was in a great state of excitement. The +Fourteenth Kentucky regiment had been stationed at Louisa, but hearing +that Marshall with all his forces was closely following them, they had +hastily retreated to the mouth of the Big Sandy.</p> + +<p>On the day before Christmas, Garfield joined his troops at Louisa, much +to the relief of the terror-stricken citizens, who were just preparing +to cross the river to find a place of safety.</p> + +<p>The young commander had two very important and difficult things to +accomplish. First, he must communicate with Colonel Cranor; then he must +unite his own forces to that officer's, in the face of a greatly +superior enemy that could, and probably would, swoop down upon them as +soon as they made the least movement.</p> + +<p>Going to Colonel Moore of the Fourteenth Kentucky, he said,—</p> + +<p>"I want a man who is not afraid to take his life in his hand for the +saving of his country."</p> + +<p>"There is John Jordan from the head of Blaine," was the reply, "I think +we could rely upon him."</p> + +<p>Jordan was immediately sent for, and, notwithstanding his uncanny +appearance, Garfield was at once prepossessed in his favor. He was tall +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> lank, with hollow cheeks and a curious squeaking voice. Born and +bred among the Kentucky hills, he was rough and untutored, but his +clear, gray eyes showed an unflinching courage and a downright honesty, +that Garfield read with unerring intuition.</p> + +<p>"Are you willing to risk your life for the country?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir!" was the ready response. "When I volunteered, I gave up +my life for jest what it was wuth. If the Lord sees fit to make use of +it now, I'm willin' He should take it."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean you have come into the war not expecting to get out of it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, gin'ral, that's how I meant it."</p> + +<p>"And are you willing to die rather than give up this despatch?"</p> + +<p>"That's the gospel truth, gin'ral."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I think I can trust it with you."</p> + +<p>So saying, Garfield rolled up into the form of a bullet the tissue-paper +on which the despatch was written; he then coated it with warm lead and +gave it to Jordan. He also gave him a carbine, a brace of revolvers, and +the swiftest horse in the regiment.</p> + +<p>The dangerous journey was to be taken only by night, and in the day-time +the messenger was to hide in the woods.</p> + +<p>It was just at midnight of the second day when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> Jordan reached Colonel +Cranor's quarters at McCormick's Gap with his precious bullet.</p> + +<p>Upon opening the despatch the colonel found it was dated Louisa, Dec. +24th. The order read to move his regiment as soon as possible to +Prestonburg, to take as little baggage and as few rations as possible, +as the safety of his command would depend upon his expedition. Hours +were worth months at such a time; and early on the following morning +Colonel Cranor's regiment was on the move. It consisted of one thousand +one hundred men, while Garfield's larger division numbered about +seventeen hundred. The enemy, under Gen. Marshall, were stationed with +the main body of their forces near Paintville; but a company of eight +hundred were at West Liberty, a town directly on the route by which +Colonel Cranor was to join General Garfield. It was a hazardous +expedition, but the brigadier colonel knew he must obey orders.</p> + +<p>On the morning after Jordan's departure for Cranor's camp, Garfield set +out with his men and halted at George's Creek, which was only twenty +miles from Marshall's intrenched position at Paintville. The roads along +the Big Sandy were impassable for trains, so Garfield decided to depend +upon boats to transport his supplies. At this time of the year, however, +the stream was very uncertain, as heavy freshets often rendered +navigation impossible for a number of days.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>Garfield, however, was used to contending with difficulties, and was not +easily discouraged. Taking ten days' rations, he chartered two small +steamboats and all the flat boats he could find, and loaded them with +provisions.</p> + +<p>Next morning, just as they were starting, one of the soldiers came up to +Garfield and said,—</p> + +<p>"There's a rough-looking man out here, colonel, who says he must see +you."</p> + +<p>Garfield stepped forward, and immediately recognized in the +disreputable-looking tramp before him, Bradley Brown, one of his old +companions on the canal boat.</p> + +<p>It seemed that he belonged to the rebel army, and had heard a few days +previous that Garfield, for whom he had always cherished a strong +affection, was commanding the Union forces in that part of Kentucky.</p> + +<p>Going to Marshall he told him of his former acquaintance with Garfield, +and the help it might now prove to them if he should enter the camp and +find out all about the Union forces. Marshall was entirely deceived by +the plausibility of Brown's argument, never once dreaming that the +tables might be turned upon himself.</p> + +<p>Brown's real purpose was to warn Garfield of the rebel's strength and +purpose, and he desired, above all things, to serve in the ranks of his +old benefactor. He was just the man that the Union<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> army wanted for a +scout, and Garfield, when assured of his loyalty, employed him to +reconnoitre through the mountain borders of Virginia.</p> + +<p>The safe return of Jordan the following day, after many hairbreadth +escapes, encouraged Garfield to organize a "secret service," which +Rosecrans used to call "the eyes of the army."</p> + +<p>It was a long, wearisome march for the Union forces, but on the sixth of +January, 1862, they arrived within six miles of Paintville. While they +were halting there, a messenger arrived from General Buell with an +intercepted letter of Marshall's to his wife. It disclosed the fact that +the rebels had four thousand four hundred infantry and six hundred +cavalry, and that they were daily expecting an onslaught of ten thousand +from the Union forces.</p> + +<p>Garfield assembled a council of his officers.</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" he said. "Is it better to march at once, or wait for +Cranor and his forces?"</p> + +<p>All but one of the officers declared it was better to wait, but that one +said: "Let us move on at once—our fourteen hundred can whip ten +thousand rebels."</p> + +<p>Garfield paused a moment, as if in deep reflection. Then he exclaimed, +"Well, forward it is. Give the order."</p> + +<p>There were three roads that led down to the enemy's intrenchment. One of +these was a river<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> road upon the western bank; another was a very +winding road and came in at the mouth of Jenny's Creek: the third and +most direct lay between the others, but it was very difficult to pass +because of the intervening ridges.</p> + +<p>In order to mislead Marshall as to the real strength of his forces, +Garfield ordered a small division of his infantry to approach by the +river road, drive in the enemy's pickets, and then move rapidly after +them, as if preparing an attack upon Paintville. A similar force was +sent off two hours later along the mountain road. A third detachment was +ordered to take the road at the mouth of Jenny's creek.</p> + +<p>The result of this strategy was just what Garfield had foreseen. When +the pickets on the first route were attacked, they hurried back to +Paintville in great confusion, and sent word to Marshall that the Union +army was coming up by the river road. A large detachment of the rebel +forces was at once dispatched to this point, but, by the time they +reached them, the tidings had come that Garfield's forces were +approaching by the mountain road. The rebel general then countermanded +his first order, only to find his pickets had been attacked at another +point. Finally, in utter confusion, they abandoned Paintville and fled +to the fortified camp, declaring that the whole Union army was in hot +pursuit.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>Garfield immediately pushed forward and took possession of Paintville. +This was on the afternoon of January 8th. Later in the evening, a rebel +spy came to Marshall's camp and told him that Cranor, with three +thousand three hundred men, was within twelve hours' march to the +westward.</p> + +<p>The rebel general naturally concluded that he was to be attacked by a +band of Union forces far outnumbering his own. He therefore broke up +camp and retreated so hastily that he was obliged to leave behind a +large quantity of his supplies.</p> + +<p>At nine o'clock in the evening, Garfield, with a thousand of his men, +took possession of the deserted camp, and waited there for the arrival +of Cranor.</p> + +<p>Next morning Cranor arrived, but his men were so tired and footsore they +seemed in no condition for making an attack. Garfield, however, knew +that the time had come for a decisive challenge, and so he ordered to +the front all who were able to march. Eleven hundred,—and four hundred +of these were from Cranor's exhausted ranks—obeyed the call, and +hastened after Marshall and his retreating army.</p> + +<p>The Union forces had marched about eighteen miles when they came to the +mouth of Abbott's Creek, three miles below Prestonburg. Here Garfield +learned that Marshall and his army were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> encamping on the same stream +some three miles distant. As it was then nine o'clock in the evening he +ordered his men to put up their tents, and then he sent a messenger back +to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who had been left in command at +Paintville, and ordered him to bring up the remainder of the army as +soon as possible.</p> + +<p>The whole night he spent in reconnoitring about the country, so eager +was he to know the exact arrangement of Marshall's troops and the +probable contingencies of a battle.</p> + +<p>Jordan's ride through the enemy's country had been of invaluable service +to him. Marshall had strongly posted his army on a semi-circular hill at +the forks of Middle Creek, and was quietly waiting there in ambuscade +for the approach of the Union forces.</p> + +<p>It was a chill night, and a driving rain added to the cheerlessness of +the dreary bivouac in the valley.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Opening of Hostilities—Brave Charge of the Hiram +Students—Giving the Rebels "Hail Columbia"—Sheldon's +Reinforcement—The Rebel Commander Falls—His Army Retreats +in Confusion.</p></div> + + +<p>With the first glimmer of light in the east, Garfield's men begin their +march down into the valley. As the advance guard turns a jutting ridge, +it is fired upon by a company of rebel horsemen. Instantly Garfield +forms his soldiers into a hollow square, and a heavy volley from their +rifles drives the enemy back.</p> + +<p>Marshall and his whole army must be close by, but to find out their +exact position, Garfield sends forward a reconnoitring party. Suddenly a +twelve-pound shell whirs above the tree-tops, and tears up the ground at +their feet. But the mounted company of twelve go bravely forward; and as +they sweep around a curve in the road, another shell whistles past them, +and they can hear in the distance a threatening rumble.</p> + +<p>The enemy's position is at once clearly defined. The main body of their +army is posted upon the top of two ridges at the left of Middle Creek, +but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> there is also a strong detachment upon the right, with a battery of +heavy artillery to hold the forks of the stream. Marshall's plan is to +draw the Union forces down into the narrow rocky road along the Creek, +where between two fires, he knows it will be an easy matter to hem them +in and utterly destroy the whole number.</p> + +<p>But Garfield, with his quick intuition, takes in the situation at a +glance. He immediately orders a hundred of his Hiram students to cross +the stream, climb the ridge where the firing has been most frequent, and +open the battle.</p> + +<p>Bravely the little company plunge into the icy stream, and clinging to +the low underbrush, begin the perilous ascent. A shower of bullets from +two thousand rifles is falling all around them, but nothing daunted, +they press onward till the summit is reached. Then, from every side the +deadly shots are hurled, and, for a moment, the little band begin to +waver.</p> + +<p>"Every man to a tree!" shouts the leader, Captain Williams. "Give them +as good as they send, boys!"</p> + +<p>The word passes from lip to lip, and instantly from behind the great +oaks and maples, they take their stand, and open a volley of fire upon +the rebels. This is followed by a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonets, +and little by little, the brave boys are driven back.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p> + +<p>"To the trees again!" cries the leader, "we may as well die here as in +Ohio!"</p> + +<p>One of the Hiram students, a lad of eighteen, is shot through the thigh, +and a confederate soldier passing by says to him,—</p> + +<p>"Here, boy, give me your musket." "Not the gun, but its contents," he +replies, and in another instant the rebel lies dead at his feet. His +companion takes up a weapon to kill the brave young student, but the +latter seizes the dead man's rifle and, with unerring aim, fells him to +the ground.</p> + +<p>When his comrades bear him away to the camp, and a surgeon tells him +that the wounded limb must be amputated, his only words are: "Oh, what +will mother do?"</p> + +<p>The story of the noble lad—Charles Carlton of Franklin, Ohio,—is told +in the Ohio Senate, two weeks later, and a statute is immediately framed +to make provision for the widows and mothers of our soldiers.</p> + +<p>A hundred men like young Carlton present a steady resistance to the +enemy's fire, but Garfield watching them from a rocky height, realizes +their perilous situation and exclaims,—</p> + +<p>"They will surely be driven back, they will lose the hill unless +supported."</p> + +<p>Instantly, five hundred of the Ohio Fortieth and Forty-second, under +Major Pardee and General Cranor, are ordered forward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hurrah for Captain Williams and his Hiram boys!" they shout, as they +ford the stream, holding their cartridge-boxes high above their heads. +But the fire of four thousand muskets fall upon them and though,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bravely they fight and well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Stormed at with shot and shell,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>the unequal contest is quickly noted by the Union commander.</p> + +<p>"This will never do," he exclaims. "Who will volunteer to carry the +crest of the mountain?"</p> + +<p>"Let <i>us</i> go forward," cries Colonel Monroe, of the Twenty-second +Kentucky, "we know every inch of the ground."</p> + +<p>"Go in, then," says Garfield, "and give them 'Hail Columbia!'"</p> + +<p>Crossing the stream a little lower down, they mount the ridge to the +left, and in ten minutes are face to face with the rebel army.</p> + +<p>"Don't shoot till you see the eyes of your enemy," shouts the colonel, +and although the men have never been in battle before, they are as cool +and calm as their commander.</p> + +<p>Five hundred against five thousand! It was a fearful contest, equalled +only by the famous charge of the "Light Brigade."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Cannon to right of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cannon to left of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Cannon in front of them,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Volleyed and thundered!"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>And Garfield, standing upon a rock scarred with bullets, watched and +waited for Sheldon's reinforcements, until, fearing the little band +would be forced to retreat, he turned to the company held back as +reserves, threw his military cloak into a tree, and exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Come on, boys! It is <i>our</i> turn now to give them 'Hail Columbia'!" And +then, as the ballad tells the story,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He led, they followed, spreading wide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Among the rebels routed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From rank to rank, in liberal gift,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The self-same thing he shouted."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The short winter's day was almost over. Hotter and hotter raged the +battle, but the Union forces, in spite of their inferior number, were +constantly gaining ground. They seemed infused with the indomitable +spirit of their commander. Their coolness and intrepidity gave added +power to every shot, while the enemy, not understanding the difficulty +of firing "down hill," frequently missed aim and let their bullets fall +harmlessly upon the tree-tops, or far beyond the mark.</p> + +<p>At this juncture, Dr. Pomerene, the surgeon of the Ohio Forty-second, +saw a gleam of muskets in the distance. Hatless and excited, he mounted +a fleet horse, crossed the stream, and hurried on to ascertain, what +colors were borne by the coming troops. The glorious star-spangled +banner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> met his eyes, and, drawing nearer, he saluted Colonel Sheldon +with the longed-for reinforcements.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake, hurry!" he cried, "or the boys on the other side will +be captured!"</p> + +<p>From his elevated position on the opposite hill, Marshall had already +descried the starry banner, and Sheldon's fresh troops hurrying to the +rescue.</p> + +<p>"<i>Retreat!</i>" he shouted to his men, and then, pierced by six bullets, he +fell to the ground. Night closed about the contending armies, the rebels +were seized with a sudden panic and fled wildly in all directions.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, boys! You have saved Kentucky!" exclaimed Garfield, as +he led the victorious troops back to camp. It was, indeed, a wonderful +contest. The entire loss on the federal side was but one killed and +eleven wounded.</p> + +<p>"In all the battles of the late war," writes Edmund Kirke, in the <i>New +York Tribune</i>, "there was not another like it. Measured by the forces +engaged, the valor displayed, and the results that followed, it throws +into shade the achievements of even that mighty host that saved the +nation."</p> + +<p>It was the first decided victory upon the Union side, but, years after, +Garfield himself said of the skirmish,</p> + +<p>"I see now, that favorably as it terminated, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> engagement was a very +rash and imprudent affair on my part. A West Point officer would +probably have had more caution, and would not have attempted so unequal +a contest. I didn't know any better, then."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.—Starvation Stares them +in the Face.—Garfield takes Command of the "Sandy +Valley"—Perilous Trip up the River.—Garfield's Address to +the Citizens of Sandy Valley.—Pound Gap.—Garfield Resolves +to Seize the Guerillas.—The Old Mountaineer.—Successful +Attack.—General Buell's Message.—Garfield is Appointed +Brigadier-General.</p></div> + + +<p>Marshall and his entire force were dislodged from their intrenchments. +Garfield had obeyed General Buell's orders, and the following day he +issued the following address to his army:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade:</i></p> + +<p>"I am proud of you all! In four weeks you have marched some +eighty, and some a hundred miles, over almost impassable +roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the storm, +with only a winter sky above your heads. You have marched in +the face of a foe of more than double your number—led on by +chiefs who have won a national renown under the old +flag—intrenched in hills of his own choosing, and +strengthened by all the appliances of military art. With no +experience but the consciousness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> of your own manhood, you +have driven him from his strongholds, pursued his inglorious +flight, and compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced +to fight, he sought the shelter of rocks and hills; you +drove him from his position, leaving scores of his bloody +dead unburied. His artillery thundered against you, but you +compelled him to flee by the light of his burning stores, +and to leave even the banner of his rebellion behind him. I +greet you as men. Our common country will not forget you. +She will not forget the sacred dead who fell beside you, nor +those of your comrades who won scars of honor on the field. +I have called you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor +for still greater exertions. Let no one tarnish his +well-earned honor by any act unworthy an American soldier. +Remember your duties as American citizens, and sacredly +respect the rights and property of those with whom you may +come in contact. Let it not be said that good men dread the +approach of an American army. Officers and soldiers, your +duty has been nobly done. For this I thank you."</p></div> + +<p>The enemy, after burning their supplies and baggage of every +description, had made their escape through Pound Gap, and Garfield knew +that it would be worse than useless to pursue them any farther. His own +little force was greatly exhausted and short of food, as it had started +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> only two days' rations. A heavy rain-storm had caused an overflow +of the Big Sandy, and a large part of the valley was under water. The +boats were all detained in the Ohio, and among them the steamers that +Garfield had loaded with provisions for his troops. Meanwhile, +starvation stared them in the face. Foraging was strictly forbidden, and +if it had been possible for them to march over the muddy roads, it would +have been in disobedience to orders, for the enemy might at any moment +return and take possession of the country.</p> + +<p>The young commander saw but one way out of the difficulty. Calling +Brown, his faithful scout, he said to him,—</p> + +<p>"What do you say to our going down the river and hurrying up the +supplies? The boatmen say it can't be done, but you and I have had some +experience on the water."</p> + +<p>"I say, gin'ral," answered Brown, "I'd rather drown than starve, any +day. Jest give me the word for't and I'm yer right-hand man!"</p> + +<p>"We'll go, Brown," was the laconic reply, and, boarding a small skiff, +they floated down the seething waters to the mouth of the Big Sandy.</p> + +<p>Here they found a small steamboat, called the "Sandy Valley," which had +formerly been in the quartermaster's service. This, Garfield loaded with +supplies, and ordered up river.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>The captain, who was a secessionist, declared it was impossible to stem +the current in such a flood. The water was at least sixty feet deep, and +the trees along the banks were covered to their topmost branches.</p> + +<p>"I will take the command of this steamer," said Garfield in an +authoritative tone, at the same time ordering the captain and his men to +get on board.</p> + +<p>Placing Brown at the bow, Garfield took his stand at the helm. The most +careful steering was necessary, for the water was full of dangerous +snags and treacherous banks of sand. At one time the boat ran aground.</p> + +<p>"We must get a line to the opposite shore!" exclaimed Garfield.</p> + +<p>"It can't be done," said the rebel captain; "it's death to any man that +attempts it!"</p> + +<p>"It must be done!" cried Garfield, as he sprang into a yawl and called +Brown to follow. For a few moments it seemed as if the little boat would +be overborne by the current and utterly submerged. But the strong arm +and indomitable will at last prevailed. Another moment of fearful +suspense, and the opposite shore was gained. It was an easy matter, +then, to fasten the rope, construct a windlass, and draw the steamboat +out of the mud.</p> + +<p>For two days and the greater part of one night, Garfield stood at the +wheel, and at nine o'clock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> the following morning the provisions were +safely landed at Paintville.</p> + +<p>"Had it not been for my experience on the canal-boat," he said, +afterwards, "I could never have managed that trip up the Big Sandy."</p> + +<p>When the half-famished men saw the boat and their noble commander at the +helm, they could hardly contain themselves. They shouted and cheered, +and would have borne him in triumph upon their shoulders had he not made +a resolute protest against such manifestations.</p> + +<p>The whole neighboring country about Paintville were greatly terrified +when they heard of Marshall's retreat. The rebel troops spread such +alarming reports of the hostile intentions of the Union forces that the +people left their homes and took refuge in the woods.</p> + +<p>To quiet their fears, Garfield issued the following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<i>Citizens of Sandy Valley</i></p> + +<p>"I have come among you to restore the honor of the Union, +and to bring back the old banner which you once loved, but +which, by the machinations of evil men, and by mutual +misunderstanding, has been dishonored, among you. To those +who are in arms against the Federal Government, I offer only +the alternative of battle or unconditional surrender. But to +those who have taken no part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> in this war, who are in no way +aiding or abetting the enemies of this Union—even to those +who hold sentiments averse to the Union, but will give no +aid or comfort to its enemies—I offer the full protection +of the government, both in their persons and property.</p> + +<p>"Let those who have been seduced away from the love of their +country to follow after, and aid the destroyers of our +peace, lay down their arms, return to their homes, bear true +allegiance to the Federal Government, and they shall also +enjoy like protection. The army of the Union wages no war of +plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. +Let all peace-loving citizens, who have fled from their +homes, return and resume again the pursuits of peace and +industry. If citizens have suffered any outrages by the +soldiers under my command, I invite them to make known their +complaints to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed and +the offenders punished. I expect the friends of the Union in +this valley to banish from among them all private feuds, and +let a liberal love of country direct their conduct toward +those who have been so sadly estrayed and misguided, hoping +that these days of turbulence may soon be ended and the days +of the Republic soon return.</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">J. A. Garfield</span>,<br /> +<br /> +"<i>Colonel Commanding Brigade</i>."<br /> +</p> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>This promise of protection allayed the fears of the people, and they +began to flock about the Union camp. From them Garfield learned that +Marshall and his forces were still lurking about the country. At last, +through the scout, Jordan, he found out that a grand muster of the rebel +militia was to meet in Pound Gap on the 15th of March, and that, by +uniting their forces, they hoped to enter Kentucky and drive out the +Union army.</p> + +<p>Pound Gap is a narrow opening in the Cumberland mountains and leads into +Virginia. On the top of the gorge through which the road passes, the +rebels had built a long line of huts; and, directly across the gap, they +had thrown up a breastwork, behind which they declared five hundred men +could easily resist five thousand.</p> + +<p>About six hundred of the rebel militia under Major Thompson had been +stationed here for a number of weeks. Forming guerilla bands, they would +come down into the peaceful valleys and commit all sorts of +depredations. Before the terrified inhabitants could offer any +resistance they would retreat to their strongholds, where pursuit was +impossible.</p> + +<p>Garfield felt his work in Kentucky would not be done until some effort +had been made to break up these mountain hordes. When he heard of the +intended muster, he set out with seven hundred men,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> and, although the +way was beset with difficulties, he pushed on through swollen streams +and muddy roads until he was within two miles of the rebel garrison. His +plan was to send one hundred of his horsemen up the road to attract the +enemy's attention, while he, with the six hundred infantry, were +climbing the steep side of the mountain and attacking the rebels on the +flank.</p> + +<p>He could find no one, however, to act as a guide in this perilous +expedition, until one morning an old man, with long hair and snow-white +beard, came into camp.</p> + +<p>"I came down the mountain ten days ago," he said, "and where I can come +down, ye can go up."</p> + +<p>"But, do you think we can get over the road safely?" asked Garfield; +"they tell me in winter the slope is a sheet of ice with three feet of +snow on the summit."</p> + +<p>"Wall," said the old man; "ye'll hev to make yer own path most likely, +but it's worth yer trouble if ye can only ketch that nest o' murderin' +thieves as is pesterin' the hull country!"</p> + +<p>Garfield looked steadily into the old man's face with that peculiar +searching glance of his, and then said,—</p> + +<p>"We will do it to-morrow, and you shall be our guide."</p> + +<p>The snow was falling in blinding drifts next morning when they commenced +their ascent. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> ridge rises to a height of two thousand feet above +the valley at this point, and sudden precipices yawn on every side. A +single misstep is certain death; and slowly, cautiously the little band +follow their weird-looking guide up the icy slope.</p> + +<p>At length the old man turns suddenly to Garfield, saying,—</p> + +<p>"The rebels are just a half mile from here; press on at the double and +ye hev 'em!"</p> + +<p>A firing from the picket-guard greets them, and the enemy call together +all their forces to resist the intruders.</p> + +<p>But Garfield and his men are equal to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Press forward, scale the hill, and carry it with the bayonet!" cries +the Union commander, and with loud cheers the order is obeyed.</p> + +<p>Little by little, the rebels fall back into the forest. The undaunted +band follow with gleaming weapons, and before night are comfortably +established in the enemy's quarters. Next morning, they burn the long +huts, some sixty in number, destroy the breastworks, and set out for +their own camp at Piketon. A week later, the order comes to march to +Louisville, and the campaign on the Big Sandy comes to a successful +close.</p> + +<p>Kentucky is thoroughly rid of the rebel hordes, and General Buell is so +delighted that he sends to Garfield the following message:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"The general commanding takes occasion to thank General Garfield and his +troops for their successful campaign against the rebel force under +General Marshall, on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in battle. +They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of country, +conditions of the roads and the inclemency of the season, and, without +artillery, have in several engagements, terminating in the battle of +Middle Creek, on the 10th inst., driven him back into the mountains, +with a loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men +killed or captured. These services have called into action the highest +qualities of a soldier,—fortitude, perseverance and courage."</p> + +<p>President Lincoln, to whom the news of "Middle Creek" had come like a +benediction in his discouragement, immediately appointed Colonel +Garfield a Brigadier-General.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.—Battles of +Shiloh and Corinth.—The fugitive Slave.—Attack of +Malaria.—Home Furlough.—Summoned to Washington.—Death of +his Child.—Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.—Kirke's +description of Garfield.</p></div> + + +<p>When Garfield reached Louisville he found that General Buell had +hastened on to the assistance of Grant, who was then at Pittsburg +Landing. Overtaking General Buell at Columbia, Tennessee, he was +assigned to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, and in the famous +battle of Shiloh won new laurels.</p> + +<p>In the long and wearisome siege of Corinth, Garfield's brigade did +signal service; and in June, 1862, they were sent to repair and protect +the Memphis and Charleston railroad. Here, as well as at Huntsville, +Alabama, Garfield's old skill at carpentry came into play; and he gained +no small renown for his fine military engineering.</p> + +<p>It was while in the command of this brigade that a fugitive slave came +running into his camp, badly wounded and terribly frightened. A few +minutes after, his master came riding up, and, with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> volley of oaths, +demanded his "property." Garfield was not present, so he passed on to +the division commander. This man was a believer in the theory that +fugitive slaves should be returned to their masters, and that the Union +soldiers should see that this was done. He accordingly wrote a +peremptory order to General Garfield, in whose command the slave was +thought to be hidden, telling him to hunt out the fugitive and deliver +him over to his master.</p> + +<p>General Garfield took the order and quietly wrote on the back of it,—</p> + +<p>"I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my command to search +for, or deliver up any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here +for quite another purpose. The command is open, and no obstacles will be +placed in the way of search." When reminded by one of his staff-officers +that these rash words might bring him up before a court-martial, he +replied,—</p> + +<p>"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right is right, and I +do not propose to mince matters at all. My soldiers are here for other +purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. My people, on the +Western Reserve of Ohio, did not send my boys and myself down here to do +that kind of business, and they will back me up in my action."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p> + +<p>The order was returned with the indorsement unchanged, and nothing more +was said about it.</p> + +<p>The exposures of the past year, together with the malarial atmosphere of +the South, began at last to tell upon the strong physique of the young +commander, and he was obliged to take a few weeks' furlough. He had +hardly started for home however, when the secretary of war, who had now +learned his rare qualities, issued orders for him to relieve General +Morgan of his command at Cumberland Gap.</p> + +<p>Garfield was too sick to obey, and, a month later the secretary desired +him to report in person at Washington, as soon as his health would +allow. A new honor awaited him here, for so high an estimate had been +placed upon his judgment and his technical knowledge of law that he had +been chosen one of the first members in the court-martial of Fitz John +Porter.</p> + +<p>While at Washington, he was called home by the sickness and death of his +eldest child, the "Little Trot," whose simple headstone in the cemetery +at Hiram bears the touching inscription,—</p> + +<p>"She has gained the crown without the cross."</p> + +<p>In the following January, Garfield was ordered to join General +Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. It is said +that Rosecrans was somewhat prejudiced against Garfield<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> because he had +heard of him as a preacher who had taken up politics. A few days' +acquaintance however, so thoroughly changed the General's opinion, that +he gave Garfield the choice of joining his staff or commanding a +brigade. He chose the former, and Rosecrans, writing of him, said,—</p> + +<p>"I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an earnest and +devoted patriot, and a man of the highest honor."</p> + +<p>It is interesting to read just here Edmund Kirke's graphic picture of +Garfield, "Down in Tennessee," which was written in 1863.</p> + +<p>"In a corner by the window, seated at a small pine desk—a sort of +packing-box perched on a long-legged stool, and divided into +pigeon-holes, with a turn-down lid, was a tall, deep-chested, +sinewy-built man, with regular, massive features, a full, clear blue +eye, and a high broad forehead, rising into a ridge over the eyes, as if +it had been thrown up by a plough. There was something singularly +engaging in his open expressive face, and his whole appearance indicated +great reserve power. His uniform, though cleanly brushed and sitting +easily upon him, had a sort of democratic air, and everything about him +seemed to denote that he was a man of the people. A rusty slouched hat, +large enough to have fitted Daniel Webster, lay on the desk before him; +but a glance at that was not needed to convince me that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> head held +more than the common share of brains. Though he is yet young—not +thirty-three—the reader has heard of him, and if he lives he will make +his name long remembered in our history."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.—Garfield as +Mediator.—Remarkable Military Document.—The Tullahoma +Campaign.—Insurrection averted.—Chattanooga.—Battle of +Chickamauga.—Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.—Garfield's +Famous Ride.</p></div> + + +<p>Just at the time Garfield succeeded Garesche as Rosecrans' +chief-of-staff, that officer was having a series of bickerings with the +War Department. In his demands for more cavalry and arms, Garfield fully +sympathized, but his unreasonable requests, oftentimes couched in the +most exasperating language, the new chief endeavored to modify or +repress.</p> + +<p>From January until June, Rosecrans' army had lain idle at Murfreesboro'. +With the opening of spring the War Department urged him to advance. +Grant had begun his campaign against Vicksburg; and Halleck declared +that unless Rosecrans made some decided movement, the rebel General, +Bragg, would send a part of his force to aid Pemberton at Vicksburg.</p> + +<p>General Rosecrans, however, still delayed; he waited for reinforcements, +for the roads to be in better condition, for the corn to ripen. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +better to keep quiet, he said, while Grant was at Vicksburg, for should +that General happen to fail, all the rebels of the surrounding section, +as well as those under General Johnston, would confront him.</p> + +<p>At first, Garfield approved of Rosecrans' delay, but as soon as his army +was thoroughly reinforced with men and supplies, he urged him to make an +advance. Through the secret service system which he had established +since Jordan's wonderful expedition, Garfield discovered that Bragg's +army was greatly reduced, and he felt assured that the time had come for +a decisive blow. At last, General Rosecrans sent a formal letter to his +corps, division, and cavalry generals asking their opinion concerning +the feasibility and wisdom of such a movement. Not one of the seventeen +generals was in favor of an immediate or even an early advance.</p> + +<p>Garfield took the answers sent in from the generals, and in one of the +ablest military documents on record,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> he refuted every objection +raised, and added therewith such powerful arguments in favor of an +immediate advance, that General Rosecrans was convinced. Twelve days +later, the army moved, much to the chagrin of the other officers, who +declared it was a rash and fatal step for which Garfield alone should be +held responsible.</p> + +<p>It was the opening of the famous Tullahoma campaign—a campaign +remarkable throughout for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> its fine conception and able execution. +Bragg's army would have been utterly destroyed had the advance been made +a few days earlier; as it was, the rebel forces were finally driven +south of the Tennessee, a thousand five hundred and seventy-five +prisoners were captured, together with considerable ammunition, and the +state of Tennessee was again under the flag of the Union.</p> + +<p>Almost on the boundary line between Tennessee and Georgia stands the +village of Chattanooga. It is on the southern bank of the Tennessee +river, and to the north Lookout Mountain rises almost perpendicularly to +a height of twenty-four hundred feet. Missionary Ridge, which is a much +lower elevation, lies upon the eastern side, and along its base flows +the West Chickamauga Creek that empties into the Tennessee just at +Chattanooga. On the opposite side is Pigeon Mountain.</p> + +<p>The Tullahoma campaign had forced Bragg and his remaining troops across +the Tennessee, and they were now posted all along the southern bank of +the stream from Chattanooga far down toward Atlanta.</p> + +<p>Rosecrans' army had encamped themselves on the west with a line of +fortifications one hundred and fifty miles long, while General Burnside +had moved into Eastern Tennessee, and taken possession of Knoxville. The +great problem now was how to force Bragg from his position at +Chattanooga.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was about this time that Rosecrans received a letter, in which a plan +for arming the negroes and sending them throughout the slave states, was +proposed.</p> + +<p>"It would doubtless end the rebellion at once," said one of Rosecrans' +officers; "and the letter says that no blood would be shed except in +self-defence."</p> + +<p>"But, think what vengeance the blacks might take, if suddenly let loose +upon their masters!" exclaimed Rosecrans. "I must talk the matter over +with Garfield."</p> + +<p>After a careful reading of the letter, the chief-of-staff said, quietly, +but firmly,—</p> + +<p>"It will never do, General. <i>We</i> don't want to whip by such means. If +the slaves, of their own accord, rise and assert their original right to +themselves, that will be their own affair; but we can have no complicity +with them without outraging the moral sense of the civilized world."</p> + +<p>"But what if the other departments should encourage these uprisings?"</p> + +<p>"We must do all in our power to prevent them," exclaimed Garfield.</p> + +<p>Rosecrans, whose confidence in his chief-of-staff was daily increasing, +immediately took measures to stop the movement, and the insurrection, +with all its attendant horrors, was averted.</p> + +<p>To Garfield was now submitted the task of planning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> some movement which +would oblige Bragg to leave Chattanooga. General Halleck, then in +Washington at the head of the War Department, had sent to Rosecrans the +following telegram,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The orders for the advance of your army are peremptory."</p></div> + +<p>The only movement that could be made with any advantage at this time, +would be for the Union army to cross the river in three divisions and +cut off Bragg from all communication with Atlanta, whence he was +expecting supplies and reinforcements.</p> + +<p>Pontoons were, therefore, brought forward, and materials prepared for +building a couple of bridges. This was done with all possible secrecy, +but high up on Lookout Mountain the signal corps of Bragg's army, with +their field-glasses, were stealthily watching, and promptly reporting +every movement.</p> + +<p>The Confederates readily yielded their post at Chattanooga, but it was +only to give the appearance of a retreat. In reality, they were +concentrating all their forces along the banks of the Chickamauga, and +already their troops outnumbered Rosecrans' by several thousands. +Bragg's plan was to cross the Chickamauga at the various bridges and +fords, push across Missionary Ridge to Rossville, and then, closing in +upon Rosecrans'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> army, completely destroy it by the force of his +superior numbers.</p> + +<p>Garfield, by means of his secret service system, had discovered this +plan of the rebel commander, and apprized Rosecrans, who was now on the +alert and confronting Bragg's troops at every feasible point of the +road.</p> + +<p>"The resistance offered by the enemy's cavalry," writes the Confederate +general, "as well as the difficulties arising from the bad and narrow +country roads, caused unexpected delays."</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 19th of September, the battle began on the banks +of the Chickamauga between Pigeon Mountain and Missionary Ridge. It +raged fiercely all day, and when night closed down upon the contending +armies, the contest was still undecided.</p> + +<p>Bragg's army had been reinforced by a large detachment under General +Longstreet, and McLawes' division was expected every moment. The +prospect seemed very dark to the Union army, whose scattered troops +numbered at most but sixty thousand, and whose supplies were cut off in +all directions. They still held, however, the road to Rossville, the one +especial point for which Bragg had been fighting.</p> + +<p>It was a fortunate turn of affairs that gave to General Thomas the +command of the left wing of Rosecrans' army. Here it was that the brunt +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the battle came, on the second day at Chickamauga; and, through the +whole fearful struggle, the brave general and his devoted troops showed +the same invincible spirit that had won laurels for them in the +victories of Mill Spring, Pittsburg Landing, and Stone River.</p> + +<p>Garfield, as chief-of-staff, kept his place by Rosecrans' side until, at +a critical point in the battle, he turned to his commanding officer, and +said,—</p> + +<p>"General, I ask permission to return and join General Thomas." Consent +was reluctantly granted, for, although it was necessary to inform +General Thomas of the condition of affairs, Rosecrans knew that Garfield +was undertaking a fearful risk.</p> + +<p>"As you will," he said, at last; "God bless you; we may not meet again. +Good-bye!"</p> + +<p>With the brave Captain Gaw as his guide, and two orderlies, Garfield +sets out on his famous ride. There are eight miles to be crossed before +they can reach Thomas; they ride swiftly and securely through the +neighboring forest, but as they emerge from the narrow road at Rossville +Gap, a shower of bullets falls about them. Longstreet's skirmishers and +sharp-shooters have surrounded them, and the two orderlies fall from +their horses, mortally wounded.</p> + +<p>Garfield spurs on his magnificent charger, leaps a fence, and finds +himself in an open field, white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> with ripening cotton. Only a slight +ridge now divides him from the outposts of Thomas's division, but, as he +makes a zig-zag ascent up the slope, the gray-coats send volley after +volley of whizzing bullets, and suddenly his horse is struck beneath +him. It is only a flesh wound, however, and the fiery creature is urged +forward with still greater impetuosity.</p> + +<p>Another second, and the crest of the hill is gained. Horse and rider +gallop down the other side and a band of mounted blue-coats surround +them.</p> + +<p>"Good God, Garfield!" cries General McCook, "I thought you were killed. +How you have escaped is a miracle."</p> + +<p>Though twice wounded, Garfield's horse plunges on, through tangled +under-brush, over fences, up hill and down, until the remaining four +miles are accomplished. Then, passing through another shower of shot and +shell, Garfield catches a glimpse of Thomas.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" he shouts, "God bless the old hero! he has saved the +army!"</p> + +<p>In five minutes more, Garfield is by the side of Thomas; the perilous +ride is safely over, the message is delivered. But look! the noble horse +is staggering, and now it drops down dead at the feet of General Thomas.</p> + +<p>A half hour longer the battle raged desperately, and then with a sudden +break in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> lines the rebels abandoned the fight and began to +retreat.</p> + +<p>Garfield sat down behind a dead tree and wrote a dispatch to General +Rosecrans. In the midst of the heaviest firing, a white dove was seen to +hover around for several minutes, and then to settle down on the top of +the tree above Garfield's head.</p> + +<p>"A good omen of peace!" exclaimed General Wood, who was standing close +by. Garfield said nothing, but kept on with his writing.</p> + +<p>At seven o'clock that evening, a battery of six Napoleon guns, by order +of Generals Granger and Garfield, thundered after the retreating rebels.</p> + +<p>The battle of Chickamauga was ended; the Union army had won the day.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Again, O fair September night!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath the moon and stars,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I see, through memories dark and bright,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The altar fires of Mars.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The morning breaks with screaming guns<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From batteries dark and dire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And where the Chickamauga runs<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Red runs the muskets' fire.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I see bold Longstreet's darkening host<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweep through our lines of flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hear again, 'The right is lost!'<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Swart Rosecrans exclaim!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'But not the left,' young Garfield cries:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'From that we must not sever,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While Thomas holds the field that lies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On Chickamauga River.'<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Through tongues of flame, through meadows brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Dry valley roads concealed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ohio's hero dashes down<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Upon the rebel field<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And swift, on reeling charger borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He threads the wooded plain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By twice a hundred cannon mown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And reddened with the slain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But past the swathes of carnage dire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Union guns he hears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And gains the left, begirt with fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And thus the heroes cheers—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'While stands the left, yon flag o'erhead,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall Chattanooga stand!'<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Let the Napoleons rain their lead!'<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was Thomas's command.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Back swept the gray brigades of Bragg,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The all with victory rung,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Wurzel's 'Rally round the flag!'<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Mid Union cheers was sung.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The flag on Chattanooga's height<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In twilight crimson waved,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all the clustered stars of white<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were to the Union saved.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Chief of staff! the nation's fate.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That red field crossed with thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The triumph of the camp and state,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hope of liberty!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O Nation! free from sea to sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With union blessed forever,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not vainly heroes fought for thee<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By Chickamauga's River."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> For document in full, see Addenda I.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Rosecrans' Official Report.—Sixteen Years Later.—Promotion +to Major-General.—Elected to Congress.—Resigns his +Commission in the Army.—Endowed by Nature and Education for +a Public Speaker.—Moral Character.—Youngest Member of +House of Representatives.—One Secret of Success.—First +Speech.—Wade-Davis Manifesto.—Extracts from various +Speeches.</p></div> + + +<p>General Rosecrans, in his official report of the battles of Chickamauga, +writes,—</p> + +<p>"To Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff, I am especially +indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the points of +action and movement, and expressed in order the ideas of the general +commanding."</p> + +<p>To this meed of praise General Wood adds,—</p> + +<p>"It affords me much pleasure to signalize the presence with my command, +for a length of time during the afternoon (present during the period of +hottest fighting), of another distinguished officer, Brigadier-General +James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff. After the disastrous rout on the +right, General Garfield made his way back to the battle-field (showing +clearly that the road was open to all who might choose to follow it), +and came to where my command was engaged. The brigade which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> made so +determined a resistance on the crest of the narrow ridge during all the +long September afternoon, had been commanded by General Garfield when he +belonged to my division. The men remarked his presence with much +satisfaction, and were delighted that he was a witness of the splendid +fighting they were doing."</p> + +<p>In connection with these reports, it is interesting to recall Garfield's +address to his comrades, sixteen years later, when some twelve hundred +of the veteran volunteers of Ohio visited him at his home in Mentor. In +response to an address of General M. D. Leggett, he said, in his hearty, +friendly way,—</p> + +<p>"Any man that can see twelve hundred comrades in the front door-yard has +as much reason to be proud as for anything that can well happen to him +in this world. To see twelve hundred men from almost every regiment of +the state, to see a consolidated field report of survivors of the war +sixteen years after it is over, is a great sight for any man to look on. +I greet you all with gratitude for this visit. Its personal compliment +is great, but there is another thought in it far greater than that to +me, and greater to you.</p> + +<p>"Just over yonder, about ten miles, when I was a mere lad, I heard the +finest political speech of my life. It was a speech of Joshua R. +Giddings. He had come home to appeal to his constituents.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> A Southern +man drew a pistol on him while he was speaking in favor of human +liberty, and marched over to him to shoot him down, to stop his speech +and quench the voice of liberty.</p> + +<p>"I remember but one thing the old hero said in the course of that speech +so long ago, and it was this,—</p> + +<p>"'I knew I was speaking for liberty, and I felt that if an assassin shot +me down, my speech would still go on and triumph.'</p> + +<p>"Well, now, these twelve hundred, and the one hundred times twelve +hundred, and the one million of men that went out into the field of +battle to fight for our Union, feel as that speaker felt, that if they +should all be shot down the cause of liberty would still go on.</p> + +<p>"You all, and the Union, felt that around you, and above you, and behind +you, was a force and a cause and an immortal truth that would outlive +your bodies and mine, and survive all our brigades, and all our armies, +and all our battles.</p> + +<p>"Here you are to-day; in the same belief we shall die; and yet we +believe that after us the immortal truth for which we fought will live +in a united nation, a united people, against all factions, against all +sections, against all divisions, so long as there shall be a continent +of rivers, and mountains, and lakes.</p> + +<p>"It was this great belief that lifted you all up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> into the heroic height +of great soldiers in war; and it is my belief that you cherish it +to-day, and carry it with you in all your pilgrimages and in all your +reunions. In that great belief and in that inspiring faith, I meet you +and greet you to-day, and with it <i>we will go on to whatever fate has in +store for us</i>."</p> + +<p>Ah! how little the devoted band of comrades dreamed that bright October +morning, with what a new and solemn meaning before another twelve months +those earnest words would come back to them!</p> + +<p>Four weeks after the battle of Chickamauga, General Rosecrans sent +Garfield on to Washington to report minutely to the War Department and +to the President, the position, deeds, resources, etc., of the army at +Chattanooga. In the mean time he had received the promotion of +major-general "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of +Chickamauga;" and during the year previous, the Nineteenth Congressional +District of Ohio had elected him as their representative to the +Thirty-Eighth Congress.</p> + +<p>Garfield's whole heart and soul were with the army, he would have +preferred to serve his country on the field rather than in the halls of +state; but when he expressed his desire to President Lincoln, the latter +urged him to resign his commission and come to Congress. There were +plenty of major-generals,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> he said, but able statesmen—like angels' +visits—were few and far between.</p> + +<p>It was universally believed, at this time, that the war was drawing to a +close; and still another consideration that influenced Garfield in his +decision was the fact that a voice in military legislation might be of +great assistance to his comrades in arms. So, on the 5th of December, +1863, after three years of military life, he resigned his army +commission with its high emoluments, for the poor pay and arduous work +of a Congressman.</p> + +<p>It is a little singular that he should have filled in Congress the very +seat left vacant by the death of Joshua R. Giddings, his boyhood's hero. +Did the mantle of this brave Elijah fall upon him, too, I wonder?</p> + +<p>Upon his arrival at Washington, Garfield, with his characteristic energy +and perseverance, began a thorough course of study upon all topics with +which he might have to deal, giving especial attention to commerce, +manufactures, finance, the tariff, taxation, and international law. +Every spare moment was turned to the best account; an intimate friend +says he was seldom seen without a book in his hand, or in his pocket.</p> + +<p>Both by nature and education, Garfield seemed specially endowed for the +office of a public speaker. He had a ready flow of language that +practice in debating clubs, the teacher's desk, at the bar,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> and in the +pulpit had rendered apt, pointed, and polished. His tall, massive +figure, powerful voice, and dignified manner gave additional weight to +every word that fell from his lips, while his fine scholarship, +extensive reading and wonderful memory furnished an inexhaustible +"reserve fund" of illustration and imagery. But above all and through +all, was the vital power of a warm, sympathetic, generous heart.</p> + +<p>"His moral character," writes President Hinsdale, "was the fit crown to +his physical and intellectual nature. No man had a kinder heart or a +purer mind. Naturally, and without conscious plan or effort, he drew men +to him as the magnet the iron filings."</p> + +<p>He had been the youngest man in the Ohio senate, the youngest +brigadier-general, and now, at the age of thirty-two, he was found to be +the youngest member of the House of Representatives. To make his mark +among so many brilliant intellects, so many fine orators, so many old +and well-tried statesmen, as graced the legislation halls of the nation +at that critical period of our history, required in the young and then +almost unknown congressman "a peculiar combination of strong talents and +intellectual acuteness."</p> + +<p>One secret of his success lay in his "genius for hard work." He was not +one to take ideas at second-hand; he was never satisfied until he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +sifted the subject in hand to the very bottom, and when once assured of +the truth and right of any matter, no power on earth could move him.</p> + +<p>"Comparatively few men or women," he said one day to a friend, "take the +trouble to think for themselves. Most people frame their opinions from +what they read or hear others say. I noticed this in early life, but +never saw the evil of it until I went to Congress."</p> + +<p>From the very first, Garfield made his influence felt in the Hall of +Representatives. He was strong enough to break over the bars that +usually restrict the new and younger members of Congress, and soon took +up the gauntlet with debaters like Thaddeus Stevens, N. P. Banks, Roscoe +Conkling, and other old leaders in the legislative halls.</p> + +<p>It was a tumultuous period in our national history; the War of the +Rebellion had brought to the surface many questions of debate that +required the utmost thought and deliberation, and upon whose decision +hung the weightiest of results.</p> + +<p>But Garfield as some able writer says, was "a man who was always equal +to the greatest opportunity; often surpassed it. He was great on great +occasions, because in temperament, intelligence, enthusiasm, and +eloquence, he rose, like air, to its highest limit."</p> + +<p>The first speech he delivered of any length, was on January 28th, 1864, +and was a reply to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> Democratic colleague, Mr. Finck. It was in favor +of the confiscation of rebel property, and the following passage will +give an idea of his style of argument in those early days:—</p> + +<p>"The war was announced by proclamation, and it must end by proclamation. +We can hold the insurgent states in military subjection half a +century—if need be, until they are purged of their poison and stand up +clean before the country. They must come back with clean hands, if they +come at all. I hope to see in all those states the men who fought and +suffered for the truth, tilling the fields on which they pitched their +tents. I hope to see them, like old Kaspar of Blenheim, on the summer +evenings, with their children upon their knees, and pointing out the +spot where brave men fell and marble commemorates it."</p> + +<p>His answer to Mr. Long, in the campaign of 1864, when McClellan was +proposed as the Democratic candidate, will never be forgotten. It was +delivered on the impulse of the moment and excited the wildest applause +throughout the House. The older members began to realize what a growing +power they had in their midst, and were not slow to seek Garfield's +assistance when they had some pet measure to bring forward.</p> + +<p>As the time drew near for holding the Congressional Convention of 1864, +in the Nineteenth District, a report was circulated in the Western +Reserve,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> that Garfield was the author of the famous Wade-Davis +manifesto.</p> + +<p>The convention wished to nominate him, but hesitated. Would he not come +forward and explain himself?</p> + +<p>Now this was just what Garfield was longing to do. With a firm step he +walked up to the platform and in a brief, trenchant speech, declared +that although he had not written the Wade-Davis letter, he was in +sympathy with the authors. If the Nineteenth District did not want a +representative who would assert his independence of thought and action, +it must find another man. Having stated his conviction of the truth in +the plainest, strongest terms, he came down from the platform and +quietly left the hall. A great noise from the building greeted his ears +as he turned the street-corner. He thought they were having an +indignation meeting, and he fully expected to be apprized of his +rejection.</p> + +<p>To his astonishment, however, he learned that the noise he had heard was +the cheering of the people upon his nomination.</p> + +<p>The convention had been taken entirely by surprise. Before any of his +opponents had had time to say a word, an Ashtabula delegate had risen to +his feet and declared that "a man who could face a delegation like that, +ought to be nominated by acclamation." Then, the popular feeling +expressed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> itself freely, and Garfield was renominated with great +applause.</p> + +<p>"It was a bold action on my part," he said afterward, "but it showed me +the truth of the old maxim that 'Honesty is the best policy,' and I have +ever since been entirely independent in my relations with the people of +my district."</p> + +<p>Ben Wade, the "old war-horse," was greatly touched by Garfield's +championship.</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget it, never, sir, while I live on this earth!" he +exclaimed as he held the hand of the young statesman in his iron grasp.</p> + +<p>Garfield was elected by a majority of twelve thousand, and on his return +to Congress the second term, the secretary of the treasury requested +that he might have a place on the Committee of Ways and Means.</p> + +<p>From his entrance into Congress, Garfield had made a special study of +finance and political economy. He was therefore, well equipped for this +new position, and nothing could move him from the firm stand he had +taken in favor of specie payments and the honorable fulfilment of the +nation's contract.</p> + +<p>"I affirm," he boldly declared before the House, "against all opposers, +that the highest and foremost present duty of the American people is to +complete the resumption of specie payments; and first of all, because +the sacred faith of this republic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> is pledged to resumption; and if it +were never so hard to do it, if the burdens were ten times greater than +they are, this nation dare not look in the face of God and men, and +break its plighted word.</p> + +<p>"It is a fearful thing for one man to stand up in the face of his +brother-man and refuse to keep his pledge; but it is a forty-five +million times worse thing for a nation to do it. It breaks the +mainspring of faith. It unsettles all security; it disturbs all values; +and it puts the life of the nation in peril for all time to come.</p> + +<p>"I am almost ashamed to give any other reason for resumption than this +one I have given. It is so complete that no other is needed; but there +is another almost as strong. If there were no moral obligations resting +upon the nation, if there were no public faith pledged to it, I affirm +that the resumption of specie payment is demanded by every interest of +business in this country, and so imperatively demanded that it can be +demonstrated that every honest interest in America will be strengthened +and bettered by the resumption of specie payment."</p> + +<p>Garfield's fidelity to conviction was strikingly shown in a case at this +time when in some of the states there were conflicts between civil and +military authorities. He was too well versed in law to follow blindly +the opinion of the majority.</p> + +<p>"Young man," said Judge Jeremiah Black to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> him, "it is a perilous thing +for a young Republican in Congress to take such an independent stand, +and I don't want you to injure yourself."</p> + +<p>"That consideration," replied Garfield, "does not weigh with me; I +believe in English liberty and English law."</p> + +<p>Speaker Colfax wanted to reappoint him on the military committee, but he +asked to be excused, saying,—</p> + +<p>"I would rather serve where I can study finance; this is to be the great +question in the future of our country."</p> + +<p>In his first speech on the tariff question, he defines his position as +follows:—</p> + +<p>"I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign +products is the best gauge to regulate international trade. Duties +should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the +foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection."</p> + +<p>In the well-remembered controversy that succeeded General Schenck's +tariff bill, Garfield said,—</p> + +<p>"The great want of industry is a stable policy; and it is a significant +comment on the character of our legislation that Congress has become a +terror<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> to the business men of the country.... A distinguished citizen +of my own district has lately written me this significant sentence: 'If +the laws of God and nature were as vacillating and uncertain as the laws +of Congress in regard to the business of its people, the universe would +soon fall into chaos.'</p> + +<p>"Examining thus the possibilities of the situation I believe that the +true course for the friends of protection to pursue, is to reduce the +rates on imports when we can justly and safely do so, and accepting +neither of the extreme doctrines, endeavor to establish a stable policy +that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people."</p> + +<p>Finding that no one in Congress had made a business of examining in +detail the various appropriations of the public money, Garfield took the +arduous task upon his own shoulders so that he might vote more +intelligently. Having made out a careful analysis, he delivered it +before the House; it was so well received, that each succeeding year +another was called for until "Garfield's budget speech" became a +well-known institution in Congress, and was considered a most important +help in reducing the expenditures of the Government.</p> + +<p>A few years later, Garfield was promoted to the chairmanship of the +Committee on Appropriations.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.—The New York +Mob.—Garfield's Memorable Words.—Eulogy upon +Lincoln.—Memorial Oration.—Eulogy upon Senator +Morton.—Extracts from other Orations.</p></div> + + +<p>It is the morning after the fateful fourteenth of April, 1865. From the +Atlantic shore to the Pacific the whole startled nation is in the +wildest state of excitement. President Lincoln, with the glorious words +of Emancipation still warm upon his lips, has been shot down by the hand +of Booth. The newsboys shout through the streets that Seward is +dying—that the lives of other Government officers have been assailed!</p> + +<p>A furious mob rules the thoroughfares of New York and clamors for +revenge. One man who is suspected of rebel sentiments is shot dead on +the spot; another instant and his adversary lies beside him in the +gutter.</p> + +<p>"To the <i>World</i>! To the office of the <i>World</i>!" shout the rabble, +bearing high above their heads a roughly constructed gallows.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, a tall, manly figure steps forward with a small flag in his +hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Another telegram from Washington!" exclaims a chorus of excited voices.</p> + +<p>A dead silence follows, and then, with a reverential glance heavenward, +the stranger begins in clear, deep tones,—</p> + +<p>"Fellow-citizens! clouds and darkness are round about Him. His pavilion +is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Justice and judgment are +the establishment of His throne. Mercy and truth shall go before His +face. Fellow citizens, God reigns, and the Government at Washington +still lives!"</p> + +<p>An eye-witness writes of the memorable scene:</p> + +<p>"The crowd stood riveted to the ground with awe, gazing at the +motionless orator, and thinking of God and the security of the +Government in that hour. As the boiling wave subsides and settles to the +sea, when some strong wind beats it down, so the tumult of the people +sank and became still. All took it as a divine omen. It was a triumph of +eloquence, inspired by the moment, such as falls to but one man's lot, +and that but once in a century. The genius of Webster, Choate, Everett, +Seward, never reached it. What might have happened had the surging and +maddened crowd been let loose, none can tell. The man for the crisis was +on the spot, more potent than Napoleon's guns at Paris. I inquired what +was his name. The answer came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> in a low whisper, 'It is General Garfield +of Ohio!'"</p> + +<p>"<i>God reigns; and the Government at Washington still lives!</i>" With what +majestic eloquence those immortal words come back to us to-day! With +what quickened sympathies we re-read his grand eulogy delivered a year +later in Congress, upon Abraham Lincoln, the martyred president!</p> + +<p>Have not the American people repeated one of those "times in the history +of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates +mortals from immortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that +they can almost hear the beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart +of the Infinite?"</p> + +<p>Through its parting folds the thin veil has admitted another "martyr +president to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic." Shall not +the whispers of God be heard by the children of men? Awe-stricken by His +voice, shall not the American people again "kneel in tearful reverence +and make a solemn covenant with Him and with each other that this nation +shall be saved from its enemies, and the temples of freedom and justice +built upon foundations that shall survive forever?"</p> + +<p>Upon the birthday of Lincoln, February 12th, 1878, when Carpenter's +painting of "The Emancipation"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> was presented to Congress by Mrs. +Thompson, Garfield delivered another memorial oration, from which we +quote the following beautiful passages:—</p> + +<p>"The representatives of the nation have opened the doors of this Chamber +to receive at her hands a sacred trust. In coming hither, these living +representatives have passed under the dome and through that beautiful +and venerable hall, which, on another occasion, I have ventured to call +the third House of American Representatives, that silent assembly whose +members have received their high credentials at the impartial hand of +history. Year by year, we see the circle of its immortal membership +enlarging; year by year, we see the elect of their country, in eloquent +silence, taking their places in this American pantheon, bringing within +its sacred precincts the wealth of those immortal memories which made +their lives illustrious; and year by year, that august assembly is +teaching deeper and grander lessons to those who serve in these more +ephemeral Houses of Congress.</p> + +<p>"Abraham Lincoln" (and may we not say the same of James Abram Garfield?) +"was one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, +and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were +multiplied.</p> + +<p>"His character is aptly described in the words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> of England's great +laureate—written thirty years ago—in which he traces the upward steps +of some</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">'Divinely gifted man,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose life in low estate began,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on a simple village green;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Who breaks his birth's invidious bar,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And grasps the skirts of happy chance,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And breasts the blow of circumstance,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And grapples with his evil star;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Who makes by force his merit known,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And lives to clutch the golden keys,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To mould a mighty State's decrees.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And shape the whisper of the throne;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'And moving up from high to higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The pillar of a people's hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The centre of a world's desire.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Such a life and character will be treasured forever as the sacred +possession of the American people and of mankind."</p> + +<p>Again, in Garfield's eulogy upon Senator Morton of Indiana, how truly +the words apply to himself:—</p> + +<p>"His force of will was most masterful. It was not mere stubbornness, or +pride of opinion, which weak and narrow men mistake for firmness. But it +was that stout-hearted persistency which, having once intelligently +chosen an object, pursues it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> through sunshine and storm, undaunted by +difficulties, and unterrified by danger.</p> + +<p>"He possessed an intellect of remarkable clearness and force. With keen +analysis he found the core of a question, and worked from the centre +outward.... Few men have been so greatly endowed with the power of clear +statement and unassailable argument. The path of his thought was +straight,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Like that of the swift cannon-ball<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shattering that it may reach, and<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shattering what it reaches."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"When he had hit the mark, he used no additional words, and sought for +no decoration. These qualities, joined to his power of thinking quickly, +placed him in the front rank of debaters, and every year increased his +power."</p> + +<p>One of Garfield's most popular eulogies was that upon John Winthrop and +Samuel Adams, from which we quote the following striking passages:—</p> + +<p>"It must not be forgotten that while Samuel Adams was writing the great +argument of liberty in Boston, almost at the same time Patrick Henry was +formulating the same doctrines in Virginia. It is one of the grandest +facts of that grand time that the colonies were thus brought, by an +almost universal consent, to tread the same pathway, and reach the same +great conclusions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But most remarkable of all is the fact that, throughout all that +period, filled as it was with the revolutionary spirit, the men who +guided the storm exhibited the most wonderful power of self-restraint. +If I were to-day to state the single quality that appears to me most +admirable among the fathers of the revolution, I should say it was this: +that amidst all the passions of war, they exhibited so wonderful a +restraint, so great a care to observe the forms of law, to protect the +rights of the minority, to preserve all those great rights that had come +down to them from the common law, so that when they had achieved their +independence, they were still a law-abiding people."</p> + +<p>When a resolution of thanks was about to be passed in Congress to +General Thomas for his generalship in the battle of Chickamauga, +Garfield moved an amendment, by inserting the name of General Rosecrans.</p> + +<p>After an eloquent appeal in behalf of his old commander, he closed with +the following words:—</p> + +<p>"Who took command of the Army of the Cumberland,—found the army at +Bowling Green, in November, 1862, as it lay disorganized, disheartened, +driven back from Alabama, and Tennessee,—and led it across the +Cumberland, planted it in Nashville, and thence, on the first day of the +new year, planted his banners at Murfreesboro; in torrents of blood, and +in the moment of our extremest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> peril, throwing himself into the breach, +saved by his personal labor the Army of the Cumberland and the hopes of +the Republic? It was General Rosecrans. From the day he assumed the +command at Bowling Green, the history of that army may be written in one +sentence—it advanced and maintained its advanced position—and its last +campaign under the general it loved was the bloodiest and most +brilliant.</p> + +<p>"The fruits of Chickamauga were gathered in November, on the heights of +Mission Ridge and among the clouds of Lookout Mountain. That battle at +Chattanooga was a glorious one, and every loyal heart was proud of it. +But, sir, it was won when we had nearly three times the number of the +enemy. It ought to have been won. Thank God it was won! I would take no +laurel from the brow of the man who won it, but I would remind gentlemen +here, that while the battle of Chattanooga was fought with vastly +superior numbers on our part, the battle of Chickamauga was fought with +still vaster superiority against us.</p> + +<p>"If there is any man upon earth whom I honor, it is the man who is named +in this resolution—General George H. Thomas. I had occasion, in my +remarks on the conscription bill a few days ago, to refer to him in such +terms as I delighted to use; and I say to gentlemen here that if there +is any man whose heart would be hurt by this resolution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> as it now +stands, that man is General George H. Thomas. I know, and all know, that +he deserves well of his country; and his name ought to be recorded in +letters of gold; but I know equally well that General Rosecrans deserves +well of his country.</p> + +<p>"I ask you then, not to pain the heart of a noble man, who will be +burdened with the weight of these thanks that wrong his brother officer +and superior in command. All I ask is that you will put both names into +the resolution, and let them stand side by side."</p> + +<p>It is needless to add that the amendment was accepted, and that the name +of General Rosecrans was inserted with that of General Thomas.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Home in Washington.—"Fruit between Leaves."—Classical +Studies.—Mrs. Garfield.—Variety of Reading.—Favorite +Verses.</p></div> + + +<p>In a private letter to Colonel Rockwell, dated August 30th, 1869, +Garfield writes:—</p> + +<p>"It seems as though each year added more to the work that falls to my +share. This season I have the main weight of the Census Bill and the +reports to carry, and the share of the Ohio campaign that falls to me; +and in addition to all this I am running in debt and building a house in +Washington.</p> + +<p>"On looking over my accounts, I found I had paid out over five thousand +dollars since I first went to Congress, for rent alone, and all this is +a dead loss; so, finding an old staff-officer (Major D. G. Swaim), I +negotiated enough to enable me to get a lot on the corner of Thirteenth +and I Streets, north, opposite to Franklin Square, and I have got a +house three-quarters done. It may be a losing business, but I hope I +shall be able to sell it when I am done with it, so as to save myself +the rent."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<p>This house, where Garfield and his family spent so many happy hours +during their winter sojourns in Washington, is a plain brick mansion +with a wing built out on the east side to accommodate his fine library. +The parlor windows look out upon Franklin Square and the corner of I and +Thirteenth Streets.</p> + +<p>To a visitor ushered into this pleasant, cheery drawing-room, the first +object that greeted the eye was an excellent portrait of "Grandma +Garfield," which hung over the grand piano. On the opposite side was a +beautiful painting of "Little Trot," the baby-girl whose loss the loving +father never ceased to deplore. The room was tastefully but simply +furnished, and in the small sitting-room, leading out of the parlor, the +pretty desk piled up with books and papers, seemed the most important +piece of furniture.</p> + +<p>The dining-room with its Japanese dado, and its chairs and table of +Austrian bent wood was a particularly pleasant room. Just above the +mantel hung a half-finished sketch of an old-time knight balancing in +one hand an empty glass, and leaning the other upon an inn table.</p> + +<p>An artist friend began the painting with the intention of carrying out +an ideal that Garfield had once expressed at a Shakespearian gathering. +Dying before the picture was finished, the painter left only an outline +of the idea, but that outline,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> Garfield valued very highly. His love +for pictures was almost as great as his love for books, and the walls of +this plain little house in Thirteenth Street were adorned with many +choice paintings and engravings.</p> + +<p>Just over the dining-room was the library where Garfield spent the +greater part of his time, when free from congressional duties. In the +centre stood a large black walnut office-desk with its accompaniments of +pigeon-holes, boxes and drawers, filled to overflowing. Six or seven +book-cases, holding in all some three thousand volumes, stood against +the walls; and scrap-books of all shapes and sizes confronted you +everywhere.</p> + +<p>It used to be a common saying in Congress that no man in Washington +could stand before the army of facts that Garfield could bring forward +at a moment's notice. This readiness was largely due to his systematic +course of reading, and his invaluable method of <i>indexing</i>. For +instance: if an author's views on some subject struck him as +particularly good and worth remembering, he would immediately make a +note of it in his commonplace-book, giving with the topic, the volume, +and page where the extract could be found. In this manner a rich fund of +information was always at hand; his "fruit between leaves" was always +ready to gather.</p> + +<p>The record of the Congressional Library shows<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> that he took out more +books than any other member of Congress; and his reading embraced every +variety of subject, history, biography, law, politics, philosophy, +government, and poetry.</p> + +<p>At one time, during an unusually busy session, a friend found him behind +a big barricade of books.</p> + +<p>"I find I'm overworked," he said, "and need recreation. Now my theory is +that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it lie idle, but to put +it at something quite outside the ordinary line of employment. So, I am +resting by learning all the Congressional Library can show about Horace, +and the various editions and translations of his poems."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garfield showed the same love for the classics as her husband. A +year or two ago, he said,—</p> + +<p>"I taught my wife Latin at Hiram, and she was as good a pupil as I had. +She is now teaching the same Latin to my two big boys."</p> + +<p>Mary Clemmer wrote of her:—</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Garfield has the 'philosophic mind' that Wordsworth sings of, and +she has a self-poise, a strength of unswerving absolute rectitude. Much +of the time that other women give to distributing visiting cards, Mrs. +Garfield has spent in the alcoves of the Congressional Library, +searching out books to carry home to study.... She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> has moved on in the +tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life of absolute devotion to +duty; never forgetting the demands of her position or neglecting her +friends, yet making it her first charge to bless her home, to teach her +children, to fit her boys for college, to be the equal friend, as well +as the honored wife, of her husband."</p> + +<p>From a letter of Garfield's to President Hinsdale we follow the +indefatigable reader in still another course of study:—</p> + +<p>"Since I left you I have made a somewhat thorough study of Goethe and +his epoch, and have sought to build up in my mind a picture of the state +of literature and art in Europe, at the period when Goethe began to +work, and the state when he died. I have grouped the various facts into +order, have written them out, so as to preserve a memoir of the +impression made upon my mind by the whole. The sketch covers nearly +sixty pages of manuscript. I think some work of this kind outside the +track of one's every day work is necessary to keep up real growth."</p> + +<p>In another letter to the same friend, he writes:—</p> + +<p>"I have found a book which interests me very much. You may have seen it; +if not I hope you will get it. It is entitled, 'Ten Great Religions' by +James Freeman Clarke. I have read the chapter on Buddhism with great +interest. It is admirably written, in a liberal and philosophic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> spirit, +and I am sure will interest you. What I have read of it leads me to +believe that we have taken too narrow a view of the subject of +religion."</p> + +<p>Again, when a fit of sickness confined him to the house, he says—</p> + +<p>"I am taking advantage of this enforced leisure to do a great deal of +reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the following: Sherman's two +volumes, Leland's 'English Gypsies', George Borrow's 'Gypsies of Spain', +Borrow's 'Rommany Rye', Tennyson's 'Mary', seven volumes of Froude's +England, several plays of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a +new book, 'The History of the English People,' by Prof. Green of +Oxford."</p> + +<p>For light literature, Garfield usually turned to Thackeray, Scott, +Dickens, Jane Austen, Kingsley, or Honoré de Balzac. He was fond of +poetry, and his voluminous scrap-books contained many gems, from one of +which we cull the following verses, said to be his especial favorites.—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Commend me to the friend that comes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When I am sad and lone,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And makes the anguish of my heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The suffering of his own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who coldly shuns the glittering throng<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At pleasure's gay levee<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And comes to gild a sombre hour<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And give his heart to me.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He hears me count my sorrows o'er;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And when the task is done<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He freely gives me all I ask,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A sigh for every one.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He cannot wear a smiling face<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When mine is touched with gloom,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But like the violet seeks to cheer<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The midnight with perfume.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Commend me to that generous heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which like the pine on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Uplifts the same unvarying brow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To every change of sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose friendship does not fade away<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When wintry tempests blow,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But like the winter's icy crown<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Looks greener through the snow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He flies not with the flitting stork.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That seeks a southern sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But lingers where the wounded bird<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hath lain him down to die.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, such a friend! He is in truth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whate'er his lot may be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A rainbow on the storm of life,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An anchor on its sea."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Tide of Unpopularity.—Misjudged.—Vindicated.—Re-elected.—The +De Golyer Contract.—The Salary Increase Question.—Incident +related by President Hinsdale.</p></div> + + +<p>It was impossible for a man of strong independent views like Garfield, +to mount the ladder of fame so rapidly without meeting some opposition.</p> + +<p>A lawyer by profession, he was at one time called to appear in the +Supreme Court in behalf of some Confederates who had been tried by a +court-martial and condemned to death. Of this case an able writer says, +the rebels had been "tried by martial law in a State, in time of peace +<i>de facto</i> in the State, and in a section of State not under martial +law. The legal question was, whether any military body had such power +under the circumstances. Should the civil power be ignored in time of +peace, or in sections of the country where martial law had not been +proclaimed? It was a case for which Garfield received no pay, and was +undertaken as a test of this important principle."</p> + +<p>By his clear, forcible presentation of the case and the law, in which he +was fully sustained by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> Court and the presiding justice—the +criminals were finally set at liberty.</p> + +<p>When the Ohio district that sent Garfield to Congress, heard that he had +been pleading in Court for condemned rebels, a large proportion voted +against him. As soon, however, as the facts of the case were fully +known, the tide of popular feeling again turned towards their favorite +leader, and Garfield was re-elected.</p> + +<p>The De Golyer contract was the next to excite unfavorable comment. But +again, when a thorough investigation had been made, Garfield was found +to be entirely innocent of the charges brought against him.</p> + +<p>Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the Congressional Committee of +Investigation, gives a clear statement of the case as follows:—.</p> + +<p>"The Board of Public Works at Washington was considering the question as +to the kind of pavements that should be laid. There was a contest as to +the respective merits of various wooden pavements. Mr. Parsons +represented, as attorney, the De Golyer & McClellan patent, and being +called away from Washington about the time the hearing was to be had +before the Board of Public Works on this subject, procured General +Garfield to appear before the Board in his stead and argue the merits on +this patent. This he did, and this was the whole of his connection in +the matter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> It was not a question as to the kind of contract that +should be made, but as to whether this particular kind of pavement +should be laid. The criticism of the committee was not upon the +<i>pavement</i> in favor of which General Garfield argued, but was upon the +<i>contract</i> made with reference to it; and there was no evidence which +would warrant the conclusion that he had anything to do with the +latter."</p> + +<p>There were forty kinds of pavement presented, and for drawing up a brief +in favor of the De Golyer patent, Garfield received a fee of five +thousand dollars.</p> + +<p>This was an honorable business transaction. "There was not in my +opinion," adds Mr. Wilson, "any evidence that would have warranted any +unfavorable criticism upon his conduct."</p> + +<p>Garfield defended himself in a manly, straightforward manner. "If +anybody in the world," he said in conclusion, "holds that my fee in +connection with this pavement, even by suggestion or implication, had +any relation whatever to any appropriation by Congress for anything +connected with this District, or with anything else, it is due to me, it +is due to this committee, and it is due to Congress, that that person be +summoned. If there be a man on this earth who makes such a charge, that +man is the most infamous perjurer that lives, and I shall be glad to +confront him anywhere in this world."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>The political opponents of Garfield delighted to call him a "salary +grabber," but with how much justice the following facts will show.</p> + +<p>On the 7th of February, 1873, a bill was presented in Congress, together +with a report submitted by B. F. Butler, from the Judiciary Committee of +the House of Representatives, for the passing of the so-called +retroactive law. Its object was to increase the pay of members of +Congress for past services, a measure that Garfield strenuously opposed +from the first. A few days later Butler tried to incorporate it with the +miscellaneous appropriation bill. Of the whole matter, Garfield spoke as +follows:—</p> + +<p>"I wish to state in a few words the condition of the salaries-increase +question in the conference committee of the Senate and the House. The +Senate conferees were unanimous in favor of fixing the salary at $7,500 +and cutting off all allowance except actual individual travelling +expenses of a member from his home to Washington and back again, once a +session. That proposition was agreed to by a majority of the conferees +on the part of the House. I was opposed to the increase in the +conference as I have been opposed to it in the discussion and in my +votes here; but my associate conferees were in favor of the Senate +amendment, and I was compelled to choose between signing the report and +running the risk of bringing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> on an extra session of Congress. I have +signed the report, and I present it as it is, and ask the House to act +on it in accordance with its best judgment."</p> + +<p>Garfield felt that Congress had no right to increase its own pay, but +those who favored the plan had attached it to another bill that he very +much desired to see passed.</p> + +<p>President Hinsdale who was in Washington at the time, says,—</p> + +<p>"There is an incident connected with that bill which I will relate, not +because I was concerned in it, but because it shows something of the +working of Garfield's mind. I got to Washington on Saturday, and on +Sunday there was a long session of the committee on appropriations +devoted to the discussion of the increase of salaries. This feature was +a rider on one of the most important appropriation bills. Garfield +opposed the rider, but was overruled by the committee. On Monday, I +happened to pass the room of the committee on appropriations and I found +General Garfield walking up and down the corridor. He said to me,—</p> + +<p>"'I've got to decide in fifteen minutes whether I will sign that bill or +not. If I do, I go on the record as indorsing a measure that I have been +opposing. If I do not, I lose all control of the bill. It will be +reported to the House by General<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> Butler, and he will control the debate +on it. The session of Congress ends to-morrow, and if the bill fails to +pass, this Congress will expire without making provisions for carrying +on the government. Now, what would you do?'</p> + +<p>"I told him that I would sign the bill, and in the House I would briefly +explain why I had at last signed a bill which I had opposed. I don't +assume that his conduct was guided by my advice, but he pursued the +course I had indicated."</p> + +<p>The bill passed; but immediately upon the receipt of the back pay that +had been voted him, Garfield returned the money to the Treasury.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Credit Mobilier.—Garfield entirely Cleared of all +Charges Against him.—Tribute to him in Cincinnati +Gazette.—Elected U. S. Senator.—Extract from +Speech.—Sonnet.</p></div> + + +<p>A still more fruitful source of scandal was the association of +Garfield's name with the Credit Mobilier stock. The company bearing this +high-sounding French title was chartered, as early as 1859, under the +law of Pennsylvania, for the alleged purpose of buying land, loaning +money, building houses, etc.</p> + +<p>When the war broke out, it ceased operations, until in 1866 the +construction of the Pacific railroad brought it again into notice.</p> + +<p>By using the charter of this Credit Mobilier, Mr. Oakes Ames and his +associates saw an opportunity of making large sums of money. They bought +up a majority of the stock of the Pacific Railroad, and secured the +entire control of the Credit Mobilier. A contract was made with this +company to build the road at an exorbitant profit, the proceeds of which +were to be divided among themselves. The rights and interests of the +smaller<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> stockholders were quite ignored, as well as those of the United +States, which, besides giving millions of acres, had also indorsed +$60,000,000 of its bonds, to assist in the building of the railroad.</p> + +<p>Of course, all this fraudulent dealing was kept a profound secret, and +the true character of the Credit Mobilier was not known to the public +for a long time.</p> + +<p>To prevent Congress from investigating this outrageous swindle, the ring +tried to dispose of some of their Credit Mobilier stock to different +members of Congress.</p> + +<p>George Francis Train called upon Garfield and asked him to invest.</p> + +<p>"You can double and treble your money in a year," he urged; "the object +of the company is to buy land where cities and villages are to spring +up."</p> + +<p>Garfield told Mr. Train that he had no money to invest, and even if he +had, he should want to make further inquiries before entering into such +a transaction.</p> + +<p>A year later Mr. Ames, who was a member of Congress, came to Garfield +and repeated the request.</p> + +<p>"If you have no money to spare," said Mr. Ames, "I will hold the stock +until you can find it convenient to pay for it."</p> + +<p>After taking a few days to consider the matter, Garfield told Mr. Ames +he had decided not to invest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p> + +<p>The following July, 1867, Garfield sailed for Europe, and in order to +obtain funds for this trip, he turned over advanced drafts for several +months of his congressional salary. When he returned home in November, +he needed a small sum, for current expenses, and borrowed three hundred +dollars of Oakes Ames. This loan he paid back in 1869.</p> + +<p>Not long after this transaction, Garfield was informed that his name was +upon Oakes Ames' book as holding ten shares of the Credit Mobilier.</p> + +<p>He demanded an explanation, and Mr. Ames appeared before a committee of +investigation, upon December 17, 1872. His testimony was as follows,—</p> + +<p>"In reference to Mr. Garfield," said the chairman, "you say that you +agreed to get ten shares for him and to hold them till he could pay for +them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"He never paid any money on that stock, nor received any money from it?"</p> + +<p>"Not on account of it."</p> + +<p>"He received no dividends?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I think not. He says he did not. My own recollection is not +very clear."</p> + +<p>"So, that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, +nor received any money on that transaction?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, sir; he had some money from me once, some three or four hundred +dollars, and called it a loan. He says that is all he ever received from +me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock and never +paid for it."</p> + +<p>"Did you understand it so?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him +any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money."</p> + +<p>Five weeks after this statement, Mr. Ames appeared a second time before +the committee with a memorandum in which there was an entry to the +effect that a certain amount of stock had been sold for $329 and paid +over to General Garfield; that it was not paid in money, but by a check +on the sergeant-at-arms.</p> + +<p>To this statement, the sergeant-at-arms, Mr. Dillon, testified that he +had paid a check of $329, but that the payment had been made to Mr. +Ames, not to General Garfield.</p> + +<p>It was conclusively proved that Garfield's name was not among the eleven +congressmen who had bought shares in the Credit Mobilier.</p> + +<p>In a long and able vindication of the purity of his motives, Garfield +concludes with the following words:—</p> + +<p>"If there be a citizen of the United States who is willing to believe +that, for $329, I have bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have +added<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> perjury, these lines are not addressed to him. If there be one +who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on so low a +level as these charges would place it, I do not address him; I address +those who are willing to believe that it is possible for a man to serve +the public without personal dishonor.</p> + +<p>"If any of the scheming corporations or corrupt rings that have done so +much to disgrace the country by their attempts to control its +legislation, have ever found in me a conscious supporter or ally in any +dishonorable scheme, they are at full liberty to disclose it. In the +discussion of the many grave and difficult questions of public policy +which have occupied the thoughts of the nation during the last twelve +years, I have borne some part; and I confidently appeal to the public +records for a vindication of my conduct."</p> + +<p>A writer in the Cincinnati <i>Enquirer</i> at this time thus described +Garfield:—</p> + +<p>"With as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitions of sordid +ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him +that he is poor, and yet has been accused of dishonesty. He has no +capacity for investment, nor the rapid solution of wealth, nor profound +respect for the penny in and out of pound, and still, is neither +careless, improvident, nor dependent. The great consuming passion to +equal richer people, and live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> finely, and extend his social power, are +as foreign to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicious +nor a high-mettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly from his +obliging, un-refusing disposition. Men who were scheming imposed upon +him as upon Grant and other crude-eyed men of affairs. The people of his +district, however, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, +heard him in his defence, and kept him in Congress and held up his +hand."</p> + +<p>Side by side with this testimony, listen to Garfield's own words in the +Ohio Senate just after his election:—</p> + +<p>"During the twenty years I have been in the public service (almost +eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States), I have tried to do +one thing. I have represented, for many years a district in Congress +whose approbation I greatly desired, but, though it may seem perhaps a +little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation +of one person, and his name is Garfield. He is the only man that I am +compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and die with, and, if I could not +have his approbation, I should have bad companionship."</p> + +<p>The following sonnet, from an anonymous pen, appeared about this time in +the Washington <i>Evening Star</i>:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>—</p> + + +<h4>TO JAMES A. GARFIELD.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thou who didst ride on Chickamauga's day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All solitary, down the fiery line,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And saw the ranks of battle rusty shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where grand old Thomas held them from dismay,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Regret not now, while meaner factions play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their brief campaigns against the best of men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For those spent balls of slander have their way,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And thou shalt see the victory again.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weary and ragged, though the broken lines<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of party reel, and thine own honor bleeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That mole is blind that Garfield undermines!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That shot falls short that hired slander speeds!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That man will live whose place the state assigns,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whose high mind the mighty nation needs!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/facing167.jpg" width="650" height="435" alt="Private Residence of Gen. James A. Garfield." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Private Residence of Gen. James A. Garfield, Mentor, Ohio.</span> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>After the Ordeal.—Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of +Ohio.—Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.—Purchase +of the Farm at Mentor.—Description of the New House.—Life +at Mentor.—The Garfield Household.—Longing for Home in his +Last Hours.</p></div> + + +<p>As gold is tried in the fire, so General Garfield passed through the +distressing ordeal of slander and fierce opposition. In January, 1880, +he was elected by a unanimous vote United States Senator from Ohio. In +his speech of acceptance, he says,—</p> + +<p>"I do not undervalue the office that you have tendered to me yesterday +and to-day; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the +manner in which it was tendered to me is far more desirable than the +thing itself. That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly +of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their +confidence, is as touching and high a tribute as one man can receive +from his fellow-citizens."</p> + +<p>Three years previous to his election as Senator, Garfield was spending +his summer vacation near Cleveland, Ohio. Driving one day along the +stage-road that skirts the shores of Lake Erie, he came to the pretty +town of Mentor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> + +<p>His old fascination for the sparkling, blue waters returned—he was a +boy again, chopping wood in his uncle's forest and counting the sails +with every stroke! Why not make his summer home just here?</p> + +<p>Upon inquiry, he found in Mentor, waiting a purchaser, a fine farm of a +hundred and twenty acres.</p> + +<p>The little cottage upon the ground would accommodate his family for +awhile, and when they went back to Washington, a larger and more +convenient house could be built in its place. So the farm was purchased, +and "Lawnfield," the pleasant Mentor home, established.</p> + +<p>The new house, built upon the foundation of the old one, suggests +comfort rather than elegance. It is two and a half stories high, with +two dormer windows and a broad veranda in front.</p> + +<p>The wide, airy hall contains a large writing table, in addition to the +other furniture, and piles of books and papers greet you in every +corner.</p> + +<p>The first floor has a parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, +wash-room and pantry, planned with every convenience by Mrs. Garfield, +to whom the architect's papers were submitted.</p> + +<p>Two of the pleasantest rooms on the second floor are fitted up +especially for "Grandma Garfield;" one of these has a large, +old-fashioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> fire-place, and is conceded to be the brightest, +cheeriest room in the whole house.</p> + +<p>In the ell is a small room, thirteen and a half by fourteen feet, called +by the children "papa's snuggery." It is not the library, but the walls +are covered with book-shelves, and the little room seems to have been +used by the busy statesman as a sort of "sanctum sanctorum."</p> + +<p>The library is a separate building, a few steps to the northeast of the +house. Garfield used to call it his "workshop," and the books of +reference, indices, public documents, etc., piled up on the shelves, +show the numerous tools he employed in his "literary carpentry."</p> + +<p>This home at Mentor was purchased especially for the benefit of the +Garfield children, but both father and mother enjoyed the quiet country +life far better than the whirl of society at Washington.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it strange," exclaimed Garfield, to one of his guests, "how a man +will revive his early attachment to farm-life? For twenty-five years I +scarcely remained on a farm for a longer period than a few days, but now +I am an enthusiast. I can see now what I could not see when I was a boy. +It is delightful to watch the growing crops."</p> + +<p>As Washington turned with delight to the quiet shades of Mount Vernon, +so Garfield looked forward each year to his summer at Mentor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>Oftentimes, his visitors would find him out in the fields, tossing hay +with his boys, superintending the farm-work, or planning some new +improvement.</p> + +<p>In a letter to a friend, he says,—</p> + +<p>"You can hardly imagine how completely I have turned my mind out of its +usual channels during the last weeks. You know I have never been able to +do anything moderately, and, to-day, I feel myself lame in every muscle +with too much lifting and digging. I shall try to do a little less the +coming week."</p> + +<p>It was his custom at Mentor to rise very early in the morning; directly +after breakfast he would mount one of his horses and go all over the +farm, giving directions for the day's work. There were one hundred and +twenty acres in the original farm, but forty more were purchased soon +after. The beautiful lawn, together with the garden and orchard, takes +up about twelve acres. Seventy more are under cultivation, and the +remainder are in pasture lots and woodland. One piece of marshy ground +has been carefully drained, and from it an excellent crop of wheat is +obtained. Many other improvements have been made, as Garfield was an +enthusiast in scientific farming. He liked nothing better than to show +visitors over the place; and, in making the rounds, he would always take +them down the lane back of the house,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> and up to the top of the ridge +beyond, explaining how the level basin below was once a part of Lake +Erie.</p> + +<p>The little town of Mentor is largely settled by New Englanders, and the +hilly surface, the groves of maple, oak, and hickory, interspersed with +thrifty farms, remind one constantly of the Eastern States. Cleveland is +only twenty-five miles to the east, and the waters of Lake Erie form its +northern boundary. To reach Mentor by rail, one must take the Lake Shore +and Michigan Southern Railroad.</p> + +<p>A gentleman, who dined one day at Lawnfield, says,—</p> + +<p>"I sat next to Mrs. Garfield, and I found her a ready and charming +conversationalist.... She is tall, fine-looking, has a kind, good face, +and the gentlest of manners. A pair of black eyes and a mouth about +which there plays a sweetly-bewitching smile, are the most attractive +features of a thoroughly expressive face. She is a quick observer, and +an intelligent listener."</p> + +<p>The two older boys, Harry and James, are fine, manly fellows, eighteen +and sixteen years of age. They are good scholars, and passed an +excellent examination upon their entrance to Williams College in the +fall of '81. Mollie, the only daughter, is a lovely girl of fourteen. +The next child, a boy of ten, bears the name of Irvin McDowell.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I had," said Garfield, "a personal acquaintance with General McDowell, +and I knew him to be an upright man and a good officer, and consequently +protested slightly to the abuse heaped upon him by giving my son his +name."</p> + +<p>The youngest child is seven years of age, and is called Abram, for his +grandfather.</p> + +<p>"Grandma Garfield," whose features, as well as those of the children and +their parents, have become so familiar to us, is a bright, active old +lady of eighty years.</p> + +<p>"I have seen Garfield," writes Mr. Campbell, the editor of the <i>Wheeling +Intelligencer</i>, "in the midst of his plain home life—beneath his +Western Reserve cottage farm-house. His surroundings were those of a man +of culture, but of a man of limited means. His board was frugally +spread—scarcely differing in any respect from the table of his humble +neighbors. He preferred frugality and self-denial to debt, and I came +away, doing honor in my mind to this sterling trait of his character."</p> + +<p>Some of the happiest hours of Garfield's life were spent in this modest +home at Mentor, and as one writer beautifully expresses it, through +those long, long summer days, "wounded to death, and looking out on the +yellow dreary Potomac, so dreary, so yellow in the throbbing midsummer +heat, his soul wandered in his dreams, not amid the scenes of his +ambitions or his achievements,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> but through the haunts of his boyhood, +through the streets of Cleveland, with the comrades of his prime; and +his last dream on earth was a dream of Mentor, the home of his happy and +prosperous manhood. Its modest walls, its harvest fields, its peaceful +glades, were the last pictures to fill his sight with delight before he +lifted his eyes to confront the glory of the Heavenly City."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Republican Convention at Chicago.—The Three +Prominent Candidates.—Description of +Conkling.—Logan.—Cameron.—Description of +Garfield.—Resolution Introduced by Conkling.—Opposition of +West Virginians.—Garfield's Conciliatory Speech.—His +Oration in Behalf of Sherman.—Opinions of the Press.</p></div> + + +<p>The National Convention of the Republican party that met at Chicago, in +June, 1880, will always be marked with a red-letter in the annals of our +country. The third-term issue, the unit rule, district representation, +and the arbitrary power of party managers, made the nomination for +President one long scene of hard fought battles.</p> + +<p>The three prominent candidates were General Grant; James G. Blaine, +Senator from Maine; and John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury.</p> + +<p>The third-term party who desired the nomination of Grant, was strongly +supported by Senator Conkling of New York, Senator Cameron of +Pennsylvania, and Senator Logan of Illinois. These three great political +leaders are thus described by a graphic writer, who was present at the +opening of the Convention:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Just as the great Exposition Building had nearly filled up, there was a +simultaneous huzza throughout the hall and galleries, and it speedily +broke out in a hearty applause. The tall and now silvered plume of +Conkling was visible in the aisle, and he strode down to his place at +the head of his delegation with the majesty of an emperor. He recognized +the compliment by a modest bow, without lifting his eyes to the +audience, and took his seat as serenely as if on a picnic and holiday. +The Grant men seemed to be more comfortable when they found him by their +side and evidently ready for the conflict.</p> + +<p>"Logan's swarthy features, flowing mustache, and Indian hair, were next +visible on the eastern aisle, but he stepped to the head of his +delegation so quietly that he escaped a special welcome. He sat as if in +sober reflection for a few moments, and then hastened over to Conkling +to perfect their counsel on the eve of battle. The two senatorial +leaders held close conference until the bustle about the chair gave +notice that the opposing lines were about to begin to feel each other, +and test their position.</p> + +<p>"Cameron had just stepped upon the platform with the elasticity of a +boy, and his youthful, but strongly-marked face was recognized at once. +There was no applause. They all knew that he never plays for the +galleries, and that cheers are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> wasted upon him. He quietly sat down for +ten minutes, although the time for calling the convention to order had +passed by an hour, and looked calmly out upon the body so big with +destiny for himself and his Grant associates. As he passed by he was +asked,—</p> + +<p>"'What of the battle?'</p> + +<p>"'We have three hundred to start with,' he replied, 'and we will work on +till we win.'</p> + +<p>"This was said with all the determination that his positive manner and +expression could add to language, and it summed up his whole strategy."</p> + +<p>George F. Hoar, from Massachusetts, was appointed President of the +Convention; and among the delegates from Ohio, and enthusiastic +supporters of Sherman, was General Garfield, thus described by a writer +in the <i>Chicago Inter-Ocean</i>:—</p> + +<p>"A big heart, a sympathetic nature, and a mind keenly sensitive to +everything that is beautiful in sentiment, are the artists that shade +down the gnarled outlines and touch with soft coloring the plain +features of his massive face. The conception of a grand thought always +paints a glow upon Garfield's face, which no one forgets who has seen +him while speaking. His eyes are a cold gray, but they are often—yes, +all the time when he is speaking—lit brilliantly by the warm light of +worthy sentiments, and the strong flame of a great man's conviction.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>"In speaking, he is not so restless as Conkling; his speech is an appeal +for thought and calm deliberation, and he stands still like the rock of +judgment while he delivers it. There is no invective or bitterness in +his effort, but there is throughout an earnestness of conviction and an +unquestionable air of sincerity, to which every gesture and intonation +of voice is especially adapted."</p> + +<p>On the second day of the convention a resolution was introduced by Mr. +Conkling that every member of the convention should support the nominee, +and that no one should hold a seat who was not willing thus to pledge +himself. The question was opposed by several voices, and when Mr. +Conkling called for a vote of the States, three delegates from West +Virginia voted in the negative. Another resolution was then offered by +Mr. Conkling, who declared that these delegates had forfeited their +seats in the convention.</p> + +<p>The West Virginians asserted that they were true Republicans, but could +not, and would not, pledge themselves in this manner. A hot contest of +words would probably have ensued, had not Garfield taken the floor and +spoken as follows:—</p> + +<p>"I fear the convention is about to commit a grave error. Every delegate, +save three, has voted for the resolution, and the three gentlemen who +have voted against it have risen in their places<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> and stated that they +expected, and intended, to support the nominee of the convention, but +that it was not, in their judgment, a wise thing, at this time, to pass +the resolution which all the rest of the delegates had voted for. Were +they to be disfranchised because they thought so? That was the question. +Was every delegate to have his republicanism inquired into before he was +allowed to vote? Delegates were responsible for their votes, not to the +convention, but to their constituents. He himself would never in any +convention vote against his judgment. He regretted that the gentlemen +from West Virginia had thought it best to break the harmony of the +convention by their dissent. He did not know these gentlemen, nor their +affiliations, nor their relations to the candidates. If this convention +expelled those men then the convention would have to purge itself at the +end of every vote and inquire how many delegates who had voted 'no' +should go out. He trusted that the gentleman from New York would +withdraw his resolution and let the convention proceed with its +business."</p> + +<p>One of the delegates from California immediately moved to lay the +resolution on the table, and Mr. Conkling thereupon withdrew it.</p> + +<p>On the fourth day of the convention, and just after the Grant men had +set forth in glowing terms the claims of their candidate, Garfield was +called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> to the platform to represent Ohio. A hearty cheering greeted him +as he began:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Mr. President:</span> I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of +this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my +heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and +noble character. But as I sat on these seats and witnessed +these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean +in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and +tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the +dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but +the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths +are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm +settles on the ocean, when sunlight bathes its smooth +surface, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level +from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not +mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm +has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we +shall find the calm level of public opinion below the storm +from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be +measured, and by which their final action will be +determined.</p> + +<p>"Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> thousand +men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic +to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces +of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates waiting to cast +their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their +party, but by four million Republican firesides, where the +thoughtful fathers with wives and children about them, with +the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of +country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the +future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned +and blessed our nation in days gone by—there God prepares +the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work +to-night. Not in Chicago in the heat of June, but in the +sober quiet that comes between now and November, in the +silence of deliberate judgment will this great question be +settled. Let us aid them to-night.</p> + +<p>"But now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want? +Twenty-five years ago this republic was wearing a triple +chain of bondage. Long familiarity with traffic in the +bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a +majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State +sovereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and most +beneficent powers of the national government, and the +grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin territories +of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal +bondage. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> that crisis the Republican party was born. It +drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which +God has lighted in every man's heart, and which all the +powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish.</p> + +<p>"The Republican party came to deliver and save the republic. +It entered the arena when the beleaguered and assailed +territories were struggling for freedom, and drew around +them the sacred circle of liberty which the demon of slavery +has never dared to cross. It made them free forever.</p> + +<p>"Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young +party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this +spot, twenty years ago, was made its leader, entered the +national capital and assumed the high duties of the +government. The light which shone from its banner dispelled +the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the capital, +and melted the shackles of every slave, and consumed in the +fire of liberty every slave-pen within the shadow of the +capitol.</p> + +<p>"Our national industries by an impoverishing policy, were +themselves prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in +such feeble currents that the treasury itself was well-nigh +empty. The money of the people was the wretched notes of two +thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible state banking +corporations, which were filling the country with a +circulation that poisoned rather than sustained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the life of +business. The Republican party changed all this. It +abolished the babel of confusion, and gave the country a +currency as national as its flag, based upon the sacred +faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around our +great industries, and they stood erect as with new life. It +filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great +functions of the government. It confronted a rebellion of +unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, and, under +God, fought the final battle of liberty until victory was +won. Then, after the storms of battle were heard the sweet, +calm words of peace uttered by the conquering nation, and +saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate at its +feet,—</p> + +<p>"'This is our only revenge, that you join us in lifting to +the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like +stars forever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and +justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free and +stand equal before the law.'</p> + +<p>"Then came the question of reconstruction, the public debt, +and the public faith. In the settlement of the questions the +Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of +glorious existence, and it has sent us here to prepare it +for another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we do +this great work? We cannot do it, my friends, by assailing +our Republican brethren.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> God forbid that I should say one +word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of our +heroes.</p> + +<p>"This coming fight is our Thermopylæ. We are standing upon a +narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united, we can +withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can +bring against us. Let us hold our ground this one year, for +the stars in their courses fight for us in the future. The +census taken this year will bring reinforcements and +continued power. But in order to win this victory now, we +want the vote of every Republican, of every Grant +Republican, and every anti-Grant Republican in America, of +every Blaine man and anti-Blaine man. The vote of every +follower of every candidate is needed to make our success +certain; therefore, I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are +here to take calm counsel together, and inquire what we +shall do.</p> + +<p>"We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the +achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, +standing on a mountain height, sees all the achievements of +our past history, and carries in his heart the memory of all +its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to +meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want one who will +act in no spirit of unkindness towards those we lately met +in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of +the South the olive-branch of peace, and wishes them to +return<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> to brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that it +shall be admitted forever and forevermore, that in the war +for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. On that +supreme condition we meet them as brothers, and on no other. +We ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of +this great republic.</p> + +<p>"Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a +name for your consideration—the name of a man who was the +comrade and associate and friend of nearly all those noble +dead whose faces look down upon us from these walls +to-night; a man who began his career of public service +twenty-five years ago; whose first duty was courageously +done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when the +first red drops of that bloody shower began to fall which +finally swelled into the deluge of war. He bravely stood by +young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the +National Legislature, through all subsequent time his +pathway has been marked by labors performed in every +department of legislation.</p> + +<p>"You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty-five years +of national statutes. Not one great beneficent measure has +been placed in our statute books without his intelligent and +powerful aid. He aided these men to formulate the laws that +raised our great armies and carried us through the war. His +hand was seen in the workmanship of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> those statutes that +restored and brought back the unity and calm of the States. +His hand was in all that great legislation that created the +war currency, and in a still greater work that redeemed the +promises of the government and made the currency equal to +gold. And when at last called from the halls of legislation +into a high executive office, he displayed that experience, +intelligence, firmness and poise of character which has +carried us through a stormy period of three years. With +one-half the public press crying 'Crucify him,' and a +hostile Congress seeking to prevent success, in all this he +remained unmoved until victory crowned him.</p> + +<p>"The great fiscal affairs of the nation, and the great +business interests of the country he has guarded and +preserved, while executing the law of resumption and +effecting its object without a jar and against the false +prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of +this continent. He has shown himself able to meet with +calmness the great emergencies of the government for +twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous heights of +public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne +his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of 'that +fierce light that beats against the throne,' but its +fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain on his +shield. I do not present him as a better Republican or as a +better man than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> thousands of others we honor, but I present +him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate John +Sherman, of Ohio."</p></div> + +<p>Of this powerful speech, that was constantly interrupted by storms of +applause, Whitelaw Reid said,—</p> + +<p>"It was admirably adapted to make votes for his candidate, if speeches +ever made votes. It was courteous, conciliatory, and prudent."</p> + +<p>The editor of the Chicago <i>Journal</i> wrote as follows:—</p> + +<p>"The supreme orator of the evening was General Garfield. He is a man of +superb power and noble character.... He indulged in no fling at others. +It was a model speech in temper and tone. The impression made was +powerful and altogether wholesome. Many felt that if Ohio had offered +Garfield instead of Sherman, she would have been more likely to win."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Battle still Undecided.—Sunday among the Delegates.—Garfield's +Remark.—Monday another Day of Doubt.—The Dark Horse.—The +Balloting on Tuesday.—Garfield's Remonstrance.—He is +Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth Ballot.—Enthusiastic +Demonstrations, Congratulatory Speeches and Telegrams.—His +Speech of Acceptance.</p></div> + + +<p>Garfield's eloquent speech was followed by one from Mr. Billings, of +Vermont, who proposed Senator Edmunds as a nominee. Mr. Cassidy, of +Wisconsin, presented the name of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, and +was seconded by Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut.</p> + +<p>The battle was waged in this manner until a late hour on Saturday +evening. Many of the delegates wanted to continue the balloting after +midnight, and some urged the chairman, Judge Hoar, to ignore the Sabbath +and let the convention go on.</p> + +<p>"Never!" he replied; "this is a Sabbath-keeping nation, and I cannot +preside over this convention one minute after twelve."</p> + +<p>Garfield attended church in the morning, and dined with Marshall Field. +The conversation at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> table turned upon the dead-lock in the convention +and the quietus at Washington, where every one was waiting for further +developments.</p> + +<p>Addressing the friend who sat beside him, Garfield said,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, this is a day of suspense, but it is also a day of prayer; and I +have more faith in the prayers that will go up from Christian hearts +to-day, than I have in all the political tactics which will prevail at +this convention."</p> + +<p>When President Hoar called the convention to order on Monday morning, an +anxious crowd hastily took their seats and prepared for the coming +battle. Eighteen ballots were cast during the day and ten more in the +evening, with no decisive result. The weather was extremely hot, but the +hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and at each roll-call the whole +twelve thousand would simultaneously rise to their feet with a noise +like the roar of thunder. It was late at night before the convention +broke up, and some of the delegates did not retire at all.</p> + +<p>On Tuesday morning, a pencilled note, it is said, passed from Conkling +to Garfield, which read as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Garfield</span>,—If there is to be a dark horse in this +convention there is no man I would prefer before yourself.</p> +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Conkling.</span>"</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>The reply was,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Conkling</span>,—There will be no dark horse in this +convention. I am for Sherman.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">J. A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>By the time the thirty-fourth ballot was cast, however, it began to be +very evident that a "break" was imminent. Wisconsin gave thirty-six +votes for Garfield, Connecticut followed with eleven more, Illinois gave +seven, and Indiana twenty-nine.</p> + +<p>Garfield immediately rose to his feet and said he had refused to have +his name announced and voted for in the convention.</p> + +<p>"I have not given my consent"—he began; but amidst much laughter the +chairman interrupted, and said the gentleman was not stating a question +of order.</p> + +<p>The enthusiasm for the new candidate now rose to its highest pitch. When +the thirty-sixth ballot was called, Sherman and the Ohio delegation, +with the New York anti-Grant men, led off in a grand burst of applause +for Garfield. One after another the States transferred their votes to +him, till at last Wisconsin completed the majority.</p> + +<p>Before the roll was called a salute of guns was fired in the park +outside, the galleries sprang to their feet, and the wildest scene of +excitement followed.</p> + +<p>Each delegation had its State banner, and, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> Massachusetts at the +head, an impromptu procession was formed that marched over to the Ohio +delegation and placed all the standards by the side of Garfield. The +military band in the hall then struck up, "Rally round the Flag," and +the whole immense audience enthusiastically joined in the stirring song.</p> + +<p>"I shall never forget," writes an eye-witness, "the expression of +Garfield's face at the time that delegation after delegation was +breaking from its moorings and going over to him. I scanned him with +intense curiosity as he listened to the call of States, and the certain +coming of his nomination. His cheeks had a flush upon them, and there +was a far-away expression in his eyes as he listened to the responses of +the chairman, as if he was communing with the future. I can see his face +at this moment as plainly as I saw it then, and I ask myself now whether +as he swept the horizon of the future with his mind's eye, could he +possibly have had a glimpse of the dark apparition that was even then +being invoked into life. He looked anxious, almost troubled."</p> + +<p>When the President of the convention announced that James A. Garfield of +Ohio had received three hundred and ninety-nine ballots, the majority of +the whole votes cast, Senator Conkling arose and said,—</p> + +<p>"I move that he be unanimously presented as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> the nominee of the +convention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my +feet, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican +party of the nation on the good-natured and well-tempered disposition +that has distinguished this animated convention.</p> + +<p>"I trust that the fervor and unanimity of the scenes of the convention +will be transplanted to the field of the country, and all of us who have +borne a part against each other here will be found with equal zeal, +bearing the banners and carrying the lances of the Republican party into +the ranks of the enemy."</p> + +<p>Senator Logan followed Conkling in a similar congratulatory speech; and +Eugene Hale, the defeated leader of the Blaine forces, said:—</p> + +<p>"Standing here to return our heartfelt thanks to the many men in this +convention who have aided us in the fight that we made for the senator +from Maine, and speaking for them here, as I know that I do, I say this +most heartily: We have not got the man whom we hoped to nominate when we +came here, but we have got a man in whom we have the greatest and most +marked confidence. The nominee of this convention is no new and untried +man, and in that respect he is no 'dark horse.' When he came here, +representing his State in the front of his delegation and was seen here, +every man knew him because of his record;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> and because of that and +because of our faith in him, and because we were in the emergency, glad +to help make him the candidate of the Republican party for President of +the United States,—because, I say, of these things, I stand here to +pledge the Maine forces in this convention to earnest effort until the +ides of November, to help to carry him to the presidential chair."</p> + +<p>Short speeches followed from members of the other delegations and the +nomination of James A. Garfield was declared unanimous.</p> + +<p>While shaking hands with the crowd that gathered around him, Garfield +turned to a correspondent of the Cleveland <i>Herald</i> and said gravely:—</p> + +<p>"I wish you would say that this is no act of mine. I wish you would say +that I have done everything and omitted nothing to secure Secretary +Sherman's nomination. I want it plainly understood that I have not +sought this nomination, and have protested against the use of my name. +If Senator Hoar had permitted, I would have forbidden anybody to vote +for me. But he took me off my feet before I had said what I intended. I +am very sorry it has occurred, but if my position is fully explained, a +nomination, coming unsought and unexpected like this, will be the +crowning gratification of my life."</p> + +<p>Before nominating the Vice-President, the convention took a short +recess, and Garfield attempted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> to leave the hall. He was immediately +surrounded, however, by an enthusiastic crowd, who followed him to the +door and tried to take the horses off his carriage that they might draw +it themselves.</p> + +<p>A serenade followed at the Grand Pacific Hotel, but Garfield declined to +respond to the ovation further than to give his thanks. More than six +hundred congratulatory telegrams were received during the evening, among +the most notable of which were the following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Executive Mansion, Washington,</span><br /> +June 8th, 1880.<br /> +</p> + +<p><i>To General James A. Garfield:</i></p> + +<p>You will receive no heartier congratulations to-day than +mine. This both for your own and your country's sake.</p> + +<p class="right"> +(Signed) <span class="smcap">R. B. Hayes.</span><br /> +</p> + +</div> + + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, June 8th, 1880.<br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago:</i></p> + +<p>I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination as +President of the United States. You have saved the +Republican party and the country from a great peril, and +assured the continued success of Republican principles.</p> + +<p class="right"> +(Signed) <span class="smcap">John Sherman.</span><br /> +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"The vote of Maine just cast for you is given you with my +hearty concurrence. I assure you of my belief that you will +have a glorious victory in November."</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">James G. Blaine.</span><br /> +</p> + +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span class="smcap">Milwaukee</span>, June 8th, 1880.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art +promised." <span class="smcap">Lawrence Barrett.</span></p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, June 8th 1880.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"Accept my hearty congratulations. The country is to be +congratulated as well as yourself."</p> <p class="right"><span class="smcap">C. Schurz.</span></p></div> + +<p>Similar dispatches were received from other members of the cabinet, and +from various senators and representatives at Washington. When General +Grant heard the news he said, "It is all right—I am satisfied."</p> + +<p>At the earnest request of the delegates, an informal reception was held +at the Grand Pacific, and near midnight Garfield responded to the +committee appointed to notify him officially of his nomination, as +follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Mr. Chairmen and Gentlemen</span>,—I assure you that the +information you have officially given me brings a sense of +very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the +fact that I was a member of your body, a fact that could not +have existed with propriety had I had the slightest +expectation that my name would be connected with the +nomination for the office. I have felt with you great +solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the +struggle, but believing that you are correct in assuring me +that substantial unity has been reached in the conclusion, +it gives me gratification far greater than any personal +pleasure your announcement can bring.</p> + +<p>"I accept the trust committed to my hands. As<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> to the work +of our party and the character of the campaign to be entered +upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than +I can properly do to-night. I thank you for the assurances +of confidence and esteem you have presented to me, and hope +we shall see our future as promising as are the indications +to-night."</p></div> + +<p>In a similar manner Senator Hoar and the committee officially apprized +General Arthur of his nomination to the Vice-Presidency; his acceptance +was given in a brief informal speech, but it was not till the "small +hours" that the excited crowds began to disperse.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Return Home.—Ovations on the Way.—Address at Hiram +Institute.—Impromptu Speech at Washington.—Incident of the +Eagle.—The Tract Distributor.</p></div> + + +<p>The next morning, Garfield left Chicago for his home in Mentor. The +journey thither was one continual scene of ovations. An immense throng +followed him from the hotel to the station, and a large committee from +Cleveland met the train at Elyria.</p> + +<p>As the car containing Garfield and Governor Foster of Ohio, entered the +depot at Cleveland, a salute of a thousand guns was fired. A procession +of the militia and the Garfield clubs accompanied them to the Kennard +House, and among the transparencies borne by the crowd was one with the +happy inscription:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Ohio's senator, Ohio's Major-General, Ohio's President. The +true favorite son of Ohio is the favorite son of the Union. +He who at the age of sixteen steered a canal-boat will steer +the ship of state at fifty."</p></div> + +<p>Garfield had promised to deliver an address at the commencement +exercises of Hiram College.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>The morning after his arrival in Cleveland, therefore, he left as +quietly as possible for the little town, where thirty years before he +had held the humble position of college janitor.</p> + +<p>"I have sought but one office in my life," he said one day to a friend, +"and that was the office of janitor at Hiram Institute."</p> + +<p>As he approached the college grounds the students came out in a body to +greet him. It was a touching scene, and his beautiful address to them is +given in full, in the latter part of the volume.<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> With all his honors +he never forgot this place so "full of memories."</p> + +<p>After a short stay at Hiram, he went on to his home in Mentor, to take a +few days' rest before returning to Washington.</p> + +<p>His address to the enthusiastic crowds that gathered around him when he +reached the Capitol, is so full of his peculiar magnetic power that we +give it entire:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Fellow-Citizens:</span>—While I have looked upon this great +array, I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of +the American people.</p> + +<p>"When I reflect that whenever you find sovereign power, +every reverent heart on this earth bows before it, and when +I remember that here for a hundred years we have denied the +sovereignty of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> any man, and in place of it we have asserted +the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before me so +vast a concourse it is easy for me to imagine that were the +rest of the American people gathered here to-night, every +man would stand uncovered, all in unsandalled feet in +presence of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this +Government under Almighty God.</p> + +<p>"And therefore to this great audience I pay the respectful +homage that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the +people. I thank you for this great and glorious +demonstration. I am not, for one moment, misled into +believing that it refers to so poor a thing as any one of +our number. I know it means your reverence for your +Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence for +its institutions, and your compliment to one who is placed +for a moment in relations to you of peculiar importance. For +all these reasons I thank you.</p> + +<p>"I cannot at this time utter a word on the subject of +general politics. I would not mar the cordiality of this +welcome, to which to some extent all are gathered, by any +reference except to the present moment and its significance; +but I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage +to-night are my comrades, late of the war for the Union. For +them I can speak with entire propriety, and can say that +these very streets heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> the measured tread of your +disciplined feet, years ago, when the imperilled Republic +needed your hands and your hearts to save it, and you came +back with your numbers decimated; but those you left behind +were immortal and glorified heroes forever; and those you +brought back came, carrying under tattered banners and in +bronzed hands the ark of the covenant of your Republic in +safety out of the bloody baptism of the war, and you brought +it in safety to be saved forever by your valor and the +wisdom of your brethren who were at home, and by this you +were again added to the great civil army of the Republic.</p> + +<p>"I greet you, comrades and fellow-soldiers, and the great +body of distinguished citizens who are gathered here +to-night, who are the strong stay and support of the +business, of the prosperity, of the peace, of the civic +ardor and glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your +welcome to-night.</p> + +<p>"It was said in a welcome to one who came to England to be a +part of her glory—and all the nation spoke when it was said,—</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Normans and Saxons and Danes are we,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"And we say to-night of all nations, of all the people, +soldiers, and civilians, there is one name that welds us all +into one. It is the name of American citizen, under the +union and under the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> glory of the flag that led us to +victory and peace. For this magnificent welcome I thank you +with all my heart."</p></div> + +<p>A singular incident occurred in Washington, upon the day of Garfield's +nomination at Chicago. Almost at the very moment the ballot was cast, a +large bald eagle circled around the Park, and finally swooped down and +rested upon the little house on the corner of I and Thirteenth Streets.</p> + +<p>It was seen by Mr. George W. Rose, Garfield's private stenographer, who +occupied the house during his absence, and he says that "before the +eagle rose from its strange perch a dozen people had noticed and +commented upon it."</p> + +<p>Another curious coincident is worthy of notice. On that memorable +Tuesday morning as Garfield entered the Exposition building, where the +convention was assembled, a slip of paper was thrust into his hand by a +tract distributor.</p> + +<p>He put it mechanically into his pocket without reading, and was not a +little astonished that evening when it dropped out and he found upon it +these words:—</p> + +<p>"This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is +become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any +other."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> See page 478.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>News of the Nomination Received with Delight.—Mr. +Robeson speaks for the Democrats in the House of +Representatives.—Ratification Meeting at Williams +College.—Governor Long's Opinion.—Hotly-contested +Campaign.—Garfield Receives the Majority of Votes.—Is +Elected President on the Second of November, 1880.—Extract +from Letter of an Old Pupil.—Review of Garfield's +Congressional Life.—His own Feelings in Regard to the +Election.</p></div> + + +<p>The news of the nomination at Chicago was received with unfeigned +delight throughout the country. In the House of Representatives at +Washington, Mr. Robeson, by request, spoke for the Democrats as well as +the Republicans, in terms of the highest commendation of the new +nominee; and three hearty cheers were given for him by both parties.</p> + +<p>A ratification meeting was immediately held at Williams College, and the +excited students sang as a chorus to "Marching through Georgia:"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Hurrah! hurrah! we'll shout for General G.!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hurrah! hurrah! a Williams man was he,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so we'll sing the chorus from old Williams to the sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And we'll cast a vote for Garfield!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Governor Long, of Massachusetts, when asked his opinion of the +nomination, said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"I feel an especial pride and satisfaction in the nomination of +Garfield, as I have both desired and publicly urged it from the first.</p> + +<p>"I regard General Garfield as a representative Republican, a sound +statesman, a thorough scholar, and with that good record as a soldier +which never yet has failed to be a claim upon the hearts of the American +people. I regard it as felicitous in General Garfield that, like so many +of his predecessors, he sprang from the humbler walks of life, and, by +his own efforts, has made his own way to eminence, and is not identified +as the special representative of wealth or any great controlling +interests.</p> + +<p>"As a representative from the old Joshua Giddings district, he has stood +from the first as an exponent of equal rights, and he has been an +advocate of honest money in the days when it cost something to face the +'Ohio idee.' Add to this his high personal character, his purity and +integrity, and yet his entire approachableness, and you have an ideal +candidate who commends himself to every good element in the party and +welds it firmly together again, and whose nomination is his election."</p> + +<p>The press were remarkably unanimous in their praise of Garfield. Even +the Southern papers seemed pleased with the nomination, and the New +Orleans <i>Times</i> said,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Garfield is a very fair representative of the better element of the +Republican party, superior to most of his competitors at Chicago in +mental force, and equal to them in other essential attributes."</p> + +<p>When the Democratic candidate for President was announced, and the +strong names of Hancock and English were pitted against those of +Garfield and Arthur, a close contest was anticipated. And the hot +campaign that followed will long be remembered in the annals of our +country.</p> + +<p>Some of the states that had been securely counted upon by the +Republicans, went over to the Democrats; but, when the final returns +were given on the second day of November, 1880, it was found that +Garfield had carried twenty of the thirty-eight states, receiving two +hundred and fourteen of the electoral votes, while Hancock had but one +hundred and fifty-five.</p> + +<p>One of Garfield's old pupils, upon hearing the news, wrote to a friend +in New York as follows:—</p> + +<p>"We of 'old Portage County,' where his ability was first recognized, and +from which no delegate to any convention where his name has been +presented ever voted against him, knowing him well and trusting him +fully, rejoice with exceeding joy in the results of Tuesday's +election.... We believe no manlier man ever headed a ticket for the +office. He is as pure as Washington, as brave as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> Jackson, as humane as +Lincoln, and as grand and able as Daniel Webster. He is broad enough for +the whole country, and sectionalism will find no sympathy in him."</p> + +<p>The editor of a leading Boston paper wrote the following fine review of +Garfield's congressional life:—</p> + +<p>"The election of General Garfield to the office of President is, in some +sense, a departure from the custom of the country. He is the first man +who has had long and thorough experience in the legislative branch of +the government, holding for many years the position of a leader of a +party both while in power and while out of power, and, consequently, +thoroughly familiar with all the business of the nation, who has been +raised to the Presidential office. It had almost come to be thought that +no man could go directly from Congress to the Presidency.</p> + +<p>"It is not unreasonable to expect that the administration of General +Garfield will be marked by some peculiar features dependent upon these +conditions. For eighteen years he has been a member of the House of +Representatives, all the time a conspicuously active member, and a large +part of the time a recognized leader. He has served on all the more +important committees, and been chairman of several. He has been a close +and eager student of the theory and the practice of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> form of +government, at once a philosophical statesman, a shrewd, practical +politician, and an accomplished debater of legislative measures. His +character, his accomplishments, his position, his tastes, have favored +and compelled him to form personal acquaintance with all classes of +influential men, so that probably there is not in the country another +who has so extensive a circle of acquaintances among men who are potent +in forming and directing public opinion.</p> + +<p>"Every great interest of American life knows that he has sounded it, and +apprehends and appreciates its capacity. In church, and college, and +market, and among the plain people who toil in shops and fields, he is +regarded as a friend who has regarded their necessities and spoken and +labored in their cause.</p> + +<p>"There is not a policy of administration which he has not analyzed; +there is not a department of the public service with the scope and work +of which he is not acquainted. He will come to his office better +equipped for intelligent conduct of national affairs than any man who +has preceded him for two generations at least, and the best part of his +equipment is his broad, hopeful faith in freedom, equal rights, and +impartial justice as the safe conditions of progress."</p> + +<p>In the midst of all this spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, Garfield +himself writes to a friend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"I believe all my friends are more gratified with the personal part of +my triumph than I am, and, although I am proud of the noble support I +have received, and the vindication it gives me against my assailants, +yet there is a tone of sadness running through this triumph which I can +hardly explain."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At Mentor.—The Journey to Washington.—Inauguration +Day.—Immense Concourse of People.—The Address.—Sworn into +Office.—Touching Scene.—Grand Display.—Inauguration +Ball.—Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.—Two +Great Problems.—How they were Solved.—Disgraceful Rupture +in the Senate.—Prerogative of the Executive Office +vindicated.</p></div> + + +<p>The few months that elapsed between the election and the inauguration +were spent by Garfield in the quiet home at Mentor.</p> + +<p>One day an intimate friend of the family asked Mrs. Garfield if she were +not looking forward with pleasant anticipations to her life in the White +House.</p> + +<p>"No," she answered, simply and sincerely, "I can only hope it will not +be altogether unhappy."</p> + +<p>The words occasioned surprise at the time—afterwards they seemed like a +sad prophecy.</p> + +<p>Inauguration day drew near, and the journey from Mentor to Washington +was one continual series of ovations. Then that memorable fourth of +March at the capital. "Who that beheld the inspiring spectacle," +exclaims one writer, "can ever see it grow pale in memory!"</p> + +<p>Before noon thousands of people had gathered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> in front of the Capitol, +and when the doors of the rotunda were thrown open, the police were +obliged to push away the crowd that had assembled on the steps.</p> + +<p>Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Treasury and the Capitol grounds, was +one great sea of heads, and loud cheers arose from every side as the +long procession escorting the President-elect passed on to the Capitol. +The buildings along the whole route were beautifully decorated, and +handkerchiefs fluttered from every window.</p> + +<p>General Sherman, at the head of the Cleveland troops, led the way, and +the Columbia Commandery of Knights Templars formed an important part of +the escort.</p> + +<p>Upon reaching the Capitol, Garfield took his seat on the platform, with +President Hayes on his right hand, and Chief-Justice Waite on his left. +Just behind him sat Mr. Wheeler, and Vice-President Arthur. The mother +of the President-elect, his wife and little girl, were also on the +platform, and Mrs. Hayes and her daughter were seated just beside them.</p> + +<p>The Inaugural Address,<a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> which occupied half an hour in its delivery, +was frequently applauded by the vast audience. The clear, ringing tones +of the speaker gave added force to every sentence; and his wonderful +magnetism held the whole crowd spell-bound.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;"> +<img src="images/facing208.jpg" width="475" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p> + +<p>At the close of the address, the oath of office was administered by the +Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and then the immense throngs of +people began slowly to disperse.</p> + +<p>The threatening clouds of the early morning had all disappeared, and the +bright March sun looked down upon a most touching, beautiful picture, as +the new President turned around to his dear old mother, the guiding star +of his life—and tenderly kissed her.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ah! not in Greece or Rome alone<br /></span> +<span class="i2">High mother-hearts shall swell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">America's unsculptured stone!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Will Garfield legends tell,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How at the height of fame he durst—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The proudest moment of his life—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To put the white-haired mother first,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Then turned and kissed his wife."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As soon as the evening twilight came on, a grand display of fireworks +illuminated the city. The Inauguration Ball was one of the most +brilliant ever held in Washington. The hall was finely decorated. Just +in the centre of the rotunda was a statue of America, surrounded by +tropical plants; in her left hand she held a shield, and from her right, +a powerful electric light in the form of a torch shone down the four +wings of the building.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> Heavy festoons of evergreens, intertwined with +rare flowers, hung from the ceiling, and the lofty pillars were +decorated with streamers of bunting and the shields of the States and +Territories.</p> + +<p>Some four thousand people had assembled in the building before the +arrival of the presidential party. Garfield did not take part in the +dancing, but after an hour spent in hand-shaking, he retired to a +balcony where his wife and mother were seated, and watched with evident +enjoyment the brilliant scene below.</p> + +<p>The next day the Senate had a special session, and the President +announced his Cabinet as follows:—</p> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Secretary of State:</td><td align='left'>James G. Blaine.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Secretary of the Treasury:</td><td align='left'>William Windom.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Secretary of the Interior:</td><td align='left'>Samuel J. Kirkwood.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Secretary of the Navy:</td><td align='left'>William H. Hunt.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Secretary of War:</td><td align='left'>Robert T. Lincoln.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Postmaster-General:</td><td align='left'>Thomas L. James.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Attorney-General:</td><td align='left'>Wayne McVeagh.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>The different elements of the Republican party represented by these +names seemed to presage rough waters for the ship-of-state; but the +choice was made with clear-sighted judgment.</p> + +<p>Two great problems confronted President Garfield as he assumed the reins +of government. First, what should be done with the national debt, so +rapidly maturing?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<p>After considerable investigation, it was deemed best to extend the bonds +at a lower rate of interest, that is, three and a half per cent. +Garfield's accurate knowledge of political economy and finance saved the +country many millions of dollars by this wise plan; and the loans as +fast as they have become due have been paid by new bonds issued at this +lower rate.</p> + +<p>The second problem was not to be solved so readily. How could half a +million of importunate office-seekers be appeased, when only a hundred +thousand offices were in the President's power to bestow?</p> + +<p>The baleful influence of the wretched spoils system began its evil work +at once.</p> + +<p>Said a leading political paper:—</p> + +<p>"The feeling has become a very dominant one that the Government owes +every man a living. This is found all the way up from the country school +district to town, city, county, state and nation. It need not be said +this is an unhealthy condition of things in every aspect. It diverts +men's minds from the old paths of industry, and badly demoralizes +families and communities. It leads to all manner of crimes, and so +intensifies party spirit that all laws provided for their punishment are +practically inoperative."</p> + +<p>President Garfield had never had any sympathy with the system that tries +to appease its party<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> by "liquidating personal obligations with public +trusts." In organizing his administration, he desired to unite and +consolidate the Republican party, and to make such appointments as were +for the manifest good of the whole country. But it was impossible for +him to do this without exciting opposition; the disgraceful rupture in +the Senate immediately followed, and the first weeks of his +administration presented one continued series of hotly-contested +battles.</p> + +<p>That the President held his own, in spite of all adverse criticism, +showed at once the strong, unyielding hand that guided the Ship of +State, and after-events proved that he was clearly right from first to +last.</p> + +<p>"President Garfield," said one able writer, "used political weapons to +combat politicians in the matter of the New York Custom House, but he +achieved much by so doing. For the first time since 1876 we have a +Republican party in New York distinct from the close corporation that +has controlled the organization there these recent years. A nucleus has +been established around which all shades of Republican opinion can rally +with the good hope of destroying the despotism that has virtually +ostracized the best Republicans of the State from influential +participation in national politics. The nucleus is an administration +party, which invites the co-operation of all who would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> liberalize the +organization. With the overthrow of "machine" control, as it has existed +in New York and Pennsylvania, and the old would-be dictators remanded to +their proper place, a great advance has been made towards that purer +condition of political and public affairs that all honest men favor."</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> See page 480.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.—Morning of +the Fateful Day.—Secretary Blaine Accompanies him to the +Station.—A Mysterious-looking Character.—Sudden Report of +a Pistol.—The President Turns and Receives the Fatal +Shot.—Arrest of the Assassin.—The President Recovers +Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A <span class="smcap">wasp</span> flew out upon our fairest son,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The while he chatted carelessly and laughed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And knew not of the fateful mischief done.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And so this life, amid our lore begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Envenomed by the insect's hellish craft,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was drunk by Death in one long, feverish draught,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he was lost—our precious, priceless one!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, mystery of blind, remorseless fate!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That life so mean should murder life so great!"<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20"><span class="smcap">J. G. Holland.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The anniversary of our National Independence was now close at hand. In +spite of the shameful and distressing party factions of the previous +weeks, the country had never seemed in a more prosperous condition. The +electric state of the political atmosphere had proved itself an element +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> purification, not of destruction, and the outlook for the future +grew brighter every day.</p> + +<p>On the morning of July second, the President arose at an early hour. +Worn out with the harassing disturbances of the past weeks, he felt the +urgent need of a few days' rest and recreation. Mrs. Garfield, who had +been spending a little time at Long Branch, was to join him in New York; +and together with a few members of the Cabinet and their families, the +President had planned a ten-days' trip through New England.</p> + +<p>It was a lovely summer's morning. The dew sparkled on the beautiful lawn +and gay parterres in front of the White House, the cool trickle of the +fountain mingled with the twittering of the sparrows as they flitted in +and out of their nests under the great front porch.</p> + +<p>All nature seemed in sympathy with the joyous mood of the President, as +he gaily tried an athletic feat with one of his boys, laughed, jested, +and talked about the commencement exercises at Williams College, which +he hoped to attend in a few days.</p> + +<p>Not one breath of impending danger, not one note of warning was there in +the clear, sunny atmosphere of that bright July morning!</p> + +<p>Shortly after breakfast, Secretary Blaine drove up to the White House +and accompanied the President to the station of the Baltimore and +Potomac<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> Railroad, where the express train to New York leaves at 9.30.</p> + +<p>Finding they were ten minutes before time, the President and his +Secretary remained in the carriage, earnestly talking, until the depot +official reminded them that the train was about to start.</p> + +<p>Arm in arm they passed through the broad entrance-door into the ladies' +waiting-room, which gave them the readiest access to the train beyond.</p> + +<p>The room was almost empty, as most of the passengers had already taken +their seats in the cars, but pacing nervously up and down the adjoining +rooms, was a thin, wiry-looking man, whose peculiar appearance had once +or twice been commented upon by some of the railroad officials. Still, +there was really nothing about him to excite suspicion. He might have +simply missed the train; and, as he seemed inclined to mind his own +business, no further notice had been taken of him.</p> + +<p>As the President passed through the room, this ill-favored looking man +suddenly sprang up behind him, and, taking a heavy revolver from his +pocket, deliberately aimed it at the noble, commanding figure.</p> + +<p>At the sharp report the President turned his head with a troubled look +of surprise, and Secretary Blaine sprang quickly to one side. The wretch +immediately re-cocked his pistol, set his teeth, and fired again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p> + +<p>This time the President fell senseless to the floor, and a dazed crowd +surrounded him while Secretary Blaine sprang after the assassin. The +cowardly knave was easily secured, and then all thoughts centred upon +the suffering victim. Mrs. White, who had charge of the ladies' +waiting-room, was the first to see the President fall, and, running to +his assistance, she knelt down and supported him in her arms. The +dreadful tidings flew hither and thither on eagle-wings. +Postmaster-General James, Secretary Windom, Secretary Hunt, and others +of the party who were to accompany the President on his trip, were soon +at his side, and messengers were sent in all directions.</p> + +<p>A physician was soon on the spot; the wounded man was tenderly placed +upon a mattress, and carried without delay to the White House.</p> + +<p>Yet, before he was taken from the station, he suddenly aroused from his +half-unconscious state, and turning to one of his friends he said, with +his old, self-forgetting thoughtfulness,—</p> + +<p>"Rockwell, I want you to send a message to my wife. Tell her I am +seriously hurt; how seriously I cannot yet say. I am myself, and hope +she will come to me soon. I send my love to her."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the White House.—The Anxious Throngs.—Examination of +the Wounds.—The President's Questions.—His Willingness to +Die.—Waiting for his Wife.—Sudden Relapse.—A Glimmer of +Hope.—A Sunday of Doubt.—Independence Day.—Remarks of +George William Curtis.</p></div> + + +<p>The members of the Cabinet and a number of the President's personal +friends were at the White House, when the ambulance containing the +wounded man drove slowly up the avenue.</p> + +<p>When he saw them on the porch, he raised his right hand, and with one of +his old, bright smiles, gave the military salute. But for the extreme +pallor of his face, no one would have guessed the intense pain he was +suffering, as he was borne upstairs to his own room in the southeast +corner.</p> + +<p>An excited crowd had already gathered about the White House, but troops +had been ordered from the Washington Arsenal, and armed sentinels kept a +vigilant guard about the executive Mansion.</p> + +<p>When Dr. Bliss and the other physicians in attendance examined the +wounds, they found the first shot had passed through the arm just below +the shoulder, without breaking any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> bones. The other ball had entered +the back just over the hips, but what direction it had taken, of where +it had lodged, could not be determined with any degree of certainty. The +physicians held a short consultation, and agreed to search for the ball +as soon as the President's condition would permit.</p> + +<p>The wounded man first complained of pain in his feet and legs, and for a +long time the "tiger clawing," as he called it, seemed harder to bear +than anything else. It is easy to understand now, how seriously the +spinal cord and the whole nervous system must have been affected by that +first fearful fracture of the vertebrae.</p> + +<p>As the shock began to pass off, the President turned to Secretary +Blaine, who was sitting beside him, and said,—</p> + +<p>"What motive do you think that man could have had in trying to +assassinate me?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I cannot tell. He says he had no motive."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," said Garfield, with a smile, "he thought it would be a +glorious thing to be a pirate king."</p> + +<p>Turning to Dr. Bliss, he said,—</p> + +<p>"I want to know my true condition. Do not conceal anything from me; +remember, I am not afraid to die."</p> + +<p>The President's condition was extremely critical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> at that time, as there +were indications of internal hemorrhage, and the doctor frankly told him +that he feared he could live but a few hours.</p> + +<p>"God's will be done," he replied; "I am ready to go if my time has +come."</p> + +<p>As the little group stood in silence about his bed, they recalled his +words to Colonel Knox only a few days before, when warned of the danger +that might be lurking in hidden corners.</p> + +<p>"I must come and go as usual," he said; "I cannot surround myself with a +body-guard. <i>If the good of this country, the interests of pure +government and of the people against one-man power, demand the sacrifice +of my life, I think I am ready.</i>"</p> + +<p>The arrival of Mrs. Garfield from Long Branch was anxiously awaited all +through that long, weary afternoon. An accident to the engine delayed +the train upon which she had started, and it was evening before she +reached the White House.</p> + +<p>The President's quick ears heard the carriage-wheels as they rolled over +the gravel driveway, and with a bright smile, he exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"That's my wife! God bless the little woman!" Then the strong-will power +that had kept him up to this moment, seemed suddenly to give way. His +attendants thought he was dying, and for hours his life hung upon the +merest thread.</p> + +<p>Slowly, but surely, the tide began to turn. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> midnight he was still +conscious—the doctors thought there was "one chance" that he might +recover—the President had bravely taken that one chance; and with +lightning speed the good news was telegraphed all over the country.</p> + +<p>Sunday morning the President was so much better that he wanted to know +what had been said about the assassination—and what was the general +feeling throughout the country.</p> + +<p>"The country," replied Colonel Rockwell, "is full of sympathy for you. +We will save all the papers so that you can see them when you get well; +but you must not talk now."</p> + +<p>The President smiled, and in the broken slumber that followed he +murmured to himself,—</p> + +<p>"The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!"</p> + +<p>The next night was one of fearful suspense, and the dawn of Independence +Day was ushered in with mingled feelings of hope and fear.</p> + +<p>A few days later, George William Curtis wrote as follows:—</p> + +<p>"No Fourth of July in our history was ever so mournful as that which has +just passed. In 1826 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on +Independence Day. But the singular and beautiful coincidence was not +known for some time, and then it was felt to be a fitting and memorable +end of the life of venerable patriots long withdrawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> from public +affairs. Nearly forty years later, 1863, there was intense and universal +anxiety when the great day dawned. Mr. Greeley, in his history, calls +the ten days preceding the Fourth of July in that year the very darkest +days the republic ever saw. But that was during the angry fury of civil +war, when passions and emotions of every kind were inflamed to the +utmost. There was fiery party rancor in the feeling of that time, and +the whole year was full of similar excitement.</p> + +<p>"But the emotion and the spectacle of this year are without parallel. In +every household there was a hushed and tender silence, as if one dearly +loved lay dying. In every great city and retired village the public +festivities were stayed, and the assembly of joy and pride and +congratulation was solemnized into a reverent congregation of heads +bowed in prayer. In foreign countries American gayety was suspended. In +the British Parliament, Whig and Tory and Radical listened to catch from +the lips of the Prime Minister the latest tidings from one sufferer. +From the French republic, from the old empire of Japan, and the new +kingdom of Bulgaria, from Parnell, the Irish agitator, and from the Lord +Mayor of Dublin, came messages of sympathy and sorrow. Sovereigns and +princes, the people and the nobles, joined in earnest hope for the life +of the Republican President. The press of all Christendom told the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> +mournful story, and moralized as it told. In this country the popular +grief was absolutely unanimous. One tender, overpowering thought called +a truce even to party contention. Old and young, men and women of all +nationalities and of all preferences, their differences forgotten, +waited all day for news, watched the flags and every sign that might be +significant, and lay down, praying, to sleep, thanking God that as yet +the worst had not come.</p> + +<p>"It was a marvellous tribute. In Europe, it was respect for a powerful +State; in America, it was affection for a simple and manly character. It +is plain that the tale of General Garfield's hardy and heroic life, the +sure and steady rise of this poor American boy, taking every degree of +honor in the great university of experience, equal to every occasion, to +peace and war, to good fortune and ill fortune, had profoundly touched +the heart of his countrymen. A year ago, every word and incident of that +life was told by party passion—on one side eulogized and extolled; on +the other, distorted and vilified. Out of the fiery ordeal he emerged +with a general kindly regard and high expectation. Mild and conciliatory +in character, of long and various political experience, a natural +statesman with an able mind amply stored and especially trained for +public duty, simply dignified in manner, a powerful man, singularly +blameless,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> he entered upon the presidency with every happy augury. The +country was at peace within and without, and hummed with universal +prosperity. The first measures of his administration were both wise and +fortunate, and the only trouble sprang from a source which is rapidly +becoming the fatal bane of the country—the patronage of office. This +breeds faction and makes faction fanatical and furious. If indignation +with fancied slights and supposed breaches of faith regarding patronage, +could so overmaster a conspicuous and experienced public man like Mr. +Conkling as to drive him suddenly to resign the highest political trust +which his State could bestow, to imperil his public career, to astound +his friends, and to abandon the control of the Senate to his political +opponents, it is not surprising that fancied neglect of political merit +and service should bewilder the light brain of an unbalanced and obscure +camp-follower like Guiteau, until, brooding with diseased mind upon his +'wrongs,' he should resolve to do 'justice' upon the supposed +wrong-doer.</p> + +<p>"So, in the most peaceful and prosperous moment that this country has +known for a half-century, the shot of the assassin is fired at a man +absolutely without personal enemies, and a President whom even his +political opponents respect. Then to the impression of brave and +generous and sagacious manhood, already produced by his career,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> was +added his sweet and tranquil bearing under the murderous blow. The +unselfish thought of others, the cheerful steadiness and even gayety of +temper, the lofty and manly resignation, with entire freedom from +ostentation of piety, the strong love of the strong man for those +dearest to him, and the noble response of his wife's calm and perfect +womanhood to this supreme and courageous manhood, filled the hearts of +his countrymen with sympathy and love and sorrow, and whether he lived +or died, his place in the affection of Americans was as secure as +Lincoln's.</p> + +<p>"Such feeling of millions of hearts for one man is profoundly touching. +It gives him a great distinction among all mankind. But it is also a +benediction for a people to be lifted by such an emotion. It is +impossible that party passion should not be somewhat subdued by it, and +that a wholesome sense of shame should not chasten factions and +disputes. If such are the men with whom bitter quarrels are waged, and +upon whom unstinted contumely and contempt are poured out, shall we not +all, upon every side, pause and reflect that to blow mere party fires to +fury, and to trample personal character in the mire of angry political +dispute, is to disgrace ourselves and the cause that we would serve, and +the country whose good name depends upon us? That is the reflection +which this last solemn Fourth of July undoubtedly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> suggested. It +recalled the country to emotions higher than those of the shop and the +caucus. It is character that makes a country. It is manhood like that of +Garfield and Lincoln which made the past of America, and which makes its +future possible. Commercial prosperity and politics and all national +interests rest at last upon the honesty and courage and intelligence of +the people, not upon mines and material resources, nor upon great +railroads or tariffs or free trade."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Assassin.—What were his Motives.—His own +Confessions.—Statement of District-Attorney +Corkhill.—Sketch of Guiteau's Early Life.</p></div> + + +<p>Together with the overwhelming sense of grief and consternation that had +spread throughout the country, was the eager desire to know what motives +had actuated the assassin in his terrible deed.</p> + +<p>When questioned by the detective who took him to jail, Guiteau declared, +"I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts; I did it to save the Republican +party."</p> + +<p>"Is there anybody else with you in this matter?"</p> + +<p>"Not a living soul," he replied. "I have contemplated the thing for the +last six weeks and would have shot the President when he went away with +Mrs. Garfield, but I looked at her, and she looked so sick, I changed my +mind."</p> + +<p>After a careful investigation of the facts, District-Attorney Corkhill +published the following statement:—</p> + +<p>"The interest felt by the public in the details of the assassination, +and the many stories published,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> justify me in stating that the +following is a correct and accurate statement concerning the points to +which reference is made: The assassin, Charles Guiteau, came to +Washington city on Sunday evening, March 6th, 1881, and stopped at the +Ebbitt House, remaining only one day. He then secured a room in another +part of the city, and had boarded and roomed at various places, the full +details of which I have. On Wednesday, May 18th, 1881, the assassin +determined to murder the President. He had neither money nor pistol at +the time. About the last of May he went into O'Meara's store, corner of +Fifteenth and F Streets, this city, and examined some pistols, asking +for the largest calibre. He was shown two similar in calibre, and only +different in the price. On Wednesday, June 8th, he purchased a pistol, +for which he paid $10, he having, in the mean time, borrowed $15 of a +gentleman in this city, on the plea that he wanted to pay his board +bill. On the same evening, about seven o'clock, he took the pistol and +went to the foot of Seventeenth Street, and practised firing at a board, +firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding-place and wiped the +pistol dry, and wrapped it in his coat, and waited his opportunity. On +Sunday morning, June 15th, he was sitting in Lafayette Park, and saw the +President leave for the Christian Church on Vermont Avenue, and he at +once returned to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> room, obtained his pistol, put it in his pocket, +and followed the President to church. He entered the church, but found +he could not kill him there without danger of killing some one else. He +noticed that the President sat near a window. After church he made an +examination of the window, and found he could reach it without any +trouble, and that from this point he could shoot the President through +the head without killing any one else. The following Wednesday he went +to the church, examined the location and the window, and became +satisfied he could accomplish his purpose. He determined to make the +attempt at the church the following Sunday. Learning from the papers +that the President would leave the city on Saturday, the 18th of June, +with Mrs. Garfield, for Long Branch, he therefore decided to meet him at +the depot. He left his boarding-place about 5 o'clock Saturday morning, +June 18th, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth Street, +and fired five shots to practise his aim, and be certain his pistol was +in good order. He then went to the depot, and was in the ladies' +waiting-room of the depot, with his pistol ready, when the presidential +party entered. He says Mrs. Garfield looked so weak and frail that he +had not the heart to shoot the President in her presence, and, as he +knew he would have another opportunity, he left the depot. He had +previously engaged a carriage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> to take him to the jail. On Wednesday +evening, the President and his son, and, I think, United States Marshal +Henry, went out for a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed +them, and watched them for some time, in hopes the carriage would stop, +but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening, July 1, he was sitting +on the seat in the park opposite the White House, when he saw the +President come out alone. He followed him down the avenue to Fifteenth +Street, and then kept on the opposite side of the street upon Fifteenth, +until the President entered the residence of Secretary Blaine. He waited +at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets for some time, and then, as he +was afraid he would attract attention, he went into the alley in the +rear of Mr. Morton's residence, examined his pistol, and waited. The +President and Secretary Blaine came out together, and he followed over +to the gate of the White House, but could get no opportunity to use his +weapon. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, he breakfasted at the Riggs +House about 7 o'clock. He then walked up into the park, and sat there +for an hour. He then took a horse-car and rode to Sixth Street, got out +and went into the depot and loitered around there; had his shoes +blacked; engaged a hackman for two dollars to take him to the jail; went +into a private room and took his pistol out of his pocket, unwrapped the +paper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> from around it, which he had put there to prevent the dampening +of the powder; examined his pistol; carefully tried the trigger, and +then returned and took a seat in the ladies' waiting-room, and, as soon +as the President entered, advanced behind him and fired two shots.</p> + +<p>"These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I give them +to the public to contradict certain false rumors in connection with the +most atrocious of atrocious crimes."</p> + +<p>Can such a deliberate preparation as this be deemed an act of insanity?</p> + +<p>A gentleman who knew Guiteau as a boy, says that he is of French +descent, and that his father, J. W. Guiteau, was "an old resident and +respected citizen of Freeport, Ill. He married a very beautiful woman, +and with her and the younger children, he joined the Oneida Community. +He afterwards returned to Freeport, where he served as cashier of the +Second National Bank until his death. At one time he became deranged on +the subject of 'Perfection,' and lectured extensively through the North +and West on that subject. There were three children. An elder brother, +Wilkes Guiteau, for a long time practised law at Davenport, Iowa. A +younger sister, Flora, was a very promising girl. When the family left +Oneida Community, Charles, then fifteen or sixteen years old, was left +behind. He afterwards went to Chicago, where he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> studied law, being +cared for and supplied with money by his father. After completing his +studies, he went to Europe, where he travelled several years, imbibing +Socialistic and other eccentric doctrines. A few years ago he returned +to this country, and lectured on the second advent of Christ. He +published a pamphlet on the subject, in which the egotism of the man was +plainly shown. From what I knew of the boy, his education in the Oneida +Community, and his utterances on religion, I was not at all surprised at +his committing the act. I understand from people employed at the White +House that Guiteau had forced himself upon the President several times. +He was an applicant for the consulship at Marseilles; and one day +obtained access to the President, and acted so rudely that the President +had him removed. I have no doubt that, feeling offended by this act, he +determined on the course which culminated in the terrible tragedy of +July the second."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Night of the Fourth.—Extreme Solicitude at the White +House.—Description of an Eye-witness.—Attorney McVeagh's +Remark.—Sudden Change for the Better.—Steady +Improvement.—The Medical Attendance.</p></div> + + +<p>The night of the Fourth was a time of extreme solicitude at the White +House. Said one who was present:—</p> + +<p>"I sat in the great East Room with the Attorney-General.—</p> + +<p>"'Ah,' he exclaimed, 'our Garfield was never a better President than he +was at the moment when Guiteau's bullet struck him down. He never saw +more clearly, and he never had a firmer or better purpose. He was going +to be all that the best thought of the country ever expected of him. He +was going to be a great President.'</p> + +<p>"The last time I had been in this East Room was at Mr. Hayes' last +diplomatic reception, when thousands of elegantly dressed people +thronged it, and music and lights made it, for that evening at least, +the handsomest room in the country. There were no lights now. The great +spaces were gloomy with what seemed to be the gloom of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> coming death. +Through the open windows on the south side the summer air stole lazily, +and the shadows of the draperies seemed to add to the darkness. There +was no music now—only the sound of whispered conversation as people +went up or down the stairs. The result of the early evening consultation +was unfavorable. Tympanites had again appeared, and apparently in a more +threatening form than before. Grave men shook their heads. Even the +brave Mrs. Garfield lost somewhat of the splendid courage that had +sustained her throughout her trying ordeal. For the first time after his +recovery from the shock of the bullet, the President seemed to lose hope +himself.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly there was a change for the better. Toward midnight, the +troubled slumbers of the President became peaceful, and he soon sank +into the best sleep he had enjoyed since the shooting on Saturday +morning. His pulse and temperature became better; there were signs of an +improved vitality; the breathing was easier; the pains ceased; there was +no longer any appearance of dangerous inflammation or of peritonitis. +Hope began to dawn where despondency had been; the faces that had been +full of gloom began to look hopeful; there was yet some encouragement. +Recovery flung out her signals in the steady breathings and the peaceful +slumber of the President. The improvement continued, and again it could +be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> said that there was hope of final recovery. It seemed as though the +strong will and constitution of the man had made one more effort for +life."</p> + +<p>The cheering bulletins on the following morning kindled fresh hope in +the hearts of the people. The general feeling was expressed that the +worst was over, and the nation began to take courage. By the ninth of +July the President was so much better, that his children were allowed to +come into the room. On the 13th, it was reported that his appetite was +improving, that he had asked for a steak, and sandwiches of bread and +scraped raw beef had been given him. This increase in the variety of his +food seemed to give him additional strength, and the condition of the +wound was so favorable that it was thought the ball had become encysted.</p> + +<p>The first physician who reached the President when he lay wounded at the +depot, was Dr. Smith Townshend, Health Officer of the District of +Columbia. As soon as he examined the wound, he pronounced it necessarily +fatal. Immediately after the shooting, the Secretary of War, according +to the President's wishes, had summoned Dr. Bliss, who with other +physicians reached the depot soon after Dr. Townshend.</p> + +<p>"On the following Sunday morning," says Dr. Bliss, "when the President +had fully reacted, had had several hours of rest, was cheerful and +competent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> to attend to any ordinary business, I presented the matter of +his professional attendance to him, Mrs. Garfield being present. I then +explained to him fully, the valuable professional assistance the large +number of medical gentlemen had rendered up to that time, representing, +as they did, the best medical talent in the city. His reply was,—</p> + +<p>"'Of course, doctor, it will not do to continue the large number of +medical gentlemen in attendance; such a number of surgeons would be +cumbersome and unwieldy.'</p> + +<p>"I said then: 'Mr. President, it is your duty to select your medical +attendants now.'</p> + +<p>"He replied: 'I desire you to take charge of my case. I know of your +experience and skill, and have full confidence in your judgment, and +wish you to thank the doctors individually for their kind attendance.' I +thanked him, and replied that it would be necessary to select three or +four medical assistants as counsel in the case. He replied,—</p> + +<p>"'I shall leave that entirely with you; you know what talent you +require, and your judgment is best upon that point.' I then selected in +order the gentlemen who were immediately associated in the case, +Surgeon-General J. K. Barnes, of the army; and Doctors J. J. Woodward +and Robert Reyburn, stating in each instance the reason for so doing. He +said that was eminently satisfactory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> to him. I then turned to Mrs. +Garfield and said,—</p> + +<p>"'If you desire to add one or more to the number selected, I shall be +happy to unite them to our counsel.' Her reply was,—'I would not add +one to the number you have selected, and I want to say to you, doctor, +that you shall not be embarrassed in any way in your future treatment of +this case.' Neither the President nor Mrs. Garfield, nor any member of +the household from that time forward, suggested the name of any other +physician except the eminent counsel called from Philadelphia and New +York, Doctors Agnew and Hamilton." The last-mentioned physicians arrived +on Monday morning, and in the consultation that followed they expressed +their hearty approval of the treatment adopted. While so much +uncertainty remained as to the exact location of the ball, it was folly +to risk the President's life in an attempt to remove it.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>A relapse.—Cooling Apparatus at the White House—The +President writes a Letter to his Mother.—Evidences of +Blood-Poisoning.—Symptoms of Malaria.—Removal to Long +Branch.—Preparation for the Journey.—Incidents by the way.</p></div> + + +<p>On the morning of the twenty-third of July there came a relapse. While +the physicians were examining and dressing his wounds, the President +experienced a slight rigor, followed by an increase of febrile symptoms. +This was evidently owing to an interruption of the flow of pus, and, on +the twenty-fourth, an operation was performed upon the cavity, by which +the patient was relieved.</p> + +<p>The intense heat of those July days was very debilitating, and a variety +of ingenious plans were tried to lower the temperature in the sufferer's +room. The most successful experiment was that of Mr. Dorsay's, which was +based on the system used in cooling the air in mines. It required +considerable machinery, but by its means the temperature of the room was +reduced to seventy-five degrees. The system is as follows: A stationary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +engine is first employed to compress the air which, when crowded into +less space, gives out a large amount of heat. This is carried away by +running water, and as soon as the air is again set free, it becomes as +cool by expansion as it had before been heated by compression.</p> + +<p>On the 27th of July, a piece of the fractured rib was removed; the +President was again able to take nourishing food, the fever subsided, +and all the bulletins began to assume a cheerful tone.</p> + +<p>And so the long, long days passed by, with frequent alternations of hope +and fear. On the 11th of August the President asked for pen and paper +that he might write a letter.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Through all those weary weeks of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With death's dark angel nigh,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But once to grasp the accustomed pen<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The trembling fingers try.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Those brave words from the strong man bowed,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Courageously death meeting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom amid the courtly crowd<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of great ones sending greeting?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The mother-bosom beat afar—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To her that tender letter;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To her—through life his guiding star—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He writes he's 'getting better.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>By the middle of August it was evident that the President was suffering +from pyæmia, or blood-poisoning. The swollen parotid gland occasioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +fresh solicitude, and the stomach refused to perform its ordinary +functions. Nourishing enemeta were then administered with excellent +results, and the lancing of the parotid-swelling afforded temporary +relief.</p> + +<p>The sufferer longed for a change of air; the malarial atmosphere +surrounding the White House was a constant drawback to his recovery, and +early in September the physicians decided to remove him to Long Branch. +The sixth day of the month was appointed for the removal, and every +possible precaution was taken to make the journey as easy as possible. +The bed, and the train in general, were inspected the day before by +Surgeon-General Barnes and Drs. Bliss and Agnew. The train was run out +to Benning's Bridge, five miles from Washington, and the surgeons +thoroughly tested the couch. They said that it was perfect, and that no +better arrangement could have been made for the President's journey. In +the test of speed the doctors were surprised to find that there was +notably less motion and jar at forty miles than at thirty.</p> + +<p>The express wagon which was to convey the President to the depot, was in +waiting at the front entrance to the Executive Mansion all night. It was +a new vehicle, and the springs being well oiled, could not impart much +jarring to the bed on which the President would lie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>When the track was being laid through Elberon, on which he was to be +taken to the Francklyn cottage as a last hope, the surveyor apologized +to a lady whose garden it laid waste.</p> + +<p>"Your flowers have required the labor of many summers, madam, and we +shall ruin them," he said.</p> + +<p>"O sir!" she cried, "I am willing you should ruin my house—all I have, +if it would help to save him!"</p> + +<p>There was to be a double departure from the White House. The President's +sons, Harry and James, were to start for Williams College, and shortly +before ten o'clock on the evening of the fifth, they bade their father +good-by, and took leave of their mother who was hopeful and courageous, +believing the journey to Long Branch would save her husband's life. +Their countenances were grave, and the passers-by, as they respectfully +made way for them, could not but feel that the two young men were just +about to start upon a career as, possibly, their distinguished father +was about to end one.</p> + +<p>Private Secretary Brown gives the following account of the trip to Long +Branch: "Upon leaving the Executive Mansion the President appeared to +enjoy the scenery and looked around inquiringly. All the way from the +White House to the depot the President was very anxious to observe +everything,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> and in this he was not prevented. He experienced little or +no disturbance in being transferred from the vehicle to the car, and his +pulse, although slightly accelerated, reaching about 115, fell to about +106 before the train started, and shortly afterward fell to 104 and +again to 102. The first stop of the train was made at Patapsco, at which +point the parotid gland was dressed. At half-past nine o'clock the +President's pulse was 108 and of good character. At that hour three +ounces of beef extract were administered. Between Philadelphia and +Monmouth Junction, the special train made several miles at the rate of +seventy miles per hour. Bay View, this side of Baltimore, was reached at +8.05, and a brief stop was made to enable the surgeons to make the +morning dressing of the wound. The wound was found to have suffered no +derangement by the travel. The dressing was soon accomplished, and the +train, after leaving Bay View, was run at the rate of about fifty miles +per hour. The track in this locality is very straight, and in excellent +condition, and though the speed was at times greater than fifty miles +per hour, the vibration of the President's bed, it is said, was no more +than had the train been moving twenty-five miles per hour. The attending +surgeons feel very much gratified with the manner in which the removal +was conducted, and are generally of the opinion that, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> the +exception of being slightly fatigued, the President bore the journey +exceedingly well."</p> + +<p>"This is a great journey, Crete," he said to his wife, as the train +rushed on at lightning speed. "Let her go! The faster the better," he +added, when the doctors expressed their fears that the rapid motion of +the engine would tire him.</p> + +<p>"Don't put down the curtain! I want to see the people! Let them look +in!" he exclaimed, as he caught a glimpse of the eager, anxious crowds +at the different stations.</p> + +<p>One of the Boston dailies wrote as follows—</p> + +<p>"In the preparations for the trip the great popular solicitude for the +well-being of the President infected even soulless railroad +corporations, as they are sometimes called, so that the management of +the lines over which he had to pass could not do too much to reduce the +fatigue or other injurious effect of the jaunt. It is a credit to our +common humanity, that everybody in any way connected with this transfer +of the President, from the mechanic to the railroad director, required +no spur but his own feelings to exert himself to the utmost for the +safety and comfort of him who had suffered so terribly, and evinced such +grand qualities under the most adverse circumstances. No railroad train +was ever the burden of so much anxious, prayerful solicitation as that +conveying the President to his destination. To change and apply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> one of +General Garfield's own expressions, the great heart of the nation must +have nobly sustained the presidential patient as he sped on his way to a +locality where, it is hoped, the recuperating processes of nature will +place him on the high road to convalescence.</p> + +<p>"Our despatches note the arrival of the presidential train at different +points, and the manner in which the patient bore the ride. As may well +be imagined, the people who gathered in Washington to see him on board +the train could not help remarking his generally emaciated appearance, +but he was sufficiently strong to turn upon his side and wave his adieus +to the crowd. The fortitude and will of the President are as surprising +as the many unusual episodes of his life."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER. XXXIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Description of the Francklyn Cottage.—The Arrival at Long +Branch.—The President is Drawn up to the Open +Window.—Enjoys the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.—The +Surgical Force Reduced.—Incident on the Day of Prayer.</p></div> + + +<p>"The Francklyn cottage at Long Branch, to which the President was taken, +is about fifty yards southeast of the hotel. Its front is within one +hundred feet of the edge of the bluff, from which a pebble can be +dropped into the surf. The building contains twenty rooms. It is a long, +rambling structure, two and one-half stories high, having seven gables +and being in fashion a mixture of the Queen Anne and Swiss chalet style. +The lower stories are painted a sienna color, and gables and roof a dark +slate.</p> + +<p>"A perfectly smooth lawn of well-kept turf surrounds it upon every side. +Its interior apartments are perfect; the kitchen is separated from the +main part of the building by a covered driveway, and none of the +culinary odors can reach the dwelling portion. Two spacious parlors and +an immense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> dining-hall faces the ocean, and a broad double window opens +upon a large uncovered veranda about six feet above the ground, +surrounded by a high railing.</p> + +<p>"The west or rear part of the dining-hall opens upon the main hall, a +roomy thoroughfare, from which by the landings a broad flight of stairs +ascend to the second floor. The stairs are of ample width, and allowed +the President's bed to be carried up them without difficulty. The +chamber occupied by the President is in the northeast corner of the +building. It is about twenty feet square. There is one broad window +facing the ocean on the east, and the windows facing the ocean on the +south. By leaving the door of the chamber open a breeze can be obtained +from every point of the compass except the north. The windows are +protected from the sun by awnings and blinds."</p> + +<p>The appointments of the chamber are perfect in every respect, being left +just as Mr. Francklyn's family occupied it. About one hundred yards +south of the Francklyn cottage is the cottage belonging to the hotel +assigned to Mrs. Garfield and her family.</p> + +<p>It was about a quarter past one when the President's train was observed +slowly making its way over the new track at Long Branch. There was no +whistling, no bell-ringing, no noisy puffing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> the engine, no shouts +nor cheers. A powerful locomotive slowly, and almost silently, pushed +before it the cars of the train, the centre one being the President's.</p> + +<p>The train stopped opposite the Elberon, and immediately many flocked +about it to learn the particulars of the journey. All were told that the +trip had been successful, and the President was quite as well as when he +started. The delay was but for a moment. The forward car was uncoupled +from the train and a large force of men, held in readiness, gently +pushed it around the quarter circle and past the entrance to the +cottage. It was occupied by a few ladies and gentlemen of the +President's household, who at once left it and were escorted into the +house.</p> + +<p>Another gang of men pushed on the President's car close after it. It was +stopped at the proper place, and immediately a soldier mounted by ladder +to the roof and the sailcloth awning was raised. It did not, however, +completely conceal the passage on the side where the people were +gathered. The planks were put in position, and in a moment two or more +soldiers were seen to pass bearing a low bedstead. Many thought that the +President was resting on it, but this was a mistake.</p> + +<p>Three or four minutes later a mattrass on which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> was plainly discernible +under snowy coverings the form of a human body, was steadily and gently, +almost solemnly, borne from the car to the house, while two or three +hundred spectators, too far away and on too low a level to catch sight +of the face, held their breath in sympathy, their eyes meantime moist +with tears they cared not to conceal, and many doubtless praying with +deep earnestness that this heroic effort to save a precious life would +avail. There was not a cheer, not an audible sound uttered by any one. +Few scenes could be more impressive in their silence and their sympathy.</p> + +<p>"Please move me up where I can see the water," said the President, soon +after being placed in bed. His couch was immediately pushed up to the +wide open window; he was slightly raised upon it, and lay there for some +minutes looking out upon the sea. Although he was greatly fatigued by +the journey and his pulse was high, he slept better that night than he +had done for weeks.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think I look better!" he said next morning to one of the +attendants; "I feel better," he added. "This is good air."</p> + +<p>Previous to leaving Washington, after it had been determined to remove +the President to Long Branch, it appears the President asked his wife if +all the attending surgeons were going along. Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> Garfield replied that +she presumed they were. The President then expressed an opinion, the +effect of which was that he did not see why that was necessary. Further +discussion on the subject brought out the President's wishes, and the +withdrawal of Drs. Reyburn, Barnes, and Woodward was the result. Dr. +Bliss stated that there was no cause for the withdrawal or retirement of +the surgeons beyond the fact that it was the desire or whim of a very +sick man, and, as the President had entertained the idea that a fewer +number of physicians could manage his case as well as the number +heretofore engaged upon it, it was desired by Mrs. Garfield that his +wishes be complied with. The doctor stated further that the best of +feeling prevailed among the entire corps of surgeons, and that the +retirement of Messrs. Reyburn, Barnes and Woodward would not in any +manner affect the intimacy which had grown up between them since the +President was shot. After the wish of the President was made known to +one of the attending surgeons in Washington by Mrs. Garfield, a +consultation on the subject took place, resulting in its reference to +Dr. Agnew, with a view to obtaining his opinion as to the best mode of +procedure. Dr. Agnew recommended that the President be requested to name +the surgeons he was desirous of retaining in charge of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> his case, which +was done. Dr. Bliss, it appears, objected to assuming the entire +responsibility of removing the President to Long Branch, and insisted +that the entire number of surgeons should accompany the patient thither. +A compromise was then effected, which was that all the surgeons should +come to Long Branch with the President, but upon arrival, or as soon +thereafter as possible, the three mentioned should retire.</p> + +<p>The following day, September 8th, as the President sat in his reclining +chair by the open window he heard the stroke of bells from the little +church across the way.</p> + +<p>"Crete," he said to his wife, "what are they ringing that bell for?"</p> + +<p>"Why," said Mrs. Garfield, who had been waiting for the surprise, "the +people are all going there to pray for you to get well; and I am going +to pray too, James," she added, "that it may be soon, for I know already +that the other prayer has been heard."</p> + +<p>From where he lay, Garfield could see the carriages draw up and group +after group go in. He could even hear the subdued refrain of "Jesus, +lover of my soul," as it was borne by on its heavenward way.</p> + +<p>Thrilled with emotion, a tear trickled down the President's face. After +a while, a sweet woman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> voice arose, singing from one of Sir Michael +Costa's noblest oratorios.</p> + +<p>"Turn thou unto me and have mercy upon me," sang the voice, "for I am +desolate; I am desolate and afflicted; the troubles of my heart are +enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses, out of my distresses, +my God."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Hopeful Symptoms.—Official Bulletin.—Telegram to Minister +Lowell.—Incidents at Long Branch.—Sudden Change for the +Worse.—Touching Scene with his Daughter.—Another Gleam of +Hope.—Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.—The Closing +Scene.</p></div> + + +<p>On the evening of September 12th, the following official bulletin was +published:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Long Branch</span>, Sept. 12—6 P. M.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The President has experienced since the issue of the morning +bulletin further amelioration of symptoms. He has been able +to take an ample amount of food without discomfort and has +had several refreshing naps. At the noon examination the +temperature was 99.2, pulse 106, respiration 20. At 5.30 P. +M. the temperature was 98.6, pulse 100, respiration 18.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">D. W. Bliss.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">D. Hayes Agnew.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The Attorney-General telegraphed:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>To Lowell, Minister, London</i>—10 P. M.—In the absence of +Mr. Blaine, the attending physicians have requested me to +inform you of the President's condition. He has during the +day eaten sufficient food with relish, and has enjoyed at +intervals refreshing sleep. His wound and the incisions made +by the surgeons all look better; the parotid gland has +ceased<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> suppuration, and may be considered as substantially +well. He has exhibited more than his usual cheerfulness of +spirits, his temperature and respiration are now normal, and +his pulse is less frequent and firmer than at the same hour +last evening. Notwithstanding these favorable symptoms, the +condition of the lower part of the right lung will continue +to be a source of anxiety for some days to come.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">MacVeagh.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The day before the President had been raised on his air pillows, so that +he lay looking out on the lawn beneath his window, and beyond that to +the sea. A soldier on duty as a guard was patrolling his beat at the +edge of the bluff. The soldier chanced to look toward the window of the +sick chamber, and the suffering President feebly raised his hand to give +the old soldier a salute. The President of the United States never +received a more heartfelt salute than the old soldier gave in return for +this gracious salutation, and about the camp all day the soldier, with +tears in his eyes, told how the great sufferer had honored him. But the +incident was of more than sentimental value, in that it showed that the +President took an interest in his surroundings, and had vitality enough +to tender a salute. There were hours at Elberon, when the listless eyes +would have looked out upon the sea and not have recognized the soldier.</p> + +<p>When Secretary Hunt called on the President, he informed him that there +was no business in his department requiring his (the President's) +attention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> It had been the custom of the President to refer to the +secretary in various nautical terms, and after shaking the hand of the +President the secretary, pointing toward the ocean, remarked, "Well, Mr. +President, I see you have had to resort to my domain." "Yes," said the +President, "there it is, and isn't it beautiful?"</p> + +<p>Everything seemed to indicate certain, though it might be slow, +recovery. The people read the bulletins, and went about their work with +renewed hope and courage. On the 17th of September, however, Dr. +Hamilton stated that "the conditions, altogether, were more hazardous +than at any time since the patient had been at Long Branch." Severe +rigors had been followed by increased pulse, and there was constant +danger of his sinking into a comatose state.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the 19th Dr. Agnew remarked,—</p> + +<p>"The vitality of our patient is something more remarkable than I have +ever met with in all my practice."</p> + +<p>The President awoke from a light slumber, and said to Dr. Bliss,—</p> + +<p>"Doctor, I feel very comfortable, but I also feel dreadfully weak. I +wish you would give me the hand-glass and let me look at myself."</p> + +<p>General Swaim said: "Oh, no, don't do that, general. See if you cannot +get some sleep."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"> +<img src="images/facing254.jpg" width="428" height="600" alt="In reclining chair, at Long Branch." title="" /> +<span class="caption">In reclining chair, at Long Branch.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I want to see myself," the President replied.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garfield then gave him the hand-glass. He held it in a position +which enabled him to see his face. Mrs. Garfield, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Agnew, +General Swaim, and Dr. Boynton, stood around the bed, saying not a word, +but looking at the President. He studied the reflection of his own +features. At length he wearily let the glass fall upon the counterpane, +and, with a sigh, said to Mrs. Garfield,—</p> + +<p>"Crete, I do not see how it is that a man who looks as well as I do +should be so dreadfully weak."</p> + +<p>In a moment or two he asked for his daughter Mollie. They told him that +she would see him later in the day. He said, however, that he wanted to +see her at once.</p> + +<p>When the child went into the room she kissed her father, and told him +that she was glad to see that he was looking so much better.</p> + +<p>He said: "You think I do look better, Mollie?"</p> + +<p>She said: "I do papa," and then she took a chair and sat near the foot +of the bed.</p> + +<p>A moment or two after, Dr. Boynton noticed that she was swaying in the +chair. He stepped up to her, but, before he could reach her, she had +fallen over in a faint. They carried her out where she could get the +fresh breeze from the ocean, and, after restoratives were applied, she +speedily recovered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> The room was close, the windows were closed, and, +as Miss Mollie had not been very well, all these causes, combined with +anxiety, induced the fainting-fit.</p> + +<p>The President, they thought, had not noticed what had happened to his +petted child, for he seemed to have sunk into the stupor which had +characterized his condition much of the time. But, when Dr. Boynton came +back into the room, he was astonished to hear the President say,—</p> + +<p>"Poor little Mollie. She fell over like a log. What was the matter?"</p> + +<p>They assured the President that the fainting-fit was caused by the +closeness of the room, and that she was quite restored. He again sank +into a stupor or sleep, which lasted until the noon examination.</p> + +<p>Hope returned during the afternoon, as there was no recurrence of the +rigors, and the evening bulletin was more encouraging than the one +issued at noon. There seemed to be every indication that the President +would pass a comfortable night.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Bliss," said the Attorney-General, "at 9.30, went to the cottage to +make his final examination before he retired for the night. He found +that the pulse, temperature, and respiration were exactly as they were +when the evening bulletin was issued. There had been no change of any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> +kind. There was every promise of a quiet night. All of the doctors +retired at once for the night, as did all of the attendants, except +General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell. They remained, and nothing +transpired until about 10.20; then the President said, 'I am suffering +great pain. I fear the end is near.' The attendant sent for Dr. Bliss, +who had retired to Private Secretary Brown's cottage. Dr. Bliss came +very rapidly. When he entered the room he found that the President was +in an unconscious state, and that the action of the heart had almost +ceased. Dr. Bliss said at once that the President was dying, and +directed the attendants to send for Mrs. Garfield and Drs. Agnew and +Hamilton."</p> + +<p>A <i>Herald</i> postscript had the following from Long Branch: "The death-bed +scene of the President was a peculiarly sad and impressive one. As soon +as the doctors felt that there was no hope, the members of the family +assembled. The lights in the sick-room were turned down. Dr. Bliss stood +at the head of the bed with his hand on the pulse of the patient, and +consulted in low whispers with Dr. Agnew. The private secretary stood on +the opposite side of the bed, with Mrs. Garfield. Miss Lulu Rockwell and +Miss Mollie Garfield came into the room at the time the President lost +consciousness. Those about the bed occasionally went into the corners of +the room and spoke to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> each other. The solemnity of the occasion fully +impressed itself upon them. There was no sound heard except the gasping +for breath of the sufferer, whose changing color gave indication of the +near approach of the end. After he had repeated 'It hurts,' he passed +into a state of unconsciousness, breathing heavily at times and then +giving a slight indication that the breath of life was still in his +body. The only treatment that was given was hypodermic injections of +brandy by Dr. Agnew, assisted by Dr. Boynton. Occasionally they spoke +with Dr. Bliss in quiet whispers. The President suffered no pain after +the time he placed his hand upon his heart. He passed away almost +quietly. The line between life and death was marked by no physical +exhibition, nor any word. There was absolutely no scene. The intervals +between gaspings became longer and presently there was no sound. Every +one present knew that death had come quickly without pain. When it +became evident that he was dead, Mrs. Rockwell placed her arm around +Mrs. Garfield and led her quietly from the room. She uttered no word. +One by one the spectators left the scene, the doctors only remaining in +the room, and windows were closed. Directly afterward Private Secretary +Brown telegraphed the boys, James and Harry, at Williams College, Mass., +and Mrs. Eliza Garfield. Those were the first despatches sent after the +death."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>The following and last "official bulletin" was issued at Elberon:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<i>September 19th, at half-past eleven, P. M.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>"The President died at 10.35 P. M. After the bulletin was +issued at 5.30 this evening, the President continued in much +the same condition as during the afternoon, the pulse +varying from 102 to 106, with rather increased force and +volume. After taking nourishment he fell into a quiet sleep +about thirty-five minutes before his death, and while asleep +his pulse rose to 120, and was somewhat more feeble. At ten +minutes after ten o'clock he awoke, complaining of severe +pain over the region of the heart, and almost immediately +became unconscious, and ceased to breathe at 10.35."</p> + +<p class="right"> +(Signed) D. W. <span class="smcap">Bliss.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Frank H. Hamilton.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">D. Hayes Agnew.</span><br /> +</p> + +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Midnight Bells.—Universal Sorrow.—Queen Victoria's +Messages.—Extract from a London Letter.—The Whitby +Fishermen.—The Yorkshire Peasant.—World-wide +Demonstrations of Grief.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There passed a sound at midnight through the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A solemn sound of sorrow and of fear;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A sound that fell on every wakening ear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bearing a message all could understand."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The tolling of the bells in every city, town, and village throughout the +country announced the sad tidings of the President's death. The whole +world stopped to shed a sympathizing tear, and among the first +expressions of condolence received by Mrs. Garfield was the following +telegram from Queen Victoria:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Balmoral.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>"Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you. May +God support and comfort you as He alone can.</p> + +<p class="right"> +(Signed) <span class="smcap">The Queen.</span>"<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>To Minister Lowell the Queen telegraphed as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"With deep grief I and my children learn the sad but not +unexpected news of the fatal termination of the sufferings +of the President. His loss is a great misfortune. I have +learned with deep sorrow that the President has passed +away."</p></div> + +<p>Smalley, the correspondent of the New York <i>Tribune</i> writing from London +said,—</p> + +<p>"It was about four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, by English time, +that President Garfield died. An hour later the news was here, and some +of the morning papers published it in a few late copies of their morning +edition. It was known in the provinces at the same moment, and published +in the same way. Before I say anything about the feeling it evoked in +high places and with the general public, I should like to mention what +occurred in the town where I was staying; Whitby, a fishing town and +small seaport which is also a watering-place on the northeast coast of +Yorkshire. At this season Whitby is the rendezvous for herring-fishers, +and its little harbor is crowded with boats hailing from ports all the +way from Pentland Firth to Penzance; Penzance itself sending a large +contingent. The fishermen are a simple folk, leading a hard life, +untaught, and as free from any concern on shore in the general affairs +of the world as any body of men that could be got together. But when +they heard that President Garfield was dead they one and all hoisted +their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> bits of flag at half-mast, and so kept them during the day. They +held no meeting, passed no resolutions. I suppose not a man among them +could have made a speech or drawn up a formal declaration of sorrow. +They acted with no concert of any kind. Their way of life makes them all +rivals and often enemies. Hartlepool has nothing to say to Lowestoft, +Sunderland quarrels with Arbroath, and Whitby itself keeps but ill terms +with any of its many guests. But somehow they agreed for this once. The +boats that lay in the river above the bridge, next the railway station, +were the first to hang out their signal of grief. Those in the port +below soon followed. Not long after, without anybody being able to say +how the news spread, the fleet at anchor outside the harbor one by one +ran up their ensigns, hauled them half down, and there made them fast +for the day.</p> + +<p>"Amid the innumerable demonstrations of sorrow to be seen and heard +these last two days all over England, I know of none which more truly +indicates the essentially popular character of the regret which the +President's death has excited.... An English friend who was shooting ten +days ago over a Yorkshire moor told me that, as the scattered line of +sportsmen were pushing through the heather in silence, the gamekeeper +met him some yards away, turned and asked: 'Can you tell me, sir, how +President Garfield is?'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> There on that lonely hillside, three thousand +miles and more distant from the sufferer, in the early morning, beneath +a sun which was not yet shining upon the President, breathing an air he +never breathed, this Yorkshire peasant, who had spent his life without +so much as hearing the President's name till a few weeks before; who +knew not the letters of which it was formed; who knew about grouse and +guns and dogs and the weather, and nothing else whatever; whose interest +in life never went beyond the stone hut in which he slept and ate, and +the stretch of furz-clad upland which lifted itself against the western +sky,—he, like the fishermen, had come to think or to feel that, somehow +or other, the life or death of that far-away martyr concerned him too. +It is easy to say that beneath the shooting-jacket and the jersey beats +the same human heart. No doubt it does. But what was it that set it +beating in unison with so many millions of others like it with sympathy +for the President? Lord Palmerston said he never knew what fame was till +he heard of the Tartar mothers on the steppes of Russia in Asia +frightening their children into quiet with some queer travesty of his +dreaded name. Yorkshire is not so remote as Russian Asia, indeed, but +the friendly concern of the gamekeeper was surely a truer measure of +real fame than the ignorant terror of the Muscovite mother. I know I +thought when I heard it that the President who lay dying would have +valued such a proof of the universality of the interest in him not less +than those expressions of it—certainly not less genuine—which came +from much higher quarters."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/facing268.jpg" width="650" height="453" alt="Francklyn Cottage, where the President died." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Francklyn Cottage, where the President died.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> + +<p>Said another writer:—</p> + +<p>"The American people cannot fail to be deeply impressed by the +multitudinous expressions of sympathy which have come from foreign +lands. It was to be expected that there would be the usual and formal +messages from the various rulers, but it is something of quite a +different sort, and something altogether beyond precedent which we are +witnessing. From all the governments of Europe, and from those of the +Orient as well, and from our nearer neighbors, Canada and Mexico, words +of sympathy and condolence have come. But beyond all this, and more +precious, are the manifestations of popular feeling in countries other +than our own, and especially in Great Britain and Canada. We hear of +public and private buildings draped in mourning, of mourning-flags upon +English Cathedrals, of the tolling of bells in English and Canadian +churches, of English and French journals with mourning borders. The +Queen sends a warm, womanly message of sympathy to the widow; and the +English Court puts on mourning for a week. And all these world-wide +demonstrations of grief, sincere, spontaneous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> and universal, are called +out by the death of this uncrowned republican of our Western world, a +man born of the people, schooled in hardship, but strong and noble in +all that pertains to true manhood. Such a spectacle as this, such +tributes as these from foreign potentates and peoples whose ideas and +methods of government vary so widely from ours, should not pass without +being heeded, and the lesson which they convey should be laid to heart. +It is true, as one of the leading English journals has well expressed +it, that a common sorrow unites the ocean-sundered members of the +English race to-day more closely than it has ever been since 1776, and +that there is scarcely an Englishman in a thousand who did not read of +President Garfield's death, with a regret as real and as deep as if he +had been a ruler of their own."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Services at Elberon.—Journey to Washington.—Lying in +State.—Queen Victoria's Offering.—Impressive Ceremonies in +the Capitol Rotunda.</p></div> + + +<p>On the morning of September twenty-first, the black-cloth casket, +containing all that was mortal of President Garfield, was placed in the +parlor of the Francklyn Cottage, at Long Branch; and for one brief hour, +a motley throng of city people and country folk were permitted to look +upon the wasted form of one they had learned to regard as a personal +friend.</p> + +<p>Brief religious services were read by Rev. C. J. Young of the Dutch +Reformed Church at Long Branch, and then Mrs. Garfield and her daughter, +followed by the members of the Cabinet, entered the waiting train; the +casket was placed in the funeral car, and slowly, sadly, amidst the +solemn tolling of the bells, the heavily draped train left the Elberon +station. At Princeton Junction, three hundred students with uncovered +heads stood on either side the track, and scattered choice flowers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +beside the train for more than a hundred yards. Bells were tolled in all +the towns and villages through which the funeral party passed, and a +reverent stillness pervaded the waiting throngs at the various stations +on the way.</p> + +<p>At four, P. M., the train reached Washington, and the casket was borne +at once to the Capitol.</p> + +<p>All night long, the remains of the martyred President remained exposed +to view, and without cessation the stream of visitors passed through the +rotunda. At an early hour in the morning the throng at the east front of +the Capitol began to increase, and at eight o'clock fully five thousand +people were patiently and quietly waiting in two lines. From that hour +the crowd constantly increased, and at eleven o'clock there was a dense +mass of people in front of the main steps on the east front, extending +for two squares up East Capitol Street. People from the outlying country +flocked to the city, while every incoming train upon the several +railroads was heavily freighted with those who had come to testify their +profound sorrow at the nation's bereavement.</p> + + +<p>Queen Victoria had telegraphed to the British minister to have a floral +tribute prepared and presented in her name. It was placed at the bier of +the President. It was very large, and was an exquisite specimen of the +florist's art, composed of white roses, smilax and stephanotis. It was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> +accompanied by a mourning card bearing the following inscription:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Queen Victoria to the memory of the late President +Garfield. An expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. +Garfield and the American nation.</p> + +<p class="right">"Sept. 22, 1881,"</p></div> + +<p>By half-past one, P. M., on Friday, the 23d, arrangements for the +funeral ceremonies in the rotunda were all completed and the chairs and +sofas labelled to designate for whom they were reserved. The positions +of the floral offerings were changed, and now nothing remained upon the +casket save a few branches of palm. At the head of the catafalque stood +a broken column of white and purple flowers, surmounted by a white dove. +On either side of this were tastefully arranged a crown and a pyramid of +roses. At the foot, and resting against the black drapery, was the +wreath which by order of the queen was the day before placed upon the +casket. Arranged on each side of this offering from the queen were +handsome crosses, while at their base was placed a magnificent floral +pillow on which was inscribed in violets "Our Martyr President." Next to +this was placed "The Gates Ajar," which also attracted much admiration. +The Knights of Malta contributed a large Maltese cross, and the Union +Veteran corps of which General Garfield was a member, a pillow of white +flowers bearing in violet letters the inscription,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> "U. V. C., to their +comrade." The whole appearance of the catafalque was tasteful and +elegant. In front of the chairs which were placed on the south side of +the casket were arranged sofas for the accommodation of Mrs. Garfield +and the family of the late President. Directly opposite and on the north +side of the catafalque seats were reserved for the members of the +cabinet and distinguished guests. The front row of chairs in the +northwestern section of the rotunda were placed at the disposal of the +justices of the Supreme Court, while in the rear of these several rows +were selected for the accommodation of senators. The representatives +occupied seats on the southeastern and southwestern sections. Behind +these a row of chairs were reserved for the representatives of the +press, and the remainder of the seats in that section were given to the +public generally.</p> + +<p>At exactly quarter to two o'clock the doors of the rotunda were opened. +The first society to arrive was the Knights Templars, Beausant +Commandery of Baltimore. They entered in full regalia, but did not +remain in the hall, simply passing around the catafalque in double file. +Four of their number—Sir Knights Stevens, Lawton, Butler and +Jennings—bore a floral offering in the shape of an immense Maltese +cross, which was reverently placed at the head of the dais. At ten +minutes past two the army of the Cumberland filed in by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> the door +leading from the senate chamber, and took the seats reserved for them. +Immediately after the doors were thrown open to all holders of tickets.</p> + +<p>In ten minutes the chairs set apart for the general public were +completely filled. Soon the members of the diplomatic corps arrived, and +were ushered to the seats reserved for them.</p> + +<p>Services were opened by Rev. Dr. Powers promptly at three o'clock. He +ascended the dais and briefly announced the opening hymn, "Asleep in +Jesus, blessed sleep," which was rendered by a choir of fifty voices.</p> + +<p>Rev. Dr. Rankin then ascended the raised platform at the head of the +catafalque, and read in a clear, distinct voice the scriptural +selections. Rev. Dr. Isaac Errett then offered prayer.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the close of the services the floral decorations were +all removed (Mrs. Garfield having requested that they be sent to her +home at Mentor) except the beautiful wreath, the gift of Queen Victoria, +which had been placed upon the head of the coffin when the lid was +closed, and which remained there when the coffin was borne to the +hearse, and will be upon it till the remains are buried. This touching +tribute of Queen Victoria greatly moved Mrs. Garfield, as only a woman +can feel a woman's sympathy at the time of her greatest earthly sorrow.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p> + +<p>The coffin having been placed in the hearse, a single gun was fired from +Hanneman's battery, the Second Artillery Band struck up a funeral march, +and the procession moved around the south front of the Capitol to the +avenue. At least 40,000 people were gathered about the Capitol to +witness the start of the procession, while along the line of march to +Sixth Street the crowd was even greater than on the 4th of March. +Everywhere it was most orderly and quiet; and as the hearse containing +the remains moved along the avenue, from the very door of the Capitol to +the entrance of the depot, all heads were uncovered.</p> + +<p>On reaching the depot the military were drawn up in line upon the +opposite side of the street, facing the Sixth Street entrance. The +remains were borne from the hearse upon the shoulders of six soldiers of +the Second Artillery and placed in the funeral car. The ten officers +from the army and navy, selected as the guard of honor, stood with +uncovered heads as the remains were taken from the hearse, and then +escorted them to the car. The diplomatic corps and others who were not +going upon either of the trains did not alight from their carriages. +President Arthur entered the depot with Secretary Blaine, and a few +minutes after entered the Secretary's carriage, and with Ex-President +Grant was driven up the avenue to his temporary home at the residence of +Senator<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> Jones of Nevada. To avoid the crowd about the depot, Mrs. +Garfield was taken to the corner of Maine Avenue and Sixth Street, and +an engine and two cars, including the one intended for her use, were run +down the track, and she was taken on board the train without attracting +any attention. The funeral train was the same used on the trip from Long +Branch, with two additional cars.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Journey to Cleveland.—Lying in State in the Catafalque in +the Park.—Immense Concourse.—Funeral Ceremonies.—Favorite +Hymn.—At the Cemetery.</p></div> + + +<p>The sad journey to Cleveland was marked at every station by touching +tributes of affection.</p> + +<p>After lying in state Saturday and Sunday in the catafalque in the park +at Cleveland, the remains of President Garfield were solemnly committed +to the tomb at Lake View Cemetery with solemn and impressive rites, the +occasion fittingly reflecting the great sorrow under which the nation +lies.</p> + +<p>The heat of Sunday and Monday was intense, but until the closing of the +park gates in the forenoon previous to the beginning of the funeral +service, the stream of people passing through the catafalque, to view +the casket enclosing the remains, was continuous, and the number who so +paid their last respects must have aggregated at least 150,000.</p> + +<p>Promptly at half-past ten o'clock the ceremonies at the pavilion began. +The immediate members of the family, and near relatives and friends, +took seats about the casket, and at each corner was stationed a member +of the Cleveland Grays. Dr. J. P. Robinson, president of the +ceremonies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> announced that the exercises would be opened by the +singing, by the Cleveland Vocal Society, of the "Funeral Hymn," by +Beethoven, whereupon the hymn was sung as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Since God is thy ransom, thy guardian, and guide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Death has no sting since the sinless hath died."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The scripture selections were then read by Right Rev. Bishop Bedell of +the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio.</p> + +<p>Rev. Ross C. Houghton, pastor of the First Methodist-Episcopal Church, +then offered prayer. After which the Vocal Society sang as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To thee, O Lord I yield my spirit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who breaks in love this mortal chain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My life I but from thee inherit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And death becomes my chiefest gain.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thee I live, in thee I die,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Content, for thou art ever nigh."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Rev. Isaac Errett of Cincinnati then delivered an eloquent address, +taking for his text the following: "And the archers shot King Josiah, +and the king said to his servants, 'Have me away, for I am sore +wounded.' His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put +him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to +Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in one of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> sepulchres of his +fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah +lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of +Josiah in their lamentation to this day, and made them an ordinance in +Israel, and behold they are written in the Lamentations. Now the rest of +the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to that which was written +in the law of the Lord, and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are +written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. For behold the +Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah +the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of +water. The mighty man, and the man of war, and the prophet, and the +prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, +and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. +The voice said 'Cry,' and he said 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is +grass, and all the godliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The +grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord +boweth upon it. Surely the people is grass; the grass withereth, the +flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever."</p> + +<p>Dr. Errett was listened to with close and earnest attention. He spoke +for forty minutes, and when he closed a hush for a moment hung over the +vast audience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> + +<p>Rev. Jabez Hall then read President Garfield's favorite hymn,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ho' reapers of life's harvest<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why stand with rusted blade<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Until the night draws round ye,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And day begins to fade?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Why stand ye idle waiting<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For reapers more to come?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The golden morn is passing:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Why sit ye idle, dumb?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thrust in your sharpened sickle,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And gather in the grain:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The night is fast approaching,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And soon will come again,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The master calls for reapers;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And shall he call in vain?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall sheaves lie there ungathered,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And waste upon the plain?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mount up the heights of wisdom,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And crush each error low;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Keep back no words of knowledge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That human hearts should know.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be faithful to thy mission,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In service of thy Lord,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then a golden chaplet<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall be thy just reward."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At 11.45, Rev. Dr. James S. Pomeroy delivered the final prayer, and +pronounced the closing benediction.</p> + +<p>A few minutes after the benediction had been pronounced, the casket was +lifted reverently from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> its resting-place, and borne on the shoulders of +the United States artillery sergeants who had acted as its special +bearers from Long Branch to the funeral car. The funeral procession +moved from Monumental Park at 11.55. The military presented a +magnificent appearance. The column was headed by that veteran volunteer +association, the Boston Fusileers, who had travelled from Massachusetts +in order to pay a last tribute to their deceased comrade by +participating in the obsequies. They were followed by two companies of +the Seventy-Fourth New York, the Buffalo Cadets and the Buffalo City +Guards; next came the United States barracks band of Columbus, followed +by the Governor's Guard, the Toledo Cadets, the District Infantry, the +Washington Infantry of Pittsburg, the Gatling Gun and Cleveland Light +Artillery; then followed all the civic and military organizations, in +the order of march already arranged, excepting that the Columbia +Commandery of Knights Templars of Washington marched with the guard of +honor and pall-bearers in the division having charge of the funeral car.</p> + +<p>Euclid avenue, for its six miles of length, seemed literally shrouded +with mourning emblems, and an immense concourse numbering hundreds of +thousands watched the slow progress of the procession.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p> + +<p>At 3.30 o'clock the procession entered the gate-way, which was arched +over with black, with appropriate inscriptions. In the key-stone were +the words, "Come to rest." On one side were the words, "Lay him to rest +whom we have learned to love." On the other, "Lay him to rest whom we +have learned to trust." A massive cross of evergreen swung from the +centre of the arch. The United States Marine Band, continuing the sweet, +mournful strain it had kept up during the entire march, entered first. +Then came the Forest City Troop, of Cleveland, which was the escort of +the President to his inauguration. Behind it came the funeral car, with +its escort of twelve United States artillerymen, followed by a battalion +of Knights Templars and the Cleveland Grays. The mourners' carriages and +those containing the guard of honor, comprised all of the procession +that entered the grounds. The cavalry halted at the vault and drew up in +line facing it, with sabres presented. The car drew up in front, with +the mourners' carriages and those of the cabinet behind. The band played +"Nearer, my God, to Thee," as the military escort lifted the coffin from +the car and carried it into the vault, the local committee of reception, +Secretary Blaine, Marshal Henry, and one or two personal friends, +standing at either side of the entrance.</p> + +<p>None of the President's family except two of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> the boys, left the +carriages during the exercises, which occupied less than half an hour.</p> + +<p>Dr. J. P. Robinson, as president of the day, opened the exercises by +introducing Rev. J. H. Jones, Chaplain of the Forty-Second Ohio +Regiment, which General Garfield commanded, who made a short address.</p> + +<p>After an ode by Horace, sung in Latin by the German Singing Society, Mr. +Robinson announced the late President's favorite hymn, "Ho! Reapers of +Life's Harvest," which the German vocal societies of Cleveland sang with +marked effect. The exercises closed with the benediction by President +Hinsdale, of Hiram College.</p> + +<p>Re-entering their carriages the mourners drove hurriedly back to the +city, to avoid another shower which was threatened. The Military and +Masonic escort left the cemetery in the same order in which they +entered, and kept in line until the catafalque was reached, where they +were dismissed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Lakeview Cemetery.—Talk with Garfield's Mother.—First +Church where he Preached.—His Religious +Experience.—Garfield as a Preacher.</p></div> + + +<p>The lot in Lakeview Cemetery that was selected for the burial-place is +on the brow of a high ridge commanding an extensive view of Lake Erie. +It was the President's desire that his last resting-place might be in +this beautiful spot, and his mother, speaking of it, said,—</p> + +<p>"It is proper that he should be buried in Cleveland. It is the capital +of the county in which he was born, and of the section where he grew +into prominence. Mentor had been his home but a short time, although he +had intended to spend the balance of his life there. Most of his years +have been spent in Solon and Orange, and it seems best that his final +resting-place should be near the places that he loved the best."</p> + +<p>The brave old lady trembled with emotion while talking of her son.</p> + +<p>"It is wonderful," she said, "how I live upon the thoughts of him. I +ride a little every day to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> get the fresh air, and look at the fields +and woods he loved so well."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Garfield was with her daughter, Mrs. Larrabee, in Solon, Ohio, when +the last sad tidings came. For days she had been greatly depressed—her +hopes of his recovery growing fainter with every telegram received.</p> + +<p>"Oh! it is too dreadful! it cannot be true!" she exclaimed, when the sad +news was gently broken to her. It was some time before she could control +her feelings. At last she murmured through her tears: "God knew best, +but it is very hard to bear!"</p> + +<p>A few days later, when a friend called to see her, she said,—</p> + +<p>"He was the best son a mother ever had—so good, kind, generous and +brave. Did you ever see such an uprising? That ought to break the fall +for me, but it doesn't seem to. I want my boy."</p> + +<p>This little home at Solon is not far from the spot where the old log +cabin stood, and the first frame house was built.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you have been over to the old homestead," added the old lady +to her visitor. "My son loved every foot of it. He and his brother built +the frame house for me, near the well where the pole has been erected. +It was rude carpentry, but they both took their first lessons on it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +and I always loved the old home. It was burned down just after we left +it."</p> + +<p>The humble Church of the Disciples, where Garfield first preached, is +close by. Once, when addressing some young people, he spoke as follows +of his first religious experience,—</p> + +<p>"Make the most of the present moment! No occasion is unworthy of your +best efforts. God in his providence often uses humble occasions and +little things to shape the whole course of a man's life. I might say +that the wearing of a certain pair of stockings led to a complete change +in my own career. I had made one trip as a boy on a canal-boat, and was +expecting to leave home for another trip. But I accidentally injured my +foot in chopping wood. The blue dye in the yarn of my home-made socks +poisoned the wound, and I was kept at home. Then a revival of religion +broke out in the neighborhood. I was thus kept within its influence, and +was converted. New desires and purposes then took possession of me, and +I determined to seek an education that I might live more usefully for +Christ. You can never know when these providential turning-points in +your life are at hand; so seek to improve each passing day." With this +we may connect the account of his conversion given by his friend, Rev. +Isaac Errett, D. D., of Cincinnati. "The lad," he says, "attended these +meetings for several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> nights, and after listening night after night to +the sermon, he went one day to the minister, and said to him: 'Sir, I +have been listening to your preaching night after night, and I am fully +persuaded that if these things you say are true, it is the duty and the +highest interest of every man, and especially of every young man, to +accept that religion and seek to be a man; but really I do not know +whether this thing is true or not. If I were sure it were true, I would +most gladly give it my heart and my life.' So, after a long talk, the +minister preached that night on the text, '<i>What is truth?</i>' and +proceeded to show that, notwithstanding all the various and conflicting +theories and opinions of men, there was one assured and eternal alliance +for every human soul in Christ Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the +Life; that every soul would be safe with him; that he never would +mislead; and that any young man giving him his hand and heart would not +go astray. After due reflection, young Garfield seized upon this. He +came forward and gave his hand to the minister in pledge of the +acceptance of the guidance of Christ for his life, and turned his back +upon the sins of the world forever."</p> + +<p>"He was never formally ordained," says one of his old pupils at Hiram +Institute, "hence some have inferred that his preaching was confined to +occasional and unofficial discourses. But while he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> a student in +Williams College he supplied in vacations and at other times the pulpit +of the Disciples' church at Poestenkill, a few miles from Williamstown. +For this he received some compensation which assisted him in his course. +He had the ministry in view. Becoming Principal at Hiram, he also +accepted the position of regular pastor of the church of Disciples in +that town. This office he filled during a large part of his +Principalship, bearing its responsibilities and receiving what +compensation attached to it. It was a large village church, and the only +one in the place, except a small Methodist church. He was called from +year to year." The people loved him as their pastor, and the house was +crowded to hear him preach. He officiated at their funerals, and +administered the ordinances of baptism (which was always immersion) and +the Lord's Supper. The fact that he had not been ordained in due form +was not objectionable to the Disciples, and a matter of greater +indifference even among them at that time than it would be perhaps +to-day. Doubtless his appointment as Principal of their Institute was +regarded as equivalent to a sanction of his full ministry. He preached +Sunday morning and afternoon, and administered the communion every +Sunday. In the evening there was a prayer-meeting. The students were +required to be present at church at least twice in the day. He always +preached without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> notes, with great simplicity and practicalness, +interesting persons of mature years, and at the same time taking special +pains to reach the young. There was a bright little boy with whom he was +accustomed to talk after preaching, to make sure that he had been +understood. In prayer he impressed his congregation as a man who was +really speaking with God. On Saturday afternoons he visited socially +among the people.</p> + +<p>In 1857 his preaching was accompanied by a revival of religion. Meetings +were held nearly every night, and fifty-two united at one time with the +church. These Mr. Garfield baptized in the open air. Many of the +converts were students, and when he gave them the hand of fellowship at +the communion table he presented each one of them with a copy of the +Word of God. This was not the only time he led candidates into baptismal +waters. There were frequent occasions of this kind. One is remembered +which took place in the evening in the fall of the year, when the +moonlight was bright enough for the singers to read the music and the +hymns. He entered into the spirit of such scenes with great devotion and +zeal.</p> + +<p>Garfield always held to that side which emphasized man's need of the +Holy Spirit, and the necessity of believing in Christ from the heart. +This he always enforced in his preaching, and as urgently declared that +this faith must be followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> by obedience. His public prayers were often +addressed to Christ. Our informant feels sure that he was far from being +a Unitarian. He was not pleased with the way in which Garfield, in +accordance with the usages of the Disciples, received candidates for +baptism, and one day said to him: "It seems to me that your practice, +Mr. Garfield, is hardly consistent with your doctrine in this matter. +You preach excellent sermons to the impenitent, and point out the way of +salvation in language which I can endorse; but when persons come forward +for baptism, you have no examination by the church to see if their +conversion is sound." The answer was: "I show them clearly that they +must believe from the heart. If they say they do, I leave the +responsibility with them."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXXIX.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The Sunday Preceding the Burial.—The Crowded Churches.—The +one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.—Across the Water.—At +Alexandra Palace.—At St. Paul's Cathedral.—At Westminster +Abbey.—Paris.—Berlin.—Extract from London Times.</p></div> + + +<p>On the Sunday that the remains of the martyred President were lying in +state at Cleveland, the churches throughout the country were crowded +with congregations in sober and reverent mood. One thought engrossed all +minds, and one topic alone occupied the preacher's desk.</p> + +<p>"It was most touching," said one writer, "to see with what sympathy and +sadness every appreciative tribute to the dead President was received; +to perceive by a thousand little indications how profoundly this great +event absorbing all thoughts had stirred the hearts of the people; to +detect the unbidden tears stealing down the cheeks of so many women, +aye, and of men too. The ministers felt the inspiration of the occasion, +and were uplifted by it to greater than ordinary eloquence, to more +tender and more hearty words."</p> + +<p>Not only in America but throughout Europe the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> mourning crowds were +gathered to offer their tributes of respect. At the Alexandra Palace, in +London, a memorial service was held, at which forty thousand persons +were present, many of them in deep mourning.</p> + +<p>St. Paul's Cathedral was crowded to overflowing at the announcement that +the services would relate to the death of President Garfield. When the +"Dead March in Saul" was played the whole congregation, numbering many +thousands, arose and remained standing, all showing grief and many +weeping. Canon Stubbs preached, and specially referred to the cruel +manner of President Garfield's death. He extolled his life and virtues, +and expressed sympathy for the sorrowing American nation.</p> + +<p>The following sonnet was written in the Cathedral just after the funeral +anthem for President Garfield had been sung,—</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">September 25.</span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Through tears to look upon a tearful crowd,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And hear the anthem echoing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">High in the dome till angels seem to fling<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The chant of England up through vault and cloud,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Making ethereal register aloud<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At heaven's own gate. It was a sorrowing<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To make a good man's death seem such a thing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As makes imperial purple of his shroud.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Some creeds there be like runes we cannot spell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And some like stars that flicker in their flame,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> +<span class="i0">But some so clear the sun scarce shines so well;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For when with Moses' touch a dead man's name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Finds tears within strange rocks as this name can,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We know right well that God was with the man.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At both the morning and evening services in Westminster Abbey reference +was made to President Garfield's death. At the afternoon service Canon +Duckworth said the American people were richer in all that could dignify +national life by President Garfield's death. Had the shattered frame +revived, it would be hard to believe that he could have impressed his +greatness more effectually. At St. Margaret's, Westminster, the Rev. Mr. +Roberts described the assassination as a crime against the whole English +humanity. At all the principal churches of all denominations Garfield's +death formed the subject of sympathetic allusion.</p> + +<p>In Paris, Père Hyacinthe held a memorial service, and at Berlin, one of +the Emperor's chaplains spoke at length upon the martyred President.</p> + +<p>The London <i>Times</i>, summing up the events of the week, said: "Such a +spectacle has never before been presented as the mourning with which the +whole civilized world is honoring the late President Garfield. Emperors +and kings, Senates and ministers, are, in spirit, his pall-bearers, but +their peoples, from the highest to the lowest, claim to be equally +visible and audible as sorrowing assistants."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XL" id="CHAPTER_XL"></a>CHAPTER XL.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>National Day of Mourning.—Draping of Public Buildings and +Private Residences.—Touching Incident.—Tributes to +Garfield.—Senator Hoar's Address.—Whittier's +Letter.—Senator Dawes' Remarks.</p></div> + + +<p>Monday, September 26th, the day when the funeral rites were celebrated +at Cleveland, was appointed by President Arthur as a national day of +mourning. The public buildings throughout the country and many private +residences were draped with mourning, while beautiful and appropriate +emblems of the nation's sorrow were seen in almost every window. A +touching incident is told of a poor colored washerwoman at Long Branch +who tore up her one Sunday gown, a cheap black gingham, and hung it +about her door. When remonstrated with, she said, quietly,—</p> + +<p>"He was my President, too." It would take volumes to give any adequate +collection of the many beautiful tributes to Garfield delivered in the +pulpit, from the forum, and through the public press, but from them we +select a few.</p> + +<p>At Mechanic's Hall in Worcester, Senator George F. Hoar spoke as +follows: "I suppose at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> this single hour there is deeper grief over the +civilized world than at any other single hour in its history. Heroes, +and statesmen, and monarchs, and orators, and warriors, and great +benefactors of the race, have died and been buried. There have been men +like William the Silent and his kinsmen of England, and men like +Lincoln, whose death generations unborn will lament with a sense as of +personal bereavement. But in the past the knowledge of great events and +great characters made its way slowly to the minds of men. The press and +the telegraph have this summer assembled all Christendom morning and +evening at the door of one sick-chamber. The gentle and wise Lincoln had +to overcome the hatred and bitterness of a great civil war. It was the +fortune of President Garfield, as it was never the fortune of any other +man, that his whole life has been unrolled as a scroll to be read of all +men. The recent election had made us familiar with that story of the +childhood in the log cabin, of the boyhood on the canal boat, of the +precious school time, of the college days at the feet of our saintly +Hopkins, of the school-teacher, of the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate, of the Christian preacher, of the soldier saving +the army at Chickamauga, of the statesman leading in great debates in +Congress, and of the orator persuading the conscience and judgment of +Ohio, and, through her, saving the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> nation's honor and credit in the +great strife for public honesty, of the judge determining the great +issue of the title to the presidency, of the loved and trusted popular +leader, to whom was offered the choice of three great offices, +Representative, Senator, and President at once. We know it all by heart, +as we know the achievements of the brief and brilliant administration of +the presidential office and the heroic patience and cheer of that long +dying struggle, when every sigh of agony was uttered in a telephone at +which all mankind were listening. No wonder the heart burst at last. +While it was throbbing and pulsing with fever and pain, it furnished the +courage which held up for seventy-nine days the sinking hopes of a +world. This man touched the common life of humanity, touched its +lowliness, touched its greatness, at so many points. His roots were in +New England puritanism, were in the yeomanry of Worcester and Middlesex. +He grew up to manhood in Ohio. The South had learned to know him. Her +soldiers had met him in battle. When he died she was making ready to +clasp the hand he was holding out to her returning loyalty. The child in +the log cabin knows all about the childhood so like his own. Scholarship +mourns the scholar who was struck down when he was hastening to lay his +untarnished laurel at the feet of his college. Every mother's heart in +America stirred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> within her when the first act of the new President was +to pay homage to his own mother. The soldiers and sailors of England, +the veterans of Trafalgar and Waterloo, join his own comrades in +mourning for a hero whom they deemed worthy to be ranked with the heroes +who held out the livelong day with Wellington, or who obeyed Nelson's +immortal signal. The laborer misses a brother who has known all the +bitterness of poverty and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of +his brow. The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and +sovereign of Cyprus and Malta and Gibraltar and Canada and Jamaica, knew +her peer when she laid her wreath, last Friday, on the coffin of a king. +The last we heard of him in health he was playing like a boy with his +boy. As our friend said in the pulpit yesterday, the saints of mankind, +when they saw him, knew the birthmark of their race, and bowed their +heads. The American people have anointed him as the representative of +their sovereignty. Washington and Lincoln came forward to greet him and +welcome him to a seat beside their own. I say there is deeper grief at +this hour over the civilized world than at any other single hour in +history. It seems to me that the death of President Garfield is the +greatest single calamity this country ever suffered. I have no doubt +there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of men who would gladly +have bought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> his life with their own, but we shall dishonor our dead +here if, even while his grave is open, we allow ourselves to utter a cry +of despair. It is true of nations, even more than of man, that "Whom the +Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." +Our republic was planted in sorrow. One-half of the pilgrims died at +Plymouth the first winter, and yet not one of the original colony went +back to England. Is there any man now who would they had not died, or +wishes they had found summer and plenty and ease on the coast of +Massachusetts? Could we celebrate Yorktown with the same lofty triumph +without the memories of Valley Forge and the death of Hale and Warren? I +think even the widow who goes mourning all her days will hardly wish now +that our regiments had come home from the war with full ranks. God has +taken from us our beloved, but think what has been brought into this +precious life. Fifty millions of people, of many races, of many climes, +the workman, the farmer, the slave just made free, met together to +choose the man whom they could call to the presidency among mankind. God +took him in his first hour of triumph and stretched him for seventy-nine +days upon a rack. He turned in upon that sick-chamber a Drummond light +that all mankind might look in upon that cruel assay, and see what +manner of men and what manner of women Freedom calls to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> her high +places. He revealed to them courage, constancy, cheerfulness, woman's +love, faith in God, submission to his will. Into what years of Europe, +into what cycles of Cathay were ever crowded so much of hope and cheer +for humanity as into the tragedy of Elberon? Your prayers were not +answered; the bitter cup has not passed from you, but, so long as human +hearts endure, humanity will be strengthened and comforted, because you +have drunk it."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The following letter, from John G. Whittier, was read at the funeral +services of President Garfield, held in Amesbury:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Danvers, Mass., 9th Mo., 24, 1881.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">W. H. B. Currier.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p><i>My Dear Friend</i>,—I regret that it is not in my power to +join the citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury in the memorial +services on the occasion of the death of our lamented +President. But in heart and sympathy, I am with you. I share +the great sorrow which overshadows the land; I fully +appreciate the irretrievable loss. But it seems to me that +the occasion is one for thankfulness as well as grief. +Through all the stages of the solemn tragedy which has just +closed with the death of our noblest and best, I have felt +that the Divine Providence was overruling the mighty +affliction—that the patient sufferer at Washington was +drawing with cords of sympathy all sections and parties +nearer to each other. And now, when South and North, +Democrat and Republican, Radical and Conservative, lift +their voices in one unbroken accord of lamentation; when I +see how, in spite of the greed of gain, the lust of office, +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> strifes and meanness of party politics, the great heart +of the nation proves sound and loyal, I feel a new hope for +the republic. I have a firmer faith in its stability. It is +said that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself; and the +pure and noble life of Garfield, and his slow, long +martyrdom so bravely borne in the view of all are, I +believe, bearing for us, as a people, "the peaceable fruits +of righteousness." We are stronger, wiser, better for them.</p> + +<p>With him it is well. His mission fulfilled, he goes to his +grave by the lakeside, honored and lamented as man never was +before. The whole world mourns him. There is no speech nor +language where the voice of his praise is not heard. About +his grave gathers, with heads uncovered, the vast +brotherhood of man.</p> + +<p>And with us it is well also. We are nearer a united people +than ever before. We are at peace with all; our future is +full of promise; our industrial and financial condition is +hopeful. God grant that, while our material interests +prosper, the moral and spiritual influence of this occasion +may be permanently felt; that the solemn sacrament of sorrow +whereof we have been partakers may be blest to the promotion +of the "righteousness which exalts a nation." Thy friend,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">John G. Whittier.</span></p></div> + +<p>Said Senator Dawes:—</p> + +<p>"Garfield was indeed a great man. This will be the judgment of those who +knew him personally and of history. This tragedy prevents the +corroboration of that judgment by results; for he had but just entered +upon the work for which his preparation and development had fitted him +and has finished nothing but a life of great promise and expectation. +His growth has been a wonderful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> study to those who were by his side +during its progress. It was constant to the last moment. The last year +had turned it into an altogether new and untried channel. It had been +begun and carried on until that time in quite a different direction. He +had never had executive experience, and a modesty and distrust, rare in +minds conscious of great power, led him to hesitate and shrink from what +was before him. His first remark to a long-tried friend on taking his +hand after the Chicago convention was this: 'I fear I am no man for this +place; I have felt that I could reasonably count on six years more of +labor and study and growth in the new and larger opportunity already +secured to me in my accustomed field, but this is an untried sphere to +me, and I dread the experiment.' The short time he has been permitted, +however, to labor in this new field has yet been long enough to bring +out great qualities and high purposes that the nation can ill spare. He +was conscious of great powers carefully trained, but he lacked +confidence to take hold of new things. His mind did not work quickly, +though it did surely. Always feeling the ground under every step he +took, he never ventured his foot where he could not, by some process of +reasoning, however slow, satisfy himself that he knew what was under +him. Hence the man who was a great leader in battle, and of unflinching +personal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> courage, and better fitted than any contemporary to +demonstrate and defend a political principle, had not yet come to be a +safe political leader in a sudden emergency, where there is no time for +logic or processes of reasoning, but action must follow instinct and +first impression. At such times he distrusted himself and left to +others, with not a tithe of his real power, the guidance of political +movements. As free from political as from personal guile, he was too +confiding and open-hearted to be safe in the hands of men less +scrupulous and less selfish.</p> + +<p>"Those who saw him enter public life, and were with him to the end, have +in mind a wonderful growth, and have in admiration, also, a wonderful +character, personal, mental and moral, ever charming, sure to be +instructive and always exemplary. In private intercourse with those he +loved he was as simple and trusting as a child, as tender and +affectionate as a woman, and as true and valiant as a knight. One of the +most touching scenes, illustrative of what manner of man he was, will +never be forgotten. The great cares of state had well-nigh worn him out; +the wife of his love lay lingering between life and death, and he had +been going from official labor and responsibility to her bedside night +after night, and, for the last two, had scarcely closed his eyes. The +report had gone out that Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> Garfield was dying; a near friend called +to inquire. Coming out of the sick-room, and grasping his hand, the +President begged him to sit down, and there this greatest of all public +men unbosomed himself like a broken-hearted woman. Dwelling with +surprising tenderness upon the love and beauty of his married life, and +the noble character of her who had made it what it was, he exclaimed, +with great emotion, 'I have had in this trial glimpses of a better and +higher life beyond, which have made this life I am leading here seem +utterly barren and worthless. Whatever may come of this peril, I fear +that I shall never again have ambition or heart to go through with that +to which I have been called.' To human view he has not been permitted to +finish the work for which he was fitted and to which he aspired, but he +has left valuable material for the study and instruction of public men, +covering a greater range of topics, a more thorough investigation, and +sounder conclusions than have been left by any one so constantly active +in the daily and current demands of public life. Let us thank God for +such a life, of such infinite value to the republic. Its example, its +teachings, its ambitions, its lofty aspirations and high resolves, and +its demonstrations of what man can make of himself, have no parallel in +history, and will have no measure in their beneficent effect upon those +who shall hereafter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> honestly study them. He dies loved, admired and +mourned before all others, but not yet fully appreciated. His loss is +irreparable, his lesson invaluable."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLI" id="CHAPTER_XLI"></a>CHAPTER XLI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Subscription Fund for the President's Family.—Ready +Generosity of the People.—Touching Incident.—Total Amount +of the Fund.—How the Money was Invested.—Project for +Memorial Hospital in Washington.—Cyrus W. Field's Gift of +Memorial Window to Williams College.—Garfield's Affection +for his Alma Mater.—Reception given Mark Hopkins and the +Williams Graduates.—Garfield's Address to his Classmates.</p></div> + + +<p>Soon after the President's assassination, the New York Chamber of +Commerce, headed by Cyrus W. Field and other leading capitalists, +started a subscription for Mrs. Garfield and her children. To this fund +all classes of the people contributed with a readiness and generosity +that gave touching evidence of the sincerity of their love and sympathy. +Little children sent their hoarded pennies, many a poor working woman +denied herself some needed comfort that she might add her mite, and one +old man, in tattered clothes, came into the office of Drexel & Co., +where subscriptions were received, and putting a bottle of ink on the +table, said,—</p> + +<p>"It's all I have, but I must do something."</p> + +<p>As soon as the story was told, the ink was taken<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> and sold again and +again that day, until it brought in fifty dollars.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Garfield was first apprised of this subscription fund, she +said,—</p> + +<p>"I wish it were possible for me to go around and see all these dear +people!"</p> + +<p>After the President's death it was stated that the fund would close on +the fifteenth day of October. The total amount received was $360,345.74, +and this was at once given over to the United States Trust Company, of +New York, for investment. The Company paid the amount of $348,968.75 for +the purchase of $300,000 four per cent. registered bonds, and the +balance of cash, $11,376.09, was placed in charge of this same Trust +Company.</p> + +<p>Among the numerous tributes to the memory of Garfield is a project for a +national memorial hospital in Washington on the spot where the President +was assassinated, and an organization has been formed to carry it into +effect. The object has the sympathy and endorsement of President Arthur, +General Sherman, members of the Cabinet, and other distinguished and +influential persons. The land on which the depot stands belongs to +Government, it is said, and is held on sufferance by the railroad +company.</p> + +<p>Cyrus W. Field is to place a memorial window in the chapel of Williams +College.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nothing," says one writer, "has more illustrated the strong and tender +affection which Garfield retained for the master at whose feet he +learned the law of love, than the natural way in which he turned to Dr. +Hopkins after his career had reached its flower. The first reception in +the White House was given to Mark Hopkins and the Williams graduates. It +was the President's own planning. The alumni in Washington, resident and +visitors, including a large number of the class of '56, were notified of +the President's wishes, and went to the White House marshalled by the +venerable doctor. They were drawn up in the form of a horseshoe, and Dr. +Hopkins addressed the Chief Magistrate. The speaker was profoundly +moved, and exhorted his pupil to maintain the high ideals which had +marked his past. President Garfield, with wet eyes, replied in one of +those moving and inspired speeches which he sometimes uttered. He voiced +the deepest love and reverence for his old teacher, and ascribed the +good impulse of his career to lessons learned among the hills of +Berkshire. The forty or more alumni present were affected to tears."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Garfield was greatly attached to his Alma Mater; on the night previous +to his inauguration he met his college classmates, and, in an address to +them, spoke as follows:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Classmates</span>,—To me there is something exceedingly pathetic in this +reunion. In every eye before me I see the light of friendship and love, +and I am sure it is reflected back to each one of you from my inmost +heart. For twenty-two years, with the exception of the last few days, I +have been in the public service. To-night I am a private citizen. +To-morrow I shall be called to assume new responsibilities, and on the +day after the broadside of the world's wrath will strike. It will strike +hard. I know it and you will know it. Whatever may happen to me in the +future, I shall feel that I can always fall back upon the shoulders and +hearts of the class of '56 for their approval of that which is right and +for their charitable judgment wherein I may come short in the discharge +of my public duties. You may write down in your books now the largest +percentage of blunders which you think I will be likely to make, and you +will be sure to find in the end that I have made more than you have +calculated—many more.</p> + +<p>"This honor comes to me unsought. I have never had the presidential +fever, not even for a day; nor have I it to-night. I have no feeling of +elation in view of the position I am called upon to fill. I would thank +God were I to-day a free lance in the House or the Senate; but it is not +to be, and I will go forward to meet the responsibilities and discharge +the duties that are before me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> with all the firmness and ability I can +command. I hope you will be able conscientiously to approve my conduct, +and when I return to private life I wish you to give me another +class-meeting."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLII" id="CHAPTER_XLII"></a>CHAPTER XLII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Removal of the President's Remains.—Monument Fund +Committee.—Garfield Memorial in Boston.—Extracts from +Address by Hon. N. P. Banks.</p></div> + + +<p>On the 22d of October, Garfield's remains were removed from the public +vault in Lakeview Cemetery to a private vault on the grounds, there to +remain until the completion of the crypt, where they will permanently +repose.</p> + +<p>A Garfield Monument Fund Committee was organized at Cleveland +immediately after the funeral, and contributions have been received by +it from all sections of the country.</p> + +<p>Upon Thursday, the 20th day of October, Memorial services were held in +Boston at Tremont Temple. From the address delivered by Hon. N. P. Banks +we give the following extracts:—</p> + +<p>"The history of the Plymouth colony of 1620, which preceded the +embarkation of the Massachusetts colony, was blistered with the results +of a bitter and apparently relentless destiny, against which it would +have been scarcely possible for any people but the Massachusetts +Puritans and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> Pilgrims to have secured a triumph like that which the +Deity they worshipped vouchsafed to them.</p> + +<p>"Its founders were fugitives from England and exiles from Holland. They +gladly accepted the chances of suffering and death in the New World, to +gain liberty of conscience and freedom to worship God. For the first ten +years of its existence population increased slowly, and numbered but +three hundred souls in 1630.</p> + +<p>"The Massachusetts colony, with which Plymouth was united, left the Old +World under happier auspices. It started with concessions and +congratulations from the Crown. The best men in England were ambitious +to share its fortunes. Winthrop, Saltonstall and Sir Harry Vane—'the +sad and starry Vane'—were among its leaders; and such men as John +Hampden, Pym, Oliver Cromwell, and many others of that heroic type, were +restrained from emigration at the moment of embarkation by the order of +the king. Four thousand families—twenty thousand souls—people of +culture, capacity and character, no decayed courtiers or adventurers, +but merchants, seamen, husbandmen and others devoted to the highest +interests of man, had landed in Boston in ten years from the foundation +of the city.</p> + +<p>"Among them came, in 1630, Edward Garfield, the paternal ancestor of the +late President of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> United States. He was a man of gentle blood, of +military instincts and training, possessing some property, and a +thoughtful and vigorous habit of mind and body. The earliest record of +his name in the annals of the colony indicated an origin from some one +of the great German families of Europe, and his alliance by marriage +with a lady of that blood and birth confirmed the original impression of +the people with whom he identified his fortunes. His emigration +suggested a purpose consistent with his capacity and character, and with +the higher aspirations of the colony. He coveted possession of land, and +for that reason probably, among others, settled in Watertown, where +territory was abundant, and boundary lines yet delicate and dim, +especially toward the west, where they were mainly defined by the +receding and vanishing forms of the aboriginal inhabitants of the +country. In the realm they had abandoned it was a maxim among men that +home was where the heart was. But in the New World the colonists had +discovered that both home and heart were where there were liberty and +land.</p> + +<p>"He chose a residence near Charles River, a stream unsurpassed in beauty +by any water that flows, since honored by the residence and immortalized +by the verse of Longfellow, and the original and marvellous industries +that enrich its peaceful and prosperous people.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Edward Garfield, the founder of this new American family, did not long +linger near the boundaries of Boston. His first share in the +distribution of land to the freemen, by the town, was a small lot or +homestall of six acres, on the line of territory afterwards incorporated +as the town of Waltham. Another general grant of land by the town, in +1636, 'to the freemen and all the townsmen then inhabiting,' one hundred +and twenty in number, called the Great Dividends, gave to Garfield a +tract of thirty acres, the whole of which was within the territory set +off to Waltham. In 1650 the land allotted to Mr. Phillips, the first +minister of Watertown (about forty acres, in the same locality), was +sold by his heirs to Garfield and his sons. A portion of this estate was +purchased from the heirs of Garfield by Governor Gore, who constructed +upon it, from imported plans and materials, on his return from England, +a country seat, still admired as one of the most elegant and stately +residences in America. The first distinctive title ever given to the +territory now embraced within the limits of Waltham was that of 'The +Precinct of Captain Garfield's Company.' It is said that, after the +incorporation of that town, this name rarely appears on the records of +Watertown.</p> + +<p>"While citizens of Watertown, Garfield and his descendants were assigned +to responsible military<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> commands by the governors of the colony, and +frequently chosen for the board of selectmen and other town offices. +Captain Benjamin Garfield held a captain's commission from the governor, +was nine times elected representative of the town, and appointed to many +other offices. Others were honored in a similar manner in Watertown, in +Waltham, and wherever they planted themselves.</p> + +<p>"They did not hive in the settled and safe centres of the colony, but +struck out boldly for the frontier, where danger was to be encountered +and duty performed. They adhered zealously to the principles of the +colony, and the controversies that arose from considerations of that +nature, at the very outset of its history, settled upon an unchangeable +basis the character of its government.</p> + +<p>"An important and instructive illustration of this free spirit of the +people occurred in the second year of its settlement. Without previous +consultation of the several towns, the governor and assistants levied, +in 1632, an assessment of eight pounds sterling upon them for +construction of military defences in what is now Cambridge. This order +was declared to be subversive of their rights, and the people of +Watertown, the most populous and influential inland town, met in church, +with their pastor and elders, according to their custom, and after much +debate deliberately<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> refused to pay the money, on the ground, they said, +'that it was not safe to pay monies after that sort, for fear of +bringing themselves and their posterity into bondage.'</p> + +<p>"When summoned before the governor they were obliged to retract the +declaration and submit; but they set on foot such an agitation through +the colony as to secure, within three months of their original debate, +an order for the appointment of two persons from each town to advise +with the governor and assistants as to the best method of raising public +moneys. This order ripened, in 1634, into the creation of a +representative body of deputies elected by the people, having full power +to act for all freemen, except in elections. This was the origin of the +House of Representatives in Massachusetts. After ten years' contest the +body of assistants to the governor was separated from the body of +deputies, and, sitting as a Senate, left to the deputies chosen by the +towns an absolute negative upon the legislation of the colony. Thus was +established, substantially as it now exists, the Legislature of +Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>"As the people began to be represented in the government of the colony, +so the direction of civil affairs in the towns came to be entrusted to a +municipal body of freemen, peculiar to New England, chosen for that +purpose, and known as the board of selectmen. It is a pleasure to know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> +that, during the violent contest for this right of representation in +State and local governments, Edward Garfield, the earliest American +ancestor of the martyr President whose loss we mourn, as a selectman of +Watertown, in the very crisis of that contest, did a freeman's duty with +a freeman's will, in securing to the people of Massachusetts the right +of representation they now enjoy.</p> + +<p>"The Massachusetts family of Garfields, in the male line at least, were +churchmen, freemen, fighting men, thoughtful and thrifty men, and +working men. They were enterprising, active, and brave, fond of +adventure, distinguished for endurance and strength, athletic feats, +sallies of wit, cheerful dispositions, and, like their eminent successor +so recently passed away, noted always for a manly spirit and a +commanding person and presence. It was a prolific and long-lived race. +Marriages were at a premium, and families were large and numerous. Among +the people of the Massachusetts colony who made their way quickly to the +frontier when new towns were to be planted, the Garfields were well +represented. The foundation of a new municipality was then a solemn +affair, usually preceded by 'a day of humiliation, and a sermon by Mr. +Cotton.' When the territory of Massachusetts was overstocked, they +passed to other States in New England, and ultimately to the great West. +Wherever they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> were they asserted and defended the principles they +inherited from the founders of Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>"Abram Garfield, of the fifth generation, a minute-man from Lincoln, +engaged in the fight with the British at Concord, and was one of the +signers of a certificate, with some of the principal citizens of that +town, declaring that the British began that fight. We should not feel so +much solicitude about that matter now.</p> + +<p>"Abram Garfield, a nephew of the soldier at Concord, whose name he bore, +and who represented the seventh generation of the family, settled later +in Otsego County, N. Y., where he received the first fruits of toil as a +laborer on the Erie Canal. The construction of canals by the Government +of Ohio drew him, with other relatives, to that State, where his +previous experience gained for him a contract on the Ohio Canal. The +young men and women who left the earlier settlements for the frontier +States sometimes consecrated the friendships of their youth by a +contract of marriage when they met again in the great West. Abram +Garfield in this way met and married (Feb. 3, 1821) Eliza Ballou, a New +Hampshire maiden, whom he had known in earlier years. It was a long +wait, but a solid union. They were nearly twenty years of age when +married. A log cabin, with one room, was their home. His vocation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> was +that of an excavator of canals in the depths of the primeval forests of +Ohio. There was not much of hope or joy in the life before them; but +still it was all there was for them of hope or joy. They could not +expect the crown of life until they had paid its forfeit. They adhered +to the religious customs of childhood. Their labor prospered. Amid their +suffering and toil in the construction of the arteries of civilization +and the foundation of States and empires that will hereafter rule the +world, four children came to bless them. The last of the four was James +Abram Garfield (Nov. 19, 1831), destined, in the providence of God, to +be and to die President of the Republic.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Garfield had pre-eminent skill in directing and applying the labor and +attainments of others to the success of his own work. This is a somewhat +rare, but a most invaluable capacity. No one man can do everything. In +labor, as in war, to divide is to conquer. There have been men who knew +everything, and could do everything,—whose incomparable capacities +would have been sufficient, under wise direction, to have given the +highest rank among the few men that have changed the destiny of the +world; but who could not succeed in government, because they never saw +men until they ran against them.</p> + +<p>"Such admirable qualities, united to such strength<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> and love for active +service, gave him reputation and rank, and opened the way to the +campaigns in Kentucky against Marshall, at Prestonburg and Middle +Creek,—the last a cause of other victories elsewhere,—and at Tullahoma +and Chickamauga.</p> + +<p>"His knowledge of law opened a new field of activity and service, of +great benefit to him and to the Government. But little attention had +been given by professors of legal science, at the opening of the war, to +the study of military law. In the field where it was to be administered, +great difficulties were encountered in determining what the law was and +who was to execute it. A distinguished jurist, Dr. Francis Lieber, was +appointed by the Government to codify and digest the principles and +precedents of this abstruse department of the science of law. But it +opened to Garfield, long before the digest was completed, a peculiar +field for tireless research and labor in new fields of inquiry. Once +installed as an officer of courts-martial, his services were found to be +indispensable. From the West he was called to Washington, was in +confidential communication with President Lincoln in regard to the +military situation in the West, was a member of the most important +military tribunals, became a favorite and protégé of the Secretary of +War, and, upon the express wish of the President and Secretary, +accepted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> his seat in the House of Representatives, to which he had been +chosen in 1862.</p> + +<p>"His career in Congress is the important record of his life. For that he +was best fitted; with it he was best satisfied; in it he continued +longest, and from it rose to the great destiny which has given him a +deathless name and page in the annals of the world.</p> + +<p>"The House of Representatives in the age of Clay, Calhoun and Webster +was an institution quite unlike that of our own time. Its numbers then +were small; its leading men comparatively few; but few subjects were +debated, and members of the House rarely or never introduced bills for +legislative action. Its work was prepared by committees, upon official +information, and gentlemen prepared to speak upon its business could +always find an opportunity. Now its numbers have been doubled. More than +ten thousand bills for legislative consideration are introduced in every +Congress. The increase of appropriations, patronage and legislation is +enormous, and the pressure for action often disorderly and violent. +Little courtesy is wasted on such occasions, when one or two hundred +members are shouting for the floor, and when one is named by the Speaker +it must be a strong man, ready, able, eloquent, to gain or hold the ear +of the House. Garfield never failed in this. His look drew audience and +attention.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> He was never unprepared, never tedious; always began with +his subject, and took his seat when he had finished. He had few +controversies, and was never called 'to order' for any cause. He was a +debater rather than an orator; always courteous, intelligent, +intelligible, and honorable. The House listened to him with rapt +attention, and he spoke with decisive effect upon its judgment. He liked +it to be understood that he was abreast of the best thought of the time, +had a great regard for the authority of scientific leaders, and walked +with reverential respect in the tracks of the best thinkers of the age. +It is a pleasant thing, this method of settling all problems by +demonstration of exact science. Hudibras must have been in error when he +spoke so lightly of these scholastic methods, saying, or rather +singing,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'That all a rhetorician's rules<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Teach him but to name his tools.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"The people watched with great interest his long and terrible struggle +for life, and their hearts trembled with alternations of hope and fear, +as they studied with close attention the morning and the evening +bulletins giving the ebb and flow of life's dark tide with the precision +of exact science; but they read with infinite relief, if not always with +satisfaction, the telegrams of the Secretary of State to the American +minister at London, stating,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> in the language of common life, the +changes that had occurred in the condition of the President from day to +day.</p> + +<p>"As chairman or prominent member of the principal business committees of +the House, Garfield had always access to the floor, and an eager +assembly as his audience. His topics were generally of a national +character, connected with the organization and maintenance of the +government; but there is scarcely any subject brought before Congress to +which he has not, at some time, given a thorough and able exposition of +his views. The best known and most influential of his speeches have been +in relation to the war, financial affairs, the currency, and the tariff. +These all involved national interests, and exhibit on his part a +profound study of every subject necessary to their support. He was from +the first, and constantly, a hard-money man, a leader in discussion, and +a supporter by his votes of every proposition necessary to maintain a +sound currency. On the subject of the tariff, while he did not deny +that, as an abstract question, the doctrine of free trade presented an +aspect of truth, yet he always declared that under a government like +ours protection of national industries was indispensable. He advocated +duties high enough to enable the home manufacturer to make a wholesome +competition with foreigners, but not so high as to subject<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> consumers to +a monopoly of product or supply. A moderate and permanent protection was +the doctrine he always ably sustained. It would be instructive to recall +the expression of his views embodied in his speeches upon these +subjects, which he photographed upon the minds of those to whom they +were addressed, but it is inappropriate on the present occasion. Few men +in the history of the House of Representatives have acquired a higher +reputation, and none will be more kindly and permanently remembered.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"There was much force in a declaration made by the Pastor of the +Disciples' Church, at the funeral of President Garfield, in the rotunda +of the Capitol at Washington. The gigantic proportions of this apartment +excite a strange sensation in every visitor. One familiar with the +scene, recalls at his entrance an ancient tradition, often repeated +before the war, that this majestic central apartment of the Capitol +would, some day, witness the coronation of a king. Apart from the +unusual solemnity of this occasion, the scene was of an extraordinary +character. The light that fell from the dome above gave a solemn aspect +to the apartment. Distinguished personages moved silently and slowly to +the positions assigned them. Two ex-Presidents, immediate predecessors +of the deceased, the only occupants of the presidential<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> office that +have attended at such a time, sat in front of the eastern entrance of +the rotunda. The diplomatic corps, in full court costume, were placed in +rear of the ex-Presidents. Senators, judicial officers in their robes, +officers of the army and navy, in brilliant uniforms, were on the right. +Members and ex-members of the House, in large numbers, attended by the +Speaker, were massed upon the left, and the space around them was +crowded by citizens from every part of the country. The vast assembly +rose as the President, with the Cabinet officers and the stricken family +of mourners, passed to their seats near the casket of the deceased Chief +Magistrate,—which lay upon the same bier that bore the body of +President Lincoln, just beneath the centre of the canopy that from the +dome overhangs the rotunda,—guarded by veterans of the Army of the +Cumberland. The walls were hung with representations of important events +in American history;—the Landing of Columbus, De Soto's Discovery of +the Mississippi, the Baptism of Pocahontas, the Embarkation of the +Pilgrims, the Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of Cornwallis +at Yorktown, and the Resignation of Washington. On the belt of the +rotunda above were seen Cortez entering the Temple of the Sun in Mexico, +the Battle of Lexington, and other studies of varied and memorable +scenes in the history of the Republic.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Simple, brief, and impressive ceremonies heightened the deep and +general interest of the occasion. The funeral discourse was of a purely +religious character, with scarcely more than a brief allusion to the +career of the deceased President, and no mention, I think, of his title +or his name. But these omissions intensified the general interest in his +brief personal allusions. 'I do believe,' he said, 'that the strength +and beauty of this man's character will be found in his discipleship of +Christ.'</p> + +<p>"It is not my province to speak of the spiritual character of this +connection, but in another relation I believe it is true.</p> + +<p>"The Church of the Disciples, to which he belonged, is one of the most +primitive of Christian communions, excluding every thought of distrust, +competition, or advantage. It gave him a position and mission unique and +generic, like and unlike that of other men. While he rarely or never +referred to it himself, and wished at times, perhaps, to forget it, he +was strengthened and protected by it. It was buckler and spear to him. +It brought him into an immediate communion—a relation made sacred by a +common faith, barren of engagements and responsibilities—with +multitudes of other organizations and congregations, adherents and +opponents, able and willing to assist and strengthen him, present or +absent, at home or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> abroad, who dismissed aspersions upon his conduct +and character as accusations of Pharisees against a son of faith, and +gave him at all times a friendly greeting and welcome, whenever and +wherever he felt inspired to give the world his thought and word. All +great migrations and revolutions of men and nations are born of this +spirit and power.</p> + +<p>"In another direction he possessed extraordinary capacities. He was +animated by an intense and sleepless spirit of acquisition. It was not, +apparently, a common thirst for wealth, precedence, or power which +stimulates many men in our time. His ambition was for the acquisition of +knowledge. From early youth to the day of his last illness it was a +consuming passion. He gave to it days and nights, the strength of youth +and the vigor of middle age. When in the forests of New York, he made +the rocks and trees to personate the heroes of his early reading. When +engaged in the duties of his professorship, he found time for other +studies than those prescribed by the faculty, and for lectures, +addresses, and many other intellectual pursuits. He studied law while at +college without the knowledge of his intimate friends, until he was +admitted to the bar. When in Congress, he would occupy a whole night in +examination of questions to be considered the next day,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> and debate them +as if nothing unusual had occurred.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"It was said by one of the wisest of the ancient Greeks that it was +'impossible to penetrate the secret thoughts, quality and judgment of +man till he is put to proof by high office and administration of the +laws.' Whatever we may think of the splendid record of the late +President in every walk of life he followed, it does not enable us to +anticipate the character and success of the Administration upon which he +so happily entered. In other positions of public life, the concurrence +of so many different influences is required to accomplish even slight +results, that individual credit or responsibility therefor is but slight +and intangible. In the administration of government, the highest secular +duty to which men are ever called, responsibility is indivisible and +unchangeable; and the final results, whether for good or evil, are +indelibly stamped on the woof and warp of the web of time, and will so +remain forever. Good intentions are of no account, and a plea of +confession and avoidance,—admitting failure and disclaiming error,—so +advantageous in other cases, never governs the world in judging men who +fail rightly to administer government. We are happy in being absolved +from the responsibility of judgment where decision is impossible.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly, the open assertion in some parts of the world of the right +of assassination as a method of reform in administration and government +may have intensified the general interest in this calamitous event. But +the courage and composure with which the presidential martyr bore his +affliction; the firmness and constancy of his aged mother; the serenity +and saint-like resignation of the heroic wife, administering consolation +and courage to the husband and father, in a voice sweet as the zephyrs +of the south, with a spirit as gentle as love, and a soul as dauntless +as the hearts of the women of Israel,—were not unobserved or unhonored. +It melted hearts in the four quarters of the globe, and drew from the +sons of men, in every land and clime, such an attestation and confession +of the faith that all created beings are the children of one Father, as +never before fell from human lips. We should be dead to sensibility and +honor did we not feel such unwonted tests of the universal scope and +sweep of human sympathy vouchsafed to us by the appointed leaders of +churches, empires and democracies, and by that august lady the Queen of +England and Empress of India, who presides over the councils of the +empire whence we derive our ideas of Christian faith, language, liberty +and law, who gave to the afflicted children of revolted and republican<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> +America the emblems of mourning, reserved by the customs of her court to +the best beloved and bravest of her realm, and sent, over her own hand, +to the wife, mother and orphans, swift and touching evidence of the +strength of her sympathy and the depths of her sorrow—the grandest of +sovereigns and noblest of women!</p> + +<p>"We turn from this record of active and honorable service to a brief +consideration, such as the occasion permits, of the elements of +character which distinguished President Garfield. After all, character +is the only enduring form of wealth. It is the power by which the world +is ruled, and the only legacy of true value that can be transmitted to +posterity.</p> + +<p>"We cannot forget what occurred during the administration of Mr. +Lincoln, or of his successor, Mr. Johnson. We have witnessed no such +political convulsions in our day. No one ever justified the +assassination of Mr. Lincoln on such grounds, or would now counsel such +violence against the chiefs of earlier administrations. Neither can it +now be done with truth or justice. Those who enlisted in the opposition +to past administrations were men whose intellectual and moral natures +restrained them from the execution of purposes dictated by passion. To +those whose feeble intellects deprive them of moral restraint we should +give support, and never justify, by thought or act, conduct<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> that, under +other circumstances, might have endangered the lives of every President +of the Republic! There is no cause or incitement to crime in the +political controversies of this year, that might not have occurred under +any other administration; and no cause or justification, of any kind +whatever, for such an ineffable and inexpiable crime as the murder of +the mild, generous, warm-hearted, forgiving, and Christian Chief +Magistrate whose loss we mourn.</p> + +<p>"Political assassination is not insanity. It proceeds from infection and +distemper of the mind. It is not necessarily limited to the reform +administrations and governments, nor to any special form of government. +It can as well be applied to the settlement of a grocery bill, if an +excitation be created, as to the overthrow of a dynasty.</p> + +<p>"It is another form of the doctrine of annihilation, and the remedy for +its evil is to avoid convulsions, private and public, restrain passion, +avoid injustice, practise moderation in all things, and do no evil that +good may come.</p> + +<p>"The year 1881 is the complement of the full half-century since the +first open movement was organized for the control or destruction of our +government. The lesson of this half-century, with all its trials, +sacrifices and triumphs, is that it is good to maintain and defend the +government of our country and its lawfully constituted authorities,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> +whether or not we created them or like them. In the contemplation of +this half-century, can we find cause to wish the government had been +destroyed? Or can we now wish it destroyed?</p> + +<p>"The lesson of Garfield's life is an admonition to protect and defend +the government. His birth marks the period when it was first assailed by +enemies domestic; and at the close of his life he gave his last hours of +health and strength to improve and protect it. His last friend should +give his last sigh to maintain it, not for his honor, which is +untarnished, nor his glory, which is immaculate, but for his country, +which still has perils to encounter, and liberties to defend, for the +benefit of mankind."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIII" id="CHAPTER_XLIII"></a>CHAPTER XLIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Southern Feeling.—Memorial Services at Jefferson, +Kentucky.—Extracts from Address by Henry +Watterson.—Senator Bayard.—Ex-Speaker Randall.—Senator +Hill.—Extracts from some of the Southern Journals.</p></div> + + +<p>At the United States military post at Jefferson, Kentucky, memorial +services were held in the presence of fifteen thousand people.</p> + +<p>Henry Watterson, the Democratic ex-Congressman, gave an eloquent +address, from which we quote the following:—</p> + +<p>"I knew him well, and know now that I loved him. He was a man of ample +soul, with the strength of a giant, the courage of a lion, and the heart +of a dove. There never lived a man who yearned for the approval of his +fellow-men, who felt their anger more. There never lived a man who +struggled harder to realize Paul's idea, and to be all things to all +men. Did ever the character sketched by Paul find a nobler example, for +he was blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, apt to teach, not +given to filthy lucre. No one without the little family circle of +relatives and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> friends in which he lived will ever know how a certain +dismal, though in truth trivial, episode in his career cut him to the +soul. Born a poor man's son, to live and die a poor man, with +opportunities unbounded for public pillage, with licensed robbery going +on all around him, and he pinched for the bare means to maintain +himself, his wife and his little ones with decency and comfort, to be +held up to the scorn of men as one not honest! He is gone now, and +before he went he had outlived the wounds which party friends alike with +party foes had sought to put upon his honor and manhood, and maybe +to-day somewhere among the stars he looks down upon the world and sees +at last how selfish and unreal were the assaults of those in whose way +he stood. It is a pleasure to me to reflect amid these gloomy scenes +that some friendly words of mine gratified him at a moment when he +suffered most. Not in the last campaign, for it would have been a crime +in me to have hesitated then, but away back when no vision of the +presidency had crossed the disc of his ambition, and when the cruelest +blows were struck from behind. It is also a pleasure for me to remember +the last time I saw him. It was during an all-night session of the +House, when in company with Joseph Hawley of Connecticut, Randall Gibson +of Louisiana, and Randolph Tucker, we took possession of the committee +rooms of Proctor Knott,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> who joined us later, and turned all bickerings +and jars into happy forgetfulness of section and party. I do well +remember how buoyant he was that night in spirit and how robust in +thought, full of suggestion, and in repartee, unaffected and genial +ever; how delighted to lay aside the statesman and the partisan and be a +boy again, and how loth he was, with the rest, to recross the narrow +confines which separate the real and ideal, and to descend into the hot +abyss below. I could not have gone thence to blacken that man's +character any more than to do another deed of shame; and Republican +though he was, and party chief, he had no truer friends than the +brilliant Virginian whom he loved like a brother, and the eminent +Louisianian whose counsels he habitually sought. I refer to an incident +unimportant in itself to illustrate a character which unfolded to the +knowledge of the world through affliction, and whose death has awakened +the love and admiration of mankind.</p> + +<p>"All know that he was a man of spotless integrity who might have been +rich by a single deflection, but who died poor, who broadened and rose +in height with each rise in fortune, who was not less a scholar because +he had wanted early advantages, and who, not yet fifty, leaves as a +priceless heritage to his countrymen the example of how God-given +virtues of the head and heart may be employed to the glory of God and +the uses of men, by one who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> makes all things subordinate to the +development of the good within him. On all these points we think +together; there are not two opinions. We stand upon common ground; we +shall separate and go hence, and each shall take his way. Interests +shall clash, beliefs shall jar, party spirit shall lift its horned head +and interpose to chill and cloud our better natures. That is but a +condition of our being. We are mortal and we live in a free land. Out of +discussion and dissension ends are shapened; we rough-hewing in spite of +us. However, occasions come which remind us that we have a country and +are countrymen; which tell us we are a people bound together by many +kindred ties. No matter for our quarrels, they will pass away. No matter +for our mistakes, they shall be mended. But yesterday we were at war one +with the other. The war is over. But yesterday we were arrayed in the +anger of party conflict; behold how its passions sleep in the grave with +Garfield. I am here to-day to talk to you of him, and through him and in +his memory and honor to talk of our country. He was its chief +magistrate, our President, representative of things common to us all; +stricken down in the fulness of life and hope by wanton and aimless +assassination. He fell like a martyr; he suffered like a hero; he died +like a saint. Be his grave forever and aye a resting place for the +people, and for the seeds that burst thereon to let<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> the violets bring +spring flowers of peace and love for all the people. Citizens, the flag +which waves over us was his flag and it is our flag. Soldiers, standing +beneath that flag and this armed fortress of the Republic, I salute your +flag and his flag reverently. It is my flag. I thank God, and I shall +teach my children to thank God, that it did not go down amid the +fragments of a divided country, but that it floats to-day, though at +half mast, as a symbol of union and liberty, assuring and reassuring us, +that though the heart that conceived the words be cold, and the lips +that uttered them be dumb, 'God reigns and the government at Washington +still lives.'"</p> + +<p>The tributes paid to the memory of Garfield by his political opponents +show strikingly how widely he was honored and beloved by those who knew +him as a friend as well as the leader of a party.</p> + +<p>Senator Bayard always treated the President with affectionate respect, +and mourns him deeply. Ex-Speaker Randall "knew him intimately and +respected him greatly." Senator Hill is much affected by the death. +"Poor Garfield," he says, "was a big-hearted and a big-brained man. I +shall never forget the last time I saw him. He was so cheerful and +apparently happy. I never saw him fuller of mental and physical vigor +and of hope for the future than then. I want to always remember him as +he appeared to me then—a perfect man."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> + +<p>The <i>Courier-Journal</i> of Louisville, Kentucky, said: "The President is +dead, and all the nations responding to that touch of sympathy which +makes the whole world kin stand uncovered in the presence of a calamity; +for tragedies, ever calamitous, are doubly so when they spring from +murder and attach themselves to the head of the State, the symbol of +power, the representative of the people and law. If ever mortal stood in +these relations to his country and his time, this man did so. It was the +universal sense that he did so which brought around his bedside his +fellow citizens without distinction of political opinion, and caused +women who had never seen him to pray for him, and little children, who +conceived not the emergency nor the magnitude nor the contingencies +hanging upon his life, to ask each day after his well-being, as if he +were a father ill and dying in some far-off place. Perhaps, too, the +flash of the assassin's pistol let in to many a heart a feeling of +honest regret, before dormant and unconscious, that they had consented +to see so good and so useful a man so pitilessly assailed in his private +honor during periods of angry partisan contention, and a consequent +wish, personally, to disavow this and to make a part of it at least up +to him in his dire misfortune."</p> + +<p>The <i>Baltimore Sun</i> (Independent), alluding to President Garfield's +death, said: "Turning from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> the peculiarly tragic and distressing +circumstances of the President's death, 'tis difficult to exaggerate the +loss which the nation sustains in his death at this time. Although his +Administration was in its infancy, President Garfield had already met +the confidence of his country in the integrity of his purposes, the +moderation, soundness and conservatism of his policy."</p> + +<p>Said another Southern Journal: "In his death, mournful as it is, the +sections will evince a common sympathy that may cement more closely the +bonds of that fraternity so essential to the keeping of the compact +between the States. North, South, East and West will join in the grief +over the grave of the dead President—a sure sign that the currents of +the national life flow as strong as they ever did in the history of the +Union."</p> + +<p>The <i>New Orleans Times</i> said: "Throughout our whole land parties stand +disarmed, and citizens bitterly deplore the death of James A. Garfield. +Henceforth he lives in memory, and though he was permitted to accomplish +but little during his presidential service, by his death he has given to +his countrymen a deeper scrutiny into themselves—a most precious +service."</p> + +<p>The <i>Picayune</i>, after referring to the assassination of President +Lincoln, said: "This is a sadder story in our national life. It was +Garfield's fortune to come to the high office of chief magistrate at a +time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> when peace and prosperity reigned throughout the broad confines of +this great land. There was naught but sincere respect for his authority +among the masses, and earnest wishes in the hearts of nearly all her +citizens that his administration might prove a happy one for himself as +it promised a prosperous one for the country. He was worthy of so proud +a position, and in his inaugural proclaimed the new life of a nation +united not in name but in truth."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLIV" id="CHAPTER_XLIV"></a>CHAPTER XLIV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a +Friend in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.—To Corydon +E. Fuller, a College Classmate.</p></div> + + +<p>One of the last letters written by President Garfield was to a gentleman +in Boston, who bore the same family name. They were warm friends and +mutually interested in the Garfield genealogy. They had often spoken of +the pleasure they would take in going over the country in the +neighborhood of Boston, where their common ancestors had had their +homes, and they had agreed, should chance ever bring them together here, +to take a little excursion, and as the President was about starting on a +New England tour, the letter related to the long anticipated pleasure. +If possible, the President was to take leave of his formal escort at +Concord and enjoy a quiet buggy drive with his friend, keeping perfectly +<i>incognito</i>. They were to visit the scenes of interest at Concord, where +the President's great-uncle, Abram Garfield, from whom he gets his +middle name, stood, perhaps, shoulder to shoulder with John Hoar, the +grandfather<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> of the chairman of the Republican convention at Chicago +which so unexpectedly nominated him for his fateful office. Thence they +were to drive through Lincoln, Weston, Waltham and Watertown—towns +where the homes of their ancestors and kinsmen had stood. At Watertown +the intention was to rejoin the regular party.</p> + +<p>The letter was evidently written late on the evening before he was shot, +and was in the handwriting of the President's private secretary, but +bore the clear signature of J. A. Garfield. It was not sent from +Washington until after Guiteau's shot had been fired, for it bore the +postmark of 1 P. M. General Garfield had had considerable correspondence +with his friend about family matters, and his letters formed the basis +of much of the accurate article on his family genealogy printed in the +<i>Herald</i> shortly after the Chicago convention. In a letter he wrote:—</p> + +<p>"You can hardly imagine the pleasure which your letter of the 3d inst. +has given me. You will better understand why, when I tell you the causes +which have so nearly shut me off from any knowledge of my ancestry. My +father moved into the wild woods of Ohio before he was twenty years of +age, and died when he was thirty-three, and of course when all his +children were small, and I, the youngest, but an infant. Separated thus +from the early home of our father, we had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> but scanty means of obtaining +anything like accurate information of his ancestry. The most I knew, +until quite recently, were the family traditions retained in the memory +of my mother, as she had heard them from father and his mother. During +the last eighteen years I have, from time to time, picked up fragmentary +facts and traditions concerning our family and its origin. Many of these +traditions are vague and no doubt worthless, but I have no doubt they +have some truth in them. One of them is that the family was originally +from Wales. This tallies with what you say concerning the original +Edward Garfield coming from the neighborhood of Chester, Eng. I stood on +the walls of Chester a little more than four years ago, and looked out +on the bleak mountains of Wales, whose northern boundary lay at my feet, +along the banks of the Dee. Possibly I was near our ancestral home. A +Welsh scholar told me, not many years ago, that he had no doubt our +family was connected with the builders of an old castle in Wales, long +since in ruins, but still known as Gaerfill Castle. I give you this +conjecture for what it is worth. While I was in college at Williamstown, +Mass., in 1854 to 1856, I went down to old Tyringham and Lee, in +Berkshire County, Mass., and there found a large number of Garfields, +some twenty families, old residents of that neighborhood. Among them +were the names Solomon and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> Thomas, which seemed to have continued along +in the family. I found that they had come from the neighborhood of +Boston. In an old graveyard in Tyringham (now Monterey) I found the +tombstone of Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield (for that, I learn, was the +early spelling of the name), and on the stone was recorded 1755 as the +date of his death. The family told me that he (Lieutenant Isaac) crossed +the mountains into the wilderness of western Massachusetts in about +1739, and slept the first night under his cart.... I am sure I do not +need to apologize to you for this long letter, for if it gives you half +the pleasure yours has given me, you will not tire of its length. I beg +you to write me any further details you may possess, and any you may +hereafter obtain."</p> + +<p>Following are a number of extracts from letters addressed to Mr. Corydon +E. Fuller:—</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Warrensville</span>, Jan. 16, 1852. +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: Well, I quit writing that evening to attend the +Warrensville Literary Club, of which I am a member. We had a very good +time considering the 'timber.' We have resolved ourselves into a senate, +each member representing some State in the Union. I am not only +President, but also a representative from South Carolina, to watch the +interests of my nullifying constituents. The bill before our senate for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +our next evening is, 'That we will assist financially the Hungarian +exiles, Kossuth and his compatriots, from our national Treasury.' We +shall undoubtedly have a warm time. By the way, what do you think of the +effect of the excitement in reference to Kossuth upon our Nation and +popular liberty? How far may our Government safely interfere in the +Hungarian struggle? But I am certainly rhapsodical this time. You must +write to me and trim me up. I am seated in my school-house, a room about +18 by 20, with a stove in the centre and in school, the scholars being +all around me—forty on the list. With these facts before me I am led to +exclaim,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Of all the trades by men pursued<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There's none that's more perplexing<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than is the country's pedagogue's—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It's every way most vexing.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Cooped in a little narrow cell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As hot as black Tartarus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As well in Pandemonium dwell,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As in this little schoolhouse.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +"Your friend and classmate, +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>." +</p> + +<p>The following is taken from a letter dated Feb. 2, 1852, written near +the close of the village school at Warrensville, Ohio,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, that I possessed the power to scatter the firebrands of ambition +among the youth of the rising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> generation, and let them see the +greatness of the age in which they live and the destiny to which mankind +are rushing, together with the part which they are destined to act in +the great drama of human existence. But, if I cannot inspire them with +that spirit, I intend to keep it predominant in my own breast, and let +it spur me forward to action. But let us remember that knowledge is only +an increase of power, and is only good when directed to good ends. +Though a man may have all knowledge, and have not the love of God in his +heart, he will fall far short of true excellence."</p> + +<p>Here is an extract from a letter written in April, 1853,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"To my mind the whole catalogue of fashionable friendships +and polite intimacies are not worth one honest tear of +sympathy or one heartfelt emotion of true friendship. Unless +I can enter the inner chambers of the soul and read the +inscriptions there upon those ever-during tablets, and thus +become acquainted with the inner life and know the inner +man, I care not for intercourse, for nothing else is true +friendship.... I have no very intimate associates here, and +hence, if it please you, I will be social with my pen and be +often cheered by a letter from you. Let us in all the varied +fortunes of human life look forward to that lamp which will +enlighten the darkness of earth, the valley of death, and +then become the bright and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> morning star in the heaven of +heavens. Give my love to your father and mother for they +seem like mine also, and you know you have the love of your +brother,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">James</span>."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The following shows how keenly sensitive Garfield was, even as a boy, +and how early in life he determined to make a name for himself,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Williamstown</span>, Jan. 28, 1854.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: I wish you were here to-night; I feel like +waking up the ghosts of the dead past, and holding communion +with spirits of former days. In this calm "night that +broodeth thoughts" the shadows of by-gone days flit past, +and I review each scene. That long strange story of my +boyhood, the taunts, jeers, and cold, averted looks of the +rich and the proud, chill me again for a moment, as did the +real ones of former days. Then comes the burning heart, the +high resolve, the settled determination, and the days and +nights of struggling toil, those dreary days when the +heavens seemed to frown and the icy heart of the cold world +seemed not to give one throb in unison with mine.... With +regards, I remain, as ever, your friend and classmate,</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Niagara</span>, Nov 5, 1853.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Corydon, my Brother</span>: I am now leaning against the trunk of +an evergreen tree on a beautiful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> island in the midst of +Niagara's foaming waters. I am alone. No breath of wind +disturbs the leaves of evergreen, which hang mute and +motionless around me. Animated nature is silent, for the +voice of God, like the "sound of many waters," is lifted up +from the swathing clouds of hoary foam that rest upon the +dark abyss below.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Oh, fearful stream.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">How do thy terrors tear me from myself<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And fill my soul with wonder.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I gaze upon the broad green waters as they come placid and +smooth, like firm battalions of embattled hosts, moving in +steady columns, till the sloping channel stirs the depths +and maddens all the waters. Then with angry roar the legions +bound along the opposing rocks, until they reach the awful +brink, where, all surcharged with frantic fury, they leap +bellowing down the fearful rocks which thunder back the +sullen echoes of thy voice, and shout God's power above the +cloudy skies! Oh man! frail child of dust thou art to lift +thy insect voice upon this spot where the Almighty thunders +from the swelling floods that lift to heaven their hoary +breath, like clouds of smoking incense. Oh, that the +assembled millions of the earth could now behold this scene +sublime and awful, and adore the everlasting God whose +fingers piled these giant cliffs, and sent his sounding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> +seas to thunder down and shout in deafening tones, 'We come +from out the hollow of His hand, and haste to do His +bidding.'</p> + +<p class="right"> +"Your friend and brother,<br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>Here are a few lines written in 1859, just after his nomination to the +Senate of Ohio,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Long ago, you know, I had thought of a public career, but I +fully resolved to forego it all, unless it could be obtained +without wading through the mire into which politicians +usually plunge. The nomination was tendered me, and by +acclamation, though there were five candidates. I never +solicited the place, nor did I make any bargain to secure +it. I shall endeavor to do my duty, and if I never rise any +higher, I hope to have the consolation that my manhood is +unsullied by the past."</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Wllliamstown</span>, June 19, 1855.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: Your favor of the 4th inst. was received +about ten days ago, but I have been entirely unable to +answer until this time. A day or two after it came I left +for Pittstown, N. Y., to attend a yearly meeting of +Disciples, where I spent some four days, and last Saturday I +left again for Poestenkill, and spoke to the people Saturday +evening and three discourses on Lord's Day.... We had good +meetings in each place,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> and much interest. I cannot resist +the appeals of our brethren for aid while I have the +strength to speak to them.... I tell you, my dear brother, +the cause in which we are engaged must take the world. It +fills my soul when I reflect upon the light, joy, and love +of the ancient Gospel, and its adaptation to the wants of +the human race.... I long to be in the thickest of the +fight, and see the army of truth charge home upon the +battalions of hoary-headed error. But I must be content to +be a spy for a time, till I have reconnoitred the enemy's +stronghold, and then I hope to work. Ever your friend and +classmate,</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Dorchester Heights</span>, Jan. 5, 1856.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon and Mary</span>: I want to pencil a few lines to +you from this enchanting spot on the sea-shore, six miles +from Boston, and when I return, perhaps I will ink it in a +letter to you. I am spending the night here with a classmate +of mine, one of the dearest friends I have in college. I am +in an old house—every timber of oak—built more than one +hundred years ago. To one who has seen cities rise from the +wild forest in the space of a dozen years, and has hardly +ever seen a building older than himself, you may be assured +that many reflections are awakened by the look of antiquity +that everything has around me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> The quaint old beams and +panelled walls, the heavy double windows that look out +oceanward, in short, the whole air of the building speaks of +the days of the olden time. To think that these walls have +echoed to the shouts of loyalty to George the King—-have +heard all the voices of the spirit-stirring Revolution, the +patriotic resolve, the tramp of the soldier's foot, the +voice of the beloved Washington, (for within a few rods of +here he made his first Revolutionary encampment,) the cannon +of Bunker Hill, the lamentations of defeat and shouts of +victory—all these cannot but awaken peculiar reflections. +To how many that are now sleepers in the quiet church-yard, +or wanderers in the wide, cold world, has this been the dear +ancestral hall where all the joys of childhood were +clustered. Within this oaken-ceiled chamber how many bright +hopes have been cherished and high resolves formed; how many +hours of serene joy, and how many heart-throbs of bitter +anguish! If these walls had a voice I would ask them to tell +me the mingled scenes of joy and sorrow they have witnessed. +But even their silence has a voice, and I love to listen. +But without there is no silence, for the tempest is howling +and snows are drifting. The voice of the great waves, as +they come rolling up against the wintry shore, speak of Him +'whose voice is as the sound of many waters.' Only a few +miles from here is the spot where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The breaking waves dashed high<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On a stern and rock-bound coast,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the woods against a stormy sky<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their giant branches tossed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the heavy night hung dark,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The hills and waters o'er,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When a band of pilgrims moored their bark<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On the wild New-England shore.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"But the coal has sunk to the lowest bar in the grate beside +me—'tis far past the noon of night, and I must close.... As +ever, your own affectionate</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">James</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<p>The following letter, written to Mr. Fuller while Gen. Garfield was +chief-of-staff to Gen. Rosecrans, will be of special historical value,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Headquarters Dept, of the Cumberland</span>,<br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Murfreesboro</span>, Tenn., May 4, 1863.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: Yours of April 1 was received by the hand +of Lieut. Beeber, and I assure you it was read with great +pleasure. When I was in Washington last winter I saw Mr. +Colfax, who spoke very kindly and highly of you. I have now +fully recovered my health, and for the last three months +have been very hardy and robust. My duties are very full of +work here, and I have never been more pressingly crowded +with labor than now. I have not retired on an average before +two o'clock for the last two months and a half. Gen. +Rosecrans shares all his counsels<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> with me, and places a +large share of the responsibility of the management of this +wing upon me; even more than I sometimes wish he did. This +army is now in admirable condition. The poor and weak +material has been worked out, and what we now have is hard +brawn and solid muscle. It is in an admirable state of +discipline, and when its engineries are fully set in motion, +it will make itself felt. From all the present indications +it cannot be long before we meet the rebel army now in our +front, and try its strength again. When that day arrives, it +bids fair to be the bloodiest fighting of the war. One thing +is settled in my mind. Direct blows at the rebel army, +bloody fighting is all that can end the rebellion. In +European wars, if you capture the chief city of a nation, +you have substantially captured the nation. The army that +holds London, Paris, Vienna or Berlin, holds England, +France, Austria or Prussia. Not so in this war. The rebels +have no city the capture of which will overthrow their +power. If we take Richmond, the rebel Government can be put +on wheels and trundled away into the interior with all its +archives in two days. Hence our real objective point is not +any place or district, but the rebel army, wherever we find +it. We must crush and pulverize them, and then all places +and territories fall into our hands as a consequence. These +views lead me to a hope and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> belief that before many days we +shall join in a death-grapple with Bragg and Johnson. God +grant that we may be successful. The armies are nearly equal +in number, and both are filled with veteran soldiers well +drilled and disciplined. The little circumstance you related +to me of the soldier in the Fifty-first Indiana touches my +heart." [A soldier who was killed had written home to his +wife to name their child, born during the former's absence, +after Gen. Garfield.] "I wish you would write a letter for +me to Joseph Lay, the young man's father, and express my +sympathy with him for the loss of his brave son, who was +many times with me under the fire of the enemy. I want to +know of the health of his family, and especially of that +little one to whom the affection of the father gave my name. +With the love of other days, I am, as ever, your brother, +<span class="smcap">James</span>."</p></div> + +<p>Here is a glimpse of his home life,—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, Oct. 23, 1876.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: On Saturday last I addressed a large +Republican meeting at Hackensack, four miles from +Schraalenburg, where I went with you twenty-two years ago. I +have never been so near there before, and it brought up the +old memories to be so near. I was called here by telegraph +to the bedside of our little boy Edward, who is very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> ill +and I fear will not recover. He was recovering from the +whooping cough, and his disease went to his brain. He has +now been lying in an unconscious state nearly four days, and +unless the pressure can soon be removed, he cannot last +long. He is a beautiful child of two years, and the thought +of losing him rives our hearts. But he is in the keeping of +our good Father, who knows what is best for us. All the rest +of us are well. I have worked very hard this campaign, +having spoken almost constantly for two months. You have +probably seen that I was re-elected by about 9,000 majority, +this being my eighth election; but of what avail is public +honor in the presence of death? It has been a long time +since I have heard from you, and I hope that you will write +soon. 'Crete joins me in love to you and Mary.</p> + +<p class="right"> +"Ever your friend and classmate,<br /> +<br /> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, Nov. 9, 1876.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Corydon</span>: I arrived in this city yesterday afternoon +and found that your kind letter of the 2d inst. was awaiting +me. Our precious little Eddie died on the 25th of October, +and the same evening 'Crete and I left with the body, and on +the 27th we buried him beside our little girl who died +thirteen years ago. Both are lying in the graveyard at +Hiram, and we have come back to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> those which are still left +us, but with a desolation in our hearts known only to those +who have lost a precious child. It seems to me that we are +many years older than we were when the dear little boy died. +His little baby ways so filled the house with joy that the +silence he has left is heartbreaking. It needs all my +philosophy and courage to bear it. It was very hard to go on +with the work of the great campaign with so great a grief in +my heart, but I knew that it was my duty, and I did it as +well as I could. I spoke almost every day till the election, +but it now appears that we are defeated. What the future of +our country will be no one can tell. The only safety we can +rely on lies in the closeness of the vote both on the +Presidency and on the members of the House of +Representatives. We have so far reduced the strength of the +Democratic House that I hope they will not be able to do +much harm. Still we shall have a hard, uncomfortable +struggle to save the fruits of our great war. We shall need +all the wisdom and patriotism the country possesses to save +ourselves from irretrievable calamity. If we had carried the +House of Representatives it was almost certain that I should +have been elected Speaker; but, of course, that has gone +down in the general wreck. 'Crete joins me in kindest +regards to you and May. I hope the time may come when we can +sit down and renew the memories of other days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> and enjoy a +long visit. I am here now for the winter, and shall soon be +at work in the Supreme Court, where I am having a number of +important cases. With as much love as ever, I am your friend +and brother,</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>."<br /> +</p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLV" id="CHAPTER_XLV"></a>CHAPTER XLV.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.—Of one of the Pupils at +Hiram Institute.—Garfield's Keen Observation.—His Kindness +of Heart.—Anecdote of the Game of Ball.—Of the Lame Girl +in Washington.—Of Brown, the ex-Scout and old Boat +Companion.</p></div> + + +<p>Mr. Corydon E. Fuller, to whom the letters in the preceding chapter were +addressed, was one of the most intimate of the late President Garfield's +friends, and shared with him the early privations of his academic and +collegiate life. Mr. Fuller said: "My first acquaintance with Mr. +Garfield was in the Eclectic Institute at Hiram College in the year +1851. We entered the school at the same time. My first recollection of +him is as a young man, looking all of twenty years old, about six feet +in height, powerfully built, with a head of bushy hair, and weighing +about one hundred and eighty-five pounds. I remember him attired in +Kentucky jean clothes with calico sleeves, ringing the bell for the +opening of recitations. We very soon became acquainted, and that was +during the Fall term of 1851. At this time the Boynton boys and girls, +numbering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> six, were also at the school. These were closely related to +Garfield. One of them was the Mrs. Arnold, killed at the Newberg +railroad disaster at the same time with Thomas Garfield, uncle of the +late President. In the winter of 1851-2 Mr. Garfield taught school at +Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, and I at Hamilton, Geauga County. At that +time we commenced corresponding, and kept it up until the time of his +assassination."</p> + +<p>"I remember once asking him," said one of Garfield's pupils, "what was +the best way to pursue a certain study, and he said: 'Use several +textbooks. Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that +way you can plow a broader furrow. I always study in that way.' He tried +hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke out one +day in the midst of a lesson with 'Henry how many posts are there under +the building downstairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and the question +went around the class, hardly one getting it right. Then it was: 'How +many boot-scrapers are there at the door?' 'How many windows in the +building?' 'How many trees in the field!' 'What were the colors of +different rooms, and the peculiarities of any familiar objects?' He was +the keenest observer I ever saw, I think he noticed and numbered every +button on our coats."</p> + +<p>"There was one grand thing about President<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> Garfield," said one who knew +him well, "and that was he never felt ashamed to work, no matter what +position he filled. He was always engaged in something, and I have never +seen him alone when his thoughts were not deeply engaged in something. +One great thing that was no doubt the greatest secret of his success, +was his constant desire to be elevated to a higher position. He was +always reaching for something, and never gave up until he received that +for which he was working. Again, he never was ashamed of his low +condition or poverty, and I have often heard him say, during the course +of conversations, that 'there never was a grander thing to see than a +man or woman in earnest in anything they undertake. No matter whether +they may be right or wrong, to see them in dead earnest and working for +dear life for the object of their desire is a noble sight to witness.' +I'll call your attention to another fact: he always went along with his +eyes and ears open, catching up every opportunity to learn something. He +would walk along the street, and to merely glance at a stranger would +not satisfy him, but he would watch a person and try to discover +something in his countenance, and he couldn't look at a lady without +being able to tell you the color of every ribbon on her hat. He has +often told me that the great keeness of his perceptive faculties were +often painful to him. If travelling on a railroad train, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> the cars +by chance would stop a short time, he was out inquiring the cause of the +delay, and while walking leisurely along some highway he would meet a +German or Irishman working, when he would stop and interrogate them, and +then tell his friends what he had learned. He was always determined to +learn something."</p> + +<p>At one time when walking with a friend through the streets of Cleveland, +Garfield suddenly stopped and then darted down a cellar-way. Over the +door was the sign "Saws and Files," and a clicking sound could be heard +below.</p> + +<p>"I think this fellow is cutting files," said Garfield, "and I have never +seen a file cut."</p> + +<p>He was right; there was a man below stairs who was re-cutting an old +file, so the two friends stayed there some ten minutes, until the whole +process of file-cutting was thoroughly understood.</p> + +<p>"Garfield would never go by anything," said his friend, "without +understanding it."</p> + +<p>His native kindness of heart is seen in an incident that occurred while +he was principal at Hiram Institute. Ruling in the schoolroom with great +firmness, he was always ready to join the boys in their games on the +playground. One day, when he had taken his place in a game of ball, he +happened to see some small boys close by the fence, who were looking on +with wistful eyes.</p> + +<p>"Are these boys not in the game?" he said to the players.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What! those little tads? Of course not. They'd spoil the game."</p> + +<p>"But they want to play," said the principal, "just as much as we do. Let +them come in."</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" was the exclamation; "it's no use to spoil the game; they can't +play."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Garfield, laying down his bat, "if they can't play I +won't."</p> + +<p>"All right, then, let them come in," was the answer, and so the +kind-hearted teacher won the day.</p> + +<p>Another story is told as follows: Two Southern ladies engaged in +charitable work connected with their church society became interested in +the case of a family consisting of a blind man, his invalid wife, and a +lame daughter. The latter was at work in the fourth story of a +government building in Washington, at a salary of $400 per annum, and to +get this small amount she was obliged to walk (using a crutch) nearly +three miles each way daily between her house and the printing-room, and +to climb four nights of stairs to her labors. This so exhausted the poor +child that she was fast losing her health. These two Southern ladies +looked about them to see who, among the influential men in Washington, +had the broadest human sympathy, and decided that General James A. +Garfield, then M. C. was the man most likely to help them in benefiting +this afflicted family. They accordingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> visited General Garfield's +house, and found a carriage before the door. Though complete strangers +to him, they sent their cards to the general, who immediately came down +stairs. He had his overcoat thrown over his arm, but very courteously +greeted the ladies and asked what he could do for them. They said,—</p> + +<p>"We notice you appear to be about leaving, and perhaps we detain you." +He replied, "I am about to take the cars, but I will delay till next +train if I can in any way be of service to you;" and he showed them into +the parlor and introduced them to his wife. When he was told the case he +replied that he should be away from Washington for two or three days, +but if they would remind him on his return, he would do all he could to +assist them. Mrs. Garfield engaged to remind the general on his return, +which she did, and through his kindness and effort this lame girl was +transferred from the fourth floor to the first, and her salary made +$1200 instead of $400.</p> + +<p>Still another instance of Garfield's kindness of heart is shown in the +following story:—</p> + +<p>One time when he was about to deliver an address at Cornell, a heavy +hand was laid upon his shoulder, and turning about, he saw Brown, his +ex-scout and old boat companion. He was a sad-looking wreck—with +bleared eyes, bloated face, and garments that were half tatters. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> +come, he said, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, to that quiet +place to die, and now he could die in peace because he had seen his +'gineral.'</p> + +<p>Garfield gave him money and got him quarters among some kind people, and +left him, telling him to try to be a man; but, in any event, to let him +know if he ever needed further help. A year or more passed, and no word +came from Brown; but then the superintendent of the public hospital at +Buffalo wrote the general that a man was there very sick, who, in his +delirium, talked of him, of the Ohio Canal, and of the Sandy Valley +expedition. Garfield knew at once that it was Brown, and immediately +forwarded funds to the hospital, asking that he should have every +possible care and comfort. The letter which acknowledged the remittance +announced that the poor fellow had died—died, muttering, in his +delirium, the name 'Jim Garfield.'</p> + +<p>Garfield paid his funeral expenses.</p> + +<p>"Poor Brown!" he exclaimed, "he had a rare combination of good and bad +qualities, with strong traits, a ruined man; and yet, underneath the +ruins, a great deal of generous, self-sacrificing noble-heartedness."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVI" id="CHAPTER_XLVI"></a>CHAPTER XLVI.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Remarks of a Personal Friend.—Reminiscences of the +President's Cousin Henry Boynton.—Garfield as a Freemason.</p></div> + + +<p>Said a personal friend,—</p> + +<p>"No one who saw President Garfield after his installation in the White +House can fail to have observed the great change which his accession to +power had occasioned in him. Only at intervals did his bright joyousness +shine out again, as at the pleasant home at Mentor. The very day after +he became President, the struggle for the spoils of office began with a +fierceness hitherto unparalleled in all the strife of that kind which +has been seen at Washington. He was half-maddened by his desire to do +justice to all the contending factions. It was this feeling which made +him slow to give irrevocable decisions. I was at the White House one +morning, and he referred to his anxiety not to take a step in haste +which he might repent at leisure. The humor of his own cautious slowness +brought back the twinkle in his eye, the smile on the rosy lip. 'I don't +know when I shall get around to that,' he said. 'You know, there's no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> +telling when the Mississippi River will reach a given point.' The +sluggish movement of the great Father of Waters was hit off to the life +by this impromptu epigram."</p> + +<p>Hardly had Garfield been nominated for the presidency, when his +neighbors, those who had known him from boyhood, together with his +kinsmen, gathered, and raised upon his old home, near the spot where he +was born, a pole, and placed thereon the candidate's name. The pole was +erected where the house stood which Garfield with his brother erected +for their mother and sisters with their own hands, after the log hut, a +little farther out in the field nearer the wood, had become unfit for +habitation. Thomas Garfield, an old man eighty years of age, the one who +was killed in a railroad accident soon after Gen. Garfield had been +inaugurated President, directed the manual labor of rearing the shaft, +and was proud of his work. Soon after it was erected Garfield himself +came from Mentor to look over the old place again, and with proud +satisfaction looked upon this expression of friendship of his old +neighbors. There is nothing except this pole left to mark his +birthplace, and the old well, not two rods off, which he and his brother +dug to furnish water for the family. On the day of the funeral services, +the torn and tattered banner which those who knew him from childhood to +manhood had erected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> in his honor, was lazily floating in the breeze +half-way down the pole, showing in its plain way the sorrow of those who +so gladly erected it less than twelve months ago. In the little maple +grove to the left, children played about the country school-house, which +has replaced the log one where the dead President first gathered the +rudiments upon which he built to such purpose. The old orchard in its +sere and yellow leaf, the dying grass, and the turning maple-leaves, +seemed to join in the general mourning.</p> + +<p>Adjoining the field where the flag floats is an unpretentious farm +almost as much identified with General Garfield's early history as the +one he helped to clear of the forest timber while he was a child, but it +is now free of buildings. Near by is the home of Henry B. Boynton, +cousin of the dead President, and a brother of Dr. Boynton, who has been +so conspicuously connected with the Garfield family since Mrs. +Garfield's illness last spring. "General Garfield and I were like +brothers," said he to a visitor, as he turned from giving some +directions to his farm hands, now sowing the fall grain upon ground +which the dead President first helped to break. He looked off tearfully, +as he spoke, toward the flag at half-mast, marking the birthplace of his +life-long friend. "His father died yonder, within a stone's throw of us, +when the son was but one and a half years old and I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> but three and a +half. He knew no other father than mine, who watched over the family as +if it had been his own. I bore a peculiar relation to the general. His +father and my father were half-brothers, and his mother and my mother +were sisters. This very house in which I live was as much his home as it +was mine." They walked toward the house as he spoke, and had here +reached the plain mansion which was the house of the speaker's +ancestors, as well as General Garfield's, and passed inside, to find his +good housewife silent and tearful, and whose swollen eyes told plainer +than words the terrible sorrow they all felt.</p> + +<p>"Over there," said he, pointing to the brick schoolhouse in the grove of +maples, around which the happy children were playing, "is where he and I +first went to school. I have read a statement that he could not read or +write until he was nineteen. He could do both before he was nine; and +before he was twelve, so familiar was he with the Indian history of the +country, that he had named every tree in the orchard, which his father +planted before he was born, with the name of some Indian chief. One +favorite tree of his he named 'Tecumseh,' and the branches of many of +those old trees have been cut since his promotion to the presidency by +relic hunters and carried away. General Garfield was a remarkable boy, +sir, as well as man. It is not possible to tell you the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> fight he made +amid poverty for a place in life, and how gradually he obtained it. When +he was a boy he would rather read than work. But he became a great +student. He had to work after he was twelve years of age. In those days +we were all poor, and it took hard knocks to get on. He worked clearing +the fields yonder with his brother, and then cut cordwood and did other +farm labor to get the necessaries of life for his mother and sisters.</p> + +<p>"His experience upon the canal was a severe one, but perhaps useful. I +can remember the winter when he came home after the summer's service +there. He had the chills all that fall and winter, yet he would shake, +and get his lessons at home; go over to the school and recite, and thus +keep up with his class. The next spring found him weak from constant +ague. Yet he intended to return to the canal. Here came the turning +point in his life. Mr. Bates, who taught the school, pleaded with him +not to do so, and said that, if he would continue in school until the +next fall, he could get a certificate. I received my certificate about +the same time. The next year we went to the seminary at Chester, only +twelve miles distant. Here our books were furnished us, and we cooked +our own victuals. We lived upon a dollar a week each. Our diet was +strong, but very plain; mush and molasses, pork and potatoes. Saturdays +we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> took our axes and went into the woods and cut cordwood; during +vacations we labored in the harvest field, or taught a district school, +as we could. Yonder," said he, pointing off toward a beautiful valley, +"about two miles distant stands the school-house where Garfield first +taught school. He got twelve dollars a month and boarded around. I also +taught school in a neighboring town. You see," continued the farmer, +"that the general and myself were very close to one another from the +time either of us could lisp until he became President. He visited me +here just before election, and looked with gratification upon that pole +yonder and its flag, erected by his neighbors and kinsmen. He wandered +over the fields he himself had helped clear, and pointed out to me +trees, from the limbs of which he had shot squirrel after squirrel, and +beneath the branches of which he had played and worked in the years of +his infancy and boyhood.</p> + +<p>"I forgot to say that one of General Garfield's striking characteristics +while he was growing up was that, when he saw a boy in the class excel +him in anything, he never gave up until he reached the same standard, +and even went beyond it. It got to be known that no scholar could be +ahead of him. Our association as men has been almost as close as that of +boys, although not as constant. The general never forgot his neighbors +or less fortunate kinsmen, and often visited us, as we did him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just before he was inaugurated I had a conversation with him, which +impressed me more than any other talk of our lives. He said: 'Henry, I +approach the duties of the Presidency with much reluctance. I had +thought that at some future time it might be possible for me to aspire +to that position, but I had been elected to the Senate, and should have +preferred to serve the six years in that body to which my own State +people had elected me. It would have been six years of comparative rest, +for service in the Senate is much easier than in the House. I hope I may +discharge the duties of the Presidency with satisfaction. There is one +thing, however, that distresses me more than all else. All my life I +have been making friends, and I have a great many sincere ones. But from +the hour I assume the Presidency I must necessarily begin making +enemies. Any man who wants an office and does not get it, will feel +himself aggrieved.' Our conversation at this time was long and earnest, +and seemed like returning to the days when we were schoolboys together."</p> + +<p>Garfield was made a Mason in Magnolia Lodge, No. 20, at Columbus, Nov. +22, 1861, while he was commander at Camp Chase. His affiliation at the +time of his death was with Pentalpha Lodge, No. 23, and Columbia +Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templars, at Washington, D. C. Suitar says +that he was the eighth Mason, but the first Knight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> Templar, who was +ever honored with the Presidency. He was a true and courteous knight, +and was not only an earnest supporter, but a charter member of Pentalpha +Lodge. After his election to the Presidency, his commandery sought to +express their esteem for him by attending the inauguration, and, +although the Masonic law forbids any interference with or participation +in politics, the occasion was regarded by the right eminent grand +commander as sufficiently important and devoid of partisan coloring to +grant the desired permission for five platoons of sixteen knights each +to attend President Garfield. On the 19th of July, 1881, he was elected +an honorary member of Hanselmann Commandery, No. 16, at Cincinnati, and +they sent him handsomely engraved resolutions of sympathy, which were +brought to his personal notice during his sickness, to which he +appropriately replied through his private secretary.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVII" id="CHAPTER_XLVII"></a>CHAPTER XLVII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.—George +Parsons Lathrop.—From <i>London Spectator</i>.—Oliver +Wendell Holmes.—N. Bernard Carpenter.—John Boyle +O'Reilly.—Joaquin Miller. M. J. Savage.—Julia Ward +Howe.—Rose Terry Cooke.—Prize Ode.—Kate Tannett Woods.</p></div> + + +<p>To the tributes we have already given, we add a few of the many fine +poems published in memory of the martyred President.</p> + + +<h3>PRESIDENT GARFIELD.</h3> + +<h4>BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.</h4> + +<h4>"<i>E venni dal martirio a questa pace.</i>"</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">These words the poet heard in Paradise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Uttered by one who, bravely dying here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the true faith, was living in that sphere,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where the Celestial Cross of sacrifice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spread its protecting arms athwart the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And, set thereon, like jewels crystal clear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The souls magnanimous, that knew not fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Flashed their effulgence on his dazzled eyes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah, me! how dark the discipline of pain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Were not the suffering followed by the sense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of infinite rest and infinite release!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This is our consolation; and again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A great soul cries to us in our suspense:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"I come from martyrdom unto this peace!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">CAMBRIDGE, MASS</span>, Sept 26, 1881. +<br /> +<i>The Independent.</i> +</p> + + +<h3>GARFIELD, PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE.</h3> + +<h4>(Died Sept. 19, 1881.)</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What is this silence, that calls?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What is this deafness that hears?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The silence is Death. Like a voice it falls;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It rings in the heedless ears<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">That never shall hearken again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the words of our blame or praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor the low-hushed moan of a nation's pain<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As it rolls through the darkened days!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And the motionless body must yield<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To the spell of that hushed command.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Oh, that one of us, dying, had been the shield<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To save that life for our land!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man that was trusted of men—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Brave, and not fearing to die<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More than to face life's meanness, when<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It clamored its partisan lie!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though you leave us, we lose you not!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the Republic you live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sacred, and part of its deathless lot,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For whose life your life you give.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Garfield—the name so plain,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The name we knew so well!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The name we shall never forget again,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the man who for honesty fell!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like another Winkelried,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">You drew to yourselves the spears<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of tyrannous hate, though yourself must bleed;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And left us—our pride and our tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Legacy meet and rare,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of one who dared to be pure!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In the hearts of the people who love what is fair,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That precious renown shall endure.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sorrow that falls like a stone<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the midst of the calm of our peace,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As the waves of pity around you have grown,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So may our truth increase!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">George Parsons Lathrop.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">In England</span>, Sept. 20, 1881. +<br /> +<i>New York Tribune.</i> +</p> + + +<h3>PRESIDENT GARFIELD.</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The hush of the sick-room; the muffled tread;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fond, questioning eye; mute lip, and listening ear;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where wife and children watch 'twixt hope and fear,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A father's, husband's living-dying bed!—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hush of a great nation, when its head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lies stricken! Lo! along the streets he's borne,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Pale, through rank'd crowds, this gray September morn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Mid straining eyes, sad brows unbonneted,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And reverent speechlessness!—a "people's voice!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nay but a peoples silence! through the soul<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the wide world its subtler echoes roll,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O brother nation England for her part<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is with thee: God willing she whose heart<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Throbbed with thy pain shall with thy joy rejoice.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Sept. 6, 1881.</span> +<br /> +<i>London Spectator.</i> +</p> + + +<h3>AFTER THE BURIAL.</h3> + +<h4>BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fallen with autumns falling leaf,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ere yet his summers noon was past,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What words can match a woe so vast?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And whose the chartered claim to speak<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The sacred grief where all have part,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When sorrow saddens every cheek,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And broods in every aching heart?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet nature prompts the burning phrase<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The loud lament, the sorrowing praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The silent tear that love lets fall.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The singers of the new born time,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And trembling age with outworn lyre.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No room for pride, no place for blame—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We fling our blossoms on the grave,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pale, scentless, faded,—all we claim,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">This only,—what we had we gave.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah, could the grief of all who mourn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Blend in one voice its bitter cry,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wail to heaven's high arches borne<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would echo through the caverned sky.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O happiest land whose peaceful choice<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Fills with a breath its empty throne!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God, speaking through thy people's voice,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Has made that voice for once his own.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No angry passion shakes the State<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whose weary servant seeks for rest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who could fear that scowling hate<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Would strike at that unguarded breast?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He stands, unconscious of his doom,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In manly strength, erect, serene,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around him summer spreads her bloom:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He falls,—what horror clothes the scene!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How swift the sudden flash of woe<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where all was bright as childhood's dream!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As if from heaven's ethereal bow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Had leaped the lightning's arrowy gleam.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Blot the foul deed from history's page,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Let not the all-betraying sun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Blush for the day that stains an age<br /></span> +<span class="i2">When murder's blackest wreath was won.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pale on his couch the sufferer lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The weary battle-ground of pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love tends his pillow, science tries<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her every art, alas! in vain.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The strife endures how long! how long!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Life, death, seem balanced in the scale;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While round his bed a viewless throng<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Awaits each morrow's changing tale.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In realms the desert ocean parts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What myriads watch with tear filled eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His pulse beats echoing in their hearts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His breathings counted with their sighs!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Slowly the stories of life are spent,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet hope still battles with despair,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will heaven not yield when knees are bent?<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Answer, O Thou that hearest prayer!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But silent is the brazen sky,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On sweeps the meteor's threatening train,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unswerving Nature's mute reply<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bound in her adamantine chain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not ours the verdict to decide<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whom death shall claim or skill shall save:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hero's life though Heaven denied,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">It gave our land a martyr's grave.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nor count the teaching vainly sent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How human hearts their griefs may share,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lesson woman's love has lent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">What hope may do, what faith can bear!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Farewell! the leaf-strewn earth enfolds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And autumn's golden sun beholds<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A nation bowed, a world in tears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20"><i>Boston Globe.</i><br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>SONNET—JAMES A. GARFIELD.</h3> + +<h4>BY REV. H. BERNARD CARPENTER</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo! as a pure white statue wrought with care<br /></span> +<span class="i2">By some strong hand, which moulds from Life and Death<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beauty more beautiful than blood or breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And straight 'tis veiled, and, whilst all men repair<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To see this wonder in the workshops there!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Behold it gleams unveiled to curious eye<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Far-seen, high-placed in Art's pale gallery,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where all stand mute before a work so fair:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So he, our man of men, in vision stands,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With Pain and Patience crowned imperial,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Death's veil has dropped, far from this house of woe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hears one love chant out of many lands,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whilst from his mystic noon-height he lets fall<br /></span> +<span class="i6">His shadow o'er these hearts that bleed below.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +Sept. 26, 1881. +<br /> +<i>The Independent.</i> +</p> + + +<h3>MIDNIGHT.</h3> + +<h4><span class="smcap">September 19, 1881.</span></h4> + +<h4>BY JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once in a lifetime we may see the veil<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tremble and lift, that hides symbolic things:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The spirit's vision, when the senses fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sweeps the weird meaning that the outlook brings.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Deep in the midst of turmoil it may be,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A crowded street, a forum, or a field,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soul inverts the telescope, to see<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To-day's event in future years revealed.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Back from the present, let us look at Rome;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now see what Cato meant, what Brutus said.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hark! the Athenians welcome Cimon home!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">How clear they are, those glimpses of the dead!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But we hard toilers, we who plan and weave<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Through common days the web of common life,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">What word, alas! shall teach us to receive<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The mystic meaning of our peace and strife?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Whence comes our symbol? Surely God must speak;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No less than he can make us heed or pause:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-seekers we, too busy or too weak<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To search beyond our daily lives and laws.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Gainst things occult our earth-turned eyes rebel;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No sound of destiny can reach our ears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We have no time for dreaming—Hark! a knell,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A knell at midnight! All the nation hears!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A second grievous throb! The dreamers wake;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The merchant's soul forgets his goods and ships;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The humble workmen from their slumbers break;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The women raise their eyes with quivering lips;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The miner rests upon his pick to hear;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The printer's type stops midway from the case;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The solemn sound has reached the roisterer's ear,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And brought the shame and sorrow to his face.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Again it booms! Oh, mystic veil, upraise!—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Behold, 'tis lifted! On the darkness drawn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A picture, lined with light! The people's gaze,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From sea to sea, beholds it till the dawn:<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A death-bed scene—a sinking sufferer lies,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Their chosen ruler, crowned with love and pride;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Around, his counsellors, with streaming eyes;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His wife, heart-broken, kneeling by his side:<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Death's shadow holds her, it will pass too soon;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She weeps in silence—bitterest of tears;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wanders softly—Nature's kindest boon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And as he whispers all the country hears.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For him the pain is past, the struggle ends:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His cares and honors fade: his younger life<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In peaceful Mentor comes, with dear old friends;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His mother's arms take home his sweet young wife;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He stands among the students, tall and strong,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And teaches truths republican and grand:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He moves—ah, pitiful!—he sweeps along,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O'er fields of carnage leading his command!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He speaks to crowded faces; round him surge<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thousands and millions of excited men:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He hears them cheer, sees some great light emerge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is borne as on a tempest: then—ah, then!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The fancies fade, the fever's work is past;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A moment's pang—then recollections thrill:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He feels the faithful lips that kiss their last,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His heart beats once in answer, and is still!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The curtain falls; but hushed, as if afraid,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The people wait, tear-stained, with heaving breast;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Twill rise again, they know, when he is laid<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With Freedom, in the Capitol, at rest.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once more they see him, in his coffin there,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As Lincoln lay in blood-stained martyr sleep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The stars and stripes across his honored bier,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While Freedom and Columbia o'er him weep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Boston Globe.</i><br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>REJOICE.</h3> + +<h4>BY JOAQUIN MILLER.</h4> + +<h4>"<i>Bear me out of the battle, for lo! I am sorely wounded.</i>"</h4> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">I.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From out my deep, wide-bosomed West,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where unnamed heroes hew the way<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For worlds to follow, with stern zest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where gnarled old maples make array,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep-scarred from red men gone to rest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where pipes the quail, where squirrels play<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through tossing trees, with nuts for toy,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A boy steps forth, clear-eyed and tall,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bashful boy, a soulful boy,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Yet comely as the sons of Saul,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">A boy, all friendless, poor, unknown,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Yet heir-apparent to a throne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">II.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Lo! Freedom's bleeding sacrifice!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">So like some tall oak tempest-blown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beside the storied stream he lies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now at the last, pale-browed and prone.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A nation kneels with streaming eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A nation supplicates the throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A nation holds him by the hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A nation sobs aloud at this:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The only dry eyes in the land<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Now at the last, I think, are his.<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Why, we should pray, God knoweth best,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">That this grand, patient soul should rest.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">III.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The world is round. The wheel has run<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Full circle. Now behold a grave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Beneath the old loved trees is done.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The druid oaks lift up, and wave<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A solemn welcome back. The brave<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Old maples murmur, every one,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Receive him, Earth!" In centre land,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As in the centre of each heart,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As in the hollow of God's hand,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The coffin sinks. And with it part<br /></span> +<span class="i4">All party hates! Now, not in vain<br /></span> +<span class="i4">He bore his peril and hard pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">IV.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Therefore, I say, rejoice! I say,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The lesson of his life was much,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This boy that won, as in a day,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The world's heart utterly; a touch<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of tenderness and tears; the page<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of history grows rich from such;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His name the nation's heritage,—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But oh! as some sweet angel's voice<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Spake this brave death that touched us all,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Therefore, I say, Rejoice! rejoice!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Run high the flags! Put by the pall!<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Lo! all is for the best for all!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20"><i>Boston Globe.</i><br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>J. A. G.</h3> + +<h4>HUMANITAS REGNANS.</h4> + +<h4>BY M. J. SAVAGE.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">With finger on lip, and breath bated<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With an eager and sad desire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The world stood hushed, as it waited<br /></span> +<span class="i2">For the click of the fateful wire,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Better</i>:" and civilization<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Breathed freer and hoped again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"<i>Worse</i>:" and through every nation<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Went throbbing a thrill of pain.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A cry at midnight! and listening—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"<i>Dead!</i>" tolled out the bells of despair;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And millions of eyelids were glistening<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As sobbed the sad tones on the air.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But who is he toward whom all eyes are turning.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And who is he for whom all hearts are yearning?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What is the threat at which earth holds its breath<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While one lone man a duel fights with death?<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No thrones are hanging in suspense;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No kingdoms totter to their fall.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Peace, with her gentle influence,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Is hovering over all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Tis just one man at Elberon,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who waiteth day by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose patience all our hearts hath won<br /></span> +<span class="i2">As ebbs his life away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">His birthday waked no cannon-boom;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">No purple round him hung;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A backwoods cabin gave him room;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And storms his welcome sung.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He seized the sceptre of that king<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who treads a freehold sod;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wore upon his brow that ring<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That crowns a son of God.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">By his own might he built a throne,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">With no unhuman arts,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And by his manhood reigned alone<br /></span> +<span class="i2">O'er fifty millions hearts.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Thus is humanity's long dream,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Its highest, holiest hope begun<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To harden into fact, and gleam<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A city 'neath the sun—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A city, not like that which came<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In old-time vision from the skies;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But wrought by man through blood and flame,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From solid earth to rise,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Man's city; the ideal reign<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Where every human right hath place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where blood, nor birth, nor priest again<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall bind the weary race,—<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>In which no king but man shall be</i>.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Twas this that thrilled with loving pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The heart of all the earth, as he<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Died by the sobbing main.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For, mightiest ruler of the earth,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He was the mightiest, not because<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of priestly touch or blood, or birth.<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But by a people's laws.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Garfield! brave and patient soul!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Long as the tireless tides shall roll<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About the <i>Long Branch</i> beaches, where<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy life went out upon the air,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So long thy land, from sea to sea,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will hold thy manhood's legacy.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There <i>were</i> two parties: there were those,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In thine own party, called thy foes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There <i>was</i> a North; there <i>was</i> a South,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ere blazed the assassin's pistol-mouth.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But lo! thy bed became a throne:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as the hours went by, at length<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The weakness of thine arm alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grew mightier than thy strongest strength.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No petulant murmur; no vexed cry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of balked ambitions; but a high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grand patience! And thy whisper blent<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In one heart all the continent.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-day there are no factions left,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But <i>one America</i> bereft.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O Garfield! fortunate in death wast thou,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Though at the opening of a grand career!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou wast a meteor flashing on the brow<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of skies political, where oft appear,<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And disappear, so many stars of promise. Then,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">While all men watched thy high course, wondering<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If them wouldst upward sweep, or fell again,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thee from thine orbit mad hands thought to fling;<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And lo! the meteor, with its fitful light,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">All on a sudden stood, and was a star,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A radiance fixed, to glorify the night<br /></span> +<span class="i2">There where the world's proud constellations are.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 20em;"><i>Boston Globe.</i></span><br /> +</p> + + +<h3>J. A. G.</h3> + +<h4>BY JULIA WARD HOWE.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our sorrow sends its shadow round the earth.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So brave, so true! A hero from his birth!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The plumes of Empire moult, in mourning draped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The lightning's message by our tears is shaped.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life's vanities that blossom for an hour<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Heap on his funeral car their fleeting flower.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Commerce forsakes her temples, blind and dim,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And pours her tardy gold, to homage him.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The notes of grief to age familiar grow<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the sad privations all must know;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But the majestic cadence which we hear<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To-day, is new in either hemisphere.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What crown is this, high hung and hard to reach,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose glory so outshines our laboring speech?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The crown of Honor, pure and unbetrayed;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He wins the spurs who bears the knightly aid.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">While royal babes incipient empire hold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, for bare promise, grasp the sceptre's gold,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This man such service to his age did bring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they who knew him servant hailed him king.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In poverty his infant couch was spread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His tender hands soon wrought for daily bread;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But from the cradle's bound his willing feet<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The errand of the moment went to meet.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When learning's page unfolded to his view,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The quick disciple straight a teacher grew;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, when the fight of freedom stirred the land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Armed was his heart and resolute his hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Wise in the council, stalwart in the field!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Such rank supreme a workman's hut may yield.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His onward steps like measured marbles show,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Climbing the height where God's great flame doth glow.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ah! Rose of joy, that hid'st a thorn so sharp!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! Golden woof, that meet'st a severed warp!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! Solemn comfort, that the stars rain down!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hero's garland his, the martyr's crown!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Newport</span>, Sept. 25, 1881.<br /><br /> + +<i>Boston Globe.</i> +</p> + + +<h3>HOME AT LAST.</h3> + +<h4>BY ROSE TERRY COOK.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">So long he prayed to come,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Lingered so long away;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now, with the muffled beat of drum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And solemn dirges, at last he hath come,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Come home to stay.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Yes, he has come to stay!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The homesick heart is still,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The hurried pulse and the aching breast<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Now in the lap of home shall rest;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He has his will.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">No more of heat or chill,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">No frost or evil blight,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The work of living a life is done,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The long fight over, the victory won,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">He sleeps to-night.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Silent is home's delight,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Peaceful its tranquil cheer;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here is the cool, unbroken calm,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The soft wind's breath and the fir-tree's balm,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">All, all are here.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">He and the dying year<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Lie in their slumber deep.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Safe in the heart of home at last,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anxious slumber nor grievous past<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Shall stir his sleep.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i4">Woe for us to keep,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">For him a joy to last!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Woe for the land in years to come,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wail, O trumpet! and mutter, drum!<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The dead comes home at last!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Winsted, Conn.</span></p> + +<p class="right"> +<i>The Independent.</i> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>AN ODE ON THE ASSASSINATION.</h3> + +<p>[A prize offered by a London weekly for the best poem on the attempted +assassination of President Garfield was awarded to the author of the +following.]</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Veil now, O Liberty! thy blushing face,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">At the fell deed that thrills a startled world;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While fair Columbia weeps in dire disgrace,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And bows in sorrow o'er the banner furled.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">No graceless tyrant falls by vengeance here,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">'Neath the wild justice of a secret knife;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No red Ambition ends its grim career,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And expiates its horrors with its life.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Not here does rash Revenge misguided burn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To free a nation with the assassin's dart;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or roused Despair in angry madness turn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And tear its freedom from a despot's heart.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">But where blest Liberty so widely reigns,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And Peace and Plenty mark a smiling land,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here the mad wretch its fair white record stains,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And blurs its beauties with a "bloody hand."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Here the elect of millions, and the pride<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of those who own his mild and peaceful rule,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Here virtue sinks and yields the crimson tide,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Beneath the vile unreason of a fool!<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span></div></div> + + +<h3>FATHERLESS.</h3> + +<h4>BY KATE TANNATT WOODS.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the land the tidings sped,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"The leader has fallen, our chief is dead."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And over the land a cry of pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Began and ended with Garfield's name.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He is dead," said each, with tearful eye:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"So strong, so true, why must he die?"<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the children paused that autumn day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To talk of the good man passed away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the land when the tidings came,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Even the babies lisped his name;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And youthful eyes grew sad that day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For the fatherless children far away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fatherless,—word with a life of pain;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fatherless,—never complete again;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Always to miss, and never to know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The joy of his greeting,—his love below.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Missing the cheerful smile each day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Missing his care in studies or play,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Missing each hour, each day, each year,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of a voice so tender and dear.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fatherless! only the children can tell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sound of that dreary funeral knell;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For only they, in all coming years,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Find the roses of youth bedewed with tears.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Over the land from shore to shore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The prayer of the children is echoed o'er,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"God of the fatherless, help we pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The wards of our mourning nation to-day."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p class="right"> +<i>Boston Globe.</i> +</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Salem</span>, Sept. 24, 1881.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XLVIII" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII"></a>CHAPTER XLVIII.</h2> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Currency.—Lincoln.—Forms of Government.—The +Draft.—Slavery.—Human Progress.—Independence.— +Republicanism and Democracy.—The Rebellion.—Protection +and Free Trade.—Radicalism.—Education.—Reconstruction.— +William H. Seward.—Fourteenth Amendment.—Classical +Studies.—History.—Law.—Liberty.—Statistical +Science.—Poverty.—Growth.—Ethics.—The Salary +Clause.—The Railway Problem.—Church and State.— +Courage.—Art.—Literature.—Character.—Public +Opinion.—The Revenue.—Statesmanship.—Science.— +Truth.—Elements of Success.—Suffrage.—Gustave +Schleicher.—Appeal to Young Men.—The Union.—Inaugural.</p></div> + +<h3>[Speech on the Currency.—46th Congress.]</h3> + + +<p>No man can doubt that within recent years, and notably within recent +months, the leading thinkers of the civilized world have become alarmed +at the attitude of the two precious metals in relation to each other; +and many leading thinkers are becoming clearly of the opinion that, by +some wise, judicious arrangement, both the precious metals must be kept +in service for the currency of the world. And this opinion has been very +rapidly gaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> ground within the past six months to such an extent, +that England, which for more than half a century has stoutly adhered to +the single gold standard, is now seriously meditating how she may +harness both these metals to the monetary car of the world. And yet +outside of this capital, I do not this day know of a single great and +recognized advocate of bi-metallic money who regards it prudent or safe +for any nation largely to increase the coinage standard of silver at the +present time beyond the limits fixed by existing laws.... Yet we, who +during the past two years have coined far more silver dollars than we +ever before coined since the foundation of the Government; ten times as +many as we coined during half a century of our national life; are to-day +ignoring and defying the enlightened universal opinion of bi-metallism, +and saying that the United States, single-handed and alone, can enter +the field and settle the mighty issue. We are justifying the old proverb +that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread." It is sheer madness, +Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a great stack of hay that had been +floated out into the wild overflowed stream of a river, with its +stack-pen and foundation still holding together, but ready to be +wrecked. For a little while the animal appeared to be perfectly happy. +His hay-stack was there, and the pen around it, and he seemed to think +the world bright and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> happiness secure, while the sunshine fell +softly on his head and hay. But by and by he began to discover that the +house and the barn, and their surroundings were not all there, as they +were when he went to sleep the night before; and he began to see that he +could not command all the prospect, and peacefully dominate the scene as +he had done before.</p> + +<p>So with this House. We assume to manage this mighty question which has +been launched on the wild current that sweeps over the whole world, and +we bark from our legislative hay-stacks as though we commanded the whole +world. In the name of common sense and sanity, let us take some account +of the flood; let us understand that a deluge means something, and try +if we can to get our bearings before we undertake to settle the affairs +of all mankind by a vote of this House. To-day we are coining one-third +of all the silver that is being coined in the round world. China is +coining another third; and all other nations are using the remaining +one-third for subsidiary coin. And if we want to take rank with China, +and part company with all of the civilized nations of the Western world, +let us pass this bill, and then "bay the moon" as we float down the +whirling channel to take our place among the silver mono-metallists of +Asia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[Letter to B. A. Kimball.]</h3> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Columbus, Ohio</span>, February 16, 1861.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every +point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and +republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair +of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no +appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am +greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the +marks of western life; but there is no touch of affectation in him, and +he has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, direct, and +thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style +of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give me great +hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's +weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and +vigorous leader.</p> + + +<h3>[To the Same.]</h3> + +<p>A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, because its +sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful +enough, will crush it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span></p> + +<p>As an abstract theory, the doctrine of Free Trade seems to be +universally true, but as a question of practicability, under a +government like ours, the protective system seems to be indispensable.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on a Draft Bill, June 21, 1864.]</h3> + +<p>It has never been my policy to conceal a truth <i>merely</i> because it is +unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is +neither well nor wise to let danger approach unchallenged and +unannounced. A brave nation, like a brave man, desires to see and +measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American +people to know the necessities of the Republic when they are called upon +to make sacrifices for it. It is this lack of confidence in ourselves +and the people, this timid waiting for events to control us when they +should obey us, that makes men oscillate between hope and fear; now in +the sunshine of the hill-tops, and now in the gloom and shadows of the +valley. To such men the bulletin which heralds success in the army gives +exultation and high hope; the evening dispatch, announcing some slight +disaster to our advancing columns, brings gloom and depression. Hope +rises and falls by the accidents of war, as the mercury of the +thermometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather +take for our symbol the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> sailor's barometer, which faithfully forewarns +him of the tempest, and gives him unerring promise of serene skies and +peaceful seas.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech in New York City, 1865, on the Assassination of President +Lincoln.]</h3> + +<p>By this last act of madness, it seems as though the Rebellion had +determined that the President of the soldiers should go with the +soldiers who have laid down their lives on the battle-field. They slew +the noblest and gentlest heart that ever put down a rebellion upon this +earth. In taking that life they have left "the iron" hand of the people +to fall upon them. Love is on the front of the throne of God, but +justice and judgment, with inexorable dread, follow behind; and where +law is slighted and mercy despised, when they have rejected those who +would be their best friends, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eye, +and with the sword and scales. From every gaping wound of your dead +chief, let the voice go up for the people to see to it that our house is +swept and garnished. I hasten to say one thing more. For mere vengeance +I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. +But for security of the future I would do everything.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[Speech in Congress on the Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery, +January 13, 1865]</h3> + +<p>On the 21st day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by +the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still +resides, and for its preservation our armies are to-day in the field. In +all these stages of development, from colonial dependence to full-orbed +nationality, the people, not the States, have been omnipotent. <i>They</i> +have abolished, established, altered, and amended, as suited their +sovereign pleasure. <i>They</i> made the Constitution. That great charter +tells its own story best:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We, <i>the people</i> of the United States, in order to form a +more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic +tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the +general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to +ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this +Constitution for the United States of America."</p></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest and the greatest +utterance of American sovereignty. The hour is now at hand when that +majestic sovereign, for the benignant purpose of securing still farther +the 'blessings of liberty,' is about to put forth another oracle; is +about to declare that universal freedom shall be the supreme law of the +land. Show me the power that is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> authorized to forbid it.... They made +the Constitution what it is. They could have made it otherwise then: +they can make it otherwise now.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the very crisis of our fate, God brought us face to face with the +alarming truth, that we must lose our own freedom, or grant it to the +slave. In the extremity of our distress, we called upon the black man to +help us save the Republic, and amidst the very thunder of battle we made +a covenant with him, sealed both with his blood and ours, and witnessed +by Jehovah, that when the nation was redeemed, he should be free, and +share with us the glories and blessings of freedom. In the solemn words +of the great proclamation of emancipation, we not only declared the +slaves forever free, but we pledged the faith of the nation "to maintain +their freedom"—mark the words, "<i>to maintain their freedom</i>." The +Omniscient witness will appear in judgment against us if we do not +fulfil that covenant. Have we done it? Have we given freedom to the +black man? What is freedom? Is it a mere negation? the bare privilege of +not being chained, bought, and sold, branded, and scourged? If this be +all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion, and it may well +be questioned whether slavery were not better.</p> + +<p>But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> tangible reality. It +is the realization of those imperishable truths of the Declaration, +"that all men are created equal," that the sanction of all just +government is "the consent of the governed." Can these truths be +realized until each man has a right to be heard on all matters relating +to himself?</p> + +<p>Mr. Speaker, we did more than merely to break off the chains of the +slaves. The abolition of slavery added four million citizens to the +Republic. By the decision of the Supreme Court, by the decision of the +attorney-general, by the decision of all the departments of our +government, those men made free are, by the act of freedom, made +citizens.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>If they are to be disfranchised, if they are to have no voice in +determining the conditions under which they are to live and labor, what +hope have they for the future? It will rest with their late masters, +whose treason they aided to thwart, to determine whether negroes shall +be permitted to hold property, to enjoy the benefits of education, to +enforce contracts, to have access to the courts of justice—in short, to +enjoy any of those rights which give vitality and value to freedom. Who +can fail to foresee the ruin and misery that await this race to whom the +vision of freedom has been presented only to be withdrawn, leaving them +without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> even the aid which the master's selfish, commercial interest in +their life and service formerly afforded them? Will these negroes, +remembering the battle-fields on which nearly two hundred thousand of +their number have so bravely fought, and many thousands have heroically +died, submit to oppression as tamely and peaceably as in the days of +slavery? Under such conditions there could be no peace, no security, no +prosperity. The spirit of slavery is still among us; it must be utterly +destroyed before we shall be safe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. Speaker, I know of nothing more dangerous to a Republic than to put +into its very midst four million people, stripped of every attribute of +citizenship, robbed of the right of representation, but bound to pay +taxes to the government. If they can endure it, we can not. The murderer +is to be pitied more than the murdered man; the robber more than the +robbed. And we who defraud four million citizens of their rights are +injuring ourselves vastly more than we are injuring the black man whom +we rob.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the golden +thread of human progress toward a higher and better estate.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The life and light of a nation are inseparable.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We confront the dangers of suffrage by the blessings of universal +education.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We should do nothing inconsistent with the spirit and genius of our +institutions. We should do nothing for revenge, but everything for +security: nothing for the past; everything for the present and future.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There are two classes of forces whose action and reaction determine the +condition of a nation—the forces of Repression and Expression. The one +acts from without; limits, curbs, restrains. The other acts from within; +expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional forms, statutory limitations, +conservative customs, belong to the first. The free play of individual +life, opinion, and action, belong to the second. If these forces be +happily balanced, if there be a wise conservation and correlation of +both, a nation may enjoy the double blessing of progress and permanence.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It matters little what may be the forms of National institutions, if the +life, freedom, and growth of society are secured.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There is no horizontal stratification of society in this country like +the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and +let another come to the surface to stay there forever. Our +stratification is like the ocean, where every individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> drop is free +to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop +may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Union and the Congress must share the same fate. They must rise or +fall together.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political +parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real +political issues of the day declare themselves and come out of the depth +of that deep which we call public opinion. The nation has a life of its +own as distinctly defined as the life of an individual. The signs of its +growth and the periods of its development make issues declare +themselves; and the man or the political party that does not discover +this, has not learned the character of the nation's life.</p> + + +<h3>[Reply to Mr. Lamar, in a Committee of the Whole.]</h3> + +<p>Mr. Chairman, great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as +the gods, whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence was a +war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two hundred years of slow and +silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as +self-evident truths the declaration that all men are created equal, and +the only just power of governments is derived from the consent of the +governed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> they uttered a doctrine that no nation had ever adopted, that +not one kingdom on the earth then believed. Yet to our fathers it was so +plain that they would not debate it. They announced it as a truth +"self-evident."</p> + +<p>Whence came the immortal truths of the Declaration? To me this was for +years the riddle of our history. I have searched long and patiently +through the books of the <i>doctrinaires</i> to find the germs from which the +Declaration of Independence sprang. I find hints in Locke, in Hobbes, in +Rousseau, and Fénelon; but they were only the hints of dreamers and +philosophers. The great doctrines of the Declaration germinated in the +hearts of our fathers, and were developed under the new influences of +this wilderness world, by the same subtile mystery which brings forth +the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to themselves, +the great truths were growing under the new conditions, until, like the +century-plant, they blossomed into the matchless beauty of the +Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, +we enjoy to-day.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak of the gigantic revolution +through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and +settled by a change of administration. It was cyclical, epochal, +century-wide, and to be studied in its broad and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> grand perspective—a +revolution of even wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the +Revolution of 1776. We have been dealing with elements and forces which +have been at work on this continent more than two hundred and fifty +years. I trust I shall be excused if I take a few moments to trace some +of the leading phases of the great struggle. And in doing so, I beg +gentlemen to see that the subject itself lifts us into a region where +the individual sinks out of sight and is absorbed in the mighty current +of great events. It is not the occasion to award praise or pronounce +condemnation. In such a revolution men are like insects that fret and +toss in the storm, but are swept onward by the resistless movements of +elements beyond their control. I speak of this revolution not to praise +the men who aided it, or to censure the men who resisted it, but as a +force to be studied, as a mandate to be obeyed.</p> + +<p>In the year 1620 there were planted upon this continent two ideas +irreconcilably hostile to each other. Ideas are the great warriors of +the world; and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. +The two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock, from the <i>Mayflower</i>, +and the other from a Dutch brig at Jamestown, Virginia. One was the old +doctrine of Luther, that private judgment, in politics as well as +religion, is the right and duty of every man; and the other, that +capital should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> own labor, that the negro had no rights of manhood, and +the white man might justly buy, own, and sell him and his offspring +forever. Thus freedom and equality on the one hand, and on the other the +slavery of one race and the domination of another, were the two germs +planted on this continent. In our vast expanse of wilderness, for a long +time, there was room for both; and their advocates began the race across +the continent, each developing the social and political institutions of +their choice. Both had vast interests in common; and for a long time +neither was conscious of the fatal antagonisms that were developing.</p> + +<p>For nearly two centuries there was no serious collision; but when the +continent began to fill up, and the people began to jostle against each +other; when the Roundhead and the Cavalier came near enough to measure +opinions, the irreconcilable character of the two doctrines began to +appear. Many conscientious men studied the subject, and came to the +belief that slavery was a crime, a sin, or, as Wesley said, 'the sum of +all villanies.' This belief dwelt in small minorities for a long time. +It lived in the churches and vestries, but later found its way into the +civil and political organizations of the country, and finally found its +way into this chamber. A few brave, clear-sighted, far-seeing men +announced it here, a little more than a generation ago. A predecessor of +mine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> Joshua R. Giddings, following the lead of John Quincy Adams, of +Massachusetts, almost alone held up the banner on this floor, and from +year to year comrades came to his side. Through evil and through good +report he pressed the question upon the conscience of the nation, and +bravely stood in his place in this House, until his white locks, like +the plume of Henry of Navarre, showed where the battle of freedom raged +most fiercely.</p> + +<p>And so the contest continued; the supporters of slavery believing +honestly and sincerely that slavery was a divine institution; that it +found its high sanctions in the living oracles of God and in a wise +political philosophy; that it was justified by the necessities of their +situation; and that slave-holders were missionaries to the dark sons of +Africa, to elevate and bless them. We are so far past the passions of +that early time that we can now study the progress of the struggle as a +great and inevitable development, without sharing in the crimination and +recrimination that attended it. If both sides could have seen that it +was a contest beyond their control; if both parties could have realized +the truth that "unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of +nations," much less for the fate of political parties, the bitterness, +the sorrow, the tears, and the blood might have been avoided. But we +walked in the darkness, our paths obscured by the smoke of the conflict, +each<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> following his own convictions through ever-increasing fierceness, +until the debate culminated in "the last argument to which kings +resort."</p> + +<p>This conflict of opinion was not merely one of sentimental feeling; it +involved our whole political system; it gave rise to two radically +different theories of the nature of our government; the North believing +and holding that we were a nation, the South insisting that we were only +a confederation of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had +the right, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and constantly +threatening secession where the full rights of slavery were not +acknowledged.</p> + +<p>Thus the defence and aggrandizement of slavery, and the hatred of +abolitionism, became not only the central idea of the Democratic party, +but its master passion,—a passion intensified and inflamed by +twenty-five years of fierce political contest, which had not only driven +from its ranks all those who preferred freedom to slavery, but had +absorbed all the extreme pro-slavery elements of the fallen Whig party. +Over against this was arrayed the Republican party, asserting the broad +doctrines of nationality and loyalty, insisting that no State had a +right to secede, that secession was treason, and demanding that the +institution of slavery should be restricted to the limits of the States +where it already existed. But here and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> there many bolder and more +radical thinkers declared, with Wendell Phillips, that there never could +be union and peace, freedom and prosperity, until we were willing to see +John Hancock under a black skin.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender its truncheon of +command to the Democracy? The gentleman from Mississippi says, if this +were England, the ministry would go out in twenty-four hours with such a +state of things as we have here. Ah, yes! that is an ordinary case of +change of administration. But if this were England, what would she have +done at the end of the war? England made one such mistake as the +gentleman asks this country to make, when she threw away the +achievements of the grandest man that ever trod her highway of power. +Oliver Cromwell had overturned the throne of despotic power, and had +lifted his country to a place of masterful greatness among the nations +of the earth; and when, after his death, his great sceptre was +transferred to a weak though not unlineal hand, his country, in a moment +of reactionary blindness, brought back the Stuarts. England did not +recover from that folly until, in 1689, the Prince of Orange drove from +her island the last of that weak and wicked line. Did she afterward +repeat the blunder?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I am aware that there is a general disposition "to let by-gones be +by-gones," and to judge of parties and of men, not by what they have +been, but by what they are and what they propose.</p> + +<p>That view is partly just and partly erroneous. It is just and wise to +bury resentments and animosities. It is erroneous in this, that parties +have an organic life and spirit of their own—an individuality and +character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of a nation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I will close by calling your attention again to the great problem before +us. Over this vast horizon of interests North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand, onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate +its glory, to save liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles, until they +shall have crystalized into the form of enduring law, and become +inwrought into the life and the habits of our people.</p> + +<p>And, until these great results are accomplished, it is not safe to take +one step backward. It is still more unsafe to trust interests of such +measureless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> value in the hands of an organization whose members have +never comprehended their epoch, have never been in sympathy with its +great movements, who have resisted every step of its progress, and whose +principal function has been</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">"'To lie in cold obstruction'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>across the pathway of the nation.</p> + +<p>"No, no, gentlemen, our enlightened and patriotic people will not follow +such leaders in the rearward march. Their myriad faces are turned the +other way; and along their serried lines still rings the cheering cry, +'Forward! till our great work is fully and worthily accomplished.'"</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech in Congress, 1866.]</h3> + +<p>Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with +the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection.... I am for a +protection that leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade +which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection.</p> + + +<h3>[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale.]</h3> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, January 1, 1867. +</p> + +<p>I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I +have been for a long time....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> Really there seems to be a fear on the +part of many of our friends that they may do some absurdly extravagant +thing to prove their radicalism. I am trying to do two things: dare to +be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibitions +around me, is a matter of no small difficulty.... My own course is +chosen, and it is quite probable it will throw me out of public life.</p> + +<p>We provide for the common defence by a system which promotes the general +welfare.</p> + + +<h3>[From an Address at Hiram College, June 14, 1867.]</h3> + +<p>It is to me a perpetual wonder how any child's love of knowledge +survives the outrages of the school-house. I, for one, declare that no +child of mine shall ever be <i>compelled</i> to study one hour, or to learn +even the English alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at +least seven years of muscle and bone.</p> + + +<h3>[From the Same.]</h3> + +<p>The student should study himself, his relations to society, to nature, +and to art, and above all, in all, and through all these, he should +study the relations of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the +Author of them all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[From the Same]</h3> + +<p>It is well to know the history of those magnificent nations whose origin +is lost in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a thousand years +ago—but if we cannot know both, it is far better to study the history +of our own nation, whose origin we can trace to the freest and noblest +aspirations of the human heart—a nation that was formed from the +hardiest, purest, and most enduring elements of European civilization—a +nation that, by its faith and courage, has dared and accomplished more +for the human race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the +first thousand years of the Christian era. The New England township was +the type after which our Federal Government was modelled, yet it would +be rare to find a college student who can make a comprehensive and +intelligible statement of the municipal organization of the township in +which he was born, and tell you by what officers its legislative, +judicial, and executive functions were administered. One half of the +time which is now almost wasted, in district schools, on English +Grammar, attempted at too early an age, would be sufficient to teach our +children to love the Republic, and to become its loyal and life-long +supporters. After the bloody baptism from which the nation has arisen to +a higher and nobler life, of this shameful defect in our system<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> of +education be not speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite +contempt of future generations. I insist that it should be made an +indispensable condition of graduation in every American college, that +the student must understand the history of this continent since its +discovery by Europeans, the origin and history of the United States, its +constitution of government, the struggles through which it has passed, +and the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine its destiny +and share its glory.</p> + +<p>Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary to life, health, +industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared to enter a wider and +grander field of thought. If he desires that large and liberal culture, +which will call into activity all his powers, and make the most of the +material God has given him, he must study deeply and earnestly the +intellectual, the moral, the religious, and the æsthetic nature of man; +his relations to nature, to civilization, past and present, and above +all, his relations to God. These should occupy nearly, if not fully, +half the time of his college course. In connection with the philosophy +of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathematics, and the +general laws of thought. In connection with moral philosophy, he should +study political and social ethics—a science so little known either in +colleges or congresses. Prominent among all the rest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> should be his +study of the wonderful history of the human race, in its slow and +toilsome march across the centuries—now buried in ignorance, +superstition and crime; now rising to the sublimity of heroism and +catching a glimpse of a better destiny; now turning remorselessly away +from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations in which it had +invested its faith, and courage, and boundless energy for a thousand +years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Britain, to +build for itself new empires, better fitted for its new aspirations; +and, at last, crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, and building +in the wilderness of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech in the House of Representatives, February 12, 1867.]</h3> + +<p>I cannot forget that we have learned slowly.... I cannot forget that +less than five years ago I received an order from my superior officer +commanding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave, and if found, to +deliver him up to a Kentucky captain who claimed him as his property; +and <i>I had the honor to be perhaps the first officer in the army who +peremptorily refused to obey such an order</i>. We were then trying to save +the Union without hurting slavery.... It took us two years to reach a +point where we were willing to do the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> most meagre justice to the black +man, and to recognize the truth that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">"A man's a man for a' that!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work, leading us by +degrees out of the blindness of our prejudices, to see that the fortunes +of the Republic and the safety of the party of liberty are inseparably +bound up with the rights of the black man. At last our party must see +that if it would preserve its political life, or maintain the safety of +the Republic, we must do justice to the humblest man in the Nation, +whether black or white. I thank God that to-day we have struck the rock; +we have planted our feet upon solid earth. Streams of light will gleam +out from the luminous truth embodied in the legislation of this day. +This is the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of reconstruction, and I hope we shall have +the courage to go before our people everywhere with "This or nothing" +for our motto.</p> + +<p>Now, sir, as a temporary measure, I give my support to this military +bill properly restricted. It is severe. It was written with a steel pen +made out of a bayonet; and bayonets have done us good service hitherto. +All I ask is that Congress shall place civil governments before these +people of the rebel States, and a cordon of bayonets behind them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span></p><hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Now, what does this bill propose? It lays the hands of the Nation upon +the rebel State governments, and takes the breath of life out of them. +It puts the bayonet at the breast of every rebel murderer in the South +to bring him to justice. It commands the army to protect the life and +property of citizens whether black or white. It places in the hands of +Congress absolutely and irrevocably the whole work of reconstruction.</p> + +<p>With this thunderbolt in our hands shall we stagger like idiots under +its weight? Have we grasped a weapon which we have neither the courage +nor the wisdom to wield?</p> + + +<h3>WILLIAM H. SEWARD.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></h3> + +<p>When in Europe in 1867, my attention was particularly drawn to the +significant fact that the pictures of Lincoln and Seward were the only +portraits of American statesmen that were notably prominent, and that +these were everywhere seen together. I asked a Frenchman of distinction +why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> Seward was held in such high estimation; and his answer most +seriously impressed me with the thought that perhaps, after all the +slanders of his detractors, Mr. Seward had builded for the future more +wisely than we knew. This gentleman said: "Mr. Seward is the American +statesman who looms up the most prominently from over the water. His +diplomacy in Mexico has placed the imprint of greatness upon his name. +Halting for a moment in the midst of the turmoil of the civil war, with +his pen he dismembered the coalition organized to place Maximilian upon +the Mexican throne, and thus placed the first mine under the throne of +the Third Bonaparte. He has undertaken what the combined powers of +Europe have not ventured to essay—to break the sceptre of the Second +Empire." The views entertained by this distinguished Frenchman seem also +to have been held in Mexico, for upon the occasion of the death of Mr. +Seward, the press of that country all made the most grateful mention of +his services in that regard.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p> +<p>The enthusiasm of this Frenchman, continued General Garfield, had not +perished from my memory later when public duties called me to the State +Department. The Alaska treaty had just been signed. I found the Sage of +Auburn alone, in the thoughtful mood so common to him when meditating +upon great subjects. Our conversation fell upon himself, and I found +that he had been meditating upon his withdrawal from public life. He had +been eight years in the second highest place in this Nation. He had +almost had the Presidency within his grasp; but the displeasure of his +party had fallen upon him, and he was about to retire from the political +arena. He told me that power was sweet to him; that he clung even then +fondly to its shadow; and that he relinquished his sceptre with regret. +His exact language, in speaking of his past career was: "It is +unpleasant to yield up power." The conversation turned upon Alaska. The +Secretary fell into the dream-like attitude that was never seen except +by those who were familiar with him, and commenced to explain his theory +of the Alaska purchase in forcible, prophetic, almost pathetic words +which I never shall forget. I left the room then with grander ideas of +the man than I had ever entertained before. His conversation indicated +that he had been following a particular course of study, for he remarked +that, to his notion, the two greatest books of the century<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> were Marsh's +"Man in Nature," and the Duke of Argyll's "Reign of Law." The +application of Argyll's theory of law as applied to political +development, Mr. Seward had evidently studied with much care. He had +been reasoning upon natural laws as they affect a nation. He had been +speculating upon the elementary forces of a nation's grandeur, and upon +the contrivance in combining them to make them operate in a direction +desired. This theory was founded upon the possibility of tracing these +forces in history, and of discovering the operation of these laws under +conditions which had actually determined the course of mankind and +nations in definite directions. The text of his theory was the history +of the world's seas. History had taught him that the grandest +achievements of man had been associated with the shores of the world's +seas. To go back no further than the beginning of the Christian era, the +most sacred, solemn story of the hopes of man had been written in +wanderings on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. With the progress of +Christian civilization, thus sea-born, the advancing tide of human +progress was staid by the banks of the Mediterranean. It was along the +borders of this sea that the Byzantine Empire flourished and was +destroyed; that Rome attained her supremacy, and fell. With the progress +of time, and the advance of civilization westward, the Atlantic took the +place of the Galilean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> Sea and of the Mediterranean. It is the sea of +the present. But unless the laws of political geography are false, the +contests of the future are to be around the shores of the "still sea," +now our own Pacific. The nation of the future is the nation that holds +the key of those waters. The purchase of Alaska has given our Republic a +foothold on both sides of that sea. It is a geographical impossibility +that any other nation can occupy a position in its own territory upon +both sides of the Pacific. This is the theory of the purchase. It +secures the control of the Pacific to the young Republic. It assures the +future of the world's dominion to Yankee civilization. This was the +theory.</p> + +<p>And his outlook, said General Garfield, with enthusiasm, was grand. In +his political horoscope, he saw the Republic enjoying a prosperity of +which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; he saw our +country rising to the place of umpire among the world's powers; he saw +how, by wise statesmanship, our material prosperity and peaceful +conquests grew together; how our increasing commerce made us mistress of +the seas; how Western civilization and Oriental decrepitude were staid +upon the borders of that Pacific sea, and compelled to render homage to +Young America, who had become the keeper of the world's keys.</p> + +<p>These were the grand thoughts of Mr. Seward as he was about to +relinquish the mantle of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> power, and, continued General Garfield, +his views have left a lasting impression upon me. Mr. Seward could not +have died more successfully than he did. He passed away in the lull +between two elections, and received the merited eulogiums of both +parties. He bore success followed by failure better than any American I +know. He was for nearly a decade next to the source of power, and missed +the place which was the goal of his later years, retiring from public +life suffering the displeasure of his party. But he quietly retired to +private life, and never lost his genial spirit or his noble ways.</p> + +<p>[This report of the conversation is indorsed by General Garfield as "in +the main correct."</p> + +<p>J. C]</p> + + +<h4>[Speech on the Currency Question, 1868.]</h4> + +<p>As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what +ships are to the transportation of merchandise. If a hundred vessels, of +a given tonnage, are just sufficient to carry all the commodities +between two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will +correspondingly decrease the value of each as an instrument of commerce; +any decrease below one hundred will correspondingly increase the value +of each. If the number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual +freight, will be worth but half its former value for that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> trade. There +is so much work to be done, and no more. A hundred vessels can do it +all. A thousand can do no more than all.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>When the money of the country is gold and silver, it adapts itself to +the fluctuations of business without the aid of legislation. If at any +time we have more than is needed, the surplus flows off to other +countries through the channels of international commerce. If less, the +deficiency is supplied through the same channels. Thus the monetary +equilibrium is maintained. So immense is the trade of the world, that +the golden streams pouring from California and Australia into the specie +circulation are soon absorbed in the great mass, and equalized +throughout the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon +the surface of all the seas.</p> + +<p>Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting the +specie used in payment of customs and the interest on our public debt, +we are cut off from the money currents of the world. Our currency +resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in +stagnation or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gate-keeper.</p> + + +<h3>[A Speech on Currency and the Banks, 1870.]</h3> + +<p>The business of the country is like the level of the ocean, from which +all measurements are made<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span> of heights and depths. Though tides and +currents may for a time disturb, and tempests vex and toss its surface, +still through calm and storm the grand level rules all its waves and +lays its measuring-lines on every shore. So the business of the country, +which, in the aggregated demands of the people for the exchange of +values, marks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of the currents of +trade, and forms the base-line from which to measure all our financial +legislation, and is the only safe rule by which the volume of our +currency can be determined.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The State bank system was a chaos of ruin, in which the business of the +country was again and again ingulfed. The people rejoice that it has +been swept away, and they will not consent to its re-establishment. In +its place we have the National-bank system, based on the bonds of the +United States, and sharing the safety and credit of the government. +Their notes are made secure, first, by a deposit of government bonds, +worth at least ten per cent. more than the whole value of the notes; +second, by a paramount lien on all the assets of the banks; third, the +personal liability of all the shareholders to an amount equal to the +capital they hold; and, fourth, the absolute guarantee by the government +to redeem them at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> National Treasury if the banks fail to do so. +Instead of seven thousand different varieties of notes, as in the State +system, we have now but ten varieties, each uniform in character and +appearance. Like our flag, they bear the stamp of nationality, and are +honored in every part of the Union.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech in the House, April 1, 1870.]</h3> + +<p>As an abstract theory of political economy free-trade has many +advocates, and much can be said in its favor; nor will it be denied that +the scholarship of modern times is largely on that side; that a large +majority of the great thinkers of the present day are leading in the +direction of what is called free-trade.</p> + +<p>While this is true, it is equally undeniable that the principle of +protection has always been recognized and adopted in some form or +another by all nations, and is to-day, to a greater or less extent, the +policy of every civilized government....</p> + +<p>Protection, in its practical meaning, is that provident care for the +industry and development of our own country which will give our own +people an equal chance in the pursuit of wealth, and save us from the +calamity of being dependent upon other nations with whom we may any day +be at war.</p> + +<p>In so far as the doctrine of free-trade is a protest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> against the old +system of oppression and prohibition, it is a healthy and worthy +sentiment. But underlying all theories, there is a strong and deep +conviction in the minds of a great majority of our people in favor of +protecting American industry....</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, April 4, 1871.]</h3> + +<p>... Nothing more aptly describes the character of our Republic than the +solar system, launched into space by the hand of the Creator, where the +central sun is the great power around which revolve all the planets in +their appointed orbits. But while the sun holds in the grasp of its +attractive power the whole system, and imparts its light and heat to +all, yet each individual planet is under the sway of laws peculiar to +itself.</p> + +<p>Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all the +tenantries of the planet live and move. So, sir, the States move on in +their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central government by +this Constitution, which is their supreme law; while each State is +making laws and regulations of its own, developing its own energies, +maintaining its own industries, managing its local affairs in its own +way, subject only to the supreme but beneficent control of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> Union. +When State-rights ran mad, put on the form of secession, and attempted +to drag the States out of the Union, we saw the grand lesson, taught in +all the battles of the late war, that a State could no more be hurled +from the Union, without ruin to the nation, than could a planet be +thrown from its orbit without dragging after it, to chaos and ruin, the +whole solar universe.</p> + +<p>In 1865 we had a debt of two billions seven hundred and seventy-two +millions of dollars upon our hands, the debt accumulated from the great +results of the war; we were compelled to pay from that debt one hundred +and fifty-one millions of dollars in coin a year as interest, and that +was a dreadful annual burden. In the year after the war ended, we paid +five hundred and ninety millions of dollars over our counter in settling +the business of the war and maintaining the ordinary expenses of the +government. These tremendous burdens it seemed for a time we could not +carry, and there were wicked men, and despairing men, and men who said +we ought not to try to carry the burdens; but the brave nation said, +This burden is the price of our country's life, all through it there is +the price of blood and the price of liberty, and, therefore, we will bow +our knees to the burden, we will carry it upon the stalwart shoulders of +the nation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[Letter to Professor Demmon December 16, 1871.]</h3> + +<p>... Since I entered public life, I have constantly aimed to find a +little time to keep alive the spirit of my classical studies, and to +resist that constant tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty +in literary studies, and particularly in the classical studies. I have +thought it better to select some one line of classical reading, and, if +possible, do a little work on it each day. For this winter I am +determined to review such parts of the Odes of Horace as I may be able +to reach. And, as preliminary to that work, I have begun by reading up +the bibliography of Horace.</p> + +<p>The Congressional Library is very rich in materials for this study, and +I am amazed to find how deep and universal has been the impress left on +the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writings.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The Student should study himself his relation to Society, to Nature and +to Art—and above all, in all, and through all these, he should study +the relations of Himself, Society, Nature, and Art to God the Author of +them all.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument of Thought ever invented by +Man, and its Literature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> has never been equalled in purity of style and +boldness of expression.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>History is but the unrolled scroll of Prophecy. The world's history is a +divine Poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every +man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and +though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying +men, yet to the Christian, Philosopher, and Historian—the humble +listener—there has been a divine melody running through the song which +speaks of hope and halcyon days to come.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The lesson of History is rarely learned by the actors themselves.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material +universe, and from its inanimate existences demonstrated the Power, +Wisdom, and Goodness of God; but we know of no one who has demonstrated +the same attributes from the History of the human race.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Mankind have been slow to believe that order reigns in the universe, +that the world is a Cosmos, not a chaos.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></p> + +<p>The assertion of the reign of Law has been stubbornly resisted at every +step. The divinities of Heathen superstition still linger in one form or +another in the faith of the ignorant, and even many intelligent men +shrink from the contemplation of one Supreme Will acting regularly, not +fatuitously, through laws beautiful and simple, rather than through a +fitful and capricious Providence.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>English liberty to-day rests not so much on the government as on those +rights which the people have wrested from the government. The rights of +the Englishman outnumber the rights of the Englishman's king.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Poetry is the language of Freedom.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Liberty can be safe only when Suffrage is illuminated by education.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on the last Census.]</h3> + +<p>The developments of statistics are causing history to be re-written. +Till recently the historian studied nature in the aggregate, and gave us +only the story of princes, dynasties, sieges, and battles. Of the people +themselves—the great social body, with life, growth, forces, elements, +etc.—he told us nothing. Now, statistical inquiry leads us into the +hovels, houses, workshops, mines, fields, prisons,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> hospitals, and all +places where human nature displays its weakness and strength. In these +explorations he discovers the seeds of national growth and decay, and +thus becomes the prophet of his generation.</p> + +<p>Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In +legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be understood +that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The +legislator must formulate in his statistics not only the national will +but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics. He must +study society rather than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth +that "society usually prepares the crime, and the criminal is only the +instrument that completes it," that statesmanship consists rather in +removing causes than in punishing, or evading results.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872.]</h3> + +<p>We look sometimes with great admiration at a government like Germany, +that can command the light of its education to shine everywhere, that +can enforce its school laws everywhere throughout the Empire. Under our +system we do not rejoice in that, but we rather rejoice that here two +forces play with all their vast power upon our system of education. The +first is that of the local municipal power under our State government. +There is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> centre of responsibility. There is the chief educational +power....</p> + +<p>But there is another force even greater than that of the State and the +local governments. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that +force which has built up the multitude of private schools, academies, +and colleges throughout the United States, not always wisely, but always +with enthusiasm and wonderful energy.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I am considering what is the best system of organizing the educational +work of a nation, not from the political stand-point alone, but from the +stand-point of the school-house itself. This work of public education +partakes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the human mind in its +efforts for culture. The mind must be as free from extraneous control as +possible; must work under the inspiration of its own desires for +knowledge; and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the +fullest and highest success must spring from the power of self-help.</p> + +<p>So the best system of education is that which draws its chief support +from the voluntary effort of the community, from the individual effort +of citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily +impose upon themselves.... Government shall be only a help to them, +rather than a commander, in the work of education.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Present evils always seem greater than those that never come.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten +the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard +and compelled to sink or swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I +never knew a man to be drowned who was worth the saving.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For the noblest man that lives there still remains a conflict.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes +up from a thousand minds that acts upon him and makes the speech.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After the battle of Arms comes the battle of History.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There is a fellowship among the Virtues by which one great, generous +passion stimulates another.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Growth is better than Permanence, and permanent growth is better than +all.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The principles of Ethics have not changed by the lapse of years.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The possession of great power no doubt carries with it a contempt for +mere external show.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech on Repealing the Salary Clause, 1873.]</h3> + +<p>One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation [Louis +Agassiz], a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life +as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule +of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became +commercially valuable; that others would utilize what he had discovered; +that his field of work was above the line of commercial values, and when +he brought down the great truths of science from the upper heights to +the level of commercial values, a thousand hands would be ready to take +them, and make them more valuable in the markets of the world. He +entered upon his great career, not for the salary it gave him, for that +was meagre compared with the pay of those in the lower walks of life; +but he followed the promptings of his great nature, and worked for the +love of truth and the instruction of mankind.</p> + + +<h3>[Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, 1874.]</h3> + +<p>The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been +greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work +relating to others.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[Speech on the Currency and the Public Faith, April 8, 1874.]</h3> + +<p>There never did exist on this earth a body of men wise enough to +determine by any arbitrary rule how much currency is needed for the +business of a great country. The laws of trade, the laws of credit, the +laws of God impressed upon the elements of this world, are superior to +all legislation; and we can enjoy the benefits of these immutable laws +only by obeying them.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It has been demonstrated again and again that upon the artisans, the +farmers, the day-laborers falls at last the dead weight of all the +depreciation and loss that irredeemable paper-money carries in its +train. Let this policy be carried out, and the day will surely and +speedily come when the nation will clearly trace the cause of its +disaster to those who deluded themselves and the people with what +Jefferson fitly called "legerdemain tricks of paper-money."</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on the Railway Problem, June 22, 1874.]</h3> + +<p>We are so involved in the events and movements of society that we do not +stop to realize—what is undeniably true—that during the last forty +years all modern societies have entered upon a period of change more +marked, more pervading, more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> radical than any that has occurred during +the last three hundred years. In saying this, I do not forget our own +political and military history, nor the French Revolution of 1793. The +changes now taking place have been wrought, and are being wrought, +mainly, almost wholly, by a single mechanical contrivance, the steam +locomotive. Imagine, if you can, what would happen if to-morrow morning +the railway locomotive, and its corollary, the telegraph, were blotted +from the earth. At first thought, it would seem impossible to get on at +all with the feeble substitutes we should be compelled to adopt in place +of these great forces. To what humble proportions mankind would be +compelled to scale down the great enterprises they are now pushing +forward with such ease! But were this calamity to happen, we should +simply be placed where we were forty-three years ago.</p> + +<p>There are many persons now living who well remember the day when Andrew +Jackson, after four weeks of toilsome travel from his home in Tennessee, +reached Washington and took his first oath of office as President of the +United States. On that day the railway locomotive did not exist. During +that year Henry Clay was struggling to make his name immortal by linking +it with the then vast project of building a national road—a +turnpike—from the national capital to the banks of the Mississippi.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the autumn of that very year George Stephenson ran his first +experimental locomotive, the "Rocket," from Manchester to Liverpool and +back. The rumble of its wheels, redoubled a million times, is echoing +to-day on every continent.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The American people have done much for the locomotive, and it has done +much for them. We have already seen that it has greatly reduced, if not +wholly destroyed, the danger that the government will fall to pieces by +its own weight. The railroad has not only brought our people and their +industries together, but it has carried civilization into the +wilderness, has built up States and Territories, which, but for its +power, would have remained deserts for a century to come. "Abroad and at +home," as Mr. Adams tersely declares, "it has equally nationalized +people and cosmopolized nations." It has played a most important part in +the recent movement for the unification and preservation of nations.</p> + +<p>It enabled us to do what the old military science had pronounced +impossible—to conquer a revolted population of eleven millions, +occupying a territory one-fifth as large as the continent of Europe. In +an able essay on the railway system, Mr. Charles F. Adams, Jr. has +pointed out some of the remarkable achievements of the railroad in our +recent history. For example, a single railroad track<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> enabled Sherman to +maintain eighty thousand fighting men three hundred miles beyond his +base of supplies. Another line, in a space of seven days, brought a +re-enforcement of two fully equipped army corps around a circuit of +thirteen hundred miles, to strengthen an army at a threatened point. He +calls attention to the still more striking fact that for ten years past, +with fifteen hundred millions of our indebtedness abroad, an enormous +debt at home, unparalleled public expenditures, and a depreciated paper +currency, in defiance of all past experience, we have been steadily +conquering our difficulties, have escaped the predicted collapse, and +are promptly meeting our engagements; because, through energetic +railroad development, the country has been producing real wealth, as no +country has produced it before. Finally, he sums up the case by +declaring that the locomotive has "dragged the country through its +difficulties in spite of itself."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the darkness and chaos of that period, the feudal system was the +first important step toward the organization of modern nations. Powerful +chiefs and barons intrenched themselves in castles, and, in return for +submission and service, gave to their vassals rude protection and ruder +laws. But as the feudal chiefs grew in power and wealth, they became the +oppressors of their people, taxed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> and robbed them at will, and finally, +in their arrogance, defied the kings and emperors of the Mediæval +States. From their castles, planted on the great thoroughfares, they +practised the most capricious extortions on commerce and travel, and +thus gave to modern language the phrase, "levy blackmail."</p> + +<p>The consolidation of our great industrial and commercial companies, the +power they wield, and the relations they sustain to the State and to the +industry of the people, do not fall far short of Fourier's definition of +commercial or industrial feudalism. The modern barons, more powerful +than their military prototypes, own our greatest highways, and levy +tribute at will upon all our vast industries. And, as the old feudalism +was finally controlled and subordinated only by the combined efforts of +the kings and the people of the free cities and towns, so our modern +feudalism can be subordinated to the public good only by the great body +of the people, acting through their governments by wise and just laws.</p> + +<p>I shall not now enter upon the discussion of methods by which this great +work of adjustment may be accomplished. But I refuse to believe that the +genius and energy which have developed these new and tremendous forces, +will fail to make them, not the masters, but the faithful servants of +society. It will be a disgrace to our age<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> and to us, if we do not +discover some method by which the public functions of these +organizations may be brought into full subordination to the public, and +that, too, without violence, and without unjust interference with the +rights of private individuals. It will be unworthy of our age, and of +us, if we make the discussion of this subject a mere warfare against +men. For in these great industrial enterprises have been, and still are +engaged, some of the noblest and worthiest men of our time. It is the +system—its tendencies and its dangers—which society itself has +produced, that we are now to confront. And these industries must not be +crippled, but promoted. The evils complained of are mainly of our own +making. States and communities have willingly and thoughtlessly +conferred these great powers upon railways; and they must seek to +rectify their own errors without injury to the industries they have +encouraged.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It depends upon the wisdom, the culture, the self-control of our people +and their representatives, to determine how wisely and how well this +question shall be settled. But that it will be solved, and solved in the +interest of liberty and justice, I do not doubt. And its solution will +open the way to a solution of a whole chapter of similar questions that +relate to the conflict between capital and labor.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June, 1874.]</h3> + +<p>The division between church and state ought to be so absolute that no +church property anywhere, in any State or in the nation, should be +exempt from taxation; for, if you exempt the property of any church +organization, to that extent you impose a church-tax upon the whole +community.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Occasion may be the bugle-call that summons an army to battle, but the +blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing ourselves into +communion with the spirit of art which pervades and fills the universe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>If there be one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire +better than another, it is a brave man; it is a man who dares to look +the devil in the face, and tell him he is a devil.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish thought.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>True art is but the anti-type of nature, the embodiment of discovered +beauty in utility.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must +resolve to carry into your work a fulness of knowledge; not merely a +sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>If you are not too large for the place, you are too small for it.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>What the arts are to the world of matter, literature is to the world of +mind.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony between the +rushing of the train and the haste of the author; but to enjoy standard +works, we need the quiet of a winter evening; an easy-chair before a +cheerful fire, and all the equanimity of spirits we can command.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He who would understand the real spirit of literature should not select +authors of any one period alone, but rather go to the fountain-head, add +trace the little rill as it courses along down the ages, broadening and +deepening into the great ocean of thought which the men of the present +are exploring.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The true literary man is no mere gleaner, following in the rear and +gathering up the fragments of the world's thought; but he goes down +deep<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> into the heart of humanity, watches its throbbings; analyzes the +forces at work there; traces out, with prophetic foresight, their +tendencies, and thus, standing out far beyond his age, holds up the +picture of what it is and is to be.</p> + + +<h3>[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale, 1876.]</h3> + +<p>I have followed this rule [as a lawyer]: whenever I have had a case, I +have undertaken to work out thoroughly the principles involved in it; +not for the case alone, but for the sake of comprehending thoroughly +that branch of the law.</p> + + +<h3>[From "Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth," June 22, 1876.]</h3> + +<p>We can study no life intelligently except in its relation to causes and +results. Character is the chief element; for it is both a result and a +cause—the result of all the elements and forces that combined to form +it, and the chief cause of all that is accomplished by its possessor....</p> + +<p>Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture. By the +first, we mean those inborn qualities of body and mind inherited from +parents, or rather from a long line of ancestors. Who shall estimate the +effect of those latent forces, enfolded in the spirit of a new-born +child, which may date back centuries, and find their origin in the +unwritten history of remote ancestors—forces, the germs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> of which, +enveloped in the solemn mystery of life, have been transmitted silently, +from generation to generation, and never perish? All-cherishing Nature, +provident and unforgetting, gathers up all these fragments that nothing +may be lost, but that all may reappear in new combinations. Each new +life is thus the "heir of all the ages," the possessor of qualities +which only the events of life can unfold.</p> + +<p>By the second element, nurture, culture, we designate all those +influences which act upon this initial force of character, to retard or +strengthen its development. There has been much discussion to determine +which of these elements plays the more important part in the formation +of character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes the one and +sometimes the other is the greater force; but so far as life and +character are dependent upon voluntary action, the second is no doubt +the element of chief importance.</p> + + +<h3>[From the Same.]</h3> + +<p>Not enough attention has been paid to the marked difference between the +situation and possibilities of a life developed here in the West, during +the first half of the present century, and those of a life nurtured and +cultivated in an old and settled community like that of New England.</p> + +<p>Consider, for example, the measureless difference<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> between the early +surroundings of John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Both were +possessed of great natural endowments. Adams was blessed with parents +whose native force of character, and whose vigorous and thorough culture +have never been surpassed by any married pair in America. Young Adams +was thoroughly taught by his mother until he had completed his tenth +year; and then, accompanying his father to France, he spent two years in +a training-school at Paris and three years in the University at Leyden. +After two years of diplomatic service, under the skilful guidance of his +father's hand, he returned to America, and devoted three years to study +at Harvard, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-one; and, three +years later, was graduated in the law, under the foremost jurist of his +time. With such parentage and such opportunities, who can wonder that by +the time he reached the meridian of his life, he was a man of immense +erudition, and had honored every great office in the gift of his +country?</p> + +<p>How startling the contrast, in every particular, between his early life +and that of Abraham Lincoln.... Born to an inheritance of the extremest +poverty, wholly unaided by his parents, surrounded by the rude forces of +the wilderness, only one year at any school, never for a day master of +his own time until he reached his majority, forcing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> his way to the +profession of the law by the hardest and roughest road, and beginning +its practice at twenty-eight years of age, yet, by the force of +unconquerable will and persistent hard work, he attained a foremost +place in his profession.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And, moving up from high to higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Became, on fortune's crowning slope,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The pillar of a people's hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The centre of a world's desire."<br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<h3>[From the Same.]</h3> + +<p>It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish work.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. Let not poverty stand as an +obstacle in your way.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Here is the volume of our laws. More sacred than the twelve tables of +Rome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above the +people and the President, above the courts, above Congress, commanding +everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That man makes a vital mistake who judges truth in relation to financial +affairs from the changing phases of public opinion. He might as well +stand on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, and from the ebb and flow of a +single tide attempt to determine the general level of the sea, as to +stand upon this floor, and from the current of public opinion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> on any +one debate, judge of the general level of the public mind. It is only +when long spaces along the shore of the sea are taken into account that +the grand level is found from which the heights and depths are measured. +And it is only when long spaces of time are considered, that we find at +last that level of public opinion which we call the general judgment of +mankind.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Bad faith on the part of an individual, a city, or even a State, is a +small evil in comparison with the calamities which follow bad faith on +the part of a sovereign government.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the complex and delicately adjusted relations of modern society, +confidence in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of trade and +commerce. It is the vital air Labor breathes. It is the light which +shines on the pathway of prosperity.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>An act of bad faith on the part of a State or municipal corporation, +like poison in the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding +generations.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We are accustomed to hear it said that the great powers of government in +this country are divided into two classes; National powers and State +powers. That is an incomplete classification. Our fathers carefully +divided all governmental powers into three classes; one they gave to +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> States, another to the Nation; but the third great class, +comprising the most precious of all powers, they refused to confer on +the State or Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third class of +powers has been almost uniformly overlooked by men who have written and +discussed the American system.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Congress must always be the exponent of the political character and +culture of the people, and if the next centennial does not find us a +great Nation with a great and worthy Congress, it will be because those +who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the +Nation do not aid in controlling the political forces which are employed +to select the men who shall occupy the great places of trust and power.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There is scarcely a conceivable form of corruption or public wrong that +does not at last present itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. +The Legislature therefore, that stands at the cashier's desk and watches +with its Argus eyes the demands for payment over the counter is most +certain to see all the forms of public rascality.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A steady and constant Revenue drawn from sources that represent the +prosperity of the nation,—a Revenue that grows with the growth of +national wealth, and is so adjusted to the expenditures,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> that a +constant and considerable surplus is annually left in the Treasury above +all the necessary current demands, a surplus that keeps the Treasury +strong, that holds it above the fear of sudden panic, that makes it +impregnable against all private combinations, that makes it a terror to +all stock-jobbing and gold-gambling,—this is financial health.</p> + + +<h3>[From the "Atlantic Monthly," July, 1877.]</h3> + +<p>The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact, that so many +citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention +to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall +make their laws.... It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in +our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our +system. Corrupt and incompetent presidents, judges, and legislators can +be removed, but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, +when voters themselves become venal, and elections fraudulent, there is +no remedy except by awakening the public conscience, and bringing to +bear upon the subject the power of public opinion and the penalties of +the law.... In a word, our national safety demands that the fountains of +political power shall be made pure by intelligence, and kept pure by +vigilance; that the best citizens shall take heed to the selection and +election of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span> worthiest and most intelligent among them to hold seats +in the national legislature; and that when the choice has been made, the +continuance of their representative shall depend upon his faithfulness, +his ability, and his willingness to work.</p> + + +<p>[Speech on the presentation to Congress of Carpenter's painting of +President Lincoln and his Cabinet, at the time of his first reading of +the Proclamation of Emancipation, January 16, 1878.]</p> + +<p>Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force of +character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience of +public affairs, and in national reputation, the cabinet that sat around +that council-board has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our history. +Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the great leader of +the senate, had come to crown his career with those achievements which +placed him in the first rank of modern diplomatists. Chase, with a +culture and a frame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and pillar of +the public credit, the noble embodiment of the public faith. Stanton was +there, a very Titan of strength, the great organizer of victory. Eminent +lawyers, men of business, leaders of states, and leaders of men, +completed the group.</p> + +<p>But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided its +determinations, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> a character so unique that he stood alone, without +a model in history, or a parallel among men. Born on this day, +sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance of extremest poverty, surrounded +by the rude forces of the wilderness; wholly unaided by parents; only +one year in any school; never, for a day, master of his own time until +he reached his majority; making his way to the profession of the law by +the hardest and roughest road; yet, by force of unconquerable will and +persistent, patient work, he attained a foremost place in his +profession,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And, moving up from high to higher,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Became, on fortune's crowning slope,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The pillar of a people's hope,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The centre of a world's desire."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>At first it was the prevailing belief that he would be only the nominal +head of his administration; that its policy would be directed by the +eminent statesmen he had called to his council. How erroneous this +opinion was, may be seen from a single incident. Among the earliest, +most difficult, and most delicate duties of his administration, was the +adjustment of our relations with Great Britain. Serious complications, +even hostilities, were apprehended. On the 21st day of May, 1861, the +Secretary of State presented to the President his draught of a letter of +instructions to Minister Adams, in which the position of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> the United +States and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth with the +clearness and force which long experience and great ability had placed +at the command of the Secretary.</p> + +<p>Upon almost every page of that original draught are erasures, additions, +and marginal notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit +a sagacity, a breadth of wisdom, and a comprehension of the whole +subject, impossible to be found except in a man of the very first order. +And these modifications of a great state-paper were made by a man who, +but three months before, had entered, for the first time, the wide +theatre of executive action.</p> + +<p>Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have +called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the +logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in his own +quaint, original way, without ostentation or offence to his associates, +he was pilot and commander of his administration. He was one of the few +great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, and whose spirit +grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied.</p> + + +<h3>[From the "North American Review," May-June, 1878.]</h3> + +<p>The Secretary of War is a civil officer; one of the constitutional +advisers of the President—his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> civil executive to direct and control +military affairs, and conduct army administration for the President.... +This was clearly understood in our early history, and it is worthy of +note that our most eminent Secretaries of War have been civilians, who +brought to the duties of the office great political and legal +experience, and other high qualities of statesmanship.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was wise in Washington to choose as the first Secretary of +War, a distinguished soldier, for the purpose of creating and setting in +order the military establishment; but it may well be doubted if any +subsequent appointment of a soldier to that position has been wise. In +fact, most of the misadjustments between the Secretary of War and the +army, so much complained of in recent years, originated with a Secretary +of War who had been a soldier, and could hardly refrain from usurping +the functions of command....</p> + +<p>No very serious conflict of jurisdiction and command occurred until +Jefferson Davis became Secretary of War. His early training as a +soldier, his spirit of self-reliance and habits of imperious command, +soon brought him into collision with General Scott, and were the +occasion of a correspondence, perhaps the most acrimonious ever carried +on by any prominent public man of our country.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech at Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 11, 1878.]</h3> + +<p>The Republican party of this country has said, and it says to-day, that, +forgetting all the animosities of the war, forgetting all the fierceness +and the passion of it, it reaches out both its hands to the gallant men +who fought us, and offers all fellowship, all comradeship, all feelings +of brotherhood, on this sole condition, and on that condition they will +insist forever: That in the war for the Union we were right, forever +right, and that in the war against the Union they were wrong, forever +wrong. We never made terms, we never will make terms, with the man who +denies the everlasting rightfulness of our cause. That would be treason +to the dead and injustice to the living; and on that basis alone our +pacification is complete. We ask that it be realized, and we shall +consider it fully realized when it is just as safe and just as honorable +for a good citizen of South Carolina to be a Republican there as it is +for a good citizen of Massachusetts to be a Democrat here.</p> + + +<h3>[From an Address at Hiram College.]</h3> + +<p>Our great dangers are not from without. We do not live by the consent of +any other nation. We must look within to find elements of danger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech on the Ninth Census.]</h3> + +<p>Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing, or +evading results.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech, December 10, 1878.]</h3> + +<p>The man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of +its leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, +commerce, industry, sound political economy, hard money, and the payment +of all obligations; and the man who can add anything in the direction of +accomplishing any of these purposes is a public benefactor.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The scientific spirit has cast out the Demons and presented us with +Nature, clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It +has given us for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of +chemistry; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths of +astronomy; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of +geology; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of Adam, +but to bad nursing and ignorance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Truth is so related and correlated that no department of her realm is +wholly isolated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Truth is the food of the human spirit, which could not grow in its +majestic proportions without clearer and more truthful views of God and +his universe.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no ideas +behind it is simply brutality.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the +characters of men are moulded and inspired by what their fathers have +done; that, treasured up in American souls are all the unconscious +influences of the great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from Agincourt to +Bunker Hill.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to +the peerless and immortal name of Washington.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I doubt if any man equalled Samuel Adams in formulating and uttering the +fierce, clear, and inexorable logic of the Revolution.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The last eight decades have witnessed an Empire spring up in the full +panoply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In their struggle with the forces of nature, the ability to labor was +the richest patrimony of the colonist.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To him a battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of +brave men and frantic horses involved in vast explosions of gunpowder. +It was rather a calm rational combination of force against +force.—<i>Oration on Geo. H. Thomas.</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>After the fire and blood of the battle-fields have disappeared, nowhere +does war show its destroying power so certainly and so relentlessly as +in the columns which represent the taxes and expenditures of the nation.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech, June 2, 1879.]</h3> + +<p>The Resumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our +history since the birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty-one and +eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that +turbulent sea whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the +prosperity, the honor, and the life of the nation. But the horrors and +dangers of the middle-passage have at last been mastered; and out of the +night and tempest the Republic has landed on the shore of this new year, +bringing with it union and liberty, honor and peace.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Our country needs not only a national but an international currency.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of +our political creed shall be—equal States, equal men, and equal dollars +throughout the Union.</p> + + +<h3>[Address, at the Memorial Meeting, in the House of Representatives, +January 16, 1879.]</h3> + +<p>No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record +of those early influences which develop the character and direct the +lives of eminent men. To every man of great original power, there comes +in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery—of self recognition—when +his own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, for the first +time, a strain of that immortal song to which his own spirit answers, +and which becomes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of his life—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i1">"Like noble music unto noble words."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg, on the Rhine, in obedience +to the commands of his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying the +mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his spirit as best he could upon +the formal and artificial poetry of his native land, when a page of +William Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the whole current of his +life. Abandoning the law, he created and crowned with an immortal name +the grandest epoch of German literature.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span></p> + +<p>Recording his own experience, he says:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius, I made the glad +confession that something inspiring hovered above me.... The +first page of his that I read made me his for life; and when +I had finished a single play, I stood like one born blind, +on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a moment. I saw, +I felt, in the most vivid manner that my existence was +infinitely expanded.</p></div> + +<p>This Old World experience of Goethe's was strikingly reproduced, though +under different conditions and with different results, in the early life +of Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident worthily recounted; +but let us linger over it a moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough +Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the handicraft of the +jeweler, unconscious of his great power, delighted with romance and the +drama, dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his attention was +suddenly arrested by a single page of an humble book of science which +chanced to fall into his hands. It was not the flash of a poetic vision +which aroused him. It was the voice of great Nature calling her child. +With quick recognition and glad reverence his spirit responded; and from +that moment to the end of his long and honored life, Joseph Henry was +the devoted student of science, the faithful interpreter of nature.</p> + +<p>To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span> surprising that ever +afterward he kept the little volume near him, and cherished it as the +source of his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame he recorded +on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>This book, under Providence, has exerted a remarkable +influence on my life.... It opened to me a new world of +thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost +unnoticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the +study of nature, and caused me to resolve, at the time of +reading it, that I would devote my life to the acquisition +of knowledge.</p></div> + +<p>We have heard from his venerable associates with what resolute +perseverance he trained his mind and marshalled his powers for the +higher realms of science. He was the first American after Franklin who +made a series of successful original experiments in electricity and +magnetism. He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, Oërsted, Davy, +and Ampère, the great exploring philosophers of the world, and added to +their work a final great discovery, which made the electro-magnetic +telegraph possible.</p> + +<p>It remained only for the inventor to construct an instrument and an +alphabet. Professor Henry refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from his +great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what nature and science had +given to him. The venerable gentleman of almost eighty years, who has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> +just addressed us so eloquently, has portrayed the difficulties which +beset the government in its attempt to determine how it should wisely +and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. It was a perilous moment for +the credit of America when that bequest was made. In his large +catholicity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the bequest with +conditions. In nine words he set forth its object—"for the increase and +diffusion of knowledge among men." He asked and believed that America +would interpret his wish aright, and with the liberal wisdom of +science....</p> + +<p>For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine words of Smithson and +could not handle them. Some political philosophers of that period held +that we had no constitutional authority to accept the gift at all +[laughter] and proposed to send it back to England. Every conceivable +proposition was made. The colleges clutched at it; the libraries wanted +it; the publication societies desired to scatter it. The fortunate +settlement of the question was this: that, after ten years of wrangling, +Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own ignorance, and +authorized a body of men to find some one who knew how to settle it. +[Applause.] And these men were wise enough to choose your great comrade +to undertake the task. Sacrificing his brilliant prospects as a +discoverer, he undertook the difficult work. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> drafted a paper, in +which he offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, mapped out a +plan which would meet the demands of science, and submitted it to the +suffrage of the republic of scientific scholars. After due deliberation +it received the almost unanimous approval of the scientific world. With +faith and sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan and steadily +resisted all attempts to overthrow it.</p> + +<p>In the thirty-two years during which he administered the great trust, he +never swerved from his first purpose; and he succeeded at last in +realizing the ideas with which he started.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell +from which they were evolved, was in the New England town, +and the vital force, the informing soul of the town, was the +Town Meeting, which for all local concerns was king, lords, +and commons in all.</p> + +<p>It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend +the reputation of worthy public servants as to detect public +rascals.</p> + +<p>Political parties, like poets, are born, not made. No act of +political mechanics, however wise, can manufacture to order +and make a platform, and put a party on it which will live +and flourish.</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[On the Relation of the Government to Science, February 11, 1879.]</h3> + +<p>What ought to be the relation of the National Government to science? +What, if anything, ought we to do in the way of promoting science? For +example, if we have the power, would it be wise for Congress to +appropriate money out of the Treasury, to employ naturalists to find out +all that is to be known of our American birds? Ornithology is a +delightful and useful study; but would it be wise for Congress to make +an appropriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment, +manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored class of men the +rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private way, following +the bent of their genius, may be working out the results of science in +that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our Treasury +for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement of +science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work +injury to religion.</p> + +<p>Generally, the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to work +in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop +their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to +have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise.</p> + +<p>As a general principal, therefore, the United<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> States ought not to +interfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the +free, voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves.</p> + +<p>In this non-interference theory of the Government, I do not go to the +extent of saying that we should do nothing for education—for primary +education. That comes under another consideration—the necessity of the +nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and +wiser to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of +the higher sciences.</p> + +<p>To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious +exceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the +subject. In the first place, the Government should aid all sorts of +scientific inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its +own functions.</p> + +<p>For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled by +necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish +fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in +reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws—to do whatever in +the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting +our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building +iron-clads for our navy or casting guns for our army, we ought to know +all that is scientifically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> possible to be known about the strength of +materials and the laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In +short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary functions of the +Government scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest +extent, and at the public expense.</p> + +<p>There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the +voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, +affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, +imperatively need scientific investigation, and private enterprise +cannot accomplish it, we may wisely intervene and help where the +Constitution gives us authority. For example, in discovering the origin +of yellow-fever and the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation +should do, for the good of all, what neither the States nor individuals +can accomplish. I might perhaps include in a third exception those +inquiries which, in consequence of their great magnitude and cost, +cannot be successfully made by private individuals. Outside these three +classes of inquiries, the Government ought to keep its hands off, and +leave scientific experiment and inquiry to the free competition of those +bright, intelligent men whose genius leads them into the fields of +research.</p> + +<p>And I suspect, when we read the report of our commissioner to the late +Paris Exposition, which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> shows such astonishing results, so creditable +to our country, so honorable to the genius of our people, it will be +found, in any final analysis of causes, that the superiority of +Americans in that great Exposition resulted mainly from their superior +freedom, and the greater competition between mind and mind untrammelled +by Government interference; I believe it will be found we are best +serving the cause of religion and science, and all those great primary +rights which we did not delegate to the Congress or the States, but left +the people free to enjoy and maintain them.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech on the National Election.]</h3> + +<p>The great danger which threatens this country is, that our sovereign may +be dethroned or destroyed by corruption. In any monarchy of the world, +if the sovereign be slain or become lunatic, it is easy to put another +in his place, for the sovereign is a person. But our sovereign is the +whole body of voters. If you kill, or corrupt, or render lunatic our +sovereign, there is no successor, no regent to take his place. The +source of our sovereign's supreme danger, the point where his life is +vulnerable, is at the ballot-box, where his will is declared; and if we +cannot stand by that cradle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and protect +it to the uttermost against all assassins and assailants, we have no +government and no safety for the future.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span></p> + +<h3> +[Remarks, in the House of Representatives, February 11, 1879, on the +Life and Character of Gustave Schleicher.]</h3> + +<p>We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he [Gustave +Schleicher] was born on foreign soil. In one sense that is true; and yet +in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of +the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the +declaration that England is not the fatherland of the English-speaking +people, but the ancient home, the real fatherland of our race, is the +ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by +Montesquieu long ago, when he declared in his Spirit of Laws that the +British constitution came out of the woods of Germany.</p> + +<p>To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that +Tacitus describes in his admirable history of the manners and character +of the Germans. We may therefore say that the friend whose memory we +honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to +America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our own fathers, by +the way of England.</p> + +<p>We who were born and have passed all our lives in this wide New World +can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early life. +Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald, +filled as it is with the memories and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> traditions of centuries, in which +are mingled Scandinavian mythology, legends of the middle ages, romances +of feudalism and chivalry, histories of barons and kings, and the +struggles of a brave people for a better civilization; reared under the +institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government; devoting his early +life to personal culture, entering at an early age the University of +Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of existence, with +a library of four hundred thousand volumes at his hand, with a great +museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his +eager spirit upon the rich culture which that Old World could give him, +and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty-seven +young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost +to the verge of communism—and who of us would not be communists in a +despotism?—he came to this country, attracted by one of the most wild +and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it +existed near forty years ago; the country discovered by La Salle at the +end of his long and perilous voyage from Quebec to the northern lakes +and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; the country possessed +alternately by the Spanish and the French and then by Mexico; the +country made memorable by such names as Blair, Houston, Albert Sidney +Johnson, and Mirabeau Lamar, perhaps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> as adventurous and daring spirits +as ever assembled on any spot of the earth; a country that achieved its +freedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous +independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European +intrigues.</p> + +<p>It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its +membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the +purpose of colonizing the new Republic of the Lone Star, and making it a +dependency of Europe under their patronage; but without sharing in their +designs, some twenty thousand Germans found their way to the new +Republic, and among these young Schleicher came.</p> + + +<h3>[From the "North American Review," March, 1879.]</h3> + +<p>The ballot was given to the negro not so much to enable him to govern +others as to prevent others from misgoverning him. Suffrage is the sword +and shield of our law, the best armament that liberty offers to the +citizen.</p> + + +<h3>[From the Same, June, 1879.]</h3> + +<p>If our republic were blotted from the earth and from the memory of +mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of our +revenue laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the +political philosopher would be able from these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> materials alone to +reconstruct a large part of our history, and sketch with considerable +accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech in Congress, on the first anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death.]</h3> + +<p>There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so +near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, +and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and +feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time +has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave +spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the +presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the +martyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the republic, +the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by +the children of men. Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people +knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with God and each +other that this nation should be saved from its enemies; that all its +glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the +temples of freedom and justice should be built, and stand forever. It +remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant +with God, to keep the faith, to go forward in the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span> work until it +shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying +the high behests of God, let us remember</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"He has sounded forth his trumpet, that shall never call retreat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">For God is marching on."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Every great political party that has done this country any good has +given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of +that party.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech at Cleveland, Ohio, October 11, 1879.—Resumption of Specie +Payments.]</h3> + +<p>Now, what has been the trouble with us? 1860 was one shore of +prosperity, and 1879 the other; and between these two high shores has +flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster +through which this nation has been compelled to wade, and in whose +depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of +that terrible passage we carried liberty in our arms; we bore the Union +on our shoulders; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was +even better than liberty and Union—we bore the faith, and honor, and +public trust of this mighty Nation. And never, until we came up out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> of +the dark waters, out of the darkness of that terrible current, and +planted our feet upon the solid shore of 1879—never, I say, till then +could this country look back to the other shore and feel that its feet +were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of +perpetual peace and prosperity that should know no diminution in the +years to come.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech at Cleveland, October 11, 1879.—Appeal to Young Men.]</h3> + +<p>Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just +because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if +he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are +about to pitch your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life +is full and buoyant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your +tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at +all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that +party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where +I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you +to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than +like a camp for the living. Look at it! It is billowed all over with the +graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of +disgraced doctrines. You cannot live<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> in comfort in such a place. Why, +look here! Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read, +"Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott +decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has +been dead fifteen years—died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here +it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you.</p> + +<p>But look a little farther. Here is another monument—a black tomb—and +beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a +monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of +slaves, and I read on its little headstone this: "Sacred to the memory +of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic +party taught that it was divine—God's institution. They defended it, +they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But +here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Dead by the power of +the Republican party. Dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp +there, young man.</p> + +<p>But here is another—a little brimstone tomb—and I read across its +yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words: "Sacred to the memory of +State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve millions of Democrats mustered +around it in arms to keep it alive; but here it lies, shot to death by +the million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> shrine burnt to +ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead! +I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night +air, to look at such a place.</p> + +<p>But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little +mound—short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I +see torn pieces of paper with the word "fiat" on them, and I look down +in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it: +"Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby nursed in the brain of all the +fanaticism of the world, rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton, +Samuel Cary, and a few others throughout the land." But it died on the +1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty millions of gold +that God made, and not fiat power, he upon its little carcass to keep it +down forever.</p> + +<p>Oh, young man, come out of that! That is no place in which to put your +young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order, +of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glorious under these +night stars.</p> + +<p>Is there any death here in our camp? Yes! yes! Three hundred and fifty +thousand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to +make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty forever.</p> + +<p>But there are no dead issues here. There are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> no dead ideas here. Hang +out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep +the green turf under your feet! It hangs over our camp. Read away up +under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo! these +twenty-five years.</p> + +<p>Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to Liberty, and +this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. A worthily married pair +love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the +day of their first espousals; and we are truer to Liberty to-day, and +dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of liberty. Read +away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we +uttered twenty-five years ago! What was it? "Slavery shall never extend +over another foot of the territories of the great West." Is that dead or +alive? Alive, thank God, forevermore! And truer to-night than it was the +hour it was written! Then, it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night +it is equal with the stars—immortal history and immortal truth.</p> + +<p>Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have +made we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the +ground, and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put in your +young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> the +heroes that defended it! I think these young men will do that.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech, January 14, 1880.]</h3> + +<p>I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden-wall of +party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the +gardens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy +their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so.</p> + + +<h3>[Letter of Acceptance, July 10, 1880.]</h3> + +<p>Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without +which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its +interests are intrusted to the States, and to the voluntary action of +the people. Whatever help the Nation can justly afford should be +generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; but it +would be unjust to our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to +apply any portion of the revenues of the Nation or of the States to the +support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State +in everything relating to taxation should be absolute.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant +natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> +arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all +the necessary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the +founders of the Government to provide for the common defence, not by +standing armies alone, but by raising among the people a greater army of +artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to +the safety and glory of the nation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Over this vast horizon of interests, North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its +glory, to save Liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles until they +shall have crystallized into the form of enduring law and become +inwrought into the life and habits of our People.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one +in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that +the darkness through which we have travelled was but a part of that +stern but beneficent discipline by which the great Disposer of events +has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The hope of our National perpetuity rests upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> that perfect individual +Freedom which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual change.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Whatever opinions we may now entertain of the Federalists as a party, it +is unquestionably true that we are indebted to them for the strong +points of the Constitution and for the stable government they founded +and strengthened during the administration of Washington and Adams.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>While it is true that no party can stand upon its past record alone, yet +it is also true that its past shows the spirit and character of the +organization, and enables us to judge what it will probably do in the +future.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own—an individuality +and character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of the nation.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever +the people can do without legislation will be better done than by the +intervention of the State and Nation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech, at the unveiling of a Soldiers' Monument Painesville, +Ohio, July 4, 1880.]</h3> + +<p>I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where over its doors were +two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its +owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried +by the English grand-sire of the wife on the same field, and on the +other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored +harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy and contented and free family, +under the light of our republican liberties. I trust the time is not far +distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of +Americans, north and south, our people shall sleep in peace and rise in +liberty, love, and harmony, under the union of our flag of the stars and +stripes.</p> + + +<h3>[Speech to a Delegation of four hundred Young Men—First Voters—of +Cleveland, Ohio, at Mentor, October 8, 1880.]</h3> + +<p>... I have not so far left the coast of youth to travel inland but that +I can very well remember the state of young manhood, from an experience +in it of some years, and there is nothing to me in this world so +inspiring as the possibilities that lie locked up in the head and breast +of a young man. The hopes that lie before him the great inspirations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> +around him, the great aspirations above him, all these things, with the +untried pathway of life opening up its difficulties and dangers, inspire +him to courage, and force, and work.</p> + + +<h3>[From a Speech in New York, August 6, 1880.]</h3> + +<p>... Ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, and you who fought in +the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you +crowned our war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for +the fruits that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet to-night as +veterans and comrades, to stand sacred guard around the truths for which +we fought, and while we have life to meet and grasp the hands of a +comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war; and, comrades, +among the convictions of that war which have sunk deep in our hearts +there are some that we can never forget. Think of the great elevating +spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms, and +shops, and stores, and schools, and homes, from all over the Republic, +and they went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster +of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of those soldiers of Henry +at Agincourt, of whom he said, "Who this day sheds his blood with me, +to-day shall be my brother. Were he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle +his condition;" and it did gentle the condition<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> and elevate the heart +of every working soldier who fought in it, and he shall be our brother +for evermore; and this thing we will remember; we will remember our +allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began we looked +behind the army of white rebels and saw 4,000,000 of black people +condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies, and we found that the +hearts of this 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of freedom, +and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag +and fight to kill the Union, but in all that long, dreary war we never +saw a traitor in a black skin. Our prisoners, escaping from the +starvation of prison, and fleeing to our lines by the light of the +North-star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for +bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was +ever betrayed by a black man or woman, and now that we have made them +free, so long as we live we will stand by these black citizens. We will +stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our +Constitution, shall shine with equal rays upon every man, black or +white, throughout the Union. Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in +this there is all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we +will stand forever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>[Remarks at Chatauqua August 1, 1880]</h3> + +<p>I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion.</p> + + +<h3>[From an Address at the Anniversary of Hiram College, directly after the +Chicago Convention, 1880.]</h3> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fellow-citizens, Neighbors, and Friends of many years</span>: It always has +given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has +always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large +share of that richness that belongs to those things out of which come +the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, +watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address which +has just been delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have +that all men envy—I mean all men who have reached the meridian of +life—is, perhaps, the thing that you care for less, and that is your +leisure,—the leisure you have to think, the leisure you have to be let +alone, the leisure you have to throw the plummet with your hand, and +sound their depths and find out what is below, the leisure you have to +walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are, or +how weak they are, and determine what needs building up, and determine +how to shape them, that you may make the final being that you are to be. +Oh,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> these hours of building! If the superior beings of the universe +would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it +would be the unfinished, unformed character of young men, or of young +women. These behind me have, probably, in the main settled such +questions. Those who have passed into middle manhood and middle +womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is little left +of interest or curiosity as to our development. But to your young and +yet uninformed natures no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured +up in your hearts and intellects; and while you are working up these +possibilities with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all +classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your +leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your +means, out of which you can demand all the possible treasures that God +laid down when He formed your nature, and unveiled and developed the +possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to +trust myself to speak upon, and I will not; but I draw again to-day, as +I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection +from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the +permission to see you, and meet you, and greet you, as I have done +to-day.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> "nother talk that I recall was at a social gathering. It +was at a dinner party after the failure of Greeley's campaign. The host +was, perhaps the most original genius in Washington. He was an old +companion of Greeley at Brook Farm. He was giving the dinner in payment +of a bet he had lost by reason of Greeley's defeat. The conversation +embraced all the topics of the day and in the course of it turned to +Seward. A member of the company thought that Seward had been dead years +before he was put into the grave. General Garfield thought differently, +and delivered, on the spur of the moment, a remarkable eulogy on the +dead statesman. Soon afterward, I reduced to notes the outlines of that +eulogy, so far as my memory served me, and I reproduce it here. General +Garfield possesses rare conversational powers, and uses, in social +discourse, a diction not less eloquent and elegant than that to which he +is accustomed in the forum."—<i>Washington Correspondent of the Chicago +Tribune.</i></p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span></p> +<h2>THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS.</h2> + +<h3>PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S FIRST OFFICIAL WORDS TO THE COUNTRY.</h3> + + +<p>Fellow Citizens,—We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a +hundred years of national life, a century crowded with perils, but +crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the +onward march, let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our +faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our +people have travelled. It is now three days more than a hundred years +since the adoption of the first written Constitution of the United +States, the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The new +Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered +a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for +independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully +celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were +struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against +the settled opinions of mankind, for the world did not believe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> that the +supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the +guardianship of the people themselves. We cannot overestimate the +fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage and the saving common +sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of +self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the +confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous +and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead +established a national union founded directly upon the will of the +people, endowed with future powers of self-preservation, and with ample +authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under this +Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the +foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth in +all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of +the founders, and given new hopes to their descendants. Under this +Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger +from without, and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights +on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been +added to the Union, with constitutions and laws framed and enforced by +their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local +self-government. The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an +area fifty times greater than that of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span> original thirteen States, and +a population twenty times greater than that of 1780. The supreme trial +of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil +war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood +and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the +beneficent purposes of good government.</p> + +<p>And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the +inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately +reviewed the condition of their nation, passed judgment upon the conduct +and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will +concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and +to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the +paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is +manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to +employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the +future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good +government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind +them all those bitter controversies, including things which have been +irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir +up strife and delay the onward march. The supremacy of the nation and +its laws should be no longer a subject of debate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> That discussion which +for half a century threatened the existence of the Union was closed at +last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal, +that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and +shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the +States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the +States nor interfere with any of their necessary rules of local +self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy +of the Union. The will of the nation speaking with the voice of battle +and through the amended Constitution has fulfilled the great promise of +1776 by proclaiming "Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants +thereof."</p> + +<p>The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of +citizenship is the most important political change we have known since +the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to +appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It +has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has +added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has +liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged +and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the +manhood of more than 5,000,000 of people, and has opened to each one of +them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> new inspiration +to the power of self-help in both races, by making labor more honorable +to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force +will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years. No doubt +the great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern +community. This is to be deplored, though it was unavoidable. But those +who resisted the change should remember, that under our institutions +there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal +citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the +United States; freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long +as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacles in the +pathway of any virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has already made +remarkable progress; with unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a +patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light +as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material +foundations for self-support, widening the circle of intelligence, and +beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of +industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good +men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the +full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws.</p> + +<p>The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> question, and a frank +statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged, that in many +communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the +ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is +answered, that in many places honest local government is impossible if +the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave +allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation +that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local +government is certainly a great evil which ought to be prevented, but to +violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil; +it is a crime, which, if persisted in, will destroy the government +itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to +compass the death of the king, it should be counted no less a crime here +to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said +that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It +should be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question of the +suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States of the nation, +until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes, and keeps the ballot +free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger which +arises from ignorance in the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field +far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of that +race. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains +of power in every State. We have no standard by which to measure the +disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the +citizens, when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. The +voters of the Union who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whom +will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme +authority to no successor save the coming generation of voters, who are +the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its +inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the +republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded +the alarm, in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the +tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children. To the +South, this question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility +for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone; the +nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is +under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has +added to the voting population.</p> + +<p>For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the +constitutional power of the nation and of the States, and all the +volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet this danger +by the saving influence of universal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> education. It is the high +privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their +successors, and fit them by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance +which awaits them. In this beneficent work, sections and races should be +forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new +meaning in the Divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall +lead them," for our little children will soon control the destinies of +the republic.</p> + +<p>My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the +controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children +will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They +will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union +was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were +made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot +prevent the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make +a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict? +Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material +well-being invite us and offer ample scope for the employment of our +best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields +of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and the +restored Union win the grander victories of peace.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span></p> + +<p>The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history; +fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done +all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie +payments, so successfully attained by the administration of my +predecessor, has enabled our people to secure the blessings which the +seasons brought. By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it +has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for +a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in +the relative value of the two metals. But I confidently believe that +arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which +will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that +the compulsory coinage of silver, now required by law, may not disturb +our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If +possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of +every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in +all the markets of the world. The chief duty of the national government, +in connection with the currency of the country, is to coin and declare +its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is +authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal +tender. The present issue of United States notes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> has been sustained by +the necessities of war, but such paper should depend for its value and +currency upon its convenience in use, and its prompt redemption in coin +at the will of its holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. +These notes are not money, but promises to pay money if the holders +demand it. These promises should be kept.</p> + +<p>The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be +accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national bank +notes and thus disturbing the business of the country. I venture to +refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a +long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have +strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects. +The finances of the government shall suffer no detriment which it may be +possible for my administration to prevent.</p> + +<p>The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the government +than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes +and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the +largest part of all our exports. As the government lights our coasts for +the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should +give to the tillers of the soil the lights of practical science and +experience.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially +independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable +fields of employment. This steady and healthy growth should still be +maintained. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the +continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways, and +by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the +world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great +sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canals or railways +across the isthmus which unites the two continents. Various plans to +this end have been suggested, and will need consideration, but none of +them have been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in +extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will +immediately engage the attention of the government, with a view to a +thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow +policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges on any commercial +route, but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the +right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such +supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the +isthmus that connects North and South America, as will protect our +national interests.</p> + +<p>The Constitution guarantees absolute religious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span> freedom. Congress is +prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, +or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The territories of the United +States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and +hence the general government is responsible for any violation of the +Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the +government, that in the most populous of the territories, the +constitutional guarantee is not enjoyed by the people, and the authority +of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the +moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the +administration of justice through the ordinary instrumentalities of law. +In my judgment, it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the +uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every +citizen, to prohibit, within its jurisdiction, all immoral practices, +especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger +social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely +permitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the functions and powers of +the national government.</p> + +<p>The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis, until it +is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the +protection of those who are entrusted with this appointing power, +against the waste of time and obstruction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> to the public business, +caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of +incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask +Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive +departments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made +during terms for which incumbents have been appointed.</p> + +<p>Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the +Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved +rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to +maintain its authority, and in all places within its jurisdiction, to +enforce obedience to all laws of the Union in the interest of the +people, to demand rigid economy in all expenditures of the government, +and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive +officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit +of the incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the +government. And now, fellow citizens, I am about to assume the great +trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that +earnest and thoughtful support, which makes this government, in fact as +it is in law, a government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the +wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who may share with me +the responsibilities and duties of administration;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> and above all, upon +our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their +government, I reverentially invoke the support and blessings of Almighty +God.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span></p> +<h2>ADDENDA.</h2> + + +<h3>I.</h3> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Headquarters Dept. of the Cumberland, +Murfreesboro</span>, June 12, 1864. +</p> + +<p><i>General</i>: In your confidential letter of the 8th inst., to the corps +and division commanders and generals of cavalry, of this army, there +were substantially five questions propounded for their consideration and +answer, viz:—</p> + +<p>1. Has the enemy of our front been materially weakened by detachments to +Johnston, or elsewhere?</p> + +<p>2. Can this army advance on him at this time, with strong reasonable +chances of fighting a great and successful battle?</p> + +<p>3. Do you think an advance of our army at present likely to prevent +additional reinforcements being sent against General Grant by the enemy +in our front?</p> + +<p>4. Do you think an immediate advance of the army advisable?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span></p> + +<p>5. Do you think an early advance advisable?</p> + +<p>Many of the answers to these questions are not categorical, and cannot +be clearly set down either as affirmative or negative. Especially in +answer to the first question, there is much indefiniteness resulting +from the difference of judgment as to how great a detachment could be +considered a material reduction of Bragg's strength. For example, one +officer thinks it has been reduced ten thousand and not "materially +weakened." The answers to the second question are modified in some +instances by the opinion that the rebels will fall back behind the +Tennessee River, and thus no battle can be fought, either successful or +unsuccessful.</p> + +<p>So far as these opinions can be stated in tabular form, they will stand +thus,—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'>Yes.</td><td align='left'>No.</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Answer</td><td align='left'>to</td><td align='left'>first</td><td align='left'>question,</td><td align='left'>6</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>second</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>2</td><td align='left'>11</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>third</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>4</td><td align='left'>10</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>fourth</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>-</td><td align='left'>15</td></tr> +<tr><td align='center'>"</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>fifth</td><td align='center'>"</td><td align='left'>-</td><td align='left'>2</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>On the fifth question, three gave it as their opinion that this army +ought to advance as soon as Vicksburg falls, should that event happen. +The following is a summary of the reasons assigned why we should not at +this time advance upon the enemy:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>1. With Hooker's army defeated, and Grant's bending all its energies in +a yet undecided struggle, it is bad policy to risk our only reserve army +to the chances of a general engagement. A failure here would have most +disastrous effect on our lines of communication and on politics in the +loyal States.</p> + +<p>2. We should be compelled to fight the enemy on his own grounds or +follow him in a fruitless chase; or, if we attempted to outflank him and +turn his position, we should expose our line of communication, and run +the risk of being pushed back into a rough country well known to the +enemy and little to ourselves.</p> + +<p>3. In case the enemy should fall back without accepting battle he could +make our advance very slow, and with a comparatively small force posted +in the gaps of the mountains could hold us back while he crossed the +Tennessee River, where he would be measurably secure and free to send +reinforcements to Johnston. His force in East Tennessee could seriously +harass our left flank and constantly disturb our communication.</p> + +<p>4. The withdrawal of Burnside's ninth army corps deprives us of an +important reserve and flank protection, thus increasing the difficulty +of an advance.</p> + +<p>5. General Hurlburt has sent the most of his force away to General +Grant, thus leaving West<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> Tennessee uncovered, and laying our right +flank and rear open to raids of the enemy.</p> + +<p>The following incidental opinions are expressed,—</p> + +<p>1. One officer thinks it probable that the enemy has been strengthened +rather than weakened, and that he (the enemy) would have reasonable +prospect of victory in a general battle.</p> + +<p>2. One officer believes the result of a general battle would be +doubtful, a victory barren, and a defeat most disastrous.</p> + +<p>3. Three officers believe that an advance would bring on a general +engagement. Three others believe it would not.</p> + +<p>4. Two officers express the opinion that the chances of success in a +general battle are nearly equal.</p> + +<p>5. One officer expresses the belief that our army has reached its +maximum strength and efficiency, and that inactivity will seriously +impair its effectiveness.</p> + +<p>6. Two officers say that an increase of our cavalry by about six +thousand men would materially change the aspect of our affairs, and give +us a decided advantage.</p> + +<p>In addition to the above summary, I have the honor to submit an estimate +of the strength of Bragg's army, gathered from all the data I have been +able to obtain, including the estimate of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span> general commanding, in +his official report of the battle of Stone River, and facts gathered +from prisoners, deserters, and refugees, and from rebel newspapers. +After the battle Bragg consolidated many of his decimated regiments and +irregular organizations; and at the time of his sending reinforcements +to Johnston, his army had reached the greatest effective strength. It +consisted of five divisions of infantry, composed of ninety-four +regiments, and two independent battalions of sharp-shooters,—say +ninety-five regiments. By a law of the confederate Congress, regiments +are consolidated when their effective strength falls below two hundred +and fifty men. Even the regiments formed by such consolidation (which +may reasonably be regarded as the fullest) must fall below five hundred. +I am satisfied that four hundred is a large estimate of the average +strength.</p> + +<p>The force, then, would be,—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>Infantry, 95 regiments, 400 each,</td><td align='right'>38,000</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Cavalry, 35 regiments, say 500 each,</td><td align='right'>17,500</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Artillery, 26 batteries, say 100 each,</td><td align='right'>2,600</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>———</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='right'>58,600</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<p>This force has been reduced by detachments to Johnston. It is as well +known as we can ever expect to ascertain such facts, that three brigades +have gone from McConn's division, and two or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> three from +Breckinridge's,—say two. It is clear that there are now but four +infantry divisions in Bragg's army, the fourth being composed of +fragments of McConn's and Breckinridge's divisions, and must be much +smaller than the average. Deducting the five brigades, and supposing +them composed of only four regiments each, which is below the general +average, it gives an infantry reduction of twenty regiments, four +hundred each—eight thousand—leaving a remainder of thirty thousand. It +is clearly ascertained that at least two brigades of cavalry have been +sent from Van Dorn's command to the Mississippi, and it is asserted in +the Chattanooga <i>Rebel</i>, of June 11th, that General Morgan's command has +been permanently detached and sent to eastern Kentucky. It is not +certainly known how large his division is, but it is known to contain at +least two brigades. Taking this minimum as the fact, we have a cavalry +reduction of four brigades.</p> + +<p>Taking the lowest estimate, four regiments to the brigade, we have a +reduction, by detachment, of sixteen regiments, five hundred each, +leaving his present effective cavalry force nine thousand five hundred. +With the nine brigades of the two arms thus detached, it will be safe to +say there have gone,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span>—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Six batteries, 80 men each,</td><td align='right'>480</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Leaving him 20 batteries,</td><td align='right'>2,120</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Making a total reduction of</td><td align='right'>16,480</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Leaving, of the three arms,</td><td align='right'>41,680</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>In this estimate of Bragg's strength, I have placed all doubts in his +favor, and I have no question that my estimate is considerably beyond +the truth. General Sheridan, who has taken great pains to collect +evidence on this point, places it considerably below these figures. But +assuming these to be correct, and granting what is still more +improbable, that Bragg would abandon all his rear posts, and entirely +neglect his communications, and could bring his last man into battle, I +next ask: What have we with which to oppose him?</p> + +<p>The last official report of effective strength now on file in the office +of the assistant adjutant-general, is dated from June 11th, and shows +that we have in this department, omitting all officers and enlisted men +attached to department, corps, division and brigade headquarters,—</p> + +<p>1. Infantry—One hundred and seventy-three regiments; ten battalions +sharp-shooters; four battalions pioneers; and one regiment of engineers +and mechanics, with a total effective strength of seventy thousand nine +hundred and eighteen.</p> + +<p>2. Cavalry—Twenty-seven regiments and one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span> unattached company, eleven +thousand eight hundred and thirteen.</p> + +<p>3. Artillery—Forty-seven and a half batteries field artillery, +consisting of two hundred and ninety-two guns and five hundred and +sixty-nine men,—making a general total of eighty-seven thousand eight +hundred.</p> + +<p>Leaving out all commissioned officers, this army represents eighty-two +thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven bayonets and sabres. This report +does not include the Fifth Iowa cavalry, six hundred strong, lately +armed; nor the First Wisconsin cavalry; nor Coburn's brigade of +infantry, now arriving; nor the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four convalescents, now on light duty in "Fortress Monroe."</p> + +<p>There are detached from this force as follows,—</p> + + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Galatin,</td><td align='right'>969</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Carthage,</td><td align='right'>1,149</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Fort Donelson,</td><td align='right'>1,485</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Clarkesville,</td><td align='right'>1,138</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Nashville,</td><td align='right'>7,292</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Franklin,</td><td align='right'>900</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>At Lavergne,</td><td align='right'>2,117</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='right'>———</td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>Total</td><td align='right'>15,130</td></tr> +</table></div> + +<p>With these posts as they are, and leaving two thousand five hundred +efficient men, in addition to the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> convalescents, to hold the works at this place, there will +be left sixty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-seven bayonets and +sabres to show, against Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and +eighty.</p> + +<p>I beg leave, also, to submit the following considerations,—</p> + +<p>1. Bragg's army is weaker now than it has been since the battle of Stone +River, or is likely to be, at present; while our army has reached its +maximum strength, and we have no right to expect reinforcements for +several months, if at all.</p> + +<p>2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its fate +will give large reinforcements to Bragg. If Grant is successful, his +army will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of his +late campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force sufficient +to insure the safety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will +inevitably follow, so far as Bragg's army is concerned.</p> + +<p>3. No man can predict, with a certainty, the results of any battle, +however great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hand of +God. But, reviewing the question in the light of human calculation, I +refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last +defeated Bragg's superior numbers, cannot overwhelm his present greatly +inferior forces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span></p> + +<p>4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take, would be to +fall back without giving us battle; but this would be very disastrous to +him. Besides the loss of material of war, and the abandonment of the +rich and abundant harvest, now nearly ripe in Central Tennessee, he +would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a wide-spread +dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They are +already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly increase +both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very +materially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would +lengthen our communication, it would give us possession of McMinnville, +and enable us to threaten Chattanooga and East Tennessee; and it would +not be unreasonable to expect an early occupation of the former place.</p> + +<p>5. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid movement +would compel a general engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would be, in +the highest degree, disastrous to the rebellion.</p> + +<p>6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loyal States renders a +decisive blow against the enemy, at this time, of the highest importance +to the success of the government at the polls, and in the enforcement of +the Conscript Act.</p> + +<p>7. The government and the War Department<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> believe that this army ought +to move upon the enemy. The army desire it, and the country is anxiously +hoping for it.</p> + +<p>8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, whose last reserves are +substantially in the field, and an effective blow will crush the shell, +and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government.</p> + +<p>9. You have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a general movement hitherto, +till your army could be massed, and your cavalry could be mounted. Your +mobile force can now be concentrated in twenty-four hours, and your +cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of the enemy, is +greatly superior in efficiency and morale. For this reason I believe an +immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under +the providence of God, will be successful.</p> + +<p>Very respectfully, your obedient servant,</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">J. A. Garfield</span>,<br /> +<i>Brigadier-General, Chief of Staff</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Major-General <span class="smcap">Rosecrans</span>,<br /> +Commanding Dept. of Cumberland.<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>II.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>The following is the official record of the post-mortem +examination of the body of President</i> <span class="smcap">James A. Garfield</span>, +<i>made Sept. 20, 1881, commencing at 4:30 P. M. eighteen +hours after death, at Francklyn Cottage, Elberon, N. J.</i></p></div> + +<p>There were present and assisting, Dr. D. W. Bliss; Surgeon-General J. K. +Barnes, U. S. A.; Surgeon J. J. Woodward, U. S. A.; Dr. Robert Reyburn; +Dr. Frank H. Hamilton; Dr. D. Hayes Agnew; Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of +Elberon and New York, and acting as the assistant surgeon, and D. S. +Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C.</p> + +<p>Before commencing the examination a consultation was held by the +physicians in the room adjoining that in which the body lay, and it was +unanimously agreed that the dissection should be made by Dr. Lamb, and +that Surgeon Woodward should record the observations made. It was +further unanimously agreed that the cranium should not be opened. +Surgeon Woodward then proposed that the examination should be conducted +as follows: That the body should be viewed externally, and any morbid +appearances existing recorded;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> that a catheter should then be passed +into the wound, as was done during life to wash it out, for the purpose +of assisting to find the position of the bullet; that a long incision +should next be made from the superior extremity of the sternum to the +pubis, and this crossed by a transverse one just below the umbilicus; +that the abdominal flaps thus made should then be turned back and the +abdominal viscera examined; that after the abdominal cavity was opened, +the position of the bullet should be ascertained, if possible, before +making any further incision, and that, finally, the thoracic viscera +should be examined. This order of procedure was unanimously agreed to, +and the examination was proceeded with.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;"> +<img src="images/facing506.jpg" width="650" height="448" alt="Dr. Woodward. Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Barnes. Dr. Bliss. Dr. +Hamilton. Dr. Agnew." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Dr. Woodward. Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Barnes. Dr. Bliss. Dr. +Hamilton. Dr. Agnew.</span> +</div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span></p> + +<p>The following external appearances were first observed: The body was +considerably emaciated, but the face was much less wasted than the +limbs. A preservative fluid had been injected by the embalmer a few +hours before into the left femoral artery. The pipes used for the +purpose were still in position. The anterior surface of the body +presented no abnormal appearances, and there was no ecchymosis or other +discoloration of any part of the front of the abdomen. Just below the +right ear, and a little behind it, there was an oval ulcerated opening +about half an inch in diameter, from which some sanious pus was +escaping, but no tumefaction could be observed in the parotid region. A +considerable number of purpura-like spots were scattered thickly over +the left scapula, and thence forward as far as the axilla. They ranged +from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, were slightly +elevated and furfuraceous on the surface, and many of them were +confluent in groups of two to four or more. A similar, but much less +abundant, eruption was observed sparsely scattered over the +corresponding region on the right side. An oval excavated ulcer, about +an inch long, the result of a small carbuncle, was seated over the +spinous process of the tenth dorsal vertebra. Over the sacrum there were +four small bed sores, the largest about half an inch in diameter. A few +acute pustules and a number of irregular spots of post-mortem hypostatic +congestion were scattered over the shoulders, back and buttocks. The +inferior part of the scrotum was much discolored by hypostatic +congestion. A group of hemorrhoidal tumors rather larger than a walnut +protruded from the anus. The depressed cicatrix of the wound made by the +pistol bullet was recognized over the tenth intercostal space at three +and a half inches to the right of the vertebral spines. A deep linear +incision made in part by the operation of July 24, and extended by that +of August 8, occupied a position closely corresponding to the upper +border of the right twelfth rib. It commenced posteriorly about two +inches from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span> the vertebral spines and extended forward a little more +than three inches. At the anterior extremity of this incision there was +a deep, nearly square, abraded surface, about an inch across. A flexible +catheter, fourteen inches long, was then passed into this wound, as had +been done to wash it out during life. More resistance was at first +encountered than had usually been the case, but after several trials the +catheter entered, without any violence, its full length. It was then +left in position, and the body disposed supinely for the examination of +the viscera. The cranium was not opened. A long incision was made from +the superior extremity of the sternum to the pubis, followed by a +transverse incision crossing the abdomen, just below the umbilicus. The +four flaps thus formed were turned back, and the abdominal viscera +exposed. The subcutaneous adipose tissue, divided by the incision, was +little more than one-eighth of an inch thick over the thorax, but was +thicker over the abdomen, being about a quarter of an inch thick along +the linear alba and as much as half an inch thick towards the outer +extremity of the transverse incision. On inspection of the abdominal +viscera in situ, the transverse colon was observed to lie a little above +the line of the umbilicus. It was firmly adherent to the anterior edge +of the liver. The greater omentum covered the intestines pretty +thoroughly from the transverse colon almost to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span> the pubis. It was still +quite fat and was very much blackened by venous congestion. On both +sides its lateral margins were adherent to the abdominal parietes +opposite the eleventh and twelfth ribs. On the left side the adhesions +were numerous, firm, well organized, and probably old. [A foot-note here +says: These adhesions and the firm ones on the right side, as well as +those of the spleen, possibly date back to an attack of chronic +dysentery, from which the patient is said to have suffered during the +civil war.] On the right side there were a few similar adhesions and a +number of more delicate and probably recent ones. A mass of black, +coagulated blood covered and concealed the spleen and the left margin of +the greater omentum. On raising the omentum it was found that a blood +mass extended through the left lumbar and iliac regions, and dipped down +into the pelvis, in which there was some clotted blood and rather more +than a pint of bloody fluid. [A foot-note here says: A large part of +this fluid had probably transuded from the injection material of the +embalmer.] The blood coagula, having been turned out and collected, +measured very nearly a pint. It was now evident that secondary +hemorrhage had been the immediate cause of death, but the point from +which the blood had escaped was not at once apparent. The omentum was +not adherent to the intestines, which were moderately distended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> with +gas. No intestinal adhesions were found other than those between the +transverse colon and the liver, already mentioned.</p> + +<p>The abdominal cavity being now washed out as thoroughly as possible, a +fruitless attempt was made to obtain some indication of the presence of +the bullet before making any further incision. By pushing the intestines +aside, the extremity of the catheter, which had been pressed into the +wound, could be felt between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, +but it had evidently doubled upon itself, and, although a prolonged +search was made, nothing could be seen or felt to indicate the presence +of the bullet, either in that region or elsewhere. The abdominal viscera +were then carefully removed from the body, placed in suitable vessels +and examined seriatim, with the following result: The adhesions between +the liver and the transverse colon proved to bound an abscess cavity +between the under surface of the liver, the transverse colon and the +transverse mesocolon, which involved the gall-bladder, and extended to +about the same distance on each side of it, measuring six inches +transversely, and four inches from before backward. This cavity was +lined by a thick pyogenic membrane, which completely replaced the +capsule of that part of the under surface of the liver occupied by the +abscess. It contained about two ounces of greenish-yellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> fluid, a +mixture of pus and biliary matter. This abscess did not involve any +portion of the substance of the liver, except the surface with which it +was in contact. No communication could be traced between it and any part +of the wound. Some recent peritoneal adhesions existed between the upper +surface of the right lobe of the liver and the diaphragm. The liver was +larger than normal, weighing eighty-four ounces; its substance was firm, +but of a pale yellowish color on its surface, and throughout the +interior of the organ, from fatty degeneration. No evidence that it had +been penetrated by the bullet could be found, nor were there any +abscesses or infractions in any part of its tissue. The spleen was +connected to the diaphragm by firm, probably old, peritoneal adhesions. +There were several rather deep congenial fissures in its margins, giving +it a lobulated appearance. It was abnormally large, weighing eighteen +ounces, of a very dark, lake-red color. Its parenchyma was soft and +flabby, but contained no abscesses or infractions. There were some +recent peritoneal adhesions between the posterior wall of the stomach +and the posterior abdominal parietes. With this exception, no +abnormities were discovered in the stomach or intestines, nor were any +other evidences of general or acute peritonitis found besides those +already specified. The right kidney weighed six ounces, the left kidney +seven.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[Pg 512]</a></span> Just beneath the capsule of the left kidney, at about the middle +of its convex border, there was a little abscess one-third of an inch in +diameter. There were three small serous cysts on the convex border of +the right kidney, just beneath its capsule. In other respects the tissue +of both kidneys was normal in appearance and in texture. The urinary +bladder was empty. Behind the right kidney, after the removal of that +organ from the body, the dilated track of the bullet was discovered. It +was found that, from the point at which it had fractured the right +eleventh rib, three inches and a half to the right of the vertebral +spines, the missile had gone to the left obliquely forward, passing +through the body of the first lumbar vertebra, and lodging in the +adipose collective tissue, immediately below the lower border of the +pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spinal column, +and behind the peritoneum. It had become completely encysted. The track +of the bullet between the point at which it had fractured the eleventh +rib and that at which it entered the first lumbar vertebra was +considerably dilated, and the pus had burrowed downward through the +adipose tissue behind the right kidney, and thence had found its way +between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, making a descending +channel, which extended almost to the groin. The adipose tissue behind +the kidney, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[Pg 513]</a></span> the vicinity of the descending channel, was much +thickened and condensed by inflammation. In the channel, which was found +almost free from pus, lay the flexible catheter introduced into the +wound at the commencement of the autopsy. Its extremity was found +doubled upon itself immediately beneath the peritoneum, reposing upon +the iliac fossa, where the channel was dilated into a pouch of +considerable size. This long descending channel, now clearly seen to +have been caused by the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed, +during life, to have been the track of the bullet. The last dorsal, +together with the first and second lumbar vertebra and the twelfth rib, +were then removed from the body for more thorough examination. When this +examination was made, it was found that the bullet had penetrated the +first lumbar vertebra in the upper part of the right side of the body. +The aperture by which it entered the intervertebral cartilage next +above, was situated just below and anterior to the intervertebral +foramen, from which the upper margin was about one-quarter of an inch +distant. Passing obliquely to the left, and forward through the upper +part of the body of the first lumbar vertebra, the bullet emerged by the +aperture, the centre of which was about half an inch to the left of the +median line, and which also involved the intervertebral cartilage next +above. The cancellated tissue of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[Pg 514]</a></span> body of the first lumbar vertebra +was very much comminuted, and the fragments somewhat displaced. Several +deep fissures extended from the track of the bullet into the lower part +of the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. Others extended through the +first lumbar vertebra into the intervertebral cartilage, between it and +the second lumbar vertebra. Both this cartilage and the next above were +partly destroyed by ulceration. A number of minute fragments from the +fractured lumbar vertebra had been driven into the adjacent soft parts. +It was further found that the right twelfth rib also was fractured at a +point one and a quarter inches to the right of the transverse process of +the twelfth dorsal vertebra. This injury had not been recognized during +life. On sawing through the vertebra, a little to the right of the +median line, it was found that the spinal canal was not involved by the +track of the ball. The spinal cord and other contents of this portion of +the spinal canal presented no abnormal appearance. The rest of the +spinal cord was not examined. Beyond the first lumbar vertebra, the +bullet continued to go to the left, passing behind the pancreas to the +point where it was found. Here it was enveloped in a firm cyst of +connective tissues, which contained, beside the ball, a minute quantity +of inspissated somewhat cheesy pus, which formed a thin layer of a +portion of the surface of the lead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[Pg 515]</a></span> There was also a black shred +adherent to a part of the cyst wall, which proved, on microscopal +examination, to be the remains of a blood clot. For about an inch from +this cyst, the track of the ball behind the pancreas was completely +obliterated by the healing process. Thence as far backward as the body +of the first lumbar vertebra the track was filled with coagulated blood, +which extended on the left into an irregular space rent in the adjoining +adipose tissue behind the peritoneum and above the pancreas. The blood +had worked its way to the left, bursting finally through the peritoneum +behind the spleen into the abdominal cavity.</p> + +<p>The rending of the tissues by the extravasation of this blood was +undoubtedly the cause of the paroxysms of pain which occurred a short +time before death. This mass of coagulated blood was of irregular form, +and nearly as large as a man's fist. It could be distinctly seen from in +front through the peritoneum, after the greater curvature of the stomach +had been exposed by the dissolution of the greater omentum from the +stomach, and especially after some delicate adhesions between the +stomach and the part of the peritoneum covering the blood mass had been +broken down by the fingers. From the relations of the mass, as thus +seen, it was believed that the hemorrhage had proceeded from one of the +mesenteric arteries; but, as it was clear that a minute dissection +would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[Pg 516]</a></span> be required to determine the particular branch involved, it was +agreed that the infiltrated tissues and the adjoining soft parts should +be preserved for subsequent study. On the examination and dissection +made in accordance with this agreement, it was found that the fatal +hemorrhage proceeded from a rent, nearly four tenths of an inch long, in +the main trunk of the splenic artery, two inches and a half to the left +of the cœliac axis. The rent must have occurred at least several days +before death, since the everted edges in the slit in the vessel were +united by firm adhesions to the surrounding connective tissue, thus +forming an almost continuous wall, bounding the adjoining portion of the +blood clot. Moreover, the peripheral portion of the clot in this +vicinity was disposed in pretty firm concentric layers. It was further +found that the cyst below the lower margin of the pancreas, in which the +bullet was found, was situated three and one-half inches to the left of +the cœliac axis. Beside the mass of coagulated blood just described, +another about the size of a walnut was found in the greater omentum, +near the splenic extremity of the stomach. The communication, if any, +between this and the larger hemorrhagic mass could not be made out.</p> + +<p>The examination of the thoracic viscera resulted as follows: The heart +weighed eleven ounces. All the cavities were entirely empty, except the +right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[Pg 517]</a></span> ventrical, in which a few shreds of soft reddish coagulated blood +adhered to the internal surface. On the surface of the mitral valve +there were several spots of fatty degeneration. With this exception the +cardiac valves were normal. The muscular tissues of the heart were soft +and tore easily. A few spots of fatty degeneration existed in the lining +membrane of the aorta, just above the semilunar valves, and a slender +clot of fibrine was found in the aorta, where it was divided, about two +inches from these valves, for the removal of the heart. On the right +side slight pleuritic adhesions existed between the convex surface of +the lower lobe of the lung and the costal pleura, and firm adhesions +between the anterior edge of the lower lobe, the pericardium and the +diaphragm. The right lung weighed thirty-two ounces. The posterior part +of the fissure between its upper and lower lobes was congenitally +incomplete. The lower lobe of the right lung was hypostatically +congested, and considerable portions, especially toward its base, were +the seat of broncho-pneumonia. The bronchial tubes contained a +considerable quantity of stringy mucous pus. Their mucous surface was +reddened by catarrhal bronchitis. The lung tissue was œdematous. [A +foot-note here says: A part at least of this condition was doubtless due +to the extravasation of the injecting fluids by the embalmer. But it +contained no abscesses or infractions.]<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[Pg 518]</a></span> On the left side the lower lobe +of the lung was bound behind to the costal pleura, above to the upper +lobe, and below to the diaphragm by pretty firm pleuritic adhesions. The +left lung weighed twenty-seven ounces. The condition of its bronchial +tubes and of the lung tissues was very nearly the same as on the right +side, the chief difference being that the area of broncho-pneumonia in +the lower lobe was much less extensive in the left lung than in the +right. In the lateral part of the lower lobe of the left lung, and about +an inch from its pleural surface, there was a group of four minute areas +of gray hepatization, each about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. +There were no infractions and no abscesses in any part of the lung +tissue.</p> + +<p>The surgeons assisting at the autopsy were unanimously of the opinion +that, in reviewing the history of the case in connection with the +autopsy, it was quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, +and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnished a +sufficient explanation of the septic conditions which existed during +life. About an hour after the post-mortem examination was completed the +physicians named at the commencement of this report assembled for +further consultation in an adjoining cottage. A brief outline of the +results of the post-mortem examination was drawn up, signed by all the +physicians,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[Pg 519]</a></span> and handed to Private Secretary J. Stanley Brown, who was +requested to furnish copies to the newspaper press.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><span class="smcap">D. W. Bliss.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><span class="smcap">J. K. Barnes.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><span class="smcap">J. J. Woodward.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><span class="smcap">Robert Reyburn.</span></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 25em;"><span class="smcap">D. S. Lamb.</span></span><br /> +</p> + +<p>As the above report contains paragraphs detailing the observations made +at Washington on the pathological specimens preserved for that purpose, +the names of Drs. J. H. Hamilton, D. Hayes Agnew, and A. H. Smith, are +not appended to it. It has, however, been submitted to them, and they +have given their assent to the other portions of the report.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[Pg 520]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>III.</h3> + +<h4>SENATOR HOAR'S ADDRESS.</h4> + +<p>I should indulge myself in a strange delusion if I hoped to say anything +of President Garfield which is not already well known to his countrymen, +or to add further honor to a name to which the judgment of the world, +with marvelous unanimity, has already assigned its place. The public +sorrow and love have found utterance, if not adequate, yet such as +speech, and silence, and funeral rite, and stately procession, and +prayers, and tears could give. On the twenty-sixth day of September, the +day of the funeral, a common feeling stirred mankind as never before in +history. That mysterious law, by which, in a great audience, every +emotion is multiplied in each heart by sympathy with every other, laid +its spell on universal humanity. At the touch which makes the whole +world kin, all barriers of rank, or party, or State, or Nation +disappeared. His own Ohio, the State of his birth and of his burial, New +England, from whose loins came the sturdy race from which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[Pg 521]</a></span> descended, +whose college gave him his education, can claim no pre-eminence in +sorrow.</p> + +<p>From farthest south comes the voice of mourning for the soldier of the +Union. Over fisherman's hut and frontiersman's cabin is spread a gloom +because the White House is desolate. The son of the poor widow is dead, +and palace and castle are in tears. As the humble Campbellite disciple +is borne to his long home, the music of the requiem fills cathedral +arches and the domes of ancient synagogues. On the coffin of the +canal-boy a queen lays her wreath. As the bier is lifted, word comes +beneath the sea that the nations of the earth are rising and bowing +their heads. From many climes, in many languages they join in the solemn +service. This is no blind and sudden emotion, gathering and breaking +like a wave. It is the mourning of mankind for a great character already +perfectly known and familiar. If there be any persons who fear that +religious faith is dying, that science has shaken the hold of the moral +law upon the minds of men, let them take comfort in asking themselves if +any base or ignoble passion could have so moved mankind. Modern science +has called into life these mighty servants, press and telegraph, who +have created a nerve which joins together all human hearts and pulses +simultaneously over the globe. To what conqueror, to what tyrant, to +what selfish ambition,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[Pg 522]</a></span> to what mere intellectual greatness would it not +have refused response? The power in the universe that makes for evil, +and the power in the universe that makes for righteousness, measure +their forces. A poor, weak fiend shoots off his little bolt, a single +human life is stricken down, and a throb of divine love thrills a +planet.</p> + +<p>Every American State has its own story of the brave and adventurous +spirits who were its early settlers; the men who build commonwealths, +the men of whom commonwealths are builded. The history of the settlement +of Massachusetts, of central New York, and of Ohio, is the history of +the Garfield race. They were, to borrow a felicitous phrase, "hungry for +the horizon." They were natural frontiersmen. Of the seven generations +born in America, including the President, not one was born in other than +a frontiersman's dwelling.</p> + +<p>Two of them, father and son, came over with Winthrop in 1630. Each of +the six generations who dwelt in Massachusetts has left an honorable +record still preserved. Five in succession bore an honorable military +title. Some were fighters in the Indian wars. "It is not in Indian +wars," Fisher Ames well says, "that heroes are celebrated, but it is +there they are formed." At the breaking out of the Revolution the male +representatives of the family were two young brothers. One, whose name +descended to the President, was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[Pg 523]</a></span> in arms at Concord bridge, at sunrise, +on the 19th of April. The other, the President's great grandfather, +dwelling thirty miles off, was on his way to the scene of action before +noon. When the Constitution rejected by Massachusetts in 1778 was +proposed, this same ancestor, with his fellow-citizens of the little +town of Westminster, voted unanimously for the rejection, and put on +record their reasons. "It is our opinion that no constitution whatever +ought to be established till previously thereto a bill of rights be set +forth, and the constitution be framed therefrom, so that the lowest +capacity may be able to determine his natural rights, and judge of the +equitableness of the constitution thereby." "And as to the Constitution +itself, the following appears to us exceptionable, viz, the fifth +article," [Excepting negroes, mulattoes and Indians from the right to +vote], "which deprives a portion of the human race of their natural +rights on account of their color, which, in our opinion, no power on +earth has a just right to do. It therefore ought to be expunged the +Constitution." No religious intolerance descended in the Garfield race. +But the creed of this Westminster catechism they seem never to have +forgotten. When the war was over, the same ancestor took his young +family and penetrated the forest again. He established his home in +Otsego county, in central New York, at the period and amid the scenes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[Pg 524]</a></span> +made familiar by Cooper, in his delightful tale, <i>The Pioneers</i>. Again +the generations moved westward, in the march of civilization, keeping +ever in the van, until in 1831, James Garfield was born, in a humble +Ohio cabin where he was left fatherless in his infancy. In a new +settlement the wealth of the family is in the right arm of the father. +To say that the father, who had himself been left an orphan when he was +an infant, left his son fatherless in infancy, is to say that the family +was reduced to extreme poverty.</p> + +<p>I have not given this narrative as the story of a mean or ignoble +lineage. Such men, whether of Puritan, or Huguenot, or Cavalier stock, +have ever been the strength and the security of American States. From +such homes came Webster, and Clay, and Lincoln and Jackson. It is no +race of boors that has struck its axes into the forests of this +continent. These men knew how to build themselves log houses in the +wilderness. They were more skillful still to build constitutions and +statutes. Slow, cautious, conservative, sluggish, unready, in ordinary +life, their brains move quick and sure as their rifles flash, when great +controversies that determine the fate of States are to be decided, when +great interests that brook no delay are at stake, and great battles that +admit no indecision, are to be fought. The trained and disciplined +soldiers of England could not anticipate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[Pg 525]</a></span> these alert farmers. On the +morning of the Revolution they were up before the sun. When Washington +was to be defended in 1861 the scholar, or the lawyer, or the man of the +city, dropped his book, left his court-house or his counting-room, and +found his company of yeomen waiting for him. They are ever greatest in +adversity. I would not undervalue the material of which other republics +have been built. The polished marbles of Greece and Italy have their own +grace. But art or nature contain no more exquisite beauty than the color +which this split and unhewn granite takes from the tempest it +withstands. There was never a race of men on earth more capable of +seeing clearly, of grasping, and of holding fast the great truths and +great principles which are permanent, sure, and safe for the government +of the conduct of life, alike in private and public concerns. If there +be, or ever shall be, in this country, a demos, fickle, light-minded, +easily moved, blind, prejudiced, incapable of permanent adherence to +what is great or what is true, whether it come from the effeminacy of +wealth or the scepticism of a sickly and selfish culture, or the poverty +and ignorance of great cities, it will find itself powerless in this +iron grasp.</p> + +<p>Blending with this Saxon stock, young Garfield inherited on the mother's +side the qualities of the Huguenots, those gentle but not less brave or +less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[Pg 526]</a></span> constant Puritans, who, for conscience sake, left their beloved +and beautiful France, whose memory will be kept green so long as Maine +cherishes Bowdoin College, or Massachusetts Faneuil Hall; or New York +the antique virtue of John Jay, or South Carolina her Revolutionary +history—who gave a lustre and a glory to every place and thing they +touched. The child of such a race, left fatherless in the wilderness, +yet destined to such a glory, was committed by Providence to three great +teachers, without either of whom he would not have become fitted for his +distinguished career. These teachers were a wise Christian mother, +poverty, and the venerable college president who lived to watch his +pupil through the whole of his varied life, to witness his inauguration +amid such high hopes, and to lament his death. To no nobler matron did +ever Roman hero trace his origin. Few of the traditions of his Puritan +ancestry could have come down to the young orphan. It is said there were +two things with which his mother was specially familiar—the Bible and +the rude ballads of the war of 1812. The child learned the Bible at his +mother's knee, and the love of country from his cradle-hymns.</p> + +<p>I cannot, within the limits assigned to me, recount every circumstance +of special preparation which fitted the young giant for the great and +various parts he was to play in the drama of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[Pg 527]</a></span> republican life. It +would be but to repeat a story whose pathos and romance are all known by +heart to his countrymen. The childhood in the cabin; the struggle with +want almost with famine, the brother proudly bringing his first dollar +to buy shoes for the little bare feet; the labor in the forest, the +growth of the strong frame and the massive brain; the reading of the +first novel; the boy's longing for the sea; the canal-boat; the +carpenter's shop; the first school; the eager thirst for knowledge; the +learning that an obstacle seems only a thing to be overcome; the +founding of the college at Hiram; the companionship in study of the +gifted lady whose eulogy he pronounced; the Campbellite preaching; the +ever-wise guidance of the mother; the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate; we know them better even, than we know the youth +of Washington and of Webster. General Garfield said in 1878, that he had +not long ago conversed with an English gentleman, who told him that in +twenty-five years of careful study of the agricultural class in England +he had never known one who was born and reared in the ranks of farm +laborers that rose above his class and became a well-to-do citizen. The +story of a childhood passed in poverty, of intellect and moral nature +trained in strenuous contests with adversity, is not unfamiliar to those +who have read the lives of the men who have been successful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[Pg 528]</a></span> in this +country in any of the walks of life. It is one of the most beneficent +results of American institutions that we have ceased to speak of poverty +and hardship, and the necessity for hard and humble toil as +disadvantages to a spirit endowed by nature with the capacity for +generous ambitions. In a society where labor is honorable, and where +every place in social or public life is open to merit, early poverty is +no more a disadvantage than a gymnasium to an athlete, or drill and +discipline to a soldier.</p> + +<p>General Garfield was never ashamed of his origin. He</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">"Did not change, but kept in lofty place</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">The wisdom which adversity had bred."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The humblest friend of his boyhood was ever welcome to him when he sat +in the highest seats, where Honor was sitting by his side. The poorest +laborer was sure of the sympathy of one who had known all the bitterness +of want and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of the brow. He +was ever the simple, plain, modest gentleman. When he met a common +soldier it was not the general or military hero that met him, but the +comrade. When he met the scholar, it was not the learned man, or the +college president, but the learner. It was fitting that he who found +open the road through every gradation of public honor,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[Pg 529]</a></span> from the log +cabin to the Presidency, simply at the price of deserving it, should +have answered in the same speech the sophistries of communism and the +sinister forebodings of Lord Macaulay. "Here," he said, "society is not +fixed in horizontal layers, like the crust of the earth, but as a great +New England man said years ago, it is rather like the ocean, broad, +deep, grand, open, and so free in all its parts that every drop that +mingles with the yellow sand at the bottom, may ride through all the +waters, till it gleams in the sunshine on the crest of the highest +waves. So it is here in our free society, permeated with the light of +American freedom. There is no American boy, however poor, however +humble, orphan though he may be, that, if he have a clear head, a true +heart, a strong arm, he may not rise through all the grades of society, +and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the State. Here there is +no need for the Old World war between capital and labor. Here is no need +of the explosion of social order predicted by Macaulay."</p> + +<p>When seeking a place of education in the East, young Garfield wrote to +several New England colleges. The youth's heart was touched, and his +choice decided by the tone of welcome in the reply of Dr. Hopkins, the +president of Williams. It was fortunate that his vigorous youth found +itself under the influence of a very great but very<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[Pg 530]</a></span> simple and sincere +character. The secret of Dr. Hopkins' power over his pupils lay, first, +in his own example, profound scholarship, great practical wisdom, +perfect openness and sincerity, and humility, second, in a careful study +of the disposition of each individual youth, third, justice, absolute, +yet accompanied by sympathy and respect, seldom severity, never scorn, +in dealing with the errors of boyhood. No harsh and inflexible law, cold +and pitiless as a winter's sea, dealt alike with the sluggish and the +generous nature. No storm of merciless ridicule greeted the shy, +awkward, ungainly, backwoodsman. And, beyond all, Dr. Hopkins taught his +pupils that lesson in which some of our colleges so sadly +fail—reverence for the republican life of which they were to form a +part, and for the great history of whose glory they were inheritors. It +was my fortune, on an evening last spring, to see the illustrious pupil, +I suppose for the last time on earth, take leave of the aged teacher +whose head the frosts of nearly fourscore winters had touched so +lightly, and to hear him say at parting, "I have felt your presence at +the beginning of my administration like a benediction." The President +delighted in his college. He kept unbroken the friendships he formed +within her walls. He declared that the place and its associations were +to him a fountain of perpetual youth. He never forgot his debt<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[Pg 531]</a></span> to her. +When he was stricken down he was on his way, all a boy again, to lay his +untarnished laurels at her feet.</p> + +<p>It would have been hard to find in this country a man so well equipped +by nature, by experience, and by training, as was Garfield when he +entered the Ohio Senate, in 1860, at the age of twenty-eight. He was in +his own person the representative of the plainest life of the backwoods +and the best culture of the oldest eastern community. He had been used +in his youth to various forms of manual labor. The years which he +devoted to his profession of teacher and of college president, were +years of great industry, in which he disciplined his powers of public +speaking and original investigation. Dr. Hopkins said of him: "There was +a large general capacity applicable to any subject and sound sense. What +he did was done with facility, but by honest and avowed work. There was +no pretence of genius or alternation of spasmodic effort and of rest, +but a satisfactory accomplishment in all directions of what was +undertaken." His sound brain and athletic frame could bear great labor +without fatigue. He had a thoroughly healthy and robust intellect, +capable of being directed upon any of the pursuits of life or any of the +affairs of State in any department of the public service. We have no +other example in our public life of such marvellous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[Pg 532]</a></span> completeness of +intellectual development. He exhibited enough of his varied mental +capacity to make it sure that he could have attained greatness as a +metaphysician or a mathematician in any of the exact sciences, as a +linguist, as an executive officer, as he did in fact attain it as a +military commander, as an orator, as a debater and a parliamentary and +popular leader.</p> + +<p>The gigantic scale on which the operations of our late war were +conducted, has dwarfed somewhat the achievements of individual actors. +If in the history of either of the other wars in which our people have +engaged, whether before or after the Declaration of Independence, such a +chapter should be found as the narrative of Garfield's Kentucky +campaign, it would alone have made the name of its leader immortal. It +is said that General Rosecrans received the young schoolmaster with some +prejudice. "When he came to my headquarters," he says, "I must confess +that I had a prejudice against him, as I understood he was a preacher +who had gone into politics, and a man of that cast I was naturally +opposed to." In his official report Rosecrans says:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"I especially mention Brigadier-General Garfield, ever +active, prudent and sagacious. I feel much indebted to him +for both counsel and assistance in the administration of +this army. He possesses the energy and the instinct of a +great commander."</p></div><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[Pg 533]</a></span></p> + +<p>We must leave to soldiers and to military historians to assign then +relative historic importance to the movements of the war. But we may +safely trust the popular judgment which pronounces Garfield's role at +Chickamauga one of the most conspicuous instances of personal heroism, +and the Kentucky campaign a most brilliant example of fertility of +resource, combined audacity and prudence, sound military judgment, and +success against great odds. We may safely trust, too, the judgment of +the accomplished historian, who pronounces his report in favor of the +advance that ended with the battle of Chickamuauga "the ablest military +document submitted by a chief of staff to his superior during the war." +We may accept, also, the award of Lincoln, who made him major-general +for his brilliant service at Chickamauga, and the confidence of Thomas, +who offered him the command of an army corps. Great as was his capacity +for military service, the judgment of Abraham Lincoln did not err, when +it summoned him to the field of labor where his greatest laurels were +won. It is the fashion, in some quarters, to lament the decay of +statesmanship, and to make comparisons, by no means complimentary, +between persons now entrusted with the conduct of public affairs, and +their predecessors. We may at least find consolation in the knowledge +that when any of our companions die they do not fail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[Pg 534]</a></span> to receive full +justice from the hearts of the people.</p> + +<p>Suppose any of the statesmen who preceded the war, or some intelligent +and not unfriendly foreign observer—some De Tocqueville or Macaulay—to +look forward with Garfield to the duties which confronted him when he +entered Congress in 1863. With what despair, in the light of all past +experience, would he have contemplated the future. How insignificant the +difficulties which beset the men of the preceding seventy years compared +with those which have crowded the seventeen which were to follow. How +marvellous the success the American people have achieved in dealing with +these difficulties compared with that which attended the statesmanship +of the times of Webster and Clay and Calhoun, giants as they were. The +greatness of these men is not likely to be under-valued anywhere, least +of all in Massachusetts. They contributed each in his own way those +masterly discussions of the great principles by which the Constitution +must be interpreted, and the economic laws on which material prosperity +depends, which will abide as perpetual forces so long as the republic +shall endure. Mr Webster, especially, aided in establishing in the +jurisprudence of the country the great judgments, which, on the one +hand, asserted for the national government its most necessary and +beneficent powers, and, on the other hand, have protected property and +liberty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[Pg 535]</a></span> from invasion. He uttered in the Senate the immortal argument +which convinced the American people of the unity of the republic and the +supremacy and indestructibility of the national authority. It has been +well said that the cannon of the nation were shotted with the reply to +Hayne. But the only important and permanent measure with which the name +of Webster is connected is the Ashburton treaty—an achievement of +diplomacy of little consequence in comparison with those which obtained +from the great powers of Europe the relinquishment of the doctrine of +perpetual allegiance, or with the Alabama treaty of 1871. Mr. Clay's +life was identified with two great policies—the protection of American +industry and the compromise between slavery and freedom in their strife +for control of the Territories. When he died the free-trade tariff of +1844 was the law of the land, and within two years the Missouri +compromise was repealed. Mr Calhoun has left behind him the memory of a +stainless life, great intellectual power and a lost cause.</p> + +<p>To each generation is committed its peculiar task. To these men it was +given to wake the infant republic to a sense of its own great destiny, +and to teach it the laws of its being, by which it must live or bear no +life. To the men of our time the abstract theories, which were only +debated in other days, have come as practical realities, demanding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[Pg 536]</a></span> +prompt and final decision on questions where error is fatal. From the +time of Jay's treaty no such problem has presented itself to American +diplomacy as that which the war left as its legacy. The strongest power +on earth, accustomed, in dealing with other nations, to take counsel +only of her pride and her strength, had inflicted on us vast injury, of +which the honor of this country seemed pledged to insist on reparation, +which England conceived hers equally pledged to deny. But in domestic +affairs, the difficulties were even greater. For six of the sixteen +years that followed the death of Lincoln, the President was not in +political accord with either house of Congress. For four others the +house was of different politics from President and Senate. During the +whole time the dominant party had to encounter a zealous and able +opposition, and to submit its measures to a people having apparently the +strongest inducements to go wrong. The rights of capital were to be +determined by the votes of labor, debtors to fix the value of their +payments to their creditors, a people under no constraint but their own +sense of duty to determine whether they would continue to bear the +weight of a vast debt, the policy of dealing with the conquered to be +decided at the close of a long war by the votes of the conquerors, among +whom every other family was in mourning for its dead, finance and +currency with their subtleties,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[Pg 537]</a></span> surpassing the subtleties of +metaphysics to be made clear to the apprehension of plain men; business +to be recalled from the dizzy and dangerous heights of speculation to +moderate gains and safe laws; great public ways connecting distant +oceans to be built; commerce to be diverted into unaccustomed channels; +the mouth of the Mississippi to be opened; a great banking system to be +devised and put in operation, such as was never known before, alike +comprehensive and safe, through whose veins and arteries credit, the +life-blood of trade should ebb and flow in the remotest extremities of +the land; four millions of people to be raised from slavery to +citizenship; millions more to be welcomed from foreign lands; a disputed +presidential succession to be settled, after an election contest in +which the country seemed turned into two hostile camps, by a tribunal +for which the founders of the government had made no provision; all this +to be accomplished under the restraints of a written Constitution.</p> + +<p>When this list has been enumerated the eulogy of Garfield the statesman +has been spoken. There is scarcely one of these questions, certainly not +more than one or two, which he did not anticipate, carefully and +thoroughly study for himself before it arose, and to which he did not +contribute an original argument, unsurpassed in persuasive force. +Undoubtedly there were others who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[Pg 538]</a></span> had more to do with marshalling the +political forces of the house. But almost from the time he entered it he +was the leader of its best thought. He was ever serious, grave, +addressing himself only to the reason and conscience of his auditors.</p> + +<p>He lived in a State whose people were evenly divided in politics, and on +whose decision, as it swayed alternately from side to side, the fate of +the country often seemed to depend. You will search his speeches in vain +for an appeal to a base motive or an evil passion. Many men who are +called great political leaders are really nothing but great political +followers. They study the currents of a public sentiment which other men +form. They use as instruments opinions which they never espoused till +they became popular. General Garfield always consulted with great care +the temper of the house in the conduct of measures which were under his +charge. But he was remarkably independent in forming his judgments, and +inflexible in adhering to them on all great essential questions. His +great friend and commander, General Thomas, whose stubborn courage saved +the day in the great battle for the possession of Tennessee, was +well-called the "rock of Chickamauga." In the greater battle in 1876 for +the nation's honor, Garfield well deserved to be called the "rock of +Ohio." Everything he did and said manifested the serious, reverent love +of excellent.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[Pg 539]</a></span> He had occasion often to seek to win to his opinions +masses of men composed largely of illiterate persons. No man ever heard +from his lips a sneer at scholarship. At the same time, he never made +the scholar's mistake of undervaluing the greatness of the history of +his own country, or the quality of his own people.</p> + +<p>The limits of this discourse do not permit me to enter into the detail +of the variety and extent of his service in debate, in legislation, and +in discussions before the people. I could detain you until midnight were +I to recount from my own memory the great labors of the twelve years +that it was my privilege to share with him in the public service, for +four of which I sat almost by his side. Everybody who had a new thought +brought it to him for hospitable welcome. Did science or scholarship +need anything of the government, Garfield was the man to whom they came. +While charged with the duty of supervising the details of present +legislation he was always foreseeing and preparing for the future. In +the closing years of the war, while chairman of the committee of +military affairs, he was studying finance. Later he had prepared himself +to deal with the defects in the civil service. I do not think the +legislation of the next twenty years will more than reach the ground +which he had already occupied in his advanced thought.</p> + +<p>General Garfield gave evidence of vast powers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[Pg 540]</a></span> of oratory on some very +memorable occasions. But he made almost no use of them as a means of +persuading the people to conclusions where great public interests were +at stake. Sincerity, directness, full and perfect understanding of his +subject, clear logic, manly dignity, simple and apt illustration, marked +all his discourse. But on a few great occasions, such as that in New +York, when the people were moved almost to frenzy by the assassination +of Lincoln, or in the storm which moved the great human ocean at the +convention at Chicago, he showed that he could touch with a master's +hands the chords of that mighty instrument—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i20">"Such as raised<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To height of noblest temper heroes old,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Arming to battle, and instead of rage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With dread of death to flight or foul retreat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor wanting power to mitigate and suage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From mortal or immortal minds."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>When General Garfield took the oath of office as President, he seemed to +those who knew him best, though in his fiftieth year, still in the prime +of a splendid and vigorous youth. He was still growing. We hoped for him +eight years of brilliant administration, and then, in some form or place +of service, an old age like that of Adams, whom, in variety of +equipment, alone of our Presidents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_541" id="Page_541">[Pg 541]</a></span> he resembled. What was best and +purest and loftiest in the aspiration of America seemed at last to have +laid its hand on the helm. Under its beneficent rule we hoped, as our +country entered on its new career of peace and prosperity, a nobler +liberty, a better friendship, a purer justice, a more lasting +brotherhood. But he was called to a sublimer destiny. He had ascended +along and up the heights of service, of success, of greatness, of glory; +ever raised by the people to higher ranks for gallant and meritorious +conduct on each field, until by their suffrages he stood foremost among +men of the foremost among nations. But in the days of his sickness and +death he became the perpetual witness and example how much greater than +the achievements of legislative halls, or the deeds of the field of +battle, are the household virtues and simple family affections which all +men have within their reach; how much greater than the lessons of the +college or the camp, or the congress, are the lessons learned at +mother's knees. The honors paid to Garfield are the protest of a better +age and a better generation against the vulgar heroisms of the past. Go +through their mausoleums and under their triumphal arches, and see how +the names inscribed there shrink and shrivel compared with that of this +Christian soldier, whose chiefest virtues, after all, are of the +fireside and the family circle, and of the dying bed. Here the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_542" id="Page_542">[Pg 542]</a></span> hero of +America becomes the hero of humanity.</p> + +<p>We are justified, then, in saying of this man that he has been tried and +tested in every mode by which the quality of a human heart and the +capacity of a human intellect can be disclosed; by adversity, by +prosperity, by poverty, by wealth, by leadership in deliberative +assemblies, and in the perilous edge of battle, by the height of power +and of fame. The essay was to be completed by the certain and visible +approach of death. As he comes out into the sunlight, more and more +clearly does his country behold a greatness and symmetry which she is to +see in their true and full proportions only when he lies in the repose +of death.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"As sometimes in a dead man's face,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To those that watch it more and more,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">A likeness, hardly seen before,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes out, to some one of his race,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So, dearest, now thy brows are cold,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I see thee what thou art, and know<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Thy likeness to the wise below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy kindred with the great of old."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Let us not boast at the funeral of our dead. Such a temper would be +doubly odious in the presence of such expressions of hearty sympathy +from governments of every form. But we should be unfaithful to ourselves +if in asking for this man a place in the world's gallery of illustrious +names we did not declare that we offer him as an example of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_543" id="Page_543">[Pg 543]</a></span> the +products of Freedom. With steady and even step he walked from the +log-cabin and the canal-path to the school, to the college, to the +battle-field, to the halls of legislation, to the White House, to the +chamber of death. The ear in which the voices of his countrymen, hailing +him at the pinnacle of human glory had scarcely died out, heard the +voice of the dread archangel, and his countenance did not change. Is not +that country worth dying for whose peasantry are of such a strain? Is +not the Constitution worth standing by under whose forms Freedom calls +such men to her high places? Is not the Union worth saving which gives +all of us the property of countrymen in such a fame?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_544" id="Page_544">[Pg 544]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<h4>HON. JAMES G. BLAINE'S EULOGY.</h4> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mr. President</span>: For the second time in this generation the great +departments of the Government of the United States are assembled in the +Hall of Representatives to do honor to the memory of a murdered +President. Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty struggle in which the +passions of men had been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his +great life added but another to the lengthened succession of horrors +which had marked so many lintels with the blood of the first born. +Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled +to brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the land. +"Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it +as it has been exhibited where such example was last to have been looked +for, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by +revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a +decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_545" id="Page_545">[Pg 545]</a></span> example of +human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an +infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his +character."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the uprising against +Charles First, about twenty thousand emigrants came from Old England to +New England. As they came in pursuit of intellectual freedom and +ecclesiastical independence rather than for worldly honor and profit, +the emigration naturally ceased when the contest for religious liberty +began in earnest at home. The man who struck his most effective blow for +freedom of conscience by sailing for the colonies in 1620 would have +been accounted a deserter to leave after 1640. The opportunity had then +come on the soil of England for that great contest which established the +authority of Parliament, gave religious freedom to the people, sent +Charles to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver Cromwell the +Supreme Executive authority of England. The English emigration was never +renewed, and from these twenty thousand men with a small emigration from +Scotland and from France are descended the vast numbers who have New +England blood in their veins.</p> + +<p>In 1685 the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to +other countries four<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_546" id="Page_546">[Pg 546]</a></span> hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the +most intelligent and enterprising of French subjects—merchants of +capital, skilled manufacturers and handicraftsmen, superior at the time +to all others in Europe. A considerable number of these Huguenot French +came to America, a few landed in New England and became honorably +prominent in its history. Their names have in large part become +anglicized, or have disappeared, but their blood is traceable in many of +the most reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated in honorable +memorials and useful institutions.</p> + +<p>From these two sources, the English-Puritan and the French-Huguenot, +came the late President—his father, Abram Garfield, being descended +from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other.</p> + +<p>It was good stock on both sides—none better, none braver, none truer. +There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable +love of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. Garfield was proud +of his blood, and, with as much satisfaction as if he were a British +nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he +spoke of himself as ninth in descent from those who would not endure the +oppression of the Stuarts, and seventh in descent from the brave French +Protestants who refused to submit to tyranny even from the Grand +Monarque.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_547" id="Page_547">[Pg 547]</a></span></p> + +<p>General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits, and, during his +only visit to England, he busied himself in discovering every trace of +his forefathers in parish registries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting +with a friend in the gallery of the House of Commons one night after a +long day's labor in this field of research, he said with evident elation +that in every war in which for three centuries patriots of English blood +had struck sturdy blows for constitutional government and human liberty, +his family had been represented. They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, +and at Preston, they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and at Monmouth, +and in his own person had battled for the same great cause in the war +which preserved the Union of the States.</p> + +<p>Losing his father before he was two years old, the early life of +Garfield was one of privation, but its poverty has been made +indelicately and unjustly prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined +him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality too often greets the +eye in the squalid sections of our large cities. General Garfield's +infancy and youth had none of their destitution, none of their pitiful +features appealing to the tender heart and to the open hand of charity. +He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy; +in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy; in which Daniel Webster was a +poor boy: in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_548" id="Page_548">[Pg 548]</a></span> sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of +America in all generations, have been poor boys. Before a great +multitude of men, in a public speech, Mr Webster bore this testimony;</p> + +<p>"It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder +brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin raised amid the snowdrifts +of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first +from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills there was no +similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the +settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to +it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the +hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love +to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early +affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with +all I know of this primitive family abode."</p> + +<p>With the requisite change of scene, the same words would aptly portray +the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier, where all are +engaged in a common struggle, and where a common sympathy and hearty +co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty; +different in kind, different in influence and effect, from that +conscious and humiliating indigence which is every day forced to +contrast itself with neighboring wealth, on which it feels a sense of +grinding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_549" id="Page_549">[Pg 549]</a></span> dependence. The poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty. +It is but the beginning of wealth, and has the boundless possibilities +of the future always opening before it. No man ever grew up in the +agricultural regions of the West, where a house-raising, or even a +corn-husking, is matter of common interest and helpfulness, with any +other feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence. This +honorable independence marked the youth of Garfield, as it marks the +youth of millions of the best blood and brain now training for the +future citizenship and future government of the republic. Garfield was +born heir to land, to the title of free-holder, which has been the +patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo Saxon race ever since +Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England. His adventure on the +canal—an alternative between that and the deck of a Lake Erie +schooner—was a farmer boy's device for earning money, just as the New +England lad begins a possibly greater career by sailing before the mast +on a coasting vessel or on a merchantman bound to the farther India or +to the China Seas.</p> + +<p>No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles +with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when +he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble +mould desires to be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_550" id="Page_550">[Pg 550]</a></span> looked upon as having occupied a menial position, +as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having +suffered the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of +charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family +love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations +which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those +which were recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with +pride.</p> + +<p>Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely +limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to +learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the +advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found +within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart. +While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and +became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his +speech in his maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At +eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his +ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his +efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in +the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. +While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies, +and was so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_551" id="Page_551">[Pg 551]</a></span> successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to +enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of +the venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his +powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable +service.</p> + +<p>The history of Garfield's life to this period, presents no novel +features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-reliance, +self-sacrifice, and ambition, qualities, which, be it said for the honor +of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of +America. But from his graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of his +tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly +working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when +twenty-four years of age, he seemed as one bound to spring into +conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively +president of a college, State Senator of Ohio, major-general of the army +of the United States, and Representative elect to the National Congress. +A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief +and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history +of the country.</p> + +<p>Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than +such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his +march to the field. Stepping from civil life to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_552" id="Page_552">[Pg 552]</a></span> the head of a regiment, +the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume +command of a brigade, and to operate as an independent force in Eastern +Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey +Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of +occupying, in connection with other confederate forces, the entire +territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into secession. +This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young +college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and discouraging +position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it +himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of +men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country, +among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force under +the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen +active and important service in two preceding wars.</p> + +<p>The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the +endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he +imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted +to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated +estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, +the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_553" id="Page_553">[Pg 553]</a></span> force, and the +emancipation of an important territory from the control of the +rebellion. Coming at the close of a long series of disasters to the +Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance, +and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to the rank of +a military hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire command, +with a mobilized force of only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had +met an army of five thousand and defeated them—driving Marshall's +forces successively from two strongholds of their own selection, +fortified with abundant artillery. Major-General Buell, commanding the +Department of the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the regular +army, published an order of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant +result of the Big Sandy campaign, which would have turned the head of a +less cool and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared that his +services had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and +President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the more +substantial reward of a brigadier-general's commission, to bear date +from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall.</p> + +<p>The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sustained its brilliant +beginning. With his new commission he was assigned to the command of a +brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_554" id="Page_554">[Pg 554]</a></span> in the second and +decisive day's fight in the great battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the +year 1862 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the +armies with which he was serving. His practical sense was called into +exercise in completing the task assigned him by General Buell, of +reconstructing bridges and reëstablishing lines of railway communication +for the army. His occupation in this useful but not brilliant field was +varied by service on courts-martial of importance, in which department +of duty he won a valuable reputation attracting the notice and securing +the approval of the able and eminent Judge Advocate General of the Army. +That of itself was warrant to honorable fame; for among the great men +who in those trying days gave themselves, with entire devotion, to the +service of their country, one who brought to that service the ripest +learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who +labored with modesty and shunned applause, who, in the day of triumph, +sat reserved and silent and grateful—as Francis Deak in the hour of +Hungary's deliverance—was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who, in his +honorable retirement, enjoys the respect and veneration of all who love +the Union of the States.</p> + +<p>Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly important and +responsible post of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then at the +head<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_555" id="Page_555">[Pg 555]</a></span> of the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military +campaign no subordinate officer requires sounder judgment and quicker +knowledge of men than the chief of staff to the commanding general. An +indiscreet man in such a position can sow more discord, breed more +jealousy, and disseminate more strife, than any other officer in the +entire organization. When General Garfield assumed his new duties, he +found various troubles already well developed and seriously effecting +the value and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The energy, the +impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these +dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position, +will always remain one of the most striking proofs of his great +versatility. His military duties closed on the memorable field of +Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave +to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare +distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on a +field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a major-general in +the army of the United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the +battle of Chickamauga.</p> + +<p>The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General +Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He was +extremely desirous to accept the position,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_556" id="Page_556">[Pg 556]</a></span> but was embarrassed by the +fact that he had, a year before, been elected to Congress, and the time +when he must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in +the military service, and had within his own breast the largest +confidence of success in the wider field which his new rank opened to +him. Balancing the argument on the one side and the other, anxious to +determine what was for the best, desirous above all things to do his +patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice of President +Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could, +at that time, be of especial value in the House of Representatives. He +resigned his commission of major-general on the fifth day of December, +1863, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the seventh. +He had served two years and four months in the army, and had just +completed his thirty-second year.</p> + +<p>The Thirty-eighth Congress is preëminently entitled in history to the +designation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was +flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the issues involved in the +continuance of the struggle. The Thirty seventh Congress had, indeed, +legislated to a large extent on war measures, but it was chosen before +any one believed that secession of the States would be actually +attempted. The magnitude of the work which fell upon its successor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_557" id="Page_557">[Pg 557]</a></span> was +unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the +support of the army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of +legislation which it was forced to exercise. Only twenty-four States +were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members were upon its +roll. Among these were many distinguished party leaders on both sides, +veterans in the public service, with established reputations for +ability, and with that skill which comes only from parliamentary +experience. Into this assemblage of men Garfield entered without special +preparation, and it might almost be said unexpectedly. The question of +taking command of a division of troops under General Thomas or taking +his seat in Congress, was kept open till the last moment, so late, +indeed, that the resignation of his military commission and his +appearance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the uniform +of a major-general of the United States army on Saturday, and on Monday +in civilian's dress he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in +Congress from the State of Ohio.</p> + +<p>He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected him. +Descended almost entirely from New England stock, the men of the +Ashtabula district were intensely radical on all questions relating to +human rights. Well-educated, thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, +acutely discerning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_558" id="Page_558">[Pg 558]</a></span> of character, not quick to bestow confidence, and +slow to withdraw it, they were at once the most helpful and most +exacting of supporters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom they have +once confided, is illustrated by the unparalleled fact that Elisha +Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings and James A. Garfield represented the +district for fifty-four years.</p> + +<p>There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public life +more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no +place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously +acquired, or to eminence won outside; no place where so little +consideration is shown for the feelings or the failures of beginners. +What a man gains in the House, he gains by sheer force of his own +character, and if he loses and falls back he must expect no mercy, and +will receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the survival of the +strongest is the recognized rule, and where no pretense can deceive and +no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is +impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed.</p> + +<p>With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest member in +the House when he entered, and was but seven years from his college +graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his +ability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front +with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_559" id="Page_559">[Pg 559]</a></span> confidence of one who belonged there. The House was crowded +with strong men of both parties; nineteen of them have since been +transferred to the Senate, and many of them have served with distinction +in the gubernatorial chairs of their respective States, and on foreign +missions of great consequence; but among them all none grew so rapidly, +none so firmly as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan of his parliamentary +hero, Garfield succeeded "because all the world in concert could not +have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he +played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that +were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy, on +which it was his power to draw." Indeed the apparently reserved force +which Garfield possessed, was one of his great characteristics. He never +did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He +never expended so much strength but that he seemed to be holding +additional power to call. This is one of the happiest and rarest +distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in +persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument.</p> + +<p>The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the +House of Representatives. His military life, illustrated by honorable +performance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_560" id="Page_560">[Pg 560]</a></span> felt, prematurely +terminated, and necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might +have done in a field where the great prizes are so few, cannot be +profitable. It is sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his duty +bravely; he did it intelligently; he won an enviable fame, and he +retired from the service without blot or breath against him. As a +lawyer, though admirably equipped for the profession, he can scarcely be +said to have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at the bar +were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhibited +on every field where he was put to the test, and if a man may be +accepted as a competent judge of his own capacity and adaptations, the +law was the profession to which Garfield should have devoted himself. +But fate ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest +largely upon his service in the House of Representatives. That service +was exceptionally long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to the +House, an honor enjoyed by not more than six other Representatives of +the more than five thousand who have been elected from the organization +of the government until this hour.</p> + +<p>As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, +where the position had been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield +must be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_561" id="Page_561">[Pg 561]</a></span> any man with +whom he was associated in public life, he gave careful and systematic +study to public questions, and he came to every discussion in which he +took part, with elaborate and complete preparation. He was a steady and +indefatigable worker. Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply +the place or achieve the results of labor, can find no encouragement in +Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, rapid, and skillful. He +possessed in a high degree the power of readily absorbing ideas and +facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from a book all +that was of value in it, by a reading apparently so quick and cursory +that it seemed like a mere glance at the table of contents. He was a +preëminently fair and candid man in debate, took no petty advantages, +stooped to no unworthy methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely +appealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame passion. He had a quicker +eye for the strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and +on his own side he so marshaled his weighty arguments as to make his +hearers forget any possible lack in the complete strength of his +position. He had a habit of stating his opponent's side with such +amplitude of fairness and such liberality of concession that his +followers often complained that he was giving his case away. But never +in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of the House did he +give<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_562" id="Page_562">[Pg 562]</a></span> his case away or fail, in the judgment of competent and impartial +listeners, to gain the mastery.</p> + +<p>These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a great debater, did +not, however, make him a great parliamentary leader. A parliamentary +leader, as that term is understood wherever free representative +government exists, is necessarily and very strictly the organ of his +party. An ardent American defined the instinctive warmth of patriotism +when he offered the toast, "Our country, always right, but right or +wrong, our country." The parliamentary leader who has a body of +followers that will do and dare and die for the cause, is one who +believes his party always right, but right or wrong, is for his party. +No more important or exacting duty devolves upon him than the selection +of the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely how to +strike, but where to strike and when to strike. He often skillfully +avoids the strength of his opponent's position and scatters confusion in +his ranks by attacking an exposed point when really the righteousness of +the cause and the strength of logical intrenchment are against him. He +conquers often both against the right and the heavy battalions; as when +young Charles Fox, in the days of his toryism, carried the House of +Commons against justice, against its immemorial rights, against his own +convictions, if, indeed, at that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_563" id="Page_563">[Pg 563]</a></span> period Fox had convictions, and, in +the interest of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a tyrannical +sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat to which the electors of Middlesex +had chosen him, and installed Luttrell, in defiance, not merely of law +but of public decency. For an achievement of that kind Garfield was +disqualified—disqualified by the texture of his mind, by the honesty of +his heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and aspiration of +his nature.</p> + +<p>The three most destinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in +this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each +was a man of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense +personality, differing widely, each from the others, and yet with a +signal trait in common—the power to command. In the give and take of +daily discussion, in the art of controling and consolidating reluctant +and refractory followers; in the skill to overcome all forms of +opposition, and to meet, with competency and courage the varying phases +of unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defection, it would be difficult +to rank with these a fourth name in all our Congressional history. But +of those Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be impossible to +find in the parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, in +1841, when, at sixty-four years of age, he took the control of the Whig<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_564" id="Page_564">[Pg 564]</a></span> +party from the President who had received their suffrages, against the +power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the +Senate, against the Herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise +in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plentitude of +power, he hurled against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass of that +conquering column which had swept over the land in 1840, and drove his +administration to seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. +Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful, when, in 1854, +against the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise +counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts and even +the moral sense of the country, he forced a reluctant Congress into a +repeal of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens in his contests +from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his parliamentary leadership into +Congress, tied the hands of the President, and governed the country by +its own will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be discharged by the +Executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his hands at the +opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the +Cabinet and the moral power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew Johnson could +not command the support of one-third in either House against the +parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_565" id="Page_565">[Pg 565]</a></span> the animating +spirit and the unquestioned leader.</p> + +<p>From these three great men Garfield differed radically; differed in the +quality of his mind, in temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. +He could not do what they did, but he could do what they could not, and +in the breadth of his Congressional work he left that which will longer +exert a potential influence among men, and which, measured by the severe +test of posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring and more +enviable fame.</p> + +<p>Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and ignorant of the details +of his work, may, in some degree, measure them by the annals of +Congress. No one of the generation of public men to which he belonged +has contributed so much that will be valuable for future reference. His +speeches are numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them well studied, +carefully phrased, and exhaustive of the subject under consideration. +Collected from the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo volumes of +<i>Congressional Record</i>, they would present an invaluable compendium of +the political history of the most important era through which the +national government has ever passed. When the history of this period +shall be impartially written, when war legislation, measures of +reconstruction, protection of human rights, amendments to the +Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_566" id="Page_566">[Pg 566]</a></span> toward specie +resumption, true theories of revenue may be reviewed, unsurrounded by +prejudice and disconnected from partisanism, the speeches of Garfield +will be estimated at their true value, and will be found to comprise a +vast magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis and sound +conclusion. Indeed, if no other authority were accessible, his speeches +in the House of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 1880, +would give a well-connected history and complete defence of the +important legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute +his parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be found to +forecast many great measures yet to be completed—measures which he knew +were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but which he confidently +believed would secure popular approval within the period of his own +lifetime, and by the aid of his own efforts.</p> + +<p>Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant parliamentary leaders, +it is not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the record of +American public life. He, perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr. Seward in +his supreme faith in the all-conquering power of a principle. He had the +love of learning, and the patient industry of investigation to which +John Quincy Adams owes his prominence and his Presidency. He had some of +those ponderous elements of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster, and +which, indeed, in all our public<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_567" id="Page_567">[Pg 567]</a></span> life, have left the great +Massachusetts senator without an intellectual peer.</p> + +<p>In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders in the +House of Commons present points of essential difference from Garfield. +But some of his methods recall the best features in the strong, +independent course of Sir Robert Peel, and striking resemblances are +discernible in that most promising of modern conservatives, who died two +early for his country and his fame, the Lord George Bentick. He had all +of Burke's love for the sublime and the beautiful, with, possibly, +something of his superabundance; and in his faith and his magnanimity, +in his power of statement, in his subtle analysis, in his faultless +logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth and world of +illustration, one is reminded of that great English statesman of to-day, +who, confronted with obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, +reviled by those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose +supposed rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene courage +for the amelioration of Ireland, and for the honor of the English name.</p> + +<p>Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or +anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in +Congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened by his +then recent election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as +a man occupying the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_568" id="Page_568">[Pg 568]</a></span> very highest rank among those entitled to be called +statesmen. It was not mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We +must," says Mr. Emerson, "reckon success a constitutional trait. If Eric +is in robust health and has slept well and is at the top of his +condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland, he will +steer west, and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But take Eric out and +put in a stronger and bolder man, and the ships will sail six hundred, +one thousand, fifteen hundred miles farther, and reach Labrador and New +England. There is no chance in results."</p> + +<p>As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popular favor. He was met with +a storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomination, and it +continued, with increasing volume and momentum, until the close of his +victorious campaign:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"No might nor greatness in mortality<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The whitest virtue strikes. What King so strong<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Under it all he was calm and strong, and confident; never lost his +self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered +word. Indeed, nothing in his whole life is more remarkable or more +creditable than his bearing through those five full months of +vituperation—a prolonged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_569" id="Page_569">[Pg 569]</a></span> agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant +and cruel draught upon the powers of moral endurance. The great mass of +these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, and with the general debris +of the campaign fell into oblivion. But, in a few instances, the iron +entered his soul, and he died with the injury unforgotten, if not +unforgiven.</p> + +<p>One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprecedented. Never before in +the history of partisan contests in this country had a successful +presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events and current +issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash, and even +desperate. The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate Alabama +letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his political +death warrant. They remembered, also, the hot-tempered effusion by which +General Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his +nomination, and the unfortunate speeches which rapidly consumed the +remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley, in a series of +vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway for his own +defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the advice of friends, +Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in +August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and +deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the summer and +autumn. With innumerable critics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_570" id="Page_570">[Pg 570]</a></span> watchful and eager to catch a phrase +that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that might be +distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or +halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the more +remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write what he said, and +yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought and such +admirable precision of phrase as to defy the accident of misreport and +the malignity of misrepresentation.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of his presidential life, Garfield's experience did not +yield him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a +portion of the President's time were distasteful to him, and were +unfavorably contrasted with his legislative work. "I have been dealing +all these years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, "and here +I am dealing only with persons. I have been heretofore treating of the +fundamental principles of government, and here I am considering all day +whether A or B shall be appointed to this or that office." He was +earnestly seeking some practical way of correcting the evils arising +from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy patronage—evils always +appreciated and often discussed by him, but whose magnitude had been +more deeply impressed upon his mind since his accession to the +Presidency. Had he lived, a comprehensive improvement in the mode of +appointment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_571" id="Page_571">[Pg 571]</a></span> and in the tenure of office, would have been proposed by +him, and, with the aid of Congress, no doubt perfected.</p> + +<p>But, while many of the executive duties were not grateful to him, he was +assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From the very outset he +exhibited administrative talent of a high order. He grasped the helm of +office with the hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he constantly +surprised many who were most intimately associated with him in the +government, and especially those who had feared that he might be lacking +in the executive faculty. His disposition of business was orderly and +rapid. His power of analysis, and his skill in classification, enabled +him to dispatch a vast mass of detail with singular promptness and ease. +His cabinet meetings were admirably conducted. His clear presentation of +official subjects, his well-considered suggestion of topics on which +discussion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, +combined to show a thoroughness of mental training, as rare as his +natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of +labor.</p> + +<p>With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a +cool calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a +generous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done by his +administration toward<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_572" id="Page_572">[Pg 572]</a></span> restoring harmony between the different sections +of the Union. He was anxious to go South and speak to the people. As +early as April he had ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to +Nashville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he was again +disappointed a few weeks later to find that he could not go to South +Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of the victory of the +Cowpens.</p> + +<p>But for the autumn he definitely counted on being present at three +memorable assemblies in the South—the celebration at Yorktown, the +opening of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army +of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was already turning over in his +mind his address for each occasion, and the three taken together, he +said to a friend, gave him the exact scope and verge which he needed. At +Yorktown he would have before him the associations of a hundred years +that bound the South and the North in the sacred memory of a common +danger and a common victory. At Atlanta he would present the material +interests and the industrial development which appealed to the thrift +and independence of every household, and which should unite the two +sections by the instinct of self-interest and self-defence. At +Chattanooga he would revive memories of the war only to show that, after +all its disaster and all its suffering, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_573" id="Page_573">[Pg 573]</a></span> country was stronger and +greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, through the +agony and blood of one generation, made brighter and better for all.</p> + +<p>Garfield's ambition for the success of his administration was high. With +strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of +attempting rash experiments, or of resorting to the empiricism of +statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer attention should +be given to questions affecting the material interests and commercial +prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our continental +relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, involved +responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be +abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He believed, with +equal confidence, that an essential forerunner to a new era of national +progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, +and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would +be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and +ambition may do under Republican institutions, he loved his country with +a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to +her advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he +looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the +philosophic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_574" id="Page_574">[Pg 574]</a></span> composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of +John Adams.</p> + +<p>The political events which disturbed the President's serenity, for many +weeks before that fateful day in July, form an important chapter in his +career, and, in his own judgment, involved questions of principle and of +right which are vitally essential to the constitutional administration +of the federal government. It would be out of place here and now to +speak the language of controversy; but the events referred to, however +they may continue to be a source of contention with others, have become, +so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a matter of history as his +heroism at Chickamauga, or his illustrious service in the House. Detail +is not needful, and personal antagonism shall not be rekindled by any +word uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing him are not to be +here adversely interpreted nor their course harshly characterized. But +of the dead President this is to be said, and said because his own +speech is forever silenced and he can be no more heard except through +the fidelity and the love of surviving friends. From the beginning to +the end of the controversy he so much deplored, the President was never +for one moment actuated by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to +others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge; rarely did he even show +resentment, and malice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_575" id="Page_575">[Pg 575]</a></span> was not in his nature. He was congenially +employed only in the exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly +deeds.</p> + +<p>There was not an hour, from the beginning of the trouble till the fatal +shot entered his body, when the President would not gladly, for the sake +of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he had taken, if such +retracing had merely involved consequences personal to himself.</p> + +<p>The pride of consistency, or any supposed sense of humiliation that +might result from surrendering his position, had not a feather's weight +with him. No man was ever less subject to such influences from within or +from without. But, after most anxious deliberation, and the coolest +survey of all the circumstances, he solemnly believed that the true +prerogatives of the executive were involved in the issue which had been +raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he +failed to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional rights and +dignities of his great office. He believed this in all the convictions +of conscience, when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed it in +his suffering and prostration in the last conscious thought which his +wearied mind bestowed on the transitory struggles of life.</p> + +<p>More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. +Justice to the dead, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_576" id="Page_576">[Pg 576]</a></span> highest obligation that devolves upon the +living, demands the declaration that, in all the bearings of the +subject, actual or possible, the President was content in his mind, +justified in his conscience, immovable in his conclusions.</p> + +<p>The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In +his early youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that +great Baptist communion, which, in different ecclesiastical +establishments, is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts +of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his +active spirit of inquiry were early apparent, and carried him beyond the +dogmas of sect and the restraint of association. In selecting a college +in which to continue his education, he rejected Bethany, though presided +over by Alexander Campbell, the great preacher of his church. His +reasons were characteristic; first, that Bethany leaned too heavily +toward slavery; and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the son +of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance with people of other +beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own +words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle +and be under new influences.</p> + +<p>The liberal tendency which he anticipated, as the result of wider +culture, was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian +belief,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_577" id="Page_577">[Pg 577]</a></span> and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the +direction of modern progressive thought. He followed with quickening +step in the paths of exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden +by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other living scientists of the +radical and advanced type. His own church binding its disciples by no +formulated creed, but accepting the Old and New Testaments as the word +of God, with unbiased liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it +did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its members profess with +sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind and one faith with those +who immediately followed the Master, and who were first called +Christians at Antioch.</p> + +<p>But however high Garfield reasoned of "fixed fate, free will, +foreknowledge absolute," he was never separated from the Church of the +Disciples in his affections and in his associations. For him it held the +ark of the covenant. To him it was the gate of heaven. The world of +religious belief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A philosophic +observer declares that men by the thousand will die in defence of a +creed whose doctrines they do not comprehend, and whose tenets they +habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousands will +cling to church organizations with instinctive and undying fidelity, +when their belief in maturer years is radically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_578" id="Page_578">[Pg 578]</a></span> different from that +which inspired them as neophytes.</p> + +<p>But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, +Garfield came back always with freshness and delight to the simpler +instincts of religious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest +survive. Not many weeks before his assassination, walking on the banks +of the Potomac with a friend, and conversing on those topics of personal +religion, concerning which noble natures have an unconquerable reserve, +he said that he found the Lord's prayer and the simple petitions learned +in infancy, infinitely restful to him, not merely in their stated +repetition, but in their casual and frequent recall as he went about the +daily duties of life. Certain texts of scriptures had a very strong hold +on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years +ago, an eminent Scotch preacher, who prefaced his sermon with reading +the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the +subject of careful study with Garfield during all his religious life. He +was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher, and declared +that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances +of St. Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, +and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant promise and the +assured hope with which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_579" id="Page_579">[Pg 579]</a></span> the great apostle of the Gentiles was +"persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, +nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor +depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."</p> + +<p>The crowning characteristic of General Garfield's religious opinions, +as, indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he +had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities which he possessed himself—sincerity of conviction and +frankness of expression. With him the inquiry was not so much what a man +believes, but does he believe it? The lines of his friendship and his +confidence encircled men of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the +end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list of friends, were to be +found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and +generous hearted Free-Thinker.</p> + +<p>On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and +happy man—not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, +happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in +conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of +leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in a +grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial +his administration<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_580" id="Page_580">[Pg 580]</a></span> was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in +popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties +confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed; that trouble +lay behind him and not before him; that he was soon to meet the wife +whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately +disquieted and at times almost unnerved him; that he was going to his +Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young +manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest +had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered +upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in +the gift of his countrymen.</p> + +<p>Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this +world, on that quiet July morning, James A. Garfield may well have been +a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition +of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. +One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching +peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, +doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave.</p> + +<p>Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the +very frenzy of wantonness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_581" id="Page_581">[Pg 581]</a></span> and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he +was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, +its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death—and +he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned +and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, +but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony that were not +less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he +looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, +whose lips may tell—what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high +ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendships, what +bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him, a proud expectant +nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy +mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the +wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet +emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the +sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every +day, and every day rewarding, a father's love and care; and in his heart +the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation +and great darkness! and his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were +thrilled with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_582" id="Page_582">[Pg 582]</a></span> instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in +his moral weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined +in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could +not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With +unfaltering front he faced death; with unfailing tenderness he took +leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard +the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree.</p> + +<p>As the end drew near his early craving for the sea returned. The stately +mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he +begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling +air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the +love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing +of the sea, to live or die, as God should will, within sight of its +heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered +face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon +the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning +light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward, to break and die +beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to +the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us +think that his dying eyes read a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_583" id="Page_583">[Pg 583]</a></span> mystic meaning, which only the rapt +and parting soul may know. Let us believe that, in the silence of the +receding world, he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, +and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal +morning.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_584" id="Page_584">[Pg 584]</a></span></p> + + +<h3>IV.</h3> + +<h4>A THRENODY ON GARFIELD.</h4> + +<h4>BY MRS. ELLEN KEY BLUNT.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How beautiful it was to die as he has died,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Taking a calm around him by the force<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his great soul, commanding peace from strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And changing all the discord into rest,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A heavenly music heard as life departs!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How wonderful it was that the accursed hate<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which smote him brought forth only loyal love;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like to some holy bell that being struck<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Resounds with wondrous sweetness, sounding on<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through all the spaces to eternity.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">How noble was his dauntless fortitude<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which, as he lay expiring, day by day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Made him almost control his destiny<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And look upon his torture with a smile.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_585" id="Page_585">[Pg 585]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">As his life wasted, in great patience, wonderingly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His watchers watched him. They were not alone<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of his own people, but his watchers were the world,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From far-off shores and seas with pitiful<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sad yearnings towards him as his star went down.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nine times ten million souls in his own tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prayed to the Almighty for his single life;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But he had risen too near to heaven in his great flight<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To stoop again to earth, and so God took him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like a star folded in more perfect light.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And he is dead, and multitudes have come<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To his dead presence, and, with solemn care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Moving in silence to the measured strain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He loved, in mournful sweet monotony<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Repeated as they bore him step by step<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Through harvest-fields of ripening trodden grain,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They laid him reverently, gently down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where all the sheaves of earth are garnered at the last.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upon his pulseless form are richly piled<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wreaths, garlands, of the late yet lavish bloom<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of the perfected summer, with the exquisite thrill<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of life so fresh upon their shining leaves<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Banners are furled around him, and the flag<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We love droops mourning o'er the mourning land.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_586" id="Page_586">[Pg 586]</a></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And from afar beyond our land and lakes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From the great world that watched him wonderingly<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Come kind farewells and tender sympathies.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pity has told her tale in every tongue<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And kings have claimed him comrade, hand in hand.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Fame has recorded him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Love has rewarded him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Mother, wife, children and people wept over him.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">England accounted him<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Kindred by blood.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All that are great and good<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have as his mourners stood<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While he lay, day by day, passing away.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">A Queen sends comforting words of cheer,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And flowers to fade on his bloody bier.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God save the Queen when her last hour is near!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The North was his by birth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The South is his by death!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He conquered by suffering grandly borne<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our long-cherished strifes; they are gone, and now<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Standing together we look on his pale dead face,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To whom we had given, the elected, a power more great<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Than any king's. Together we revere<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_587" id="Page_587">[Pg 587]</a></span> +<span class="i0">The majesty with which he laid it down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At God's command. Together we shall love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">His memory, and each other for his sake,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And for the heart so high that it "could hate no man."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">God rest him! He has rested him!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nothing can "hurt" him more,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">"Nothing can touch him further."<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">More than a king he lies<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the strong blaze of the world's homage<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Full on his closed eyes.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">American, born in the forest,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The great lake for him sighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And England, crowned and sceptered,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Loves him as he dies.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">He fought in the deathly valley<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From morn till the set of sun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till eighty days had run.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then he folded his arms<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And his day was done.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Oh, the bloom is off of the prairie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The butterfly's change is begun,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The pine cone flowers eternal,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The eagle has soared to the sun!<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Judge Burnham's Daughters.</span> By "Pansy."</p> + +<p>(Mrs G. R. Alden), Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50. The multitude of +readers of Mrs. Alden's stories will remember <i>Ruth Erskine's Crosses</i>, +and will be glad to meet its principal character once more in her new +character of wife and mother, ripened by experience and strengthened by +trial. Her marriage will be remembered, and the radiant prospects of the +future which attended it. Her husband was kindness itself, but he cared +little for religious matters, and could not sympathize with what seemed +to him the very ridiculous and puritanical ideas of his wife regarding +many things. Still he always gave way to her. The great trouble of her +new life, however, was the disposition evinced by her two step-daughters +to resist her authority and cause her pain by their recklessness and +disobedience. Her husband, Judge Burnham, was wealthy, and occupied a +high social position. He was exceedingly proud of his family and +sensitive as to his reputation. He was strongly opposed to Ruth's being +actively connected with religious or temperance movements, and this fact +sometimes brought them dangerously near serious misunderstanding. The +pressure was constant, and made many unhappy hours for her, especially +when questions of right and propriety arose between her and her +step-daughters and an appeal was made to the father. Suddenly a blow +fell upon the house. The younger daughter fled from home to marry a +gambler and forger, and was disowned by her father and forbidden the +house. A few months later the other daughter fell a victim to quick +consumption, but in her later days turned to the mother whom she had +disliked and disobeyed, and finally died in her arms. The story with its +later incidents is a sad one, but its darkness is lighted by the +surprise which awaits the reader at the close. It is written in Mrs. +Alden's usual fascinating style and like all her books, is transfixed +with a purpose.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Old Concord: Her Highways and Byways.</span> Ill. By Margaret Sidney. Boston, +D. Lothrop Co. Price $3.00. Of all the books of the year there is not +one which carries within it such an aroma of peculiar delight as this +series of sketches and descriptions of the highways and byways of that +most picturesque of towns, Old Concord. Concord is like no other place +in New England. There may be other places as beautiful in their way, +there are others, perhaps, of more importance in the Commonwealth and we +know there are hundreds of places where there is more active life to the +square foot, but with all these admissions Concord still remains a place +of special charm, the result and consequence of more causes than we care +to analyze. Its picturesqueness and a certain quaintness of the village +has always been noticed by visitors, no matter from what part of the +globe they may have come. Added to this is the flavor of Revolutionary +history, and the atmosphere created by the daily lives and presence for +years of three or four of the giants in American literature. Here lived +Hawthorne and Emerson, and Thoreau, and the Alcotts, father and +daughter, and the work that they did here has made it a literary Mecca +for all time.</p> + +<p>These sketches have all the accuracy of photographs, together with that +charm of color and life which a photograph never possesses. The author +is a resident of Concord, and a dweller in one of its historic mansions, +and is thoroughly acquainted with every nook and corner of the town as +well as with every legend which belongs to them. The task which she +assumes of guiding readers to the places made famous by pen and sword is +a labor of love. She tells us how the pilgrimage should be undertaken, +and what should be seen. We visit with her the ancient landmarks which +belong to past generations, and the more modern ones which have even +more interest to the multitude.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The Story of Ohio.</span> By Alexander Black. Being the second volume of the +new series, the "Story of the States," edited by Elbridge S. Brooks. One +volume, 8vo, fully illustrated. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50</p> + +<p>The fact that Ohio has just passed her hundredth birthday, and that she +will throughout the year be engaged in various interesting forms of +civic celebration, renders singularly opportune the appearance of this +compact and picturesque narrative in which the reader will find a +complete picture of Buckeye progress, a picture etched rather than +painted, for the book is not of formidable length, and the author has +been compelled to adopt a crisp and nimble style to tell his story in +due space. The term "story" is an elastic, and perhaps not always an +accurately descriptive one. In this instance the author has given it a +simple and effective definition by making it stand for a direct, natural +and often dramatic account of Ohio's romantic origin and extraordinary +development. While a preference for the picturesque phases of the story +is shown even in the treatment of the most practical elements of State +character, there is an obvious selection of those pictorial traits which +have in themselves a special significance, and which, taken in the +group, present the essential characteristics of the commonwealth. Indeed +the narrative affords an excellent opportunity for discovering the +immense individuality of Ohio in the great family of States. The great +diversity of character among the States, diversities engendered by +geographical as well as by ancestral conditions, is, perhaps not very +generally recognized. The promising series of which this volume forms +the second issue cannot fail, if each author continues to work with care +and sincerity, to broaden our knowledge of all the elements that go to +form our character as a nation, and to deepen that sense of fraternal +sympathy, the cultivation of which has become a point of national +pride.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Some Successful Women.</span> By Sarah K. Bolton. With Portraits. Boston. D. +Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton is the author of several +interesting books which have given her a wide reputation and this new +volume from her pen will be warmly welcomed. It consists of twelve brief +biographies of American women who have in various walks and professions +earned success so marked as to make their names familiar to every +household in the country, and who have done much to inspire others of +their sex to follow in their footsteps. Among them are Marion Harland +(Mrs. Terhune), Mrs. G. R. Allen (Pansy), Clara Barton, the +philanthropist, Alice Freeman, the former president of Wellesley +College, Rachel Bodley, dean of the Woman's Medical College, +Philadelphia, Frances E. Willard, whose labors in behalf of temperance +have given her a place among the foremost of American women. Mrs. +Candace Wheeler and her daughter Dora who have done so much to develop +the love for decorative art in this country and to create opportunities +for its practical application, with others who have gained equally +distinguished places in other departments of art, literature and +industry. The portraits add greatly to the interest of the sketches.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The Lost Earl.</span> By J. T. Trowbridge. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$2.00. This volume will be warmly welcomed by the admirers of Mr. +Trowbridge—and they are legion. Although Mr. Trowbridge is better known +as a successful novelist and writer of juvenile stories he is one of the +truest of our American poets and it is to be regretted that he has not +oftener turned his attention to verse. His themes, though not ambitious, +are always high and his poems are marked by feeling, naturalness and +exquisite finish. <i>The Lost Earl</i> has never before been printed in book +form. It is the story of the revolt of a strong soul against +conventional society life and the casting aside of rank for social +freedom.</p> + + + +<p><span class="smcap">The Secrets at Roseladies.</span> By Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Boston, D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.00. This charming story of the life on the +Wabash, which originally appeared as a serial in <span class="smcap">Wide Awake</span>, will be +read by boys and girls with equal pleasure, for the action of the story +is pretty well divided between the two. The boys will be immensely +entertained with the adventures of the four young treasure-seekers, +particularly with that which ends in their capture by the crazy +half-breed Shawnee, who proposes to cut off their thumbs to bury in the +excavation they have made in the burial mound. The girls' secret, which +is of a very different character, is just as amusing in its way. Mrs. +Catherwood has a wonderful fund of humor, and a talent for description +which many a better known author might envy. The character of old Mr. +Roseladies is capitally drawn, and the account of his journey to the +depot after Aunt Jane's trunk is really mirth provoking. Cousin Sarah +and "Sister" and little Nonie are all charming and the reader will close +the book with regret that there is not more of it.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Brownies and Bogles.</span> By Louise Imogen Guiney. Ill. Boston, D. Lothrop +Co. Price $1.00. This little volume might be fitly styled a fairy +handbook, as in it the author describes every kind of the "little +people" that is found in traditions or literature in all the countries +of the world. There are the brownies and waterkelpies of Scotland, the +troll and necken of Sweden, the German kobalds, the English fairies, +pixies and elves, the Norwegian and Danish dwarfs and bjorgfalls, the +Irish leprechauns, and a score of others, some of whom are mischievous, +some malicious, some house-helpers, and some who are always waiting to +do a good turn to those they like. The author mingles her descriptions +with anecdotes illustrative of the different qualities and dispositions +of the various fairy folk described.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Story of the American Sailor.</span> By E. S. Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop +Co. Price $2.50. Although several volumes have been written descriptive +of the rise and development of the American navy, this is the first and +only work of which we have knowledge that takes wide ground, and deals +with the American sailor. In its preparation Mr. Brooks has not been +actuated by a desire to merely make a readable book for boys, he has +given it the attention which the subject demands as a part of the +history of the country.</p> + +<p>It would be a difficult matter to get at the first American sailor, or +to even guess when he existed but that our continent was once well +populated, and that its prehistoric inhabitants sailed the lakes and +seas as well as trod the land, is a matter of certainty. Later when +America became known to Europeans, the new comers found Indians well +provided with excellent canoes, built of bark or fashioned from logs, +but they were "near shore" sailors. The author quotes one instance where +a deep sea voyage was undertaken by them in the early days of the +English settlers. Certain Carolina Indians he says, wearied of the white +man's sinful ways in trade, thought themselves able to deal direct with +the consumers across the "Big Sea Water." So they built several large +canoes and loading these with furs and tobacco paddled straight out to +sea bound for England. But their ignorance of navigation speedily got +the best of their valor. They were never heard of more.</p> + +<p>The early white navigators of our waters can hardly be considered +American sailors. The new found continent was to them of value only for +what could be brought away from them in treasure or in merchantable +produce, and it was only when an actual and permanent colonization began +that a race of native-born sailors was developed on the Atlantic +coasts.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Ned Harwood's Visit To Jerusalem.</span> Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$1.25. This is a story, instructively told of a young boy who made a +visit to Jerusalem, and other places in the Holy Land, and saw many of +the places made interesting in the Biblical narrative. The author's +personal knowledge of the localities visited enables her to give vivid +and accurate descriptions of them. The book is very handsomely bound in +colored cover from original designs.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Longfellow Remembrance Book.</span> By Samuel Longfellow. Introduction by E. S. +Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. It needs no special +memorial to perpetuate the memory of Longfellow and yet this little +volume has an interest and a mission which are sufficient reasons for +its existence. Its narrative testifies to the love and admiration which +the whole English-speaking people felt for that sweetest of poets and +most admirable of men, and it touches upon those qualities which, apart +from his song, endeared him to every one that knew him. "Old and young," +says Mr. Brooks in his brief introduction, "rich and poor, found in him +inspiration, counsel, sympathy and help, and his words touched more +closely the great, beating human heart than did those of even greater +and diviner poets." With the exception of the introduction, Whittier's +poem called out by the death of Longfellow,—"The Poet and the +Children"—"An International Episode" and Miss Guiney's "Longfellow in +Westminster Abbey"—the contents of the book are from the pen of the +Rev. Samuel Longfellow. In loving detail he writes of the childhood and +boyhood of his brother, his later years, his love for children and of +his life at his charming home at Cambridge. A closing chapter from +another hand describes the unveiling of the poet's bust in Westminster +Abbey, March 1, 1884. The volume is beautifully illustrated.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A Strange Company.</span> By Charles Frederick Holder. Illustrated. Boston. D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.25. No American naturalist of late years has +written more comprehensively or entertainingly than Dr. Holder. The +books and magazine articles from his pen would make a small library and +an exceedingly valuable one. For seven years he was assistant in the +American Museum of Natural History in New York and later was connected +with the New York Aquarium, in whose interests he made extensive +journeys for rare specimens. In the present volume, which is prepared +for young readers, he describes some of the more remarkable specimens of +animal life and their peculiarities. Many of the facts he cites will be +new to older readers such, for instance, as that of fishes climbing +trees and traveling considerable distances overland from water to water, +of birds that fly under water the same as in the air, of four footed +animals with bills and of birds with teeth. In a chapter devoted to the +speech of animals we are told how some of the noises made by insects are +produced undoubtedly for purposes of communication and how birds, fishes +and animals convey intelligence one to another. In another chapter the +sports and games of animals are dealt with. The author says, "I doubt if +an animal can be found which does not in some way or at some time show a +desire for what we term amusement. The Malayan sun bear is remarkable +for its fun loving natur. The common black bear is almost equally +playful and in some of its rough and tumble games in a tree top are some +of the most interesting performances I have ever witnessed. Even crabs +have a sense of humor and go through certain performance, presumably +games. In Australia there are birds that build playhouses, aside from +their nests, in the form of an arbor sometimes two or three feet long, +which they decorate with bright objects."</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">A Young Prince of Commerce.</span> By Selden R. Hopkins. Boston. D. Lothrop +Company. Price $1.25. We do not know of a better book to put into the +hands of boys for the purpose of teaching them the fundamental +principles of business than this little volume, which Mr. Hopkins has so +ingeniously prepared. Most boys grow into young men without the +slightest knowledge of business matters excepting mere buying and +selling. The very things that should have been taught them in school at +the same time with grammar and geography they know nothing about, and +while their heads may be stocked with the rules of syntax and the names +and boundaries of all the countries in the world, they may be helpless +as babies in the transaction of any business that requires the use of +forms or legal methods. It is one of the senseless peculiarities of our +school system that it excludes certain subjects of study that are +absolutely necessary and gives place to others that are practically +useless. It is on that account that we strongly commend this little work +as a supplementary reader in schools. In its pages Mr. Hopkins tells an +interesting story and sandwiches in between its incidents just the +information to which we have reference. The boy who reads it has +obtained, when he has finished it, a clear understanding of the +principles of trade. He knows the character of mortgages, notes, drafts, +stocks and bonds, the theory of banking, discount, exchange and +collateral, he learns all about the mysteries of Wall Street and how the +brokerage business is conducted; in fine, he gets an excellent +understanding of the way business is carried on in general. All this +knowledge comes in incidentally, and in connection with the story. The +book is very handsomely printed and bound.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Mary the Mother.</span> Compiled by Rose Porter. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. +Price $3.00. The purpose of this beautiful volume is to give an outline +story of Mary the Mother Maid, as told in the Holy Book, and by +historical and legendary art, and in poetry. The theme, says the +compiler in her preface, "though it lies within prescribed limits, is +wide enough to embrace a broad field of thought, for it deals with all +the most beautiful and precious productions of human genius and human +skill as manifested by art which the Middle Ages and the Renaissance +have bequeathed to us, and in them we can trace, present in shape before +us, or suggested through inevitable associations, one prevailing idea. +It is that of an impersonation in the feminine character of beneficence, +purity and power, clothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our +Lord."</p> + +<p>The story is told in the purest devotional spirit. The curious legends +which have been handed down or created by the religious writers of the +Middle Ages are put into consecutive order, and illustrated by +reproductions of pictures by the old masters, and of those by two or +three modern painters. Deger's famous picture of "The Annunciation" +serves as the frontispiece. Then follows in order Ittenbach's "St. Mary +the Virgin," Titian's "Presentation," the "Annunciation," by Murillo, +"The Salutation," by Albertinelli, "St. John and the Virgin," by Dobson; +"The Assumption," by Titian, "Mater Dolorosa," by Guido Reni, "Mater +Dolorosa," by Carlo Dolce, and "The Madonna Addolorata," by +Sassaferrato. These are exquisitely reproduced, and are printed, as well +as the text, on heavy, hot-pressed paper. The volume is bound in cloth, +with a cover of special design.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The Art of Living.</span> From the Writings of Samuel Smiles. With Introduction +by the venerable Dr. Peabody of Harvard University and Biographical +Sketch by the editor Carrie Adelaide Cooke. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. +Price $1.00.</p> + +<p>Samuel Smiles is the Benjamin Franklin of England. His sayings have a +similar terseness, aptness and force, they are directed to practical +ends, like Franklin's, they have the advantage of being nearer our time +and therefore more directly related to subjects upon which practical +wisdom is of practical use.</p> + +<p>Success in life is his subject all through The Art of Living, and he +confesses on the very first page that "happiness consists in the +enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life, +which in the eager search for some great and exciting joy we are apt to +overlook. It finds delight in the performance of common duties +faithfully and honorably fulfilled."</p> + +<p>Let the reader go back to that quotation again and consider how contrary +it is to the spirit that underlies the businesses that are nowadays +tempting men to sudden fortune, torturing with disappointments nearly +all who yield, and burdening the successful beyond their endurance, +shortening lives and making them weary and most of them empty.</p> + +<p>Is it worth while to join the mad rush for the lottery, or to take the +old road to slow success?</p> + +<p>This book of the chosen thoughts of a rare philosopher leads to +contentment as well as wisdom, for, when we choose the less brilliant +course because we are sure it is the best one, we have the most complete +and lasting repose from anxiety.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Tilting at Windmills.</span> A Story of the Blue Grass Country. By Emma M. +Connelly. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. 12mo, $1.50.</p> + +<p>Not since the days of "A Fool's Errand" has so strong and so +characteristic a "border novel" been brought to the attention of the +public as is now presented by Miss Connelly in this book which she so +aptly terms "Tilting at Windmills". Indeed, it is questionable whether +Judge Tourgee's famous book touched so deftly and yet so practically the +real phases of the reconstruction period and the interminable +antagonisms of race and section.</p> + +<p>The self sufficient Boston man, a capital fellow at heart, but tinged +with the traditions and environments of his Puritan ancestry and +conditions, coming into his strange heritage in Kentucky at the close of +the civil war, seeks to change by instant manipulation all the equally +strong and deep-rooted traditions and environments of Blue Grass +society.</p> + +<p>His ruthless conscience will allow of no compromise, and the people whom +he seeks to proselyte alike misunderstand his motives and spurn his +proffered assistance.</p> + +<p>Presumed errors are materialized and partial evils are magnified. +Allerton tilts at windmills and with the customary Quixotic results. He +is, seemingly, unhorsed in every encounter.</p> + +<p>Miss Connelly's work in this, her first novel, will make readers anxious +to hear from her again and it will certainly create, both in her own and +other States, a strong desire to see her next forthcoming work announced +by the same publishers in one of their new series—her "Story of the +State of Kentucky."</p> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James +A. Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + +***** This file should be named 34217-h.htm or 34217-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/1/34217/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/34217-h/images/cover.jpg b/34217-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e87bf9 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing167.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing167.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4bb1910 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing167.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing208.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing208.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22a6d5f --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing208.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing254.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing254.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fde9ba1 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing254.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing268.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing268.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f2b09ec --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing268.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing44.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing44.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad5370b --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing44.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing506.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing506.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3ecf6b --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing506.jpg diff --git a/34217-h/images/facing54.jpg b/34217-h/images/facing54.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e249af --- /dev/null +++ b/34217-h/images/facing54.jpg diff --git a/34217.txt b/34217.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..400e631 --- /dev/null +++ b/34217.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15284 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James A. +Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life and Public Services of James A. Garfield + Twentieth President of the United States. + +Author: Emma Elizabeth Brown + +Release Date: November 6, 2010 [EBook #34217] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + + + + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + + + + + +THE + +LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES + +OF + +JAMES A. GARFIELD, + +TWENTIETH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. + +INCLUDING + +_FULL AND ACCURATE DETAILS OF HIS EVENTFUL ADMINISTRATION, +ASSASSINATION, LAST HOURS, DEATH, Etc._ + +TOGETHER WITH + +NOTABLE EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES AND LETTERS + +BY E. E. BROWN. + +BOSTON + +D. LOTHROP COMPANY + +32 FRANKLIN STREET + + +COPYRIGHT, 1881, +BY D. LOTHROP & CO. + + + + +DEDICATION. + + + "To one who joined with us in sorrow true, + And bowed her crowned head above our slain." + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + +BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D. D. + + +More eloquent voices for Christ and the gospel have never come from the +grave of a dead President than those which we hear from the tomb of our +lamented chief magistrate. + +Twenty six years ago this summer a company of college students had gone +to the top of Greylock Mountain, in Western Massachusetts, to spend the +night. A very wide outlook can be gained from that summit. But if you +will stand there with that little company to-day, you can see farther +than the bounds of Massachusetts or the bounds of New England, or the +bounds of the Union. James A. Garfield is one of that band of students, +and as the evening shades gather, he rises up among the group and says, +"Classmates, it is my habit to read a portion of God's Word before +retiring to rest. Will you permit me to read aloud?" And then taking in +his hand a pocket Testament, he reads in that clear, strong voice a +chapter of Holy Writ, and calls upon a brother student to offer prayer. +"How far the little candle throws its beams!" It required real principle +to take that stand even in such a company. Was that candle of the Lord +afterward put out amid the dampening and unfriendly influences of a long +political life? It would not be strange. Many a Christian man has had +his religious testimony smothered amid the stifling and vitiated air of +party politics, till instead of a clear light, it has given out only +the flicker and foulness of a "smoking wick." + +But pass on for a quarter of a century. The young student has become a +man. He has been in contact for years with the corrupting influences of +political life. Let us see where he stands now. In the great Republican +Convention at Chicago he is a leading figure. The meetings have been +attended with unprecedented excitement through the week. Sunday has +come, and such is the strain of rivalry between contending factions that +most of the politicians spend the entire day in pushing the interests of +their favorite candidates. But on that Lord's day morning Mr. Garfield +is seen quietly wending his way to the house of God. His absence being +remarked upon to him next day, he said, in reply, "I have more +confidence in the prayers to God which ascended in the churches +yesterday, than in all the caucusing which went on in the hotels." + +He had great interests at stake as the promoter of the nomination of a +favorite candidate When so much was pending, might he not be allowed to +use the Sunday for defending his interest? So many would have reasoned +But no! amid the clash of contending factions and the tumult of +conflicting interests, there is one politician that heard the Word of +God sounding in his ear "_Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy +work_, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou +shall not do any work." And, at the bidding of the Divine command, his +conscience marches him away to the house of God. Not, indeed, to enjoy +the luxury of hearing some famous preacher, or of listening to some +superb singing, but he goes to one of the obscurest and humblest +churches in the city, because there is where he belongs, and that is +the church which he has covenanted to walk with, as a disciple of Jesus +Christ. "How far" again "that little candle threw its beams!" It was a +little thing, but it was the index of a principle, an index that pointed +the whole American people upward when they heard of it. Here was a man +who did not carry a pocket conscience--a bundle of portable convictions +tied up with a thread of expediency. Nay! here was a man whose +conscience carried him--his master, not his menial, his sovereign, not +his servant. + +And when, during the last days in his home at Mentor, just before going +to Washington to assume his office, he was entertaining some political +friends at tea, he did not forego evening prayers, for fear he might be +charged with cant, but, according to his custom, drew his family +together and opened the Scriptures and bowed in prayer in the midst of +his guests. And his was a religious principle that found expression in +action as well as in prayer. A lady residing in Washington told us that +while a member of the House of Representatives, he was accustomed to +work faithfully in the Sunday school, and that among his last acts was +the recruiting of a class of young men and teaching them in the Bible. +We know from his pastor that he was not too busy to be found often in +the social meetings of the church, nor too great to be above praying and +exhorting in the little group of Christians with whom he met. A +practical Christian, did we say? He must have been a spiritual Christian +also. There is one address of his in Congress that made a great +impression on our mind as we read it. He was delivering a brief eulogy +on some deceased Senator--I think it was Senator Ferry. He spoke of him +as a Christian, not a formalist, but a devout and godly disciple of +Christ. And then he spoke of the rest into which he had entered, and +quoted with great effect that beautiful hymn of Bonar's-- + + "Beyond the smiling and the weeping, + I shall be soon. + Beyond the waking and the sleeping, + Beyond the sowing and the reaping, + I shall be soon. + + Love rest, and home sweet home, + Lord, _tarry not, but come_." + +And taking the key from these last words, he said: "Yes, when the Lord +comes there will be no more weeping, no more sorrow, no more death. +'_Even so come, Lord Jesus._'" + +We believe that only a man of real spiritual, evangelical faith could +have uttered those words. And when we think how rarely such a man has +filled the presidential chair, we feel overwhelmed at the loss. + +Let us praise God that for once we have had a President who could shine +in the most illustrious position in the nation, and yet light up for us +the humblest walks of Christian obedience. Here is one who ruled and who +served, who was a leader of the people and a follower of Christ. The +seat where he sat as ruler of fifty millions will speak to generations +yet to come, telling them how righteousness exalteth a ruler, and the +little stream where he was baptized will tell perpetually, as it flows +on, how it "becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +The "Great Heart of the People."--Bereaved of their Chief.--Universal +Mourning.--Wondering Query of Foreign Nations.--Humble Birth +in Log Cabin.--The Frontier Settlements in Ohio.--Untimely death +of Father.--Struggles of the Family. 11 + +CHAPTER II. + +Boyhood of James.--Attempts at Carpentry.--First Earnings.--His +Thirst for Knowledge.--The Garfield Coat-of-Arms.--Ancestry, +etc. 21 + +CHAPTER III. + +Life at the "Black-Salter's".--James wants to go to Sea.--His +Mother will not give her Consent.--Hires out as a Woodchopper.--His +Powerful Physique.--His Strength of Character. 25 + +CHAPTER IV. + +James still longs for the Sea.--Experience with a Drunken +Captain.--Change of Base.--Life on the Canal. 30 + +CHAPTER V. + +Narrow Escape from Drowning.--Return Home.--Severe Illness.--James +determines to fit himself for a Teacher.--Geauga Seminary.--Personal +Appearance.--Dr Robinson's Verdict. 36 + +CHAPTER VI. + +Low state of Finances.--James takes up Carpentry again.--The +Debating Club.--Bread and Milk Diet.--First Experience +in School-Teaching.--Becomes Interested in Religious +Topics.--Creed of the Disciples.--James joins the New +Sect. 42 + +CHAPTER VII. + +Return to Geauga Seminary.--Works at Haying through the +Vacation.--Teaches a Higher Grade of School.--First +Oration.--Determines to go to College.--He visits the +State Capitol at Columbus. 48 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Hiram Institute.--The faithful Janitor.--Miss Almeda Booth.--James +is appointed Assistant Teacher.--Critical habit of +Reading.--Moral and Religious Growth.--Debating Club. 53 + +CHAPTER IX. + +Ready for College.--His Uncle lends him Five Hundred Dollars.--Why +he decides to go to Williams.--College Life. 58 + +CHAPTER X. + +Return Home.--Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram +Institute.--His Popularity as a Teacher.--Answers Prof +Denton.--Marriage. 67 + +CHAPTER XI. + +Law Studies.--Becomes Interested in Politics.--Delivers Oration +at the Williams Commencement.--Elected State Senator.--His +Courage and Eloquence. 74 + +CHAPTER XII. + +War Declared Between the North and South.--Garfield Forms a +Regiment from the Western Reserve.--Is Appointed Colonel.--General +Buell's Order.--Garfield Takes Charge of the +18th Brigade.--Jordan's Perilous Journey.--Bradley +Brown.--Plan of a Campaign.--March Against Marshall, 80 + +CHAPTER XIII. + +Opening of Hostilities.--Brave Charge of the Hiram Students.--Giving +the Rebels "Hail Columbia".--Sheldon's Reinforcement.--The +Rebel Commander Falls.--His Army +Retreats in Confusion. 93 + +CHAPTER XIV. + +Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.--Starvation Stares them +in the Face.--Garfield Takes Command of the Sandy +Valley.--Perilous Trip up the River.--Garfield's Address +to the Citizens of Sandy Valley.--Pound Gap.--Garfield +Resolves to Seize the Guerillas.--The Old Mountaineer.--Successful +Attack.--General Buell's Message.--Garfield is +Appointed Brigadier General. 100 + +CHAPTER XV. + +Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.--Battles of +Shiloh and Corinth.--The Fugitive Slave.--Attack of +Malaria.--Home Furlough.--Summoned to Washington.--Death +of his Child.--Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.--Kirke's +Description of Garfield. 110 + +CHAPTER XVI. + +Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.--Garfield as +Mediator.--Remarkable Military Document.--The Tullahoma +Campaign.--Insurrection Averted.--Chattanooga.--Battle +of Chickamauga.--Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.--Garfield's +Famous Ride. 115 + +CHAPTER XVII. + +Rosecran's Official Report.--Sixteen Years Later.--Promotion +to Major General.--Elected to Congress.--Resigns his +Commission in the Army.--Endowed by Nature and Education +for a Public Speaker.--Moral Character.--Youngest +Member of House of Representatives.--One Secret of Success.--First +Speech.--Wade Davis Manifesto.--Extracts +from Various Speeches. 125 + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.--The New York Mob.--Garfield's +Memorable Words.--Eulogy upon Lincoln.--Memorial +Oration.--Eulogy upon Senator Morton.--Extracts +from other Orations. 138 + +CHAPTER XIX. + +The Home in Washington.--Fruit Between Leaves.--Classical +Studies.--Mrs. Garfield.--Variety of Reading.--Favorite +Verses. 147 + +CHAPTER XX. + +Tide of Unpopularity.--Misjudged.--Vindicated.--Re-elected.--The +De Golyer Contract.--The Salary Increase Question.--Incident +Related by President Hinsdale. 154 + +CHAPTER XXI. + +The Credit Mobilier.--Garfield entirely Cleared of all Charges +Against him.--Tribute to him in Cincinnati Gazette.--Elected +U. S. Senator.--Extract from Speech.--Sonnet. 160 + +CHAPTER XXII. + +After the Ordeal.--Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of +Ohio.--Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.--Purchase +of the Farm at Mentor.--Description of the New +House.--Life at Mentor.--The Garfield Household.--Longing +for Home in his Last Hours. 167 + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +Republican Convention at Chicago.--The Three Prominent +Candidates.--Description of Conkling.--Logan.--Cameron.--Description +of Garfield.--Resolution Introduced by Conkling.--Opposition +of West Virginians.--Garfield's Conciliatory +Speech.--His Oration in Behalf of Sherman.--Opinions +of the Press. 174 + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +The Battle still Undecided.--Sunday among the delegates.--Garfield's +Remark.--Monday another Day of Doubt.--The +Dark Horse.--The Balloting on Tuesday.--Garfield's Remonstrance.--He +is Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth +Ballot.--Enthusiastic Demonstrations, Congratulatory +Speeches and Telegrams.--His Speech of Acceptance. 187 + +CHAPTER XXV. + +Return Home.--Ovations on the Way.--Address at Hiram Institute.--Impromptu +Speech at Washington.--Incident of +the Eagle.--The Tract Distributor. 196 + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +News of the Nomination Received with Delight.--Mr Robeson +speaks for the Democrats in the House of Representatives.--Ratification +Meeting at Williams College.--Governor Long's +Opinion.--Hotly-contested Campaign.--Garfield Receives the +Majority of Votes.--Is Elected President on the Second of +November, 1880.--Extract from Letter of an Old Pupil.--Review +of Garfield's Congressional Life.--His own Feelings +in Regard to the Election. 201 + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +At Mentor.--The Journey to Washington.--Inauguration Day.--Immense +Concourse of People.--The Address.--Sworn +into Office.--Touching Scene.--Grand Display.--Inauguration +Ball.--Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.--Two +Great Problems.--How they were Solved.--Disgraceful +Rupture in the Senate.--Prerogative of the Executive +Office vindicated. 207 + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.--Morning of +the Fateful Day.--Secretary Blame Accompanies him to the +Station.--A Mysterious-looking Character.--Sudden Report +of a Pistol.--The President Turns and Receives the Fatal +Shot.--Arrest of the Assassin.--The President Recovers +Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House. 214 + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +At the White House.--The Anxious Throngs.--Examination of +the Wounds.--The President's Questions.--His Willingness +to Die.--Waiting for his Wife.--Sudden Relapse.--A +Glimmer of Hope.--A Sunday of Doubt.--Independence +Day.--Remarks of George William Curtis. 218 + +CHAPTER XXX. + +The Assassin.--What were his motives.--His own Confessions.--Statement +of District-Attorney Corkhill.--Sketch of Guiteau's +Early Life. 227 + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +Night of the Fourth.--Extreme Solicitude at the White House.--Description +of an Eye-witness.--Attorney McVeagh's +Remark.--Sudden Change for the Better.--Steady Improvement.--The +Medical Attendance. 233 + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +A Relapse.--Cooling Apparatus at the White House.--The +President writes a Letter to his Mother.--Evidences of +Blood Poisoning.--Symptoms of Malaria.--Removal to +Long Branch.--Preparation for the Journey.--Incidents by +the Way. 238 + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + +Description of the Francklyn Cottage.--The Arrival at Long +Branch.--The President is Drawn up to the Open Window.--Enjoys +the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.--The Surgical +Force Reduced.--Incident on the Day of Prayer. 245 + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +Hopeful Symptoms.--Official Bulletin.--Telegram to Minister +Lowell.--Incidents at Long Branch.--Sudden Change for +the Worse.--Touching Scene with his Daughter.--Another +Gleam of Hope.--Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.--The +Closing Scene. 252 + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +The Midnight Bells.--Universal Sorrow.--Queen Victoria's +Message.--Extract from a London Letter.--The Whitby +Fishermen.--The Yorkshire Peasant.--World wide Demonstrations +of Grief. 260 + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + +The Services at Elberon.--Journey to Washington.--Lying in +State.--Queen Victoria's Offering.--Impressive Ceremonies +in the Capitol Rotunda. 266 + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + +Journey to Cleveland.--Lying in State in the Catafalque in the +Park.--Immense Concourse.--Funeral Ceremonies.--Favorite +Hymn.--At the Cemetery. 273 + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + +Lakeview Cemetery.--Talk with Garfield's Mother.--First +Church where he Preached.--His Religious Experience.--Garfield +as a Preacher. 280 + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + +The Sunday Preceding the Burial.--The Crowded Churches.--The +one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.--Across the +Water.--At Alexandra Palace.--At St. Paul's Cathedral.--At +Westminster Abbey.--Paris.--Berlin.--Extract from +London Times. 287 + +CHAPTER XL. + +National Day of Mourning.--Draping of Public Buildings and +Private Residences.--Touching Incident.--Tributes to Garfield.--Senator +Hoar's Address.--Whittier's Letter.--Senator +Dawes' Remarks. 290 + +CHAPTER XLI. + +Subscription Fund for the President's Family.--Ready Generosity +of the People.--Touching Incident.--Total Amount of the +Fund.--How the Money was Invested.--Project for Memorial +Hospital in Washington.--Cyrus W. Field's Gift of +Memorial Window to Williams College.--Garfield's Affection +for his Alma Mater.--Reception given Mark Hopkins and the +Williams Graduates.--Garfield's Address to his Classmates. 301 + +CHAPTER XLII. + +Removal of the President's Remains.--Monument Fund Committee.--Garfield +Memorial in Boston.--Extracts from +Address by Hon. N. P. Banks. 306 + +CHAPTER XLIII. + +Southern Feeling.--Memorial Services at Jefferson, Kentucky.--Extracts +from Address by Henry Watterson.--Senator Bayard.--Ex-Speaker +Randall.--Senator Hill.--Extracts from +some of the Southern Journals. 328 + +CHAPTER XLIV. + +Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a Friend +in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.--To Corydon E. +Fuller, a College Classmate. 336 + +CHAPTER XLV. + +Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.--Of one of the Pupils at +Hiram Institute.--Garfield's Keen Observation.--His Kindness +of Heart.--Anecdote of the Game of Ball.--Of the +Lame Girl in Washington.--Of Brown the ex-Scout and old +Boat Companion. 353 + +CHAPTER XLVI. + +Remarks of a Personal Friend.--Reminiscences of the President's +Cousin, Henry Boynton.--Garfield as a Freemason. 360 + +CHAPTER XLVII. + +Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.--George Parsons +Lathrop.--From _London Spectator_.--Oliver Wendell Holmes.--H. +Bernard Carpenter--John Boyle O'Reilly--Joaquin +Miller.--M. J. Savage.--Julia Ward Howe.--Rose Terry +Cooke.--Prize Ode.--Kate Tannett Woods. 368 + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + +Currency.--Lincoln.--The Draft.--Slavery.--Independence.--The +Rebellion.--Protection and Free-Trade.--Education.--William +H. Seward.--Fourteenth Amendment.--Classical +Studies.--History.--Liberty.--Statistics.--Poverty.--The +Salary Question.--The Railway Problem.--Elements of +Success.--Law.--The Revenue.--Statesmanship.--Relation +of Government to Science.--Gustave Schleicher.--Suffrage.--Union +of the North and South.--Appeal to Young +Men.--Inaugural. 388 + +ADDENDA. + +Remarkable Military Document by Garfield 494 + +Official report of the post-mortem examination + of Garfield's body 505 + +Senator Hoar's Address 520 + +Hon. James G. Blame's Eulogy 544 + +A Threnody 584 + + + + +LIFE OF JAMES A. GARFIELD + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + The "Great Heart of the People."--Bereaved of their + Chief.--Universal Mourning.--Wondering Query of Foreign + Nations.--Humble Birth in Log Cabin.--The Frontier + Settlements in Ohio.--Untimely Death of Father.--Struggles + of the Family. + + +"_The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!_" + +So murmured the brave, patient sufferer in his sleep that terrible July +night, when the whole nation, stricken down with grief and consternation +at the assassin's deed, watched, waited, prayed--as one man--for the +life of their beloved President. + +And all through those weary eighty days that followed, of alternate hope +and fear, how truly the great, loving, sympathetic heart of the people +did battle, with millions of unseen weapons, for the strong, heroic +spirit that never faltered, never gave up "the one chance," even while +he whispered: "God's will be done; I am ready to go if my time has +come." + +Party differences were all forgotten; there was no longer any North or +South--only one common brotherhood, one great, sorrowing household +watching with tender solicitude beside the death-bed of their loved one. + +How anxiously the varying bulletins were studied! How eagerly the +faintest glimmer of hope was seized! And when, on that +never-to-be-forgotten anniversary of Chickamauga's battle, the midnight +bells tolled out their solemn requiem, + + "The nation sent + Like Egypt, in her tenth and final blow. + Through all the land a loud and bitter cry; + And felt, like her, as o'er her dead she bent, + _There is in every home a present woe_!" + +And yet, with renewed fervor, we repeat those pathetic words: + +"_The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!_" + +While bowing reverently, submissively to the decree of the Almighty +Disposer of human affairs, the nation feels that "no canon of earth or +Heaven can forbid the enshrining of his manly virtues and grand +character, so that after-generations may profit by the contemplation of +them." + +A halo of immortal glory already gathers around the name of James A. +Garfield. + +The remembrance of his brave, self-forgetting endurance of pain, his +strong, indomitable will, his tender regard for his aged mother, his +simple, unaffected piety, his cheerful resignation, will never be +effaced from the heart of the people. + +And when expressions of sympathy and regret came to America from all +parts of the world, the wondering query arose: + +"How is it that republican manners and republican institutions can +produce such a king among men as President Garfield?" + +Let us go back to that humble log cabin in the wilds of Ohio where, +fifty years ago, a little fair-haired, blue-eyed boy was born. + +It is a bleak, bitter day in November, and the whistling of the winds +through the crevices, mingles with the howl of hungry wolves in the +woods close by. + +But the new baby finds a warm welcome waiting him in that rough cabin +home. The mother's love is fully reflected in the honest face of the +great, warm-hearted father, as he folds the little stranger in his +strong arms, and declares he is "worth his weight in gold." + +Thomas, a boy of nine years, with Mehetabel and Mary, the two little +sisters, look wonderingly upon their baby brother, and then run out to +spread the good news through the neighborhood. + +In those early days the frontier settlements seemed like one family, so +interested were all in the joys and sorrows of each. + +Eighteen months later, when the brave, strong father was cut down in +the midst of his work, a circle of true-hearted, sympathizing friends +stood, like a body-guard, around the little family. + +One of those dreaded forest fires had been raging for days through the +tract of country adjoining the Garfield farm. With the aid of his older +children, Mehetabel and Thomas, the father had at last checked the +flames, but, sitting down to rest by the open door, he took a severe +cold which brought on congestion of the throat. + +Before a physician could be called he was past all human aid, and, +looking wistfully upon his children and heart-broken wife, he said, with +dying breath,-- + +"I am going to leave you, Eliza. I have planted four saplings in these +woods, and I must now leave them to your care." + +The blue-eyed baby, who bore his father's name, could not understand the +sorrowful faces about him, and, toddling up to the bedside, he put his +little hands on the cold lips, and called "Papa! Papa!" till the weeping +mother bore him out of the room. + +"What will become of those poor, fatherless children?" said one neighbor +to another. + +"It _is_ a strange providence," was the reply. "The mother is too young +and too frail to carry on the farm alone. She will have to sell +everything, and find homes for the children among her friends." + +But Eliza Garfield was not the weak, dependent woman they had imagined. +Moreover, she had one brave little helper close at hand. + +"Don't cry, mother dear," said Thomas, making a great effort to keep +back his own tears. "I am ten years old now, you know. I will take care +of you. I am big enough to plough and plant, and cut the wood and milk +the cows. Don't let us give up the farm. I will work ever so hard if we +can only keep together!" + +Noble little fellow! No wonder the mother's heart grew lighter as she +watched his earnest face. + +"You are not strong enough, dear child, to do all that," she said, "but +God helping us, we will keep together. I will sell off part of the farm +to pay our debts, and we shall then have thirty acres left, which will +be quite enough for you and me to take care of." + +It was now late in the spring, but Thomas managed to sow the wheat, +plant the corn and potatoes and with the help of a kind neighbor +complete the little barn his father had begun to build. + +In cultivating the ground, his mother and sisters were always ready to +help, and together they split the rails, and drove the stakes for the +heavy fence around the wheat-field. + +With such example of untiring industry and perseverance constantly +before his eyes, it is no wonder the restless baby brother soon tried +to lend a helping hand. + +"Me do it too," he would cry, when Thomas took down the rake or the hoe, +and started off for his work in the fields. + +"One of these days, Jimmy," the boy-farmer would reply, with a merry +smile: though even then he could not help hoping there might be better +things in store for the little brother he loved so dearly. + +Walking all the way to Cleveland, Thomas secures a little job, and +brings home his first earnings, with a bounding heart. + +"Now Jimmy can have a pair of shoes," he says to his mother who cannot +keep back her tears as she looks at his own bare feet. + +The old cobbler comes and boards at the cabin while he makes the little +shoes, and when they are completed it is hard to tell which is the +happier boy,--Thomas or little Jimmy. + +Four years after the father's death, a school-house is built a mile and +a half away. + +"Jimmy and the girls must go," says Thomas. + +"Yes," replies the mother, "but I wish you could go, too." + +"It wouldn't do for me to leave the farm, mother dear," says the noble +boy. "One of these days, perhaps I can study at home." + +The mile and a half walk to the school-house was a long, hard pull for +little Jimmy, in spite of those new shoes; and many a time Mehetabel +might have been seen, carrying him back and forth on her broad +shoulders. + +It was a happy day for all the children when the new log school-house +was put up on one corner of the Garfield farm. The land had been given +by Mrs. Garfield, and the neighbors clubbed together and built the +house, which was only twenty feet square, with a slab roof, a puncheon +floor, and log benches without backs. + +The master was a young man from New Hampshire. He boarded with Mrs. +Garfield, and between him and little James a warm friendship was soon +established. + +The bright active child was never tired of asking questions. + +"He will make his mark in the world, one of these days--you may take my +word for it!" exclaimed the teacher, as he recounted James' wonderful +progress at school. + +The happy mother never forgot these words, and determined to give her +little boy every possible advantage. + +But the Ohio schools in those days were very poor. The three "R's," with +spelling and geography, were the only branches taught, and oftentimes +the teachers knew but little more than the scholars. + +As soon as James could read, he eagerly devoured every book that came +within his reach. The family library comprised not more than half a +dozen volumes, but among these, Weems' "Life of Marion" and Grimshaw's +"Napoleon" were especial favorites with the eager enthusiastic boy. + +Every night the mother would read to her children from her old, +well-worn Bible: and oftentimes James would puzzle his little playmates +with unexpected scripture questions. His wonderful memory held a strange +variety of information in its tenacious grasp. He delighted to hear his +mother read poetry, and would often commit long passages by heart. His +vivid imagination peopled the old orchard with all sorts of strange +characters. Each tree was named after some noted Indian chief, or some +favorite hero he had read about; and from a high ledge of rocks in the +neighborhood, he would sometimes deliver long harangues to his imaginary +audiences. Thomas watched the progress of his little brother with +fatherly pride and admiration, and James looked up to him with loving +confidence. + +He could now help about the farm in many ways, and when Thomas got an +opportunity to work out and earn a few extra pennies, James would look +after the stock, chop the wood, hoe the corn, and help his mother churn +and milk. + +"One of these days, James," she said to him, as he was working +diligently by her side, "I expect Thomas will go out into the world to +earn his living, and then you will have to take his place here on the +farm." + +"But, how soon will that be, mother?" asked the little fellow, who felt +then that he could not possibly get along without his big brother. + +"Not until Thomas is twenty-one, and then you will be twelve years +old--older by two years than Thomas was when your father died." + +"I wish I could be as good a farmer as he," said James; "but I think I +would rather be a carpenter." + +"And I would rather have you a teacher or a preacher," said his mother; +"but we must take our work just as Providence gives it to us, and +farming, my boy, comes first to you." + +It was a trying day to the whole family when Thomas left the little home +to work on a clearing, "way off in Michigan." He would be gone six +months, at least, and there was very little communication in those days +between Ohio and the farther west. + +"I wish you could have found work nearer home," said the fond mother. + +"But I shall earn higher wages there--twelve dollars a month,"--answered +the self-forgetting son; "and, when I get back, I shall have money +enough to build you a frame house." + +The little log cabin was fast coming to pieces, and for five years +Thomas had been cutting and seasoning lumber for the new house, but they +had never been able to hire a carpenter to put it up. + +James tried very hard to fill his brother's place, but he could never +throw his whole soul into farming as Thomas had done. He read and +studied all the time he could get out of working hours, and his thirst +for knowledge was constantly increasing. But how was he to procure the +education for which he longed? + +"Providence will open the way," said the good mother; "though how and +when I cannot tell." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + Boyhood of James.--Attempts at Carpentry.--First + Earnings.--His Thirst for Knowledge.--The Garfield + Coat-of-Arms.--Ancestry, etc. + + +True to his promise, Thomas returned in a few months with seventy-five +dollars in gold, which seemed a great sum to the little family. + +"Now you shall have the new house, mother," he exclaimed; and it was not +many days after, that the carpenter was hired and the work begun. + + +James watched the building with keen, observant eyes. Before the house +was completed he had learned a good part of the trade and practised it +besides. + +"I think I'll have to employ you when I want an extra hand," laughed the +good-natured mechanic, as he noticed how cleverly James used the mallet, +chisel and plane. + +"I wish you would; I like the trade," exclaimed the boy, with sudden +earnestness. + +After the family had moved into the new house, which consisted of three +rooms below and two above, Thomas went back to his work in Michigan, and +James returned to his labor on the farm. + +But the boy's restless spirit longed for a wider field. If he could only +earn a little money, perhaps he would be able to buy a few books. + +Passing the carpenter's shop one day, he saw a pile of boards at the +door waiting to be planed. He stepped inside and asked for the job, +which was readily given him. + +"I will give you a cent a board," said the carpenter, "for I know you +will do them well." + +"How soon do you want them done?" asked James. + +"Oh! it doesn't matter," answered the carpenter; "take your own time for +them." + +"All right!" said the boy, "I'll begin early to-morrow morning, just as +soon as I get through with the chores on the farm." + +Before night he had planed a hundred boards, and each board was twelve +feet long! + +He asked the carpenter to come and count them, lest he had made a +mistake. + +"That is too hard a day's work for a little fellow like you," exclaimed +the astonished man; "but here are a hundred pennies, as I promised you." + +This was the first money that James had ever earned, and it was with a +proud, happy heart he emptied his load of coppers that night into his +mother's lap. + +It was not a difficult matter to find jobs after that. A boy who could +plane a hundred boards in a day was just the sort of help the +enterprising carpenter wanted. Not long after, he engaged James to help +him put up a barn, paying him about twenty dollars for the job. + +By this time James had learned about all he could in the district +schools. He had performed problems in arithmetic that puzzled his +teachers, and could repeat by heart the greater part of his reading +books. A copy of "Josephus" came into his hands, and he read it over and +over until long passages were indelibly impressed upon his memory. + +"Robinson Crusoe," "Alonzo and Melissa," he devoured that winter with +all a boy's enthusiasm, and the little home in Orange seemed smaller to +him than ever. He longed to go out into the world and find a wider +sphere of labor. The blood of his old Welsh ancestors was burning in his +veins. He had often looked at the old Garfield coat of arms, which his +father had kept with loyal pride, and wondered what it meant. Now he +seemed to understand, as if by a sudden intuition, the crimson bars on +the golden shield, with that strong arm, just above, wielding a sword, +whose motto read, "_In cruce vinco_." + +"Tell me about my great-great-grandfathers," he said one day to his +mother, as they were sitting together by the open fire. + +"Your father's family came from Wales," she answered, "and the first +James Garfield was one of the brave knights of Gaerfili Castle. But that +is going a long way back. I know your father used to say he was more +proud of having an ancestor who had fought in the Revolutionary War, and +that was Solomon Garfield, your own great-grandfather." + +"How splendid it is to be a soldier!" exclaimed James. + +"Yes," said his mother, "but there are many grand victories won in the +world besides those upon the battle-field." + +And just here it may be said that it was not only from his father's side +that James Garfield inherited so many sterling traits of character. His +mother is a descendant of Maturin Ballou, a French Huguenot, who joined +the colony of Roger Williams, and settled in Cumberland, Rhode Island. +From this pioneer preacher, a great many eminent men have sprung, among +them the celebrated Hosea Ballou, a cousin of Eliza Ballou Garfield. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + Life at the "Black-Salter's".--James wants to go to + Sea.--His mother will not give her Consent.--Hires out as a + Woodchopper.--His Powerful Physique.--His Strength of + Character. + + +About ten miles from the little settlement at Orange, and not far from +Cleveland, was a large potash factory, owned by a certain Mr. Barton. +The neighboring farmers, when they cleared their lands, would draw the +refuse logs and branches into a great pile and burn them. The ashes thus +collected, they sold to this Mr. Barton, who went by the name of +"black-salter," because the potash he manufactured was called in its +crude state, "black salts." At one time he needed a new shed where the +ashes were leached, and James assisted the carpenter who put it up. + +The bright, industrious lad pleased the old black-salter, and he offered +him fourteen dollars a month, if he would come and work in his ashery. + +This was two dollars more than Thomas was earning "away off in +Michigan," and James was greatly delighted at the prospect of earning +one hundred and sixty-eight dollars a year! + +It was not, however, just the sort of work he would have chosen; and +the mother dreaded for her son the rough companionship of the +black-salters. + +But James did not associate with the rude, coarse men out of +working-hours. Their profanity shocked him; and he gladly turned to the +books he found on an upper shelf at Barton's house. + +As might have been expected, however, these books were very different +from any he had read before. "Marryatt's Novels," "Jack Halyard," "Lives +of Eminent Criminals," and "The Pirate's Own Book," were in fact more +dangerous companions for him than the coarse, brutal men would have +been. The printed page carried with it an authority that the excited boy +did not stop to question. He would sit up all night to follow in +imagination some reckless buccaneer in his wild exploits, till at last +an insatiable longing to be a sailor fired his brain. + +"A life on the ocean wave" seemed to him, at that time, the "ultima +thule" of all his dreams. He longed to see some more of the world, and +to the inexperienced lad this seemed the quickest and surest way. + +One day, he happened to hear Mr. Barton's daughter speak of him in a +sneering tone as her father's "hired servant." This was more than the +high spirit of James could bear. Years after, he said to a friend,-- + +"That girl's cutting remark proved a great blessing to me. I was too +much annoyed by it to sleep that night; I lay awake under the rafters of +that old farm-house, and vowed, again and again, that I _would_ be +somebody; that the time should come when that girl would not call me a +'_hired servant_.'" + +The next morning James informed his employer that he had concluded to +give up the black-salter's business. + +In vain Mr. Barton urged him to stay, by the offer of higher wages. + +Much as he needed the money, the boy was determined to find some other +and more congenial way of earning a living. If he could only go to sea! + +Fortunately none of the family favored this wild scheme of James. + +His mother declared that she could never give her consent. "If you ever +go to sea, James," she said in her firm, decided tones, "remember it +will be entirely against my will. Do not mention the subject to me +again." + +James was a dutiful son. He did not want to oppose his mother's will, +and yet he did want to go to sea. + +A few days after he heard that his uncle, who was clearing a large tract +of forest near Cleveland, wanted to hire some wood-choppers. After +talking the matter over with his mother, he decided to offer his +services. He could not be idle, and wood-chopping was certainly +preferable to leaching ashes. + +His sister Mehetabel, who was now married, lived near this uncle, so +James could make his home with her. + +Altogether the plan pleased Mrs. Garfield, although she was loath to +part with her boy, even for a few months. + +James engaged to cut a hundred cords of wood for his uncle, at the rate +of fifty cents a cord, and declared he could easily cut two cords a day. + +Now it so happened that the edge of the forest where James' work lay +overlooked the blue waters of Lake Erie. With stories from "The Pirate's +Own Book" still haunting his brain, it was not strange that he often +stopped in his work to count the sail, and watch the changing color of +the beautiful waters. + +By and by he noticed that the old German by his side, who seemed to +wield his axe so slowly, was getting ahead of him in the amount of work +accomplished. He began to realize that he was wasting a deal of time by +these "sea dreams," and resolutely turned his back upon the fascinating +waters. + +It was not so easy, however, to drive out of his mind the bewitching +sea-faring tales he had read; and when those hundred cords of wood were +cut, he returned home with the old longing to be a sailor only +intensified. + +He said nothing, for he did not wish to grieve his mother, and as it was +now the last week in June he hired himself out to a farmer for the +summer months, to help in haying and harvesting. + +James was now a strong, muscular boy in his teens. He possessed, +naturally, a fine constitution, and his simple life and vigorous +exercise in the open air had greatly enhanced his powers of endurance. +Whatever he undertook he was determined to carry through successfully. +His strong, indomitable will conquered every difficulty, while his stern +integrity was a constant safeguard. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + James still longs for the Sea.--Experience with a Drunken + Captain.--Change of Base.--Life on the Canal. + + +James went on with his work at home, attending school in the winter, +reading whatever books he could find, and taking odd jobs in carpentry +to add to the family income. + +His heart, however, was still on the sea. + +At last he said to his mother: + +"If I should be _captain_ of a ship some day, you wouldn't mind that, +would you?" + +Now Mrs. Garfield, like a wise mother, had been studying her restless +boy and was not unprepared for this returning desire on his part "to +follow the sea." + +"You might try a trip on Lake Erie," she replied, "and see how you like +it; but if you want to be 'somebody,' as you say, I would look higher +than to a sea-captain's position." + +James hardly heard his mother's last words, so delighted was he to have +this unexpected permission. + +He packed up his things as quickly as possible and walked the whole +distance to Cleveland. + +Boarding the first schooner he found lying at the wharf, he asked one of +the crew if there was any chance for another hand on board. + +"If you can wait a little," was the answer, "the captain will soon be up +from the hold." + +James had a very exalted idea of this important personage; he expected +to see a fine, noble-looking man such as he had read about in his books. + +Suddenly, he heard a fearful noise below, followed by terrible oaths. +Stepping aside to let the drunken man pass him, he was greeted by the +gruff question,-- + +"What d'yer want here, yer green land-lubber, yer?" + +"I was waiting to see the captain," replied James. + +"Wall, don't yer know him when yer do see him?" he shouted. "Get off my +ship, I tell yer, double quick!" James needed no second invitation. +Could this besotted brute be a specimen of the monarchs of the sea? The +boy was so shocked and disgusted that he made no further effort to find +a place on board ship. He began to think his story-books might be a +little different from the reality in other things as well as captains! + +Wandering through the city, he came to the canal which at that time was +a great thoroughfare between Lake Erie and the Ohio river. One of the +boats, called the "Evening Star," was tied to the bank, and James was +greatly surprised to find that the captain of it was a cousin of his, +Amos Letcher. + +"Well, James, what are you doing here?" said the canal-boat captain. + +"Hunting for work," replied the boy. + +"What kind of work do you want?" + +"Anything to make a living. I came here to ship on the lake, but they +bluffed me off and called me a country greenhorn." + +"You'd better try your hand on smaller waters first," said his cousin; +"I should like to have you work for me, but I've nothing better to offer +you than a driver's berth at twelve dollars a month." + +"I must do something," answered James, "and if that is the best you can +offer me, I'll take the team." + +"It was imagination that took me upon the canal," he said, years after; +and it is easy to see how fascinating the trips from Cleveland to +Pittsburgh seemed at that time to the inquiring boy. + +The "Evening Star" had a capacity of seventy tons, and it was manned, as +most of the canal-boats were, with two steersmen, two drivers, a +bowsman, and a cook. The bowsman stood in the forward part of the boat, +made ready the locks, and threw the bow-line around the snubbing-post. +The drivers had two mules each, which were driven tandem, and, after +serving a number of hours on the tow-path, they took turns in going on +board with their mules. + +[Illustration: On the Tow-Path.] + +James had hardly taken his place behind "Kit and Nance," as his team was +called, when he heard the captain call out,-- + +"Careful, Jim, there's a boat coming." The boy had seen it, and was +trying to pass it to the best of his ability. But his inexperience and +haste occasioned a sudden tightening of the reins, and, before any one +quite knew what had happened, both driver and mules were jerked into the +canal. For a few seconds it seemed as if they would go to the bottom, +but James was equal to the emergency, and, getting astride the forward +mule, kept his head above water until rescue came. This was his +initiation in canal-boat driving, and the adventure was a standing joke +among his comrades for a long time. + +When they came to the "Eleven-Mile Lock," the captain ordered a change +of teams, and James went on board with his mules. + +Letcher, who is still living in Bryan, Ohio, gives the following account +of his talk with the boy as they were passing the locks: + +"I thought I'd sound Jim on education--in the rudiments of geography, +arithmetic and grammar. For I was just green enough in those days to +imagine I knew it all. I had been teaching school for three months in +the backwoods of Steuben County, Indiana. So I asked him several +questions, and he answered them all; and then he asked me several that +I could not answer. I told him he had too good a head to be a common +canal-hand." + +One evening when the "Evening Star" was drawing near the twenty-one +locks of Akron, the captain sent his bowsman to make the first lock +ready. Just as he got there, a voice hailed him through the darkness. It +was from a boat above that had reached the locks first. + +"We are just around the bend," said her bowsman, "all ready to enter." + +"Can't help it!" shouted the bowsman of the "Evening Star," with a +volley of oaths; "we've got to hev this lock first!" + +The captain was so used to these contests on the canal that he did not +often interfere, but it was a new experience to James. He tapped his +cousin Amos on the shoulder, and said,-- + +"Does that lock belong to us?" + +"Well, I suppose not, according to law," was the answer, "but we will +have it, anyhow." + +"No! we will not!" he exclaimed. + +"But why?" said the captain. + +"Why?" he repeated, "because it don't belong to us." + +Struck with the boy's sense of right, and ashamed of his own +carelessness, the captain called out to his men,-- + +"Hold on, hold on! Let them have the lock." + +When the boatmen knew that their fight had been prevented by James's +interference they were greatly incensed, and began to call him "coward" +and all sorts of derogatory names. + +The boy only smiled; he knew he could vindicate his rights when the time +came, and it was not long before he had an opportunity. + +The boat had just reached Beaver, and James was on deck with his +setting-pole against his shoulder; a sudden lurch wrenched it from him +and threw it upon one of the boat-hands, who was standing close by. + +"Beg pardon, Dave," said the boy quickly; "it was an accident." + +The great, rough man, however, would take no apology, and rushed upon +James with clenched fists. A fight seemed inevitable, but with one +well-directed blow, the boy of sixteen threw down his burly antagonist, +and held him fast. + +"Pound him, James! Give him a good thrashing!" exclaimed the captain. + +"Not when he is down and in my power," said the boy. Then, letting his +conquered foe rise, he said,-- + +"Come, Dave, give us your hand!" and from that time forth they were the +best of friends. + +"He's dif'rent from the rest on us--that's sartin--but he's a good un, +got a mighty sight o'pluck," said the whole crew. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Narrow Escape from Drowning.--Return Home.--Severe + Illness.--James determines to fit Himself for a + Teacher.--Geauga Seminary.--Personal Appearance.--Dr + Robinson's Verdict. + + +One dark, stormy night, just as the "Evening Star" was leaving a long +reach of slack water, James was called out of his berth to tend the +bow-line. As he began to uncoil the rope, it caught on the edge of the +deck; he pulled several times before he could extricate it, but suddenly +it gave way with such force as to throw him headlong into the water. + +The whole crew were soundly sleeping, the boat glided over him, and as +he could not swim he felt there was no hope. Suddenly he caught hold of +something hard; it was the rope which had become entangled in a crevice +of the deck and become so tight that it was an easy matter to climb up +by it into the boat. + +As he stood there in his dripping clothes, rescued from a watery grave, +he took the rope and tried to see how it happened to catch in the +crevice. Six hundred times he threw it, but it would not kink in the +same manner again. + +"No one but God could have saved my life by such a thread as that!" he +exclaimed, and then he began to wonder if he could not make a better use +of his miraculously-spared life than by spending it upon a canal-boat. + +A severe attack of chills and fever followed this night's drenching and +exposure. He thought of his mother and her hopes for him, and made up +his mind to return home as soon as he was able. + +His mother was overjoyed when, a few weeks later, he stood before her +and told her of his changed plans. But again the malaria asserted its +sway over him, and for a long time he lay between life and death. It was +six months before he was able to do anything, and then to his mother's +delight he told her he was going to fit himself to be a teacher. + +A young man named Samuel Bates (now a clergyman in Madison, Ohio,) had +charge that winter of the district-school in Orange. He was a frequent +visitor at Mrs. Garfield's, and between James and himself there sprang +up a warm friendship. The young teacher had attended the Geauga Seminary +in Chester, and was full of his school experiences. He told James how +economically one could live, by clubbing together with other students, +and the result was that in the following spring, Garfield and his two +cousins, William and Henry Boynton, went to Chester and rented a room +just across the street from the seminary. The house belonged to a poor +widow, who agreed to look after their room and do their washing for a +small sum. They bought their own cooking-stove, and immediately set up +house-keeping. James had only eleven dollars in his pocket, but he hoped +to earn more before that was gone. + +The academy was a plain wooden building of three stories, and could +accommodate about a hundred pupils. The library connected with it +contained a hundred and fifty volumes, which seemed to James a perfect +mine of wealth. Among the pupils at that time attending the academy was +a studious young girl by the name of Lucretia Rudolph, but the boys and +girls seldom saw each other except in their classes, and James was so +shy and awkward he did not care much for the society of young ladies. He +watched Miss Rudolph, however, with quiet admiration. Her sweet face, +her pleasant manners, and fine scholarship, made her a universal +favorite, and little by little a hearty friendship sprang up between the +two students who had so many aims in common. + +The principal of the academy at that time was an eccentric old gentleman +by the name of Daniel Branch. His wife, who was his chief assistant and +equally eccentric, was trying to introduce into the school a grammar of +her own construction, which was totally at variance with all other +systems. For instance, she insisted that _but_ should be parsed as a +verb, in the imperative mood, with the sense of _to be out_; she also +declared that _and_ was another verb in the imperative mood, and meant +_add_! + +Young Garfield, who had been thoroughly drilled in Kirkman's Grammar at +the district school, constantly contended against these new ideas which, +to his clear, well-balanced brain, presented nothing but absurdity. It +is to be hoped that the other scholars followed his sage example, and +that Branch's idiosyncrasy was soon banished from the school curriculum. + +James' personal appearance at this time is thus described by one of his +friends: + +"His clear, blue eyes, and free, open countenance were remarkably +prepossessing. His height was exaggerated by the coarse, satinet +trousers he wore, which were far outgrown, and reached only half-way +down the tops of his cowhide boots. It was his one suit, and the +threadbare coat was so short in the sleeves that his long arms had a +singularly awkward look. His coarse, slouched hat, much the worse for +wear, covered a shock of unkempt yellow hair that fell down over his +shoulders like a Shaker's." + +Without consulting any one, James resolved to be examined by a physician +before going on with his studies. + +He went to Dr. J. P. Robinson, of Bedford, who happened to be in the +neighborhood, and said to him,-- + +"You are a physician, and know the fibre that is in men. I want you to +examine me, and then say frankly whether or no it is worth while for me +to take a course of liberal study. It is my earnest desire to do so, but +if you advise me not to attempt it, I shall feel content." + +The doctor, in speaking of this incident, says:-- + +"I felt that I was on my sacred honor, and the young man looked as +though he felt himself on trial. I had had considerable experience as a +physician, but here was a case much different from any other I had ever +had. I examined his head, and saw that there was a magnificent brain +there. I sounded his lungs, and found them strong and capable of making +good blood. I felt his pulse, and saw that there was an engine capable +of sending the blood up to the brain. I had seen many strong, physical +systems with warm feet, but cold, sluggish brain; and those who +possessed such systems would simply sit around and doze. At the end of a +fifteen minutes' careful examination of this kind, we rose, and I said: +'Go on; follow the promptings of your ambition. You have the brain of a +Webster, and you have the physical proportions that will back you in the +most herculean efforts. Work, work hard, do not be afraid of +overworking; and you will make your mark.'" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + Low State of Finances.--James Takes up Carpentry again.--The + Debating Club.--Bread and Milk Diet.--First Experience in + School-Teaching.--Becomes Interested in Religious + Topics.--Creed of the Disciples.--James Joins the New Sect. + + +After buying his school-books and some other necessary articles, James +found his small amount of funds rapidly decreasing. But this did not +discourage him in the least. + +"I have never yet had any difficulty in finding work, and I don't +believe I shall now," he said to his cousins, as he started off one +Saturday afternoon to find a carpenter's shop. + +In those days planing was always done by hand, and Mr. Woodworth, the +one carpenter at Chester, was very glad to engage so willing and capable +an assistant as the young student. + +By working at his shop before and after school, and all day upon +Saturday, James earned enough money to pay all his bills that term, and +carry home a few dollars besides. From that time forward he never failed +to pay his own way, although to do it he was obliged to work very hard +and deny himself many comforts. + +The studies of his first term at Chester included English grammar, +natural philosophy, arithmetic and algebra. It was one of the +regulations of the school to write a composition every fortnight upon +subjects chosen sometimes by the principal, and sometimes by the +students themselves. These essays were occasionally read before the +whole school, and the first time that James read his, he trembled so +that he was "very glad," he writes, "of the short curtain across the +platform that hid my shaking legs from the audience." + +In the Debating Society James always took an active part. He was a +little diffident at first, but soon astonished himself as much as his +friends by his ready command of language. Whatever question came up +before the club he studied as he would a problem in mathematics. The +school library supplied him with books of reference, and his ready +memory never failed him. The students at Geauga listened with +astonishment to the eloquent appeals of their rough, ungainly +schoolmate. The secret of his power was largely due to the thorough +preparation with which he armed himself. He was so full of his subject +he could not help imparting it in the strongest and most impressive +manner. Here it was that he laid the basis of his future success as a +public speaker. + +Having taken from the library the "Life of Henry C. Wright," he became +quite interested in the author's experiment of living upon a bread and +milk diet. He told his cousins they had been too extravagant in their +mode of living, that milk was better than meat for students, and that +another term they must try it. + +The boys, always ready to follow James, acquiesced; and after a trial of +four weeks, found their expenses had been reduced to thirty-one cents +each, per week. But their strength also had become reduced; and while +still making milk their principal article of diet, they concluded to +increase their table to the amount of fifty cents each for the remainder +of the term. + +When the long vacation came James was very anxious to teach school. The +principal at Geauga had told him that he was fully competent, and with +his usual energy and determination he started out to find a school. + +"What! you don't expect we want a _boy_ to teach in our district?" was +the first reply to his modest application. + +It was of no use to show the committee his excellent recommendation from +Mr. Branch--they wanted a man, not a boy. + +Somewhat discouraged, James walked on to the next district, only to find +that a teacher had already been engaged. About three miles north was +another school, but here, too, they were just supplied with a graduate +from Geauga. + +Two days of persistent school-hunting followed, but James was unable to +find any position as teacher. + +"It may be that Providence has something better in store for you," said +his mother; but James was so tired and discouraged he had not a word to +say. + +Early next morning he was surprised by a call from one of the committee +men belonging to their own district. + +"We want some one to teach at the 'Ledge,'" he said to James, "and we +heard that you were looking for a school. Now, the boys all know you in +this district, and they are a pretty hard lot to manage, but I reckon +you are stout enough to thrash them all." + +Not a very encouraging outlook for James, surely! But after talking the +matter over with his Uncle Amos Boynton, he concluded to undertake the +school. + +Beginning as "Jim Garfield," he determined to win the respect of both +pupils and parents until he was known as "Mr. Garfield." To do this a +deal of firmness was required, and his first day at school was a series +of battles with naughty boys. After that a most friendly relation was +established between pupils and teacher. They felt he had no desire to +domineer over them, but that he would maintain order and decorum at any +cost. In "boarding around," as was the custom for district school +teachers in those days, he became well acquainted with all the families +in the neighborhood and gained a still firmer hold upon the affections +of his pupils. Before the winter was over, _Mr_. Garfield had won the +reputation of being "the best teacher who had ever taught at the +'Ledge.'" + +It was a great delight to his mother to have him so near her. Every +Sunday he spent at home, and it was at this time that he became deeply +interested in religious questions. His mother was a member of the Church +of Disciples, or Campbellites, as they were sometimes called, from +Alexander Campbell, the founder of the sect. + +Their creed is as follows: + +I. We believe in God, the Father. + +II. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the +only Saviour. + +III. That Christ is a Divine Being. + +IV. That the Holy Spirit is the Divine agent in the conversion of +sinners, and the sanctification of Christians. + +V. That the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the inspired word of +God. + +VI. That there is future punishment for the wicked, and future reward +for the righteous. + +VII. That the Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. + +VIII. That the Bible is our only creed. + +The founder of the sect was for a long time a member of the Baptist +Church, and declared that he differed from them only in his "disbelief +in the binding force of the church creed, and in the necessity of +ministerial ordinations." + +The new church grew very rapidly, notwithstanding the persecutions it +received from both the Baptist and Freewill Baptist denominations, and +it numbers now over half a million members. + +It is not strange that James was drawn to this single-hearted, +struggling sect of "Disciples." The earnest, persuasive arguments of one +of its preachers led him to Christ, and when, that same winter, he was +baptized in the little river at Orange, he became at once an earnest +champion of the new church. In all religious discussions, he claimed the +right of following the Bible according to the convictions of his own +conscience, and declared that every one else should have the same right. + +His consistent Christian life added strength to his spoken words, and +the Disciples felt that a bright and shining light had been added to +their ranks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + Return to Geauga Seminary.--Works at Haying through the + Vacation.--Teaches a higher Grade of School.--First + Oration.--Determines to Go to College.--He visits the State + Capitol at Columbus. + + +When James returned to the academy, he made an arrangement with Mr. +Woodworth, by which he could have a comfortable boarding-place at one +dollar and six cents a week. This was at Mr. Woodworth's own house, and +the payment was to be taken out in labor at the carpenter's shop. It was +an excellent plan, and gave James more time for his studies, in spite of +the hard manual labor he performed out of school-hours. He could use the +square and the scratch-awl now, as well as the plane; and his wages were +correspondingly increased. + +In the summer vacation of his third term at Geauga, James and a +schoolmate resolved to earn a little money at haying. They accordingly +hired themselves out to a neighboring farmer who wanted some extra +hands. Noticing how vigorously the boys worked, the farmer turned to his +men and said,-- + +"Lookee here, you lubbers! these boys are gitting way ahead of you. +They make broader swaths, and they mow a sight better than you do!" + +When the haying was done, and the settling day came, the farmer asked +the boys what wages they expected. + +"Whatever you think is right," replied James. + +"Wall," said the farmer, "as yer only boys, of course yer won't expect +men's wages." + +"But didn't you say yourself," argued James, "that we did more work than +your men? If that is so, why should you pay us less?" + +The farmer was nonplussed, and gave the boys the same wages he paid his +men, remarking, as he did so,-- + +"It's the fust time I ever paid boys so much, but you've fairly earned +it--that's a fact!" + +It was just about this time that the anti-slavery contest began to +assert itself throughout the country. + +In the little Debating Club at Geauga, the question was given out, +"_Ought slavery to be abolished in this republic?_" It was a subject +that roused James to his best efforts; and his school-mates, as they +listened to his fiery denunciations against slavery, declared that "Jim +ought to go to Congress!" + +The following winter James procured a school at Warrensville, where he +was paid sixteen dollars a month and his board, which was more than he +had ever earned before. It was in this school that one of the pupils +wanted to take up geometry--a branch of mathematics that James had never +studied. + +As usual, however, he was equal to the emergency. Buying a text-book, he +studied geometry after school-hours, until he had mastered the science, +and his pupils never once dreamed but that he was as familiar with it as +with algebra or arithmetic. + +It was at the annual exhibition of Geauga Seminary, in November, 1859, +that James delivered his first oration. It was prepared with his usual +carefulness, and delivered with so much magnetic earnestness that the +whole audience were held spell-bound. + +"He is bound to make his mark in the world," said every one who had +listened to the earnest, enthusiastic student. + +Mrs. Garfield noted with grateful joy that her son no longer spoke of +"going to sea." The one great aim of his life now was to procure a +liberal education. A deeper, broader ocean was stretching out before +him, and already his pulses thrilled with the mighty, incoming tide. + +It was during his last term at Geauga Seminary that James met a young +man who was a graduate of a New England college. From him he learned +that it was possible to work one's way through college as well as +through school. It was a new thought to James. His poverty had seemed to +him before an insurmountable obstacle in gaining a university education. +Now, he began to study Latin and other branches that might pave the way +to a college examination. + +On his return home, he found his mother was just about to start on a +journey to Muskingum County, where some of her relatives lived. She was +very anxious that James should go with her, and, when he found that he +could obtain a school near Zanesville, he was quite ready to go. The +Cleveland and Columbus Railroad had just been opened, and this was +James' first ride in the cars. When they reached Columbus they visited +the legislature, which was then in session; and, as James remarked +afterwards, "That alone was worth a month's schooling to me." + +The mother and son spent three months in this part of Ohio, James +teaching the little school at Harrison, and studying hard himself all +the time. Having met a student from the Eclectic Institute at Hiram, +Portage County, Ohio, he learned that opportunities were there afforded +for studying the branches of the first two college years. The expenses +of tuition were no greater than at Geauga Seminary, and the Institute +was under the direction of the Church of the Disciples. + +It seemed a providential opening, and, after talking over the matter +with his mother, he determined to seek admission there the following +autumn. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + Hiram Institute.--The faithful Janitor.--Miss Almeda + Booth.--James is appointed Assistant Teacher.--Critical + habit of Reading.--Moral and Religious Growth.--Debating + Club. + + +It was towards the latter part of August, 1851, and James was nearly +twenty years of age when he first presented himself at Hiram Institute. +The board of trustees was then in session, and he was directly +introduced into the room where they were seated. Notwithstanding his +shabby clothes and awkward manners, his earnest, intelligent face at +once prepossessed them in his favor. + +"I must work my way," he began; "but I am very anxious to get an +education. I thought, perhaps, you would let me ring the bell and sweep +the floors to pay part of my bills." + +"How do we know that you can do the work well?" asked one of the +trustees. + +"If, at the end of a couple of weeks," replied James, "you find that my +work does not suit you, I will not ask to keep the place." + +"I think we had better try the young student," said another of the +trustees, and so the question was settled, and James was duly installed +as janitor. + +The town of Hiram was at that time twelve miles from the railroad, and +consisted of a straggling collection of houses, with two churches and a +few stores at the cross-roads. Its natural advantages, however, were +wonderfully fine, and to-day it is sometimes called "the crown of Ohio." +Its location is very near the line where the waters divide, one part +flowing northward to Lake Erie, the other southward to the Ohio river. + +The Institute was a plain, brick building on the top of a hill, whose +slopes were thickly planted with corn; from this eminence a charming +panorama of the whole surrounding country could be obtained. It was +built for the special accommodation of the sons and daughters of the +Western Reserve farmers, and among its founders was Mr. Zebulon Rudolph, +the father of James' old school-mate, Lucretia Rudolph. The Rev. A. S. +Hayden was, at this time, its principal, and Thomas Munnell and Norman +Dunshee were assistant teachers. + +The aims of the school were,-- + +1st. To provide a sound, scientific and literary education. + +2d. To temper and sweeten such education with moral and scriptural +knowledge. + +3d. To educate young men for the ministry. + +[Illustration: HIRAM COLLEGE, HIRAM, OHIO.] + +The charter of the Institute, according to the peculiar tenet of the +religious movement in which it originated, was based upon the study of +the Holy Scriptures. The Disciples believed that the Bible ought to take +a larger place in general culture than had as yet been accorded to it. +In the course of study, the system pursued was strictly elective. It was +just the place for James to fit for college, and pursue, if he chose, +branches that would enable him to enter a university two years in +advance. + +Among the pupils at Hiram, when James entered the Institute, was a Miss +Almeda Booth, some nine years his senior, who proved an invaluable +friend and helper. She was a teacher as well as scholar, but James, at +the end of a few months, found himself pursuing the same studies and +ranking in the same classes as Miss Booth. "I was far behind her," he +writes, "in mathematics and the physical sciences, but we were nearly in +the same place in Greek and Latin." + +Miss Booth was a lady of rare talent. Upon the death of the young man to +whom she was engaged, she resolved to consecrate her life to higher +intellectual attainments, in order to increase her usefulness. + +In a tribute to her memory, a few years ago, Garfield said,-- + +"She exerted a more powerful influence over me than any other teacher, +except President Hopkins.... The few spare hours which schoolwork left +us were devoted to such pursuits as each of us preferred, but much +study was done in common. I can name twenty or thirty books, which will +be doubly precious to me because they were read and discussed in company +with her. I can still read between the lines the memories of her first +impressions of the page, and her judgment of its merits." + +Whenever James had a thesis to prepare, he would talk over the subject +for hours with Miss Booth, and together they read during one term a +hundred pages of Herodotus and a hundred of Livy. + +At the close of his first year at Hiram, James was given the position of +assistant teacher of the English department and ancient languages. He +had also secured regular work with the carpenter in Hiram, so it was no +longer necessary for him to serve as janitor. But many of his old +schoolmates still remember the faithfulness with which he performed the +menial services of his first position. He was promptness itself at the +ringing of every bell, and seemed the personification of Herbert's +servant, in making "drudgery divine"--for truly, + + "Who sweeps a room as to Thy laws, + Makes that and the action fine!" + +It was while at Hiram Institute that he formed the habit of taking +critical notes from all the books he read. It proved of invaluable +service to him in after years, for no matter upon what topic he desired +to speak, these indexes served as so many finger-posts in his library, +and directed him at once to the subject-matter in hand. + +All this time the moral and religious faculties of the young student +were developing no less rapidly than his intellectual powers. At the +frequent meetings of the Disciples he was a ready speaker, and his +earnest appeals are remembered to this day by his school-mates. Every +one seemed to think, as a matter of course, that he would become a +preacher in the Church of the Disciples, but, as the months went by, he +seemed disinclined to express any decision upon that point. + +The Debating Club at Hiram called out his best powers. His practice at +Geauga had fitted him to express his opinions upon whatever subject +might be under discussion, in the clearest and most impressive manner. +At one time the contest over some public question became so bitter and +excited that James finally rose and declared he would no longer waste +his time over such nonsensical things as the majority proposed. A +division of the club was the final result, and James was chosen +president of the new society. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + Ready for College.--His Uncle lends him Five Hundred + Dollars.--Why he Decides to go to Williams.--College Life. + + +After spending three years at Hiram in faithful, persistent study, James +felt he was prepared to enter the junior class at almost any college. +But how was he to procure the means to carry on his studies? Thus far he +had defrayed all his expenses by his own exertions as janitor, +carpenter, and teacher; but, to enter college, he would need a little +money in advance. His proud, independent spirit shrank from borrowing +even from his friends. At last, he went to his uncle, Thomas Garfield, +and asked for the use of five hundred dollars until he could earn enough +money by teaching to pay it back. + +His uncle Thomas had always shown a kindly interest in his efforts to +obtain an education, and now gladly advanced him the sum he desired. In +order to make sure the payment in case of his death, James procured a +policy upon his life to the value of five hundred dollars, and presented +it to his uncle. + +He had now, as he thought, the necessary means to enter college, but +which of the many inviting doors should he enter? Every one seemed to +take it for granted that he would go to Bethany College; which was under +the patronage of his own denomination, but, in a letter to a friend, he +gave his final decision as follows:-- + +"After thinking it all over, I have made up my mind to go to +Williamstown, Mass.... There are three reasons why I have decided not to +go to Bethany:--1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough +as in eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. +3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but +little acquaintance with people of other views; and having always lived +in the West, I think it will make me more liberal both in my religious +and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle, where I shall +be under new influence. Therefore, I wrote to the presidents of Brown +University, Yale and Williams, setting forth the amount of study I had +done, and asking how long it would take me to finish their course. + +"Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two +years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins +concludes with this sentence: 'If you come here we shall be glad to do +what we can for you.' Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, +which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled +that question for me. I shall start for Williams next week." + +It was at the close of the summer term in 1854 that James presented +himself before President Hopkins for examination. He is described at +this time "as a tall, awkward youth, with a great shock of light hair, +rising nearly erect from a broad, high forehead, and an open, kindly, +and thoughtful face, which showed no traces of his long struggle with +poverty and privation." + +He passed the examination without difficulty, and soon became a great +favorite with his class in spite of his shabby clothes and Western +provincialisms. "Old Gar" and the "Ohio giant" were the names by which +he was best known in college, and a classmate says of him that "he +immediately took a stand above all his companions for accurate +scholarship, and won high honors as a writer, reasoner, and debater." + +The beautiful, mountainous scenery about Williamstown was a constant +delight to the young Westerner. He would frequently climb to the top of +Greylock and feast his eyes upon the magnificent panorama below. He was +no longer obliged to work at the carpenter's bench, or perform the +duties of janitor, and these long walks gave him needful exercise as +well as pleasant recreation. + +President Hopkins became greatly interested in the earnest, +enthusiastic student. The "friendly hand-grasp" was extended to him in +many ways, and, when the summer vacation came, he offered him the free +use of the college library. + +James gladly availed himself of this privilege, and browsed among the +books to his heart's content. It was the first time in his life that he +had ever found leisure to read the works of Shakespeare, consecutively. +During the summer vacation he not only read and thoroughly studied the +plays, but committed large portions of them to memory. He also varied +his heavier reading with works of fiction, allowing himself one novel a +month. Dickens and Thackeray were favorite authors, and Tennyson's poems +were read with ever-increasing pleasure. + +He completed his classical studies the first year he was at +Williamstown, as he had entered far in advance of the other pupils. He +then took up German as an elective study, and, in the space of a few +months, had made such rapid progress that he could read Goethe and +Schiller, and converse with fluency. + +In the "Williams Quarterly," a magazine published by the students, James +took great interest, and was a frequent contributor both in prose and +poetry. + +The following poem, entitled "Memory," he wrote the last year he was at +Williams College:-- + + "'Tis beauteous night, the stars look brightly down + Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow, + No light gleams at the window save my own, + Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me + And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes, + And leads me gently through her twilight realms + What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, + Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed + The enchanted shadowy land where Memory dwells? + It has its valleys, cheerless lone and drear, + Dark shaded by the mournful cypress tree, + And yet its sunlit mountain tops are bathed + In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, + Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, + Are clustered joys serene of other days, + Upon its gently sloping hillsides bend + The weeping willows o'er the sacred dust + Of dear departed ones, and yet in that land, + Whene'er our footsteps fall upon the shore, + They that were sleeping rise from out the dust + Of death's long silent years, and round us stand, + As erst they did before the prison tomb + Received their clay within its voiceless halls + The heavens that bend above that land are hung + With clouds of various hues some dark and chill + Surcharged with sorrow, cast then sombre shade + Upon the sunny, joyous land below, + Others are floating through the dreamy air, + White as the falling snow their margins tinged + With gold and crimson hues, then shadows fall + Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes, + Soft as the shadows of angel's wing + When the rough battle of the day is done. + And evening's peace falls gently on the heart, + I bound away across the noisy years, + Unto the utmost verge of Memory's land, + Where earth and sky in dreamy distance meet, + And Memory dim with dark oblivion joins; + Where woke the first-remembered sounds that fell + Upon the ear in childhood's early morn; + And wandering thence, along the rolling years, + I see the shadow of my former self + Gliding from childhood up to man's estate. + The path of youth winds down through many a vale + And on the brink of many a dread abyss, + From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, + Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf, + And beckons toward the verge. Again the path + Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall; + And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, + Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along." + +He was also a prominent member of the Philologian Society, of which he +was afterwards elected president. + +While James was at Williamstown, the anti-slavery contest was at a white +heat. Charles Sumner had aroused the whole nation by his stirring, +eloquent speeches in Congress; and when the tidings came of the attack +made upon him by Preston Brooks of South Carolina, indignation meetings +were held everywhere throughout the North. At the gathering in +Williamstown, Garfield made a most powerful speech, denouncing slavery +in the strongest terms. + +"Hurrah for 'Old Gar!'" exclaimed his classmates; "the country will hear +from him yet!" + +When the fall term closed, James looked about for some position as +teacher, and finally opened a writing-school in Pownal, Vermont. This +brought him in quite a sum of money, and enlarged his circle of +acquaintance. His sunny disposition, his energy, his warm-hearted, +sympathetic nature, made him a great favorite wherever he went, and +President Hopkins, writing of him at this time, says,-- + +"He was prompt, frank, manly, social, in his tendencies; combining +active exercise with habits of study, and thus did for himself what it +is the object of a college to enable every young man to do,--he made +himself a MAN." + +Professor, now President, Chadbourne adds his testimony as follows:-- + + "The college life of James Garfield was so perfect, so + rounded, so pure, so in accordance with what it ought to be + in all respects, that I can add nothing to it by eulogizing + him. It was a noble college life; everything about him was + high and noble and manly. He was one whom his teachers would + never suspect as guilty of a dishonest or mean act, and one + whom a dishonest or mean man would not approach. His moral + and religious character, and marked intellectual ability, + gave great promise of success in the world." + +At the end of his first collegiate year, James visited his mother, who +was then living with her married daughter in Solon, Ohio. What a tall, +manly fellow he had grown to be! What a power he would be in the church, +in the world! Her heart was full of grateful joy as she realized how +abundantly God had answered her earnest prayers. + +The next winter vacation James taught a school in Poestenkill, a little +village some six miles from Troy, N.Y. There was a Church of the +Disciples in the place, and James was a frequent attendant at the +conference meetings. His able remarks and earnest exhortations excited +so much comment that the pastor, Mr. Streeter, invited him to occupy his +pulpit. After hearing him preach once, the people declared that they +must hear him again, and so it came about that almost every Sunday found +the young student in the desk. + +"He will become the most noted preacher in the Disciples' Church," said +his friends and classmates. + +One day a certain Mr. Brooks, belonging to the school committee at Troy, +called upon him and said,-- + + "Our high school needs a new teacher, Mr. Garfield, and we + want you to supply the vacancy. You will not find it a + difficult position, and we will pay you a salary of twelve + hundred dollars." + +It was a tempting offer, and would relieve James at once of the +pecuniary difficulties that hung like weights about his feet. After +taking some days to consider the matter, he finally said to Mr. +Brooks,-- + +"Much as I need the money, I feel it would not be right for me to accept +the position. It would prevent me from finishing my college course, and +so cramp me, intellectually, for life. Then, again, I feel under some +obligation to Hiram Institute, where the trustees expect me to return. +My roots seem to be fixed in Ohio, and the transplanting might not +succeed; it is best for me to complete my studies here, and then return +to my homework, even for smaller pay." + +Abiding by this decision, James applied himself to his books with +renewed energy. President Hopkins had established the metaphysical +oration as the highest honor of the class, and James' essay upon "The +Seen and the Unseen" bore off the palm. + +He graduated in August, 1856, and among the forty-two members that +composed his class, are a number of names that have since won an +enviable distinction. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + Return Home.--Appointed Professor, then President, of Hiram + Institute.--His Popularity as a Teacher.--Answers Prof. + Denton.--Marriage. + + +Upon his return home, Garfield was immediately appointed Professor of +Ancient Languages and Literature at Hiram Institute. Writing to a friend +at this time, he says,-- + +"I have attained to the height of my ambition. I have my diploma from an +eastern college, and my position here at Hiram as instructor; and now I +shall devote all my energies to this Institution." + +The following year, upon the resignation of A. L. Hayden, Garfield was +appointed President of Hiram Institute. He was now twenty-six years of +age, and one of his pupils writing of him at this time, says,-- + +"He was a tall, strong man, full of animal spirits, and many a time he +used to run out on the green and play cricket with us. He combined an +affectionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most +successful manner. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof +or approbation, he would generally manage to get one arm around him and +draw him close up to him. He had a peculiar way of shaking hands, too, +giving a twist to your arm and drawing you right up to him. This +sympathetic manner has helped him to advancement. He took very kindly to +me, and assisted me in various ways, because I was poor and was janitor +of the buildings, and swept them out in the morning, and built the fires +as he had done only six years before, when he was a pupil at the same +school. + +"Once when he assigned me a task that I feared was beyond my powers, I +said,-- + +"'I am afraid I cannot do that.' + +"'What!' he exclaimed, 'you are not going to give up without trying! It +seems to me, Darsie, when one is in a place he can easily fill, it is +time for him to shove out of it into one that requires his utmost +exertion.'" + +The present principal at Hiram, President Hinsdale, was one of +Garfield's pupils, and it was through his advice and constant +encouragement that the struggling student undertook the work of a +liberal education. + +"Tell me," he writes Hinsdale, "do you not feel a spirit stirring within +you that longs to _know, to do, and to dare_, to hold converse with the +great world of thought, and hold before you some high and noble object +to which the vigor of your mind and the strength of your arm may be +given? Do you not have longings like these which you breathe to no one, +and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through life +unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, and they will +forever cling around your heart till you obey their mandate.... God has +endowed some of His children with desires and capabilities for an +extended field of labor and influence, and every life should be shaped +according to 'what the man hath.' _I know_ you have capabilities for +occupying positions of high and important trust in the scenes of active +life. I sincerely hope you will not, without an earnest struggle, give +up a course of liberal study." + +Hinsdale, as we all know, followed the advice of his earnest, +sympathetic teacher, and is now ranked among the foremost scholars of +the day. + +A favorite mode of instruction with Garfield was by means of lectures. + +"They were upon all sorts of subjects," writes one of his pupils, "and +were usually the result of his readings and observation. One season he +took a pleasure trip, and, on his return, gave a very interesting series +on 'The Chain of Lakes,' including Niagara, The Thousand Isles, and +sub-historic points. One lecture on aerolites I shall never forget. About +the time of the attack on Fort Sumter, he gave several lectures upon +'Ordnance'; and the natural sciences, aesthetics, etc., always came in +for a share of his effective treatment." + +At one time a certain Prof. Denton, who was a strong advocate of +spiritualism, gave a series of lectures in Northern Ohio, by which he +attempted to prove the inaccuracy of the Scriptures. He was something of +a scholar, and stated his theories in so plausible a manner that many +weak minds were misled. At last he became so bold that he offered a +challenge to any and every believer of the Bible in Ohio to refute his +statements. + +The Churches of the Disciples were greatly troubled. Many of their young +men were falling away, and the false doctrines were gaining a rapid +ascendancy throughout the community. They must have a strong champion, +who could meet Professor Denton with sharp weapons upon his own ground. +They applied to Garfield, who, after some persuasion, finally agreed to +meet the professor upon the appointed evening and take up his challenge. +He had only three days to prepare for the contest, but, selecting six of +his most advanced students, he told them the plan of argument he had +devised, and then sent them to the college library to look up the +separate points. He also procured copies of all the previous lectures +that Professor Denton had delivered, and sent in various directions for +the latest scientific works. When the evening came he was thoroughly +prepared at every point. A large and excited audience had gathered to +hear the discussion. Professor Denton opened the debate. Supposing his +opponent would not dare to attack him on scientific ground, he neglected +to be precisely accurate in all his statements. Garfield waited until he +had finished, and then, with overwhelming authority, took up each point +of the discussion and refuted all the Professor's arguments with the +very weapons he had himself been using. It was a complete victory, and +Professor Denton had the manliness to acknowledge that he had never +before met with so gifted and powerful an adversary. + +As the Institute at Hiram was under the special patronage of the +Disciples, a large number of the students in attendance were young men +who were fitting for the ministry. Garfield's position, therefore, as +principal, gave him a close connection with church-work. He was a +preacher as well as a teacher, and at one time filled the pulpits at +Solon and Newberg every Sunday. At the morning devotions it was his +custom to deliver a short, impressive address; his favorite hymn at +these services was, "Ho, reapers of life's harvest," and his pupils +recall how, at the singing of the last verse, he would always rap upon +his desk and request the whole school to rise. He frequently preached at +the Disciples' Church in Hiram, and everyone believed that he would +eventually choose the ministry for his profession. + +Lucretia Rudolph, the bright, attractive school-mate to whom his +thoughts had so often reverted, was now a teacher at Hiram. They had +corresponded all the time he was in college, their long friendship had +ripened into a deep and tender love, and on the 11th of November, 1858, +they were united in marriage. + +A poet-student at Hiram celebrates the event in the following ode:-- + + "_Again_ a Mary? Nay, _Lucretia_; + The noble, classic name + That well befits our fair ladie, + Our sweet and gentle dame + With heart as leal and loving + As e'er was sung in lays + Of high-born Roman nation, + In old, heroic days; + Worthy her lord illustrious, whom + Honor and fame attend; + Worthy her soldier's name to wear. + Worthy the civic wreath to share + That binds her Viking's tawny hair; + Right proud are we the world should know + As hers, him whom we long ago + Found truest helper, friend." + +In a humble little cottage, just in front of the college campus, they +began their wedded life,--a life whose wonderful beauty, strength, and +devotion was soon to be seen and known of all the world. + +Mrs. Garfield became as great a favorite in the college as her husband. +One of the graduates thus writes:-- + +"There are men and women scattered over the United States, holding +positions of honor and wealth, who began the life that led them upward +by the advice and with the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Garfield." + +The wife was always the ready and efficient helpmeet of her husband. +Whenever he had a lecture or speech to prepare, she would search the +whole library, consulting every book that pertained to the subject in +hand, and then together they would discuss the topic from every point of +view. One, in every thought and purpose, their quiet life at Hiram +presented the same beautiful home picture that after honors could never +dim nor tarnish. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Law Studies.--Becomes Interested in Politics.--Delivers + Oration at the Williams Commencement.--Elected State + Senator.--His Courage and Eloquence. + + +Shortly after his marriage, Garfield entered his name in the law office +of Riddle and Williamson, attorneys in Cleveland, Ohio, as a student of +law. This formality was necessary in order to ensure admission to the +bar. It was not here, however, that he studied, and for a long time his +friends knew nothing of the step he had taken. After his hours of +teaching, at odd moments through the day, and often far into the night, +he pored over his law-books with the same intensity of purpose he had +shown in all his other undertakings. + +It was his patriotic interest in the measures which were then before the +legislature of Ohio that first led him to take up a critical study of +law. He always wanted to go to the bottom of things, and his college +training under President Hopkins had developed a wonderful power of +synopsizing. In entering upon a course of law studies, it was not so +much with the thought of becoming a lawyer, as to make himself +conversant with the principles of law. When, however, he was admitted +to the bar, he was so thoroughly equipped for practice, that he could go +into courts of any grade and try the most intricate cases. + +In later years a friend said of him:-- + +"Had Garfield gone to the bar for a living, his gift of oratory, his +strong analytical powers, and his ability to do hard work, would soon +have made him eminent. In the few law cases he took during vacation +seasons he held his own with some of the best lawyers of the country. In +one of them his ability to grasp successfully with an unexpected +situation was signally demonstrated. The case was tried in Mobile, and +involved the ownership of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Garfield had +prepared himself upon an important and difficult question of law +involved, and felt a comfortable sense of readiness for the trial; but +after he reached Mobile the court ordered the consolidation of three +suits concerning the road, and the question upon which he had prepared +himself passed wholly out of sight; and, as he wrote to a friend, 'the +whole entanglement of an insolvent railroad twenty-five years old, lying +across four states and costing $20,000,000, came upon us at once.' He +was assigned the duty of summing up the case for his side. During the +trial he did five days and five nights of the hardest work he ever did +in his life. Then he made his argument and won the case." + +It will be remembered that when at college, Garfield always took an +active part in political discussions, although he did not cast a vote +until four years after his majority. At that time the new Republican +party was formed on the anti-slavery platform, with Fremont and Dayton +as their candidates. Garfield heartily sympathized with this party that +"drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which God has +lighted in every human heart," and from that time forward became its +earnest and ready champion. During the campaign of 1856 he was +constantly called upon for speeches and lectures. A pupil at Hiram at +that time says:-- + +"He would attend to his duties at the Institute through the day, jump +into a buggy at night, taking me or some other student to keep him +company, put his arm around me, talk all the way to the place where the +meeting was to be held, be it ten or twenty miles. It would not be +conversation on politics, but on history, general literature, or some +great principle. He was always welcomed upon the platform, and after +speaking would return, taking up the theme we had dropped, getting home +in the small hours in the morning. + +"At nine o'clock the next day he would be in the school as fresh as +ever. When Sunday came he would have a sermon as fresh and vigorous as +if it had been the study of the week. All the while he was carrying on +the study of law and attending to the duties incumbent on him as the +president of the Institute, keeping up a course of general reading, and +his acquaintance with the classics." + +In 1859, only three years after his graduation, the faculty of Williams +College honored Garfield with an invitation to deliver the master's +oration at Commencement. The able, brilliant speaker was constantly in +demand, and he won fresh laurels wherever he went. + +Upon his return to Ohio, he found to his surprise that his name had been +proposed in Portage county for the state senatorship. The unanimous +support he received was very gratifying, yet his first thought was of +the Institute. + +"You will be away but a few weeks at a time," said the trustees; "your +influence is greatly needed at the Capitol, and Hiram must be content to +wait." + +So, after much persuasion, Garfield accepted the nomination, and the +Institute jealously kept his name, though deprived of his presence. + +It was in January, 1860, that Garfield first took his seat in the state +senate. Secession and a civil war seemed imminent, but the North +continued strong and steadfast in its denunciations against slavery. +Garfield, scarcely thirty years of age at this time, was the youngest +member of the senate. Jacob D. Cox, another radical member, and +Professor Monroe of Oberlin College, were his intimate friends, and +zealous coadjutors. The 'radical triumvirate,' they were called by the +opposite party, and when the constitutional amendment which would give +the slave states the continuation of slavery, was submitted to the Ohio +legislature, Garfield led the brave minority with marked ability and +courage. + +In less than ten years from the time he visited Columbus with his +mother, he had become one of the most prominent members of the state +senate! + +The following extract from the Fourth of July oration he delivered that +year at Ravenna gives us a passing glimpse of his patriotic eloquence-- + +"The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and safety. Trees may +flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while +silently the trickling rain-drops are filling the deep cavern behind its +rocky barriers, which, by-and-by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild +ruin its treacherous peace. It is true that in our land there is no such +outer quiet, no such deceitful repose. Here society is a restless and +surging sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the wave, is forever +in our ears. Even the angry hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But +there is an understratum of deep, calm sea, which the breath of the +wildest tempest can never reach. There is, deep down in the hearts of +the American people, a strong and abiding love of our country and its +liberty, which no surface-storms of passion can ever shake. That kind of +instability which arises from a free movement and interchange of +position among the members of society, which brings one drop up to +glisten for a time in the crest of the highest wave, and then gives +place to another while it goes down to mingle again with the millions +below, such instability is the surest pledge of permanence. On such +instability the eternal fixedness of the universe is based. Each planet, +in its circling orbit, returns to the god of its departure, and on the +balance of these wildly rolling spheres God has planted the base of His +mighty works. So the hope of our national perpetuity rests upon that +perfect individual freedom, which shall forever keep up the circuit of +perpetual change. God forbid that the waters of our national life should +ever settle to the dead level of a waveless calm. It would be the +stagnation of death--the ocean grave of individual liberty." + +Garfield was elected to a second term in the senate, and among the +difficult questions he was obliged to discuss the following year that of +"State Rights" was one of the most perplexing. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + War declared between the North and South.--Garfield forms a + regiment from the Western Reserve.--Is appointed + Colonel.--General Buell's Order.--Garfield takes charge of + the 18th Brigade.--Jordan's perilous journey.--Bradley + Brown.--Plan of a Campaign.--March against Marshall. + + +The Ohio legislature was still in session when, upon that +never-to-be-forgotten April day, in 1861, Fort Sumter received the first +rebel shot. The news was quickly followed by a call from President +Lincoln for seventy-five thousand men. This, proclamation was read in +the Ohio senate, and amid deafening applause, Garfield immediately +sprang to his feet, and moved that Ohio should contribute twenty +thousand men and three million dollars as the quota of the state. + +Although the preservation of the Union was the first thought that +presented itself to the minds of the people, another and deeper +impulse--the overthrow of slavery--filled their hearts and nerved their +hands for the coming conflict. + +To his old pupil, Mr. Hinsdale, Garfield writes-- + +"My heart and thought are full almost every moment with the terrible +reality of our country's condition. We have learned so long to look +upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible +here, that the people are slow in coming to the belief that there may be +any breaking up of our institutions; but stern, awful certainty is +fastening upon the hearts of men. I do not see any way, outside a +miracle of God, which can avoid civil war with all its attendant +horrors. Peaceable dissolution is utterly impossible. Indeed I cannot +say that I would wish it possible. To make the concessions demanded by +the South would be hypocritical and sinful; they would neither be obeyed +nor respected. I am inclined to believe that the sin of slavery is one +of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no +remission." + +Garfield, always as quick to act as to speak, immediately offered his +services to Gov. Dennison, who at once sent him to Missouri to obtain +five thousand stands of arms that General Lyon had placed there. + +These having been safely shipped to Columbus, Gov. Dennison then sent +Garfield to Cleveland to organize the seventh and eighth regiments of +Ohio infantry. He would have appointed him colonel of one of them, but +Garfield, with his usual modesty, declined because he had had no +military experience. He agreed, however, to take a subordinate position +if he could serve under a West Point graduate. + +The governor then appointed him lieutenant-colonel, and commissioned him +to raise a regiment from the Western Reserve. He hoped to have his old +schoolmate, Captain Hazen, of the regular army, for colonel, but when +the governor sent on for his transfer, General Scott refused to release +him. + +Meanwhile, the Hiram students had laid aside their books, and flocked +with patriotic ardor to the standard of their old leader. The greater +part of this forty-second regiment, indeed, was made up of Campbellites, +whose noble self-sacrifice in the days that followed will never be +forgotten. + +When the regiment went into camp at Columbus it was still without a +colonel. Again the governor begged Garfield to assume the command, and +after repeated requests he finally consented. + +After making the decision, he wrote thus to a friend:-- + +"One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are +found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give +place to the new structure of military life. It is not without a regret, +almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, as the +result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of thousands +of American citizens, we can see on the ruins of our own national errors +a new and enduring fabric arise, based on a larger freedom and higher +justice it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented +with such a prospect, and, regarding my life as given to the country, am +only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage upon +it is foreclosed." + +Great noble heart! How grand and pathetic these words seem to-day as we +read them in the light of the last sad tragedy! + +The Forty-second regiment did not leave for the South until the middle +of September. It was then ordered to join General Buell's forces at +Louisville. While in camp near Columbus, Garfield applied himself to the +study of military tactics. With his carpenter's tools he cut out of some +maple blocks a whole regiment, and with these ingenious marionnettes he +mastered the art of infantry. Then, forming a school for his officers, +he required regular recitations in military tactics and illustrated the +different movements of an army by means of his blocks. After this he +could easily institute all sorts of drills, and his regiment soon gained +the reputation of being the best disciplined in Ohio. + +When the regiment reached Cincinnati, a telegram was received from +General Buell, requesting a personal interview with Colonel Garfield. +The latter hastened on to Louisville and presented himself at the +General's headquarters, the following evening. + +Looking the young colonel through and through with his clear, piercing +eye, General Buell took down a map, and pointed out the position of +Humphrey Marshall's forces in East Kentucky. He then marked the +locations where the Union's troops were posted, described the country, +capabilities, etc., and said to his visitor,-- + +"If you were in command of the sub-department of Eastern Kentucky, what +would you do? Come here at nine o'clock to-morrow morning and tell me." + +Garfield went back to his hotel, found a map of Kentucky, the latest +census report, etc., and then with paper, pen, and ink, sat down to his +problem. When daylight came he was still at work, but nine o'clock found +him at General Buell's headquarters with the sketch of his plans all +completed. + +The elder officer read it, and immediately made it the foundation of a +special order by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was +organized, and Colonel Garfield was made its commander. + +Soon after, the new brigadier received his letter of instructions from +General Buell, which was in substance an order to unite in the face of +the enemy two small companies of soldiers that were stationed far apart, +and drive the rebel General Marshall out of Kentucky. + +Garfield set out for Catlettsburg without delay, and found his regiment +had gone on to the little town of Louisa, some twenty-eight miles up the +Big Sandy river. + +The whole surrounding country was in a great state of excitement. The +Fourteenth Kentucky regiment had been stationed at Louisa, but hearing +that Marshall with all his forces was closely following them, they had +hastily retreated to the mouth of the Big Sandy. + +On the day before Christmas, Garfield joined his troops at Louisa, much +to the relief of the terror-stricken citizens, who were just preparing +to cross the river to find a place of safety. + +The young commander had two very important and difficult things to +accomplish. First, he must communicate with Colonel Cranor; then he must +unite his own forces to that officer's, in the face of a greatly +superior enemy that could, and probably would, swoop down upon them as +soon as they made the least movement. + +Going to Colonel Moore of the Fourteenth Kentucky, he said,-- + +"I want a man who is not afraid to take his life in his hand for the +saving of his country." + +"There is John Jordan from the head of Blaine," was the reply, "I think +we could rely upon him." + +Jordan was immediately sent for, and, notwithstanding his uncanny +appearance, Garfield was at once prepossessed in his favor. He was tall +and lank, with hollow cheeks and a curious squeaking voice. Born and +bred among the Kentucky hills, he was rough and untutored, but his +clear, gray eyes showed an unflinching courage and a downright honesty, +that Garfield read with unerring intuition. + +"Are you willing to risk your life for the country?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, sir!" was the ready response. "When I volunteered, I gave up +my life for jest what it was wuth. If the Lord sees fit to make use of +it now, I'm willin' He should take it." + +"Do you mean you have come into the war not expecting to get out of it?" + +"Yes, gin'ral, that's how I meant it." + +"And are you willing to die rather than give up this despatch?" + +"That's the gospel truth, gin'ral." + +"Well, then, I think I can trust it with you." + +So saying, Garfield rolled up into the form of a bullet the tissue-paper +on which the despatch was written; he then coated it with warm lead and +gave it to Jordan. He also gave him a carbine, a brace of revolvers, and +the swiftest horse in the regiment. + +The dangerous journey was to be taken only by night, and in the day-time +the messenger was to hide in the woods. + +It was just at midnight of the second day when Jordan reached Colonel +Cranor's quarters at McCormick's Gap with his precious bullet. + +Upon opening the despatch the colonel found it was dated Louisa, Dec. +24th. The order read to move his regiment as soon as possible to +Prestonburg, to take as little baggage and as few rations as possible, +as the safety of his command would depend upon his expedition. Hours +were worth months at such a time; and early on the following morning +Colonel Cranor's regiment was on the move. It consisted of one thousand +one hundred men, while Garfield's larger division numbered about +seventeen hundred. The enemy, under Gen. Marshall, were stationed with +the main body of their forces near Paintville; but a company of eight +hundred were at West Liberty, a town directly on the route by which +Colonel Cranor was to join General Garfield. It was a hazardous +expedition, but the brigadier colonel knew he must obey orders. + +On the morning after Jordan's departure for Cranor's camp, Garfield set +out with his men and halted at George's Creek, which was only twenty +miles from Marshall's intrenched position at Paintville. The roads along +the Big Sandy were impassable for trains, so Garfield decided to depend +upon boats to transport his supplies. At this time of the year, however, +the stream was very uncertain, as heavy freshets often rendered +navigation impossible for a number of days. + +Garfield, however, was used to contending with difficulties, and was not +easily discouraged. Taking ten days' rations, he chartered two small +steamboats and all the flat boats he could find, and loaded them with +provisions. + +Next morning, just as they were starting, one of the soldiers came up to +Garfield and said,-- + +"There's a rough-looking man out here, colonel, who says he must see +you." + +Garfield stepped forward, and immediately recognized in the +disreputable-looking tramp before him, Bradley Brown, one of his old +companions on the canal boat. + +It seemed that he belonged to the rebel army, and had heard a few days +previous that Garfield, for whom he had always cherished a strong +affection, was commanding the Union forces in that part of Kentucky. + +Going to Marshall he told him of his former acquaintance with Garfield, +and the help it might now prove to them if he should enter the camp and +find out all about the Union forces. Marshall was entirely deceived by +the plausibility of Brown's argument, never once dreaming that the +tables might be turned upon himself. + +Brown's real purpose was to warn Garfield of the rebel's strength and +purpose, and he desired, above all things, to serve in the ranks of his +old benefactor. He was just the man that the Union army wanted for a +scout, and Garfield, when assured of his loyalty, employed him to +reconnoitre through the mountain borders of Virginia. + +The safe return of Jordan the following day, after many hairbreadth +escapes, encouraged Garfield to organize a "secret service," which +Rosecrans used to call "the eyes of the army." + +It was a long, wearisome march for the Union forces, but on the sixth of +January, 1862, they arrived within six miles of Paintville. While they +were halting there, a messenger arrived from General Buell with an +intercepted letter of Marshall's to his wife. It disclosed the fact that +the rebels had four thousand four hundred infantry and six hundred +cavalry, and that they were daily expecting an onslaught of ten thousand +from the Union forces. + +Garfield assembled a council of his officers. + +"What shall we do?" he said. "Is it better to march at once, or wait for +Cranor and his forces?" + +All but one of the officers declared it was better to wait, but that one +said: "Let us move on at once--our fourteen hundred can whip ten +thousand rebels." + +Garfield paused a moment, as if in deep reflection. Then he exclaimed, +"Well, forward it is. Give the order." + +There were three roads that led down to the enemy's intrenchment. One of +these was a river road upon the western bank; another was a very +winding road and came in at the mouth of Jenny's Creek: the third and +most direct lay between the others, but it was very difficult to pass +because of the intervening ridges. + +In order to mislead Marshall as to the real strength of his forces, +Garfield ordered a small division of his infantry to approach by the +river road, drive in the enemy's pickets, and then move rapidly after +them, as if preparing an attack upon Paintville. A similar force was +sent off two hours later along the mountain road. A third detachment was +ordered to take the road at the mouth of Jenny's creek. + +The result of this strategy was just what Garfield had foreseen. When +the pickets on the first route were attacked, they hurried back to +Paintville in great confusion, and sent word to Marshall that the Union +army was coming up by the river road. A large detachment of the rebel +forces was at once dispatched to this point, but, by the time they +reached them, the tidings had come that Garfield's forces were +approaching by the mountain road. The rebel general then countermanded +his first order, only to find his pickets had been attacked at another +point. Finally, in utter confusion, they abandoned Paintville and fled +to the fortified camp, declaring that the whole Union army was in hot +pursuit. + +Garfield immediately pushed forward and took possession of Paintville. +This was on the afternoon of January 8th. Later in the evening, a rebel +spy came to Marshall's camp and told him that Cranor, with three +thousand three hundred men, was within twelve hours' march to the +westward. + +The rebel general naturally concluded that he was to be attacked by a +band of Union forces far outnumbering his own. He therefore broke up +camp and retreated so hastily that he was obliged to leave behind a +large quantity of his supplies. + +At nine o'clock in the evening, Garfield, with a thousand of his men, +took possession of the deserted camp, and waited there for the arrival +of Cranor. + +Next morning Cranor arrived, but his men were so tired and footsore they +seemed in no condition for making an attack. Garfield, however, knew +that the time had come for a decisive challenge, and so he ordered to +the front all who were able to march. Eleven hundred,--and four hundred +of these were from Cranor's exhausted ranks--obeyed the call, and +hastened after Marshall and his retreating army. + +The Union forces had marched about eighteen miles when they came to the +mouth of Abbott's Creek, three miles below Prestonburg. Here Garfield +learned that Marshall and his army were encamping on the same stream +some three miles distant. As it was then nine o'clock in the evening he +ordered his men to put up their tents, and then he sent a messenger back +to Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, who had been left in command at +Paintville, and ordered him to bring up the remainder of the army as +soon as possible. + +The whole night he spent in reconnoitring about the country, so eager +was he to know the exact arrangement of Marshall's troops and the +probable contingencies of a battle. + +Jordan's ride through the enemy's country had been of invaluable service +to him. Marshall had strongly posted his army on a semi-circular hill at +the forks of Middle Creek, and was quietly waiting there in ambuscade +for the approach of the Union forces. + +It was a chill night, and a driving rain added to the cheerlessness of +the dreary bivouac in the valley. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + Opening of Hostilities--Brave Charge of the Hiram + Students--Giving the Rebels "Hail Columbia"--Sheldon's + Reinforcement--The Rebel Commander Falls--His Army Retreats + in Confusion. + + +With the first glimmer of light in the east, Garfield's men begin their +march down into the valley. As the advance guard turns a jutting ridge, +it is fired upon by a company of rebel horsemen. Instantly Garfield +forms his soldiers into a hollow square, and a heavy volley from their +rifles drives the enemy back. + +Marshall and his whole army must be close by, but to find out their +exact position, Garfield sends forward a reconnoitring party. Suddenly a +twelve-pound shell whirs above the tree-tops, and tears up the ground at +their feet. But the mounted company of twelve go bravely forward; and as +they sweep around a curve in the road, another shell whistles past them, +and they can hear in the distance a threatening rumble. + +The enemy's position is at once clearly defined. The main body of their +army is posted upon the top of two ridges at the left of Middle Creek, +but there is also a strong detachment upon the right, with a battery of +heavy artillery to hold the forks of the stream. Marshall's plan is to +draw the Union forces down into the narrow rocky road along the Creek, +where between two fires, he knows it will be an easy matter to hem them +in and utterly destroy the whole number. + +But Garfield, with his quick intuition, takes in the situation at a +glance. He immediately orders a hundred of his Hiram students to cross +the stream, climb the ridge where the firing has been most frequent, and +open the battle. + +Bravely the little company plunge into the icy stream, and clinging to +the low underbrush, begin the perilous ascent. A shower of bullets from +two thousand rifles is falling all around them, but nothing daunted, +they press onward till the summit is reached. Then, from every side the +deadly shots are hurled, and, for a moment, the little band begin to +waver. + +"Every man to a tree!" shouts the leader, Captain Williams. "Give them +as good as they send, boys!" + +The word passes from lip to lip, and instantly from behind the great +oaks and maples, they take their stand, and open a volley of fire upon +the rebels. This is followed by a hand-to-hand fight with the bayonets, +and little by little, the brave boys are driven back. + +"To the trees again!" cries the leader, "we may as well die here as in +Ohio!" + +One of the Hiram students, a lad of eighteen, is shot through the thigh, +and a confederate soldier passing by says to him,-- + +"Here, boy, give me your musket." "Not the gun, but its contents," he +replies, and in another instant the rebel lies dead at his feet. His +companion takes up a weapon to kill the brave young student, but the +latter seizes the dead man's rifle and, with unerring aim, fells him to +the ground. + +When his comrades bear him away to the camp, and a surgeon tells him +that the wounded limb must be amputated, his only words are: "Oh, what +will mother do?" + +The story of the noble lad--Charles Carlton of Franklin, Ohio,--is told +in the Ohio Senate, two weeks later, and a statute is immediately framed +to make provision for the widows and mothers of our soldiers. + +A hundred men like young Carlton present a steady resistance to the +enemy's fire, but Garfield watching them from a rocky height, realizes +their perilous situation and exclaims,-- + +"They will surely be driven back, they will lose the hill unless +supported." + +Instantly, five hundred of the Ohio Fortieth and Forty-second, under +Major Pardee and General Cranor, are ordered forward. + +"Hurrah for Captain Williams and his Hiram boys!" they shout, as they +ford the stream, holding their cartridge-boxes high above their heads. +But the fire of four thousand muskets fall upon them and though,-- + + "Bravely they fight and well, + Stormed at with shot and shell," + +the unequal contest is quickly noted by the Union commander. + +"This will never do," he exclaims. "Who will volunteer to carry the +crest of the mountain?" + +"Let _us_ go forward," cries Colonel Monroe, of the Twenty-second +Kentucky, "we know every inch of the ground." + +"Go in, then," says Garfield, "and give them 'Hail Columbia!'" + +Crossing the stream a little lower down, they mount the ridge to the +left, and in ten minutes are face to face with the rebel army. + +"Don't shoot till you see the eyes of your enemy," shouts the colonel, +and although the men have never been in battle before, they are as cool +and calm as their commander. + +Five hundred against five thousand! It was a fearful contest, equalled +only by the famous charge of the "Light Brigade." + + "Cannon to right of them, + Cannon to left of them, + Cannon in front of them, + Volleyed and thundered!" + +And Garfield, standing upon a rock scarred with bullets, watched and +waited for Sheldon's reinforcements, until, fearing the little band +would be forced to retreat, he turned to the company held back as +reserves, threw his military cloak into a tree, and exclaimed,-- + +"Come on, boys! It is _our_ turn now to give them 'Hail Columbia'!" And +then, as the ballad tells the story,-- + + "He led, they followed, spreading wide + Among the rebels routed; + From rank to rank, in liberal gift, + The self-same thing he shouted." + +The short winter's day was almost over. Hotter and hotter raged the +battle, but the Union forces, in spite of their inferior number, were +constantly gaining ground. They seemed infused with the indomitable +spirit of their commander. Their coolness and intrepidity gave added +power to every shot, while the enemy, not understanding the difficulty +of firing "down hill," frequently missed aim and let their bullets fall +harmlessly upon the tree-tops, or far beyond the mark. + +At this juncture, Dr. Pomerene, the surgeon of the Ohio Forty-second, +saw a gleam of muskets in the distance. Hatless and excited, he mounted +a fleet horse, crossed the stream, and hurried on to ascertain, what +colors were borne by the coming troops. The glorious star-spangled +banner met his eyes, and, drawing nearer, he saluted Colonel Sheldon +with the longed-for reinforcements. + +"For God's sake, hurry!" he cried, "or the boys on the other side will +be captured!" + +From his elevated position on the opposite hill, Marshall had already +descried the starry banner, and Sheldon's fresh troops hurrying to the +rescue. + +"_Retreat!_" he shouted to his men, and then, pierced by six bullets, he +fell to the ground. Night closed about the contending armies, the rebels +were seized with a sudden panic and fled wildly in all directions. + +"God bless you, boys! You have saved Kentucky!" exclaimed Garfield, as +he led the victorious troops back to camp. It was, indeed, a wonderful +contest. The entire loss on the federal side was but one killed and +eleven wounded. + +"In all the battles of the late war," writes Edmund Kirke, in the _New +York Tribune_, "there was not another like it. Measured by the forces +engaged, the valor displayed, and the results that followed, it throws +into shade the achievements of even that mighty host that saved the +nation." + +It was the first decided victory upon the Union side, but, years after, +Garfield himself said of the skirmish, + +"I see now, that favorably as it terminated, the engagement was a very +rash and imprudent affair on my part. A West Point officer would +probably have had more caution, and would not have attempted so unequal +a contest. I didn't know any better, then." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Garfield's Address to his Soldiers.--Starvation Stares them + in the Face.--Garfield takes Command of the "Sandy + Valley"--Perilous Trip up the River.--Garfield's Address to + the Citizens of Sandy Valley.--Pound Gap.--Garfield Resolves + to Seize the Guerillas.--The Old Mountaineer.--Successful + Attack.--General Buell's Message.--Garfield is Appointed + Brigadier-General. + + +Marshall and his entire force were dislodged from their intrenchments. +Garfield had obeyed General Buell's orders, and the following day he +issued the following address to his army:-- + + "_Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade:_ + + "I am proud of you all! In four weeks you have marched some + eighty, and some a hundred miles, over almost impassable + roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the storm, + with only a winter sky above your heads. You have marched in + the face of a foe of more than double your number--led on by + chiefs who have won a national renown under the old + flag--intrenched in hills of his own choosing, and + strengthened by all the appliances of military art. With no + experience but the consciousness of your own manhood, you + have driven him from his strongholds, pursued his inglorious + flight, and compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced + to fight, he sought the shelter of rocks and hills; you + drove him from his position, leaving scores of his bloody + dead unburied. His artillery thundered against you, but you + compelled him to flee by the light of his burning stores, + and to leave even the banner of his rebellion behind him. I + greet you as men. Our common country will not forget you. + She will not forget the sacred dead who fell beside you, nor + those of your comrades who won scars of honor on the field. + I have called you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor + for still greater exertions. Let no one tarnish his + well-earned honor by any act unworthy an American soldier. + Remember your duties as American citizens, and sacredly + respect the rights and property of those with whom you may + come in contact. Let it not be said that good men dread the + approach of an American army. Officers and soldiers, your + duty has been nobly done. For this I thank you." + +The enemy, after burning their supplies and baggage of every +description, had made their escape through Pound Gap, and Garfield knew +that it would be worse than useless to pursue them any farther. His own +little force was greatly exhausted and short of food, as it had started +with only two days' rations. A heavy rain-storm had caused an overflow +of the Big Sandy, and a large part of the valley was under water. The +boats were all detained in the Ohio, and among them the steamers that +Garfield had loaded with provisions for his troops. Meanwhile, +starvation stared them in the face. Foraging was strictly forbidden, and +if it had been possible for them to march over the muddy roads, it would +have been in disobedience to orders, for the enemy might at any moment +return and take possession of the country. + +The young commander saw but one way out of the difficulty. Calling +Brown, his faithful scout, he said to him,-- + +"What do you say to our going down the river and hurrying up the +supplies? The boatmen say it can't be done, but you and I have had some +experience on the water." + +"I say, gin'ral," answered Brown, "I'd rather drown than starve, any +day. Jest give me the word for't and I'm yer right-hand man!" + +"We'll go, Brown," was the laconic reply, and, boarding a small skiff, +they floated down the seething waters to the mouth of the Big Sandy. + +Here they found a small steamboat, called the "Sandy Valley," which had +formerly been in the quartermaster's service. This, Garfield loaded with +supplies, and ordered up river. + +The captain, who was a secessionist, declared it was impossible to stem +the current in such a flood. The water was at least sixty feet deep, and +the trees along the banks were covered to their topmost branches. + +"I will take the command of this steamer," said Garfield in an +authoritative tone, at the same time ordering the captain and his men to +get on board. + +Placing Brown at the bow, Garfield took his stand at the helm. The most +careful steering was necessary, for the water was full of dangerous +snags and treacherous banks of sand. At one time the boat ran aground. + +"We must get a line to the opposite shore!" exclaimed Garfield. + +"It can't be done," said the rebel captain; "it's death to any man that +attempts it!" + +"It must be done!" cried Garfield, as he sprang into a yawl and called +Brown to follow. For a few moments it seemed as if the little boat would +be overborne by the current and utterly submerged. But the strong arm +and indomitable will at last prevailed. Another moment of fearful +suspense, and the opposite shore was gained. It was an easy matter, +then, to fasten the rope, construct a windlass, and draw the steamboat +out of the mud. + +For two days and the greater part of one night, Garfield stood at the +wheel, and at nine o'clock the following morning the provisions were +safely landed at Paintville. + +"Had it not been for my experience on the canal-boat," he said, +afterwards, "I could never have managed that trip up the Big Sandy." + +When the half-famished men saw the boat and their noble commander at the +helm, they could hardly contain themselves. They shouted and cheered, +and would have borne him in triumph upon their shoulders had he not made +a resolute protest against such manifestations. + +The whole neighboring country about Paintville were greatly terrified +when they heard of Marshall's retreat. The rebel troops spread such +alarming reports of the hostile intentions of the Union forces that the +people left their homes and took refuge in the woods. + +To quiet their fears, Garfield issued the following:-- + + "_Citizens of Sandy Valley_ + + "I have come among you to restore the honor of the Union, + and to bring back the old banner which you once loved, but + which, by the machinations of evil men, and by mutual + misunderstanding, has been dishonored, among you. To those + who are in arms against the Federal Government, I offer only + the alternative of battle or unconditional surrender. But to + those who have taken no part in this war, who are in no way + aiding or abetting the enemies of this Union--even to those + who hold sentiments averse to the Union, but will give no + aid or comfort to its enemies--I offer the full protection + of the government, both in their persons and property. + + "Let those who have been seduced away from the love of their + country to follow after, and aid the destroyers of our + peace, lay down their arms, return to their homes, bear true + allegiance to the Federal Government, and they shall also + enjoy like protection. The army of the Union wages no war of + plunder, but comes to bring back the prosperity of peace. + Let all peace-loving citizens, who have fled from their + homes, return and resume again the pursuits of peace and + industry. If citizens have suffered any outrages by the + soldiers under my command, I invite them to make known their + complaints to me, and their wrongs shall be redressed and + the offenders punished. I expect the friends of the Union in + this valley to banish from among them all private feuds, and + let a liberal love of country direct their conduct toward + those who have been so sadly estrayed and misguided, hoping + that these days of turbulence may soon be ended and the days + of the Republic soon return. + + "J. A. GARFIELD, + + "_Colonel Commanding Brigade_." + + + +This promise of protection allayed the fears of the people, and they +began to flock about the Union camp. From them Garfield learned that +Marshall and his forces were still lurking about the country. At last, +through the scout, Jordan, he found out that a grand muster of the rebel +militia was to meet in Pound Gap on the 15th of March, and that, by +uniting their forces, they hoped to enter Kentucky and drive out the +Union army. + +Pound Gap is a narrow opening in the Cumberland mountains and leads into +Virginia. On the top of the gorge through which the road passes, the +rebels had built a long line of huts; and, directly across the gap, they +had thrown up a breastwork, behind which they declared five hundred men +could easily resist five thousand. + +About six hundred of the rebel militia under Major Thompson had been +stationed here for a number of weeks. Forming guerilla bands, they would +come down into the peaceful valleys and commit all sorts of +depredations. Before the terrified inhabitants could offer any +resistance they would retreat to their strongholds, where pursuit was +impossible. + +Garfield felt his work in Kentucky would not be done until some effort +had been made to break up these mountain hordes. When he heard of the +intended muster, he set out with seven hundred men, and, although the +way was beset with difficulties, he pushed on through swollen streams +and muddy roads until he was within two miles of the rebel garrison. His +plan was to send one hundred of his horsemen up the road to attract the +enemy's attention, while he, with the six hundred infantry, were +climbing the steep side of the mountain and attacking the rebels on the +flank. + +He could find no one, however, to act as a guide in this perilous +expedition, until one morning an old man, with long hair and snow-white +beard, came into camp. + +"I came down the mountain ten days ago," he said, "and where I can come +down, ye can go up." + +"But, do you think we can get over the road safely?" asked Garfield; +"they tell me in winter the slope is a sheet of ice with three feet of +snow on the summit." + +"Wall," said the old man; "ye'll hev to make yer own path most likely, +but it's worth yer trouble if ye can only ketch that nest o' murderin' +thieves as is pesterin' the hull country!" + +Garfield looked steadily into the old man's face with that peculiar +searching glance of his, and then said,-- + +"We will do it to-morrow, and you shall be our guide." + +The snow was falling in blinding drifts next morning when they commenced +their ascent. The ridge rises to a height of two thousand feet above +the valley at this point, and sudden precipices yawn on every side. A +single misstep is certain death; and slowly, cautiously the little band +follow their weird-looking guide up the icy slope. + +At length the old man turns suddenly to Garfield, saying,-- + +"The rebels are just a half mile from here; press on at the double and +ye hev 'em!" + +A firing from the picket-guard greets them, and the enemy call together +all their forces to resist the intruders. + +But Garfield and his men are equal to the occasion. + +"Press forward, scale the hill, and carry it with the bayonet!" cries +the Union commander, and with loud cheers the order is obeyed. + +Little by little, the rebels fall back into the forest. The undaunted +band follow with gleaming weapons, and before night are comfortably +established in the enemy's quarters. Next morning, they burn the long +huts, some sixty in number, destroy the breastworks, and set out for +their own camp at Piketon. A week later, the order comes to march to +Louisville, and the campaign on the Big Sandy comes to a successful +close. + +Kentucky is thoroughly rid of the rebel hordes, and General Buell is so +delighted that he sends to Garfield the following message:-- + +"The general commanding takes occasion to thank General Garfield and his +troops for their successful campaign against the rebel force under +General Marshall, on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in battle. +They have overcome formidable difficulties in the character of country, +conditions of the roads and the inclemency of the season, and, without +artillery, have in several engagements, terminating in the battle of +Middle Creek, on the 10th inst., driven him back into the mountains, +with a loss of a large amount of baggage and stores, and many of his men +killed or captured. These services have called into action the highest +qualities of a soldier,--fortitude, perseverance and courage." + +President Lincoln, to whom the news of "Middle Creek" had come like a +benediction in his discouragement, immediately appointed Colonel +Garfield a Brigadier-General. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + Garfield takes Command of the Twentieth Brigade.--Battles of + Shiloh and Corinth.--The fugitive Slave.--Attack of + Malaria.--Home Furlough.--Summoned to Washington.--Death of + his Child.--Ordered to Join General Rosecrans.--Kirke's + description of Garfield. + + +When Garfield reached Louisville he found that General Buell had +hastened on to the assistance of Grant, who was then at Pittsburg +Landing. Overtaking General Buell at Columbia, Tennessee, he was +assigned to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, and in the famous +battle of Shiloh won new laurels. + +In the long and wearisome siege of Corinth, Garfield's brigade did +signal service; and in June, 1862, they were sent to repair and protect +the Memphis and Charleston railroad. Here, as well as at Huntsville, +Alabama, Garfield's old skill at carpentry came into play; and he gained +no small renown for his fine military engineering. + +It was while in the command of this brigade that a fugitive slave came +running into his camp, badly wounded and terribly frightened. A few +minutes after, his master came riding up, and, with a volley of oaths, +demanded his "property." Garfield was not present, so he passed on to +the division commander. This man was a believer in the theory that +fugitive slaves should be returned to their masters, and that the Union +soldiers should see that this was done. He accordingly wrote a +peremptory order to General Garfield, in whose command the slave was +thought to be hidden, telling him to hunt out the fugitive and deliver +him over to his master. + +General Garfield took the order and quietly wrote on the back of it,-- + +"I respectfully, but positively, decline to allow my command to search +for, or deliver up any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here +for quite another purpose. The command is open, and no obstacles will be +placed in the way of search." When reminded by one of his staff-officers +that these rash words might bring him up before a court-martial, he +replied,-- + +"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right is right, and I +do not propose to mince matters at all. My soldiers are here for other +purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves. My people, on the +Western Reserve of Ohio, did not send my boys and myself down here to do +that kind of business, and they will back me up in my action." + +The order was returned with the indorsement unchanged, and nothing more +was said about it. + +The exposures of the past year, together with the malarial atmosphere of +the South, began at last to tell upon the strong physique of the young +commander, and he was obliged to take a few weeks' furlough. He had +hardly started for home however, when the secretary of war, who had now +learned his rare qualities, issued orders for him to relieve General +Morgan of his command at Cumberland Gap. + +Garfield was too sick to obey, and, a month later the secretary desired +him to report in person at Washington, as soon as his health would +allow. A new honor awaited him here, for so high an estimate had been +placed upon his judgment and his technical knowledge of law that he had +been chosen one of the first members in the court-martial of Fitz John +Porter. + +While at Washington, he was called home by the sickness and death of his +eldest child, the "Little Trot," whose simple headstone in the cemetery +at Hiram bears the touching inscription,-- + +"She has gained the crown without the cross." + +In the following January, Garfield was ordered to join General +Rosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. It is said +that Rosecrans was somewhat prejudiced against Garfield because he had +heard of him as a preacher who had taken up politics. A few days' +acquaintance however, so thoroughly changed the General's opinion, that +he gave Garfield the choice of joining his staff or commanding a +brigade. He chose the former, and Rosecrans, writing of him, said,-- + +"I found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an earnest and +devoted patriot, and a man of the highest honor." + +It is interesting to read just here Edmund Kirke's graphic picture of +Garfield, "Down in Tennessee," which was written in 1863. + +"In a corner by the window, seated at a small pine desk--a sort of +packing-box perched on a long-legged stool, and divided into +pigeon-holes, with a turn-down lid, was a tall, deep-chested, +sinewy-built man, with regular, massive features, a full, clear blue +eye, and a high broad forehead, rising into a ridge over the eyes, as if +it had been thrown up by a plough. There was something singularly +engaging in his open expressive face, and his whole appearance indicated +great reserve power. His uniform, though cleanly brushed and sitting +easily upon him, had a sort of democratic air, and everything about him +seemed to denote that he was a man of the people. A rusty slouched hat, +large enough to have fitted Daniel Webster, lay on the desk before him; +but a glance at that was not needed to convince me that his head held +more than the common share of brains. Though he is yet young--not +thirty-three--the reader has heard of him, and if he lives he will make +his name long remembered in our history." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + Rosecrans Quarrels with the War Department.--Garfield as + Mediator.--Remarkable Military Document.--The Tullahoma + Campaign.--Insurrection averted.--Chattanooga.--Battle of + Chickamauga.--Brave Defence of Gen. Thomas.--Garfield's + Famous Ride. + + +Just at the time Garfield succeeded Garesche as Rosecrans' +chief-of-staff, that officer was having a series of bickerings with the +War Department. In his demands for more cavalry and arms, Garfield fully +sympathized, but his unreasonable requests, oftentimes couched in the +most exasperating language, the new chief endeavored to modify or +repress. + +From January until June, Rosecrans' army had lain idle at Murfreesboro'. +With the opening of spring the War Department urged him to advance. +Grant had begun his campaign against Vicksburg; and Halleck declared +that unless Rosecrans made some decided movement, the rebel General, +Bragg, would send a part of his force to aid Pemberton at Vicksburg. + +General Rosecrans, however, still delayed; he waited for reinforcements, +for the roads to be in better condition, for the corn to ripen. It was +better to keep quiet, he said, while Grant was at Vicksburg, for should +that General happen to fail, all the rebels of the surrounding section, +as well as those under General Johnston, would confront him. + +At first, Garfield approved of Rosecrans' delay, but as soon as his army +was thoroughly reinforced with men and supplies, he urged him to make an +advance. Through the secret service system which he had established +since Jordan's wonderful expedition, Garfield discovered that Bragg's +army was greatly reduced, and he felt assured that the time had come for +a decisive blow. At last, General Rosecrans sent a formal letter to his +corps, division, and cavalry generals asking their opinion concerning +the feasibility and wisdom of such a movement. Not one of the seventeen +generals was in favor of an immediate or even an early advance. + +Garfield took the answers sent in from the generals, and in one of the +ablest military documents on record,[A] he refuted every objection +raised, and added therewith such powerful arguments in favor of an +immediate advance, that General Rosecrans was convinced. Twelve days +later, the army moved, much to the chagrin of the other officers, who +declared it was a rash and fatal step for which Garfield alone should be +held responsible. + +It was the opening of the famous Tullahoma campaign--a campaign +remarkable throughout for its fine conception and able execution. +Bragg's army would have been utterly destroyed had the advance been made +a few days earlier; as it was, the rebel forces were finally driven +south of the Tennessee, a thousand five hundred and seventy-five +prisoners were captured, together with considerable ammunition, and the +state of Tennessee was again under the flag of the Union. + +Almost on the boundary line between Tennessee and Georgia stands the +village of Chattanooga. It is on the southern bank of the Tennessee +river, and to the north Lookout Mountain rises almost perpendicularly to +a height of twenty-four hundred feet. Missionary Ridge, which is a much +lower elevation, lies upon the eastern side, and along its base flows +the West Chickamauga Creek that empties into the Tennessee just at +Chattanooga. On the opposite side is Pigeon Mountain. + +The Tullahoma campaign had forced Bragg and his remaining troops across +the Tennessee, and they were now posted all along the southern bank of +the stream from Chattanooga far down toward Atlanta. + +Rosecrans' army had encamped themselves on the west with a line of +fortifications one hundred and fifty miles long, while General Burnside +had moved into Eastern Tennessee, and taken possession of Knoxville. The +great problem now was how to force Bragg from his position at +Chattanooga. + +It was about this time that Rosecrans received a letter, in which a plan +for arming the negroes and sending them throughout the slave states, was +proposed. + +"It would doubtless end the rebellion at once," said one of Rosecrans' +officers; "and the letter says that no blood would be shed except in +self-defence." + +"But, think what vengeance the blacks might take, if suddenly let loose +upon their masters!" exclaimed Rosecrans. "I must talk the matter over +with Garfield." + +After a careful reading of the letter, the chief-of-staff said, quietly, +but firmly,-- + +"It will never do, General. _We_ don't want to whip by such means. If +the slaves, of their own accord, rise and assert their original right to +themselves, that will be their own affair; but we can have no complicity +with them without outraging the moral sense of the civilized world." + +"But what if the other departments should encourage these uprisings?" + +"We must do all in our power to prevent them," exclaimed Garfield. + +Rosecrans, whose confidence in his chief-of-staff was daily increasing, +immediately took measures to stop the movement, and the insurrection, +with all its attendant horrors, was averted. + +To Garfield was now submitted the task of planning some movement which +would oblige Bragg to leave Chattanooga. General Halleck, then in +Washington at the head of the War Department, had sent to Rosecrans the +following telegram,-- + + "The orders for the advance of your army are peremptory." + +The only movement that could be made with any advantage at this time, +would be for the Union army to cross the river in three divisions and +cut off Bragg from all communication with Atlanta, whence he was +expecting supplies and reinforcements. + +Pontoons were, therefore, brought forward, and materials prepared for +building a couple of bridges. This was done with all possible secrecy, +but high up on Lookout Mountain the signal corps of Bragg's army, with +their field-glasses, were stealthily watching, and promptly reporting +every movement. + +The Confederates readily yielded their post at Chattanooga, but it was +only to give the appearance of a retreat. In reality, they were +concentrating all their forces along the banks of the Chickamauga, and +already their troops outnumbered Rosecrans' by several thousands. +Bragg's plan was to cross the Chickamauga at the various bridges and +fords, push across Missionary Ridge to Rossville, and then, closing in +upon Rosecrans' army, completely destroy it by the force of his +superior numbers. + +Garfield, by means of his secret service system, had discovered this +plan of the rebel commander, and apprized Rosecrans, who was now on the +alert and confronting Bragg's troops at every feasible point of the +road. + +"The resistance offered by the enemy's cavalry," writes the Confederate +general, "as well as the difficulties arising from the bad and narrow +country roads, caused unexpected delays." + +On the morning of the 19th of September, the battle began on the banks +of the Chickamauga between Pigeon Mountain and Missionary Ridge. It +raged fiercely all day, and when night closed down upon the contending +armies, the contest was still undecided. + +Bragg's army had been reinforced by a large detachment under General +Longstreet, and McLawes' division was expected every moment. The +prospect seemed very dark to the Union army, whose scattered troops +numbered at most but sixty thousand, and whose supplies were cut off in +all directions. They still held, however, the road to Rossville, the one +especial point for which Bragg had been fighting. + +It was a fortunate turn of affairs that gave to General Thomas the +command of the left wing of Rosecrans' army. Here it was that the brunt +of the battle came, on the second day at Chickamauga; and, through the +whole fearful struggle, the brave general and his devoted troops showed +the same invincible spirit that had won laurels for them in the +victories of Mill Spring, Pittsburg Landing, and Stone River. + +Garfield, as chief-of-staff, kept his place by Rosecrans' side until, at +a critical point in the battle, he turned to his commanding officer, and +said,-- + +"General, I ask permission to return and join General Thomas." Consent +was reluctantly granted, for, although it was necessary to inform +General Thomas of the condition of affairs, Rosecrans knew that Garfield +was undertaking a fearful risk. + +"As you will," he said, at last; "God bless you; we may not meet again. +Good-bye!" + +With the brave Captain Gaw as his guide, and two orderlies, Garfield +sets out on his famous ride. There are eight miles to be crossed before +they can reach Thomas; they ride swiftly and securely through the +neighboring forest, but as they emerge from the narrow road at Rossville +Gap, a shower of bullets falls about them. Longstreet's skirmishers and +sharp-shooters have surrounded them, and the two orderlies fall from +their horses, mortally wounded. + +Garfield spurs on his magnificent charger, leaps a fence, and finds +himself in an open field, white with ripening cotton. Only a slight +ridge now divides him from the outposts of Thomas's division, but, as he +makes a zig-zag ascent up the slope, the gray-coats send volley after +volley of whizzing bullets, and suddenly his horse is struck beneath +him. It is only a flesh wound, however, and the fiery creature is urged +forward with still greater impetuosity. + +Another second, and the crest of the hill is gained. Horse and rider +gallop down the other side and a band of mounted blue-coats surround +them. + +"Good God, Garfield!" cries General McCook, "I thought you were killed. +How you have escaped is a miracle." + +Though twice wounded, Garfield's horse plunges on, through tangled +under-brush, over fences, up hill and down, until the remaining four +miles are accomplished. Then, passing through another shower of shot and +shell, Garfield catches a glimpse of Thomas. + +"There he is!" he shouts, "God bless the old hero! he has saved the +army!" + +In five minutes more, Garfield is by the side of Thomas; the perilous +ride is safely over, the message is delivered. But look! the noble horse +is staggering, and now it drops down dead at the feet of General Thomas. + +A half hour longer the battle raged desperately, and then with a sudden +break in their lines the rebels abandoned the fight and began to +retreat. + +Garfield sat down behind a dead tree and wrote a dispatch to General +Rosecrans. In the midst of the heaviest firing, a white dove was seen to +hover around for several minutes, and then to settle down on the top of +the tree above Garfield's head. + +"A good omen of peace!" exclaimed General Wood, who was standing close +by. Garfield said nothing, but kept on with his writing. + +At seven o'clock that evening, a battery of six Napoleon guns, by order +of Generals Granger and Garfield, thundered after the retreating rebels. + +The battle of Chickamauga was ended; the Union army had won the day. + + "Again, O fair September night! + Beneath the moon and stars, + I see, through memories dark and bright, + The altar fires of Mars. + The morning breaks with screaming guns + From batteries dark and dire, + And where the Chickamauga runs + Red runs the muskets' fire. + + "I see bold Longstreet's darkening host + Sweep through our lines of flame, + And hear again, 'The right is lost!' + Swart Rosecrans exclaim! + 'But not the left,' young Garfield cries: + 'From that we must not sever, + While Thomas holds the field that lies + On Chickamauga River.' + + "Through tongues of flame, through meadows brown, + Dry valley roads concealed, + Ohio's hero dashes down + Upon the rebel field + And swift, on reeling charger borne, + He threads the wooded plain. + By twice a hundred cannon mown, + And reddened with the slain. + + "But past the swathes of carnage dire, + The Union guns he hears, + And gains the left, begirt with fire, + And thus the heroes cheers-- + 'While stands the left, yon flag o'erhead, + Shall Chattanooga stand!' + 'Let the Napoleons rain their lead!' + Was Thomas's command. + + "Back swept the gray brigades of Bragg, + The all with victory rung, + And Wurzel's 'Rally round the flag!' + 'Mid Union cheers was sung. + The flag on Chattanooga's height + In twilight crimson waved, + And all the clustered stars of white + Were to the Union saved. + + "O Chief of staff! the nation's fate. + That red field crossed with thee, + The triumph of the camp and state, + The hope of liberty! + O Nation! free from sea to sea, + With union blessed forever, + Not vainly heroes fought for thee + By Chickamauga's River." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] For document in full, see Addenda I. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + Rosecrans' Official Report.--Sixteen Years Later.--Promotion + to Major-General.--Elected to Congress.--Resigns his + Commission in the Army.--Endowed by Nature and Education for + a Public Speaker.--Moral Character.--Youngest Member of + House of Representatives.--One Secret of Success.--First + Speech.--Wade-Davis Manifesto.--Extracts from various + Speeches. + + +General Rosecrans, in his official report of the battles of Chickamauga, +writes,-- + +"To Brigadier-General James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff, I am especially +indebted for the clear and ready manner in which he seized the points of +action and movement, and expressed in order the ideas of the general +commanding." + +To this meed of praise General Wood adds,-- + +"It affords me much pleasure to signalize the presence with my command, +for a length of time during the afternoon (present during the period of +hottest fighting), of another distinguished officer, Brigadier-General +James A. Garfield, chief-of-staff. After the disastrous rout on the +right, General Garfield made his way back to the battle-field (showing +clearly that the road was open to all who might choose to follow it), +and came to where my command was engaged. The brigade which made so +determined a resistance on the crest of the narrow ridge during all the +long September afternoon, had been commanded by General Garfield when he +belonged to my division. The men remarked his presence with much +satisfaction, and were delighted that he was a witness of the splendid +fighting they were doing." + +In connection with these reports, it is interesting to recall Garfield's +address to his comrades, sixteen years later, when some twelve hundred +of the veteran volunteers of Ohio visited him at his home in Mentor. In +response to an address of General M. D. Leggett, he said, in his hearty, +friendly way,-- + +"Any man that can see twelve hundred comrades in the front door-yard has +as much reason to be proud as for anything that can well happen to him +in this world. To see twelve hundred men from almost every regiment of +the state, to see a consolidated field report of survivors of the war +sixteen years after it is over, is a great sight for any man to look on. +I greet you all with gratitude for this visit. Its personal compliment +is great, but there is another thought in it far greater than that to +me, and greater to you. + +"Just over yonder, about ten miles, when I was a mere lad, I heard the +finest political speech of my life. It was a speech of Joshua R. +Giddings. He had come home to appeal to his constituents. A Southern +man drew a pistol on him while he was speaking in favor of human +liberty, and marched over to him to shoot him down, to stop his speech +and quench the voice of liberty. + +"I remember but one thing the old hero said in the course of that speech +so long ago, and it was this,-- + +"'I knew I was speaking for liberty, and I felt that if an assassin shot +me down, my speech would still go on and triumph.' + +"Well, now, these twelve hundred, and the one hundred times twelve +hundred, and the one million of men that went out into the field of +battle to fight for our Union, feel as that speaker felt, that if they +should all be shot down the cause of liberty would still go on. + +"You all, and the Union, felt that around you, and above you, and behind +you, was a force and a cause and an immortal truth that would outlive +your bodies and mine, and survive all our brigades, and all our armies, +and all our battles. + +"Here you are to-day; in the same belief we shall die; and yet we +believe that after us the immortal truth for which we fought will live +in a united nation, a united people, against all factions, against all +sections, against all divisions, so long as there shall be a continent +of rivers, and mountains, and lakes. + +"It was this great belief that lifted you all up into the heroic height +of great soldiers in war; and it is my belief that you cherish it +to-day, and carry it with you in all your pilgrimages and in all your +reunions. In that great belief and in that inspiring faith, I meet you +and greet you to-day, and with it _we will go on to whatever fate has in +store for us_." + +Ah! how little the devoted band of comrades dreamed that bright October +morning, with what a new and solemn meaning before another twelve months +those earnest words would come back to them! + +Four weeks after the battle of Chickamauga, General Rosecrans sent +Garfield on to Washington to report minutely to the War Department and +to the President, the position, deeds, resources, etc., of the army at +Chattanooga. In the mean time he had received the promotion of +major-general "for gallant and meritorious services at the battle of +Chickamauga;" and during the year previous, the Nineteenth Congressional +District of Ohio had elected him as their representative to the +Thirty-Eighth Congress. + +Garfield's whole heart and soul were with the army, he would have +preferred to serve his country on the field rather than in the halls of +state; but when he expressed his desire to President Lincoln, the latter +urged him to resign his commission and come to Congress. There were +plenty of major-generals, he said, but able statesmen--like angels' +visits--were few and far between. + +It was universally believed, at this time, that the war was drawing to a +close; and still another consideration that influenced Garfield in his +decision was the fact that a voice in military legislation might be of +great assistance to his comrades in arms. So, on the 5th of December, +1863, after three years of military life, he resigned his army +commission with its high emoluments, for the poor pay and arduous work +of a Congressman. + +It is a little singular that he should have filled in Congress the very +seat left vacant by the death of Joshua R. Giddings, his boyhood's hero. +Did the mantle of this brave Elijah fall upon him, too, I wonder? + +Upon his arrival at Washington, Garfield, with his characteristic energy +and perseverance, began a thorough course of study upon all topics with +which he might have to deal, giving especial attention to commerce, +manufactures, finance, the tariff, taxation, and international law. +Every spare moment was turned to the best account; an intimate friend +says he was seldom seen without a book in his hand, or in his pocket. + +Both by nature and education, Garfield seemed specially endowed for the +office of a public speaker. He had a ready flow of language that +practice in debating clubs, the teacher's desk, at the bar, and in the +pulpit had rendered apt, pointed, and polished. His tall, massive +figure, powerful voice, and dignified manner gave additional weight to +every word that fell from his lips, while his fine scholarship, +extensive reading and wonderful memory furnished an inexhaustible +"reserve fund" of illustration and imagery. But above all and through +all, was the vital power of a warm, sympathetic, generous heart. + +"His moral character," writes President Hinsdale, "was the fit crown to +his physical and intellectual nature. No man had a kinder heart or a +purer mind. Naturally, and without conscious plan or effort, he drew men +to him as the magnet the iron filings." + +He had been the youngest man in the Ohio senate, the youngest +brigadier-general, and now, at the age of thirty-two, he was found to be +the youngest member of the House of Representatives. To make his mark +among so many brilliant intellects, so many fine orators, so many old +and well-tried statesmen, as graced the legislation halls of the nation +at that critical period of our history, required in the young and then +almost unknown congressman "a peculiar combination of strong talents and +intellectual acuteness." + +One secret of his success lay in his "genius for hard work." He was not +one to take ideas at second-hand; he was never satisfied until he had +sifted the subject in hand to the very bottom, and when once assured of +the truth and right of any matter, no power on earth could move him. + +"Comparatively few men or women," he said one day to a friend, "take the +trouble to think for themselves. Most people frame their opinions from +what they read or hear others say. I noticed this in early life, but +never saw the evil of it until I went to Congress." + +From the very first, Garfield made his influence felt in the Hall of +Representatives. He was strong enough to break over the bars that +usually restrict the new and younger members of Congress, and soon took +up the gauntlet with debaters like Thaddeus Stevens, N. P. Banks, Roscoe +Conkling, and other old leaders in the legislative halls. + +It was a tumultuous period in our national history; the War of the +Rebellion had brought to the surface many questions of debate that +required the utmost thought and deliberation, and upon whose decision +hung the weightiest of results. + +But Garfield as some able writer says, was "a man who was always equal +to the greatest opportunity; often surpassed it. He was great on great +occasions, because in temperament, intelligence, enthusiasm, and +eloquence, he rose, like air, to its highest limit." + +The first speech he delivered of any length, was on January 28th, 1864, +and was a reply to his Democratic colleague, Mr. Finck. It was in favor +of the confiscation of rebel property, and the following passage will +give an idea of his style of argument in those early days:-- + +"The war was announced by proclamation, and it must end by proclamation. +We can hold the insurgent states in military subjection half a +century--if need be, until they are purged of their poison and stand up +clean before the country. They must come back with clean hands, if they +come at all. I hope to see in all those states the men who fought and +suffered for the truth, tilling the fields on which they pitched their +tents. I hope to see them, like old Kaspar of Blenheim, on the summer +evenings, with their children upon their knees, and pointing out the +spot where brave men fell and marble commemorates it." + +His answer to Mr. Long, in the campaign of 1864, when McClellan was +proposed as the Democratic candidate, will never be forgotten. It was +delivered on the impulse of the moment and excited the wildest applause +throughout the House. The older members began to realize what a growing +power they had in their midst, and were not slow to seek Garfield's +assistance when they had some pet measure to bring forward. + +As the time drew near for holding the Congressional Convention of 1864, +in the Nineteenth District, a report was circulated in the Western +Reserve, that Garfield was the author of the famous Wade-Davis +manifesto. + +The convention wished to nominate him, but hesitated. Would he not come +forward and explain himself? + +Now this was just what Garfield was longing to do. With a firm step he +walked up to the platform and in a brief, trenchant speech, declared +that although he had not written the Wade-Davis letter, he was in +sympathy with the authors. If the Nineteenth District did not want a +representative who would assert his independence of thought and action, +it must find another man. Having stated his conviction of the truth in +the plainest, strongest terms, he came down from the platform and +quietly left the hall. A great noise from the building greeted his ears +as he turned the street-corner. He thought they were having an +indignation meeting, and he fully expected to be apprized of his +rejection. + +To his astonishment, however, he learned that the noise he had heard was +the cheering of the people upon his nomination. + +The convention had been taken entirely by surprise. Before any of his +opponents had had time to say a word, an Ashtabula delegate had risen to +his feet and declared that "a man who could face a delegation like that, +ought to be nominated by acclamation." Then, the popular feeling +expressed itself freely, and Garfield was renominated with great +applause. + +"It was a bold action on my part," he said afterward, "but it showed me +the truth of the old maxim that 'Honesty is the best policy,' and I have +ever since been entirely independent in my relations with the people of +my district." + +Ben Wade, the "old war-horse," was greatly touched by Garfield's +championship. + +"I shall never forget it, never, sir, while I live on this earth!" he +exclaimed as he held the hand of the young statesman in his iron grasp. + +Garfield was elected by a majority of twelve thousand, and on his return +to Congress the second term, the secretary of the treasury requested +that he might have a place on the Committee of Ways and Means. + +From his entrance into Congress, Garfield had made a special study of +finance and political economy. He was therefore, well equipped for this +new position, and nothing could move him from the firm stand he had +taken in favor of specie payments and the honorable fulfilment of the +nation's contract. + +"I affirm," he boldly declared before the House, "against all opposers, +that the highest and foremost present duty of the American people is to +complete the resumption of specie payments; and first of all, because +the sacred faith of this republic is pledged to resumption; and if it +were never so hard to do it, if the burdens were ten times greater than +they are, this nation dare not look in the face of God and men, and +break its plighted word. + +"It is a fearful thing for one man to stand up in the face of his +brother-man and refuse to keep his pledge; but it is a forty-five +million times worse thing for a nation to do it. It breaks the +mainspring of faith. It unsettles all security; it disturbs all values; +and it puts the life of the nation in peril for all time to come. + +"I am almost ashamed to give any other reason for resumption than this +one I have given. It is so complete that no other is needed; but there +is another almost as strong. If there were no moral obligations resting +upon the nation, if there were no public faith pledged to it, I affirm +that the resumption of specie payment is demanded by every interest of +business in this country, and so imperatively demanded that it can be +demonstrated that every honest interest in America will be strengthened +and bettered by the resumption of specie payment." + +Garfield's fidelity to conviction was strikingly shown in a case at this +time when in some of the states there were conflicts between civil and +military authorities. He was too well versed in law to follow blindly +the opinion of the majority. + +"Young man," said Judge Jeremiah Black to him, "it is a perilous thing +for a young Republican in Congress to take such an independent stand, +and I don't want you to injure yourself." + +"That consideration," replied Garfield, "does not weigh with me; I +believe in English liberty and English law." + +Speaker Colfax wanted to reappoint him on the military committee, but he +asked to be excused, saying,-- + +"I would rather serve where I can study finance; this is to be the great +question in the future of our country." + +In his first speech on the tariff question, he defines his position as +follows:-- + +"I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign +products is the best gauge to regulate international trade. Duties +should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the +foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection." + +In the well-remembered controversy that succeeded General Schenck's +tariff bill, Garfield said,-- + +"The great want of industry is a stable policy; and it is a significant +comment on the character of our legislation that Congress has become a +terror to the business men of the country.... A distinguished citizen +of my own district has lately written me this significant sentence: 'If +the laws of God and nature were as vacillating and uncertain as the laws +of Congress in regard to the business of its people, the universe would +soon fall into chaos.' + +"Examining thus the possibilities of the situation I believe that the +true course for the friends of protection to pursue, is to reduce the +rates on imports when we can justly and safely do so, and accepting +neither of the extreme doctrines, endeavor to establish a stable policy +that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people." + +Finding that no one in Congress had made a business of examining in +detail the various appropriations of the public money, Garfield took the +arduous task upon his own shoulders so that he might vote more +intelligently. Having made out a careful analysis, he delivered it +before the House; it was so well received, that each succeeding year +another was called for until "Garfield's budget speech" became a +well-known institution in Congress, and was considered a most important +help in reducing the expenditures of the Government. + +A few years later, Garfield was promoted to the chairmanship of the +Committee on Appropriations. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + + Assassination of Abraham Lincoln.--The New York + Mob.--Garfield's Memorable Words.--Eulogy upon + Lincoln.--Memorial Oration.--Eulogy upon Senator + Morton.--Extracts from other Orations. + + +It is the morning after the fateful fourteenth of April, 1865. From the +Atlantic shore to the Pacific the whole startled nation is in the +wildest state of excitement. President Lincoln, with the glorious words +of Emancipation still warm upon his lips, has been shot down by the hand +of Booth. The newsboys shout through the streets that Seward is +dying--that the lives of other Government officers have been assailed! + +A furious mob rules the thoroughfares of New York and clamors for +revenge. One man who is suspected of rebel sentiments is shot dead on +the spot; another instant and his adversary lies beside him in the +gutter. + +"To the _World_! To the office of the _World_!" shout the rabble, +bearing high above their heads a roughly constructed gallows. + +Suddenly, a tall, manly figure steps forward with a small flag in his +hand. + +"Another telegram from Washington!" exclaims a chorus of excited voices. + +A dead silence follows, and then, with a reverential glance heavenward, +the stranger begins in clear, deep tones,-- + +"Fellow-citizens! clouds and darkness are round about Him. His pavilion +is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. Justice and judgment are +the establishment of His throne. Mercy and truth shall go before His +face. Fellow citizens, God reigns, and the Government at Washington +still lives!" + +An eye-witness writes of the memorable scene: + +"The crowd stood riveted to the ground with awe, gazing at the +motionless orator, and thinking of God and the security of the +Government in that hour. As the boiling wave subsides and settles to the +sea, when some strong wind beats it down, so the tumult of the people +sank and became still. All took it as a divine omen. It was a triumph of +eloquence, inspired by the moment, such as falls to but one man's lot, +and that but once in a century. The genius of Webster, Choate, Everett, +Seward, never reached it. What might have happened had the surging and +maddened crowd been let loose, none can tell. The man for the crisis was +on the spot, more potent than Napoleon's guns at Paris. I inquired what +was his name. The answer came in a low whisper, 'It is General Garfield +of Ohio!'" + +"_God reigns; and the Government at Washington still lives!_" With what +majestic eloquence those immortal words come back to us to-day! With +what quickened sympathies we re-read his grand eulogy delivered a year +later in Congress, upon Abraham Lincoln, the martyred president! + +Have not the American people repeated one of those "times in the history +of men and nations when they stand so near the veil that separates +mortals from immortals, time from eternity, and men from their God, that +they can almost hear the beatings and feel the pulsations of the heart +of the Infinite?" + +Through its parting folds the thin veil has admitted another "martyr +president to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic." Shall not +the whispers of God be heard by the children of men? Awe-stricken by His +voice, shall not the American people again "kneel in tearful reverence +and make a solemn covenant with Him and with each other that this nation +shall be saved from its enemies, and the temples of freedom and justice +built upon foundations that shall survive forever?" + +Upon the birthday of Lincoln, February 12th, 1878, when Carpenter's +painting of "The Emancipation" was presented to Congress by Mrs. +Thompson, Garfield delivered another memorial oration, from which we +quote the following beautiful passages:-- + +"The representatives of the nation have opened the doors of this Chamber +to receive at her hands a sacred trust. In coming hither, these living +representatives have passed under the dome and through that beautiful +and venerable hall, which, on another occasion, I have ventured to call +the third House of American Representatives, that silent assembly whose +members have received their high credentials at the impartial hand of +history. Year by year, we see the circle of its immortal membership +enlarging; year by year, we see the elect of their country, in eloquent +silence, taking their places in this American pantheon, bringing within +its sacred precincts the wealth of those immortal memories which made +their lives illustrious; and year by year, that august assembly is +teaching deeper and grander lessons to those who serve in these more +ephemeral Houses of Congress. + +"Abraham Lincoln" (and may we not say the same of James Abram Garfield?) +"was one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, +and whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were +multiplied. + +"His character is aptly described in the words of England's great +laureate--written thirty years ago--in which he traces the upward steps +of some + + 'Divinely gifted man, + Whose life in low estate began, + And on a simple village green; + + 'Who breaks his birth's invidious bar, + And grasps the skirts of happy chance, + And breasts the blow of circumstance, + And grapples with his evil star; + + 'Who makes by force his merit known, + And lives to clutch the golden keys, + To mould a mighty State's decrees. + And shape the whisper of the throne; + + 'And moving up from high to higher, + Becomes on Fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire.' + +"Such a life and character will be treasured forever as the sacred +possession of the American people and of mankind." + +Again, in Garfield's eulogy upon Senator Morton of Indiana, how truly +the words apply to himself:-- + +"His force of will was most masterful. It was not mere stubbornness, or +pride of opinion, which weak and narrow men mistake for firmness. But it +was that stout-hearted persistency which, having once intelligently +chosen an object, pursues it through sunshine and storm, undaunted by +difficulties, and unterrified by danger. + +"He possessed an intellect of remarkable clearness and force. With keen +analysis he found the core of a question, and worked from the centre +outward.... Few men have been so greatly endowed with the power of clear +statement and unassailable argument. The path of his thought was +straight,-- + + 'Like that of the swift cannon-ball + Shattering that it may reach, and + Shattering what it reaches." + +"When he had hit the mark, he used no additional words, and sought for +no decoration. These qualities, joined to his power of thinking quickly, +placed him in the front rank of debaters, and every year increased his +power." + +One of Garfield's most popular eulogies was that upon John Winthrop and +Samuel Adams, from which we quote the following striking passages:-- + +"It must not be forgotten that while Samuel Adams was writing the great +argument of liberty in Boston, almost at the same time Patrick Henry was +formulating the same doctrines in Virginia. It is one of the grandest +facts of that grand time that the colonies were thus brought, by an +almost universal consent, to tread the same pathway, and reach the same +great conclusions. + +"But most remarkable of all is the fact that, throughout all that +period, filled as it was with the revolutionary spirit, the men who +guided the storm exhibited the most wonderful power of self-restraint. +If I were to-day to state the single quality that appears to me most +admirable among the fathers of the revolution, I should say it was this: +that amidst all the passions of war, they exhibited so wonderful a +restraint, so great a care to observe the forms of law, to protect the +rights of the minority, to preserve all those great rights that had come +down to them from the common law, so that when they had achieved their +independence, they were still a law-abiding people." + +When a resolution of thanks was about to be passed in Congress to +General Thomas for his generalship in the battle of Chickamauga, +Garfield moved an amendment, by inserting the name of General Rosecrans. + +After an eloquent appeal in behalf of his old commander, he closed with +the following words:-- + +"Who took command of the Army of the Cumberland,--found the army at +Bowling Green, in November, 1862, as it lay disorganized, disheartened, +driven back from Alabama, and Tennessee,--and led it across the +Cumberland, planted it in Nashville, and thence, on the first day of the +new year, planted his banners at Murfreesboro; in torrents of blood, and +in the moment of our extremest peril, throwing himself into the breach, +saved by his personal labor the Army of the Cumberland and the hopes of +the Republic? It was General Rosecrans. From the day he assumed the +command at Bowling Green, the history of that army may be written in one +sentence--it advanced and maintained its advanced position--and its last +campaign under the general it loved was the bloodiest and most +brilliant. + +"The fruits of Chickamauga were gathered in November, on the heights of +Mission Ridge and among the clouds of Lookout Mountain. That battle at +Chattanooga was a glorious one, and every loyal heart was proud of it. +But, sir, it was won when we had nearly three times the number of the +enemy. It ought to have been won. Thank God it was won! I would take no +laurel from the brow of the man who won it, but I would remind gentlemen +here, that while the battle of Chattanooga was fought with vastly +superior numbers on our part, the battle of Chickamauga was fought with +still vaster superiority against us. + +"If there is any man upon earth whom I honor, it is the man who is named +in this resolution--General George H. Thomas. I had occasion, in my +remarks on the conscription bill a few days ago, to refer to him in such +terms as I delighted to use; and I say to gentlemen here that if there +is any man whose heart would be hurt by this resolution as it now +stands, that man is General George H. Thomas. I know, and all know, that +he deserves well of his country; and his name ought to be recorded in +letters of gold; but I know equally well that General Rosecrans deserves +well of his country. + +"I ask you then, not to pain the heart of a noble man, who will be +burdened with the weight of these thanks that wrong his brother officer +and superior in command. All I ask is that you will put both names into +the resolution, and let them stand side by side." + +It is needless to add that the amendment was accepted, and that the name +of General Rosecrans was inserted with that of General Thomas. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + The Home in Washington.--"Fruit between Leaves."--Classical + Studies.--Mrs. Garfield.--Variety of Reading.--Favorite + Verses. + + +In a private letter to Colonel Rockwell, dated August 30th, 1869, +Garfield writes:-- + +"It seems as though each year added more to the work that falls to my +share. This season I have the main weight of the Census Bill and the +reports to carry, and the share of the Ohio campaign that falls to me; +and in addition to all this I am running in debt and building a house in +Washington. + +"On looking over my accounts, I found I had paid out over five thousand +dollars since I first went to Congress, for rent alone, and all this is +a dead loss; so, finding an old staff-officer (Major D. G. Swaim), I +negotiated enough to enable me to get a lot on the corner of Thirteenth +and I Streets, north, opposite to Franklin Square, and I have got a +house three-quarters done. It may be a losing business, but I hope I +shall be able to sell it when I am done with it, so as to save myself +the rent." + +This house, where Garfield and his family spent so many happy hours +during their winter sojourns in Washington, is a plain brick mansion +with a wing built out on the east side to accommodate his fine library. +The parlor windows look out upon Franklin Square and the corner of I and +Thirteenth Streets. + +To a visitor ushered into this pleasant, cheery drawing-room, the first +object that greeted the eye was an excellent portrait of "Grandma +Garfield," which hung over the grand piano. On the opposite side was a +beautiful painting of "Little Trot," the baby-girl whose loss the loving +father never ceased to deplore. The room was tastefully but simply +furnished, and in the small sitting-room, leading out of the parlor, the +pretty desk piled up with books and papers, seemed the most important +piece of furniture. + +The dining-room with its Japanese dado, and its chairs and table of +Austrian bent wood was a particularly pleasant room. Just above the +mantel hung a half-finished sketch of an old-time knight balancing in +one hand an empty glass, and leaning the other upon an inn table. + +An artist friend began the painting with the intention of carrying out +an ideal that Garfield had once expressed at a Shakespearian gathering. +Dying before the picture was finished, the painter left only an outline +of the idea, but that outline, Garfield valued very highly. His love +for pictures was almost as great as his love for books, and the walls of +this plain little house in Thirteenth Street were adorned with many +choice paintings and engravings. + +Just over the dining-room was the library where Garfield spent the +greater part of his time, when free from congressional duties. In the +centre stood a large black walnut office-desk with its accompaniments of +pigeon-holes, boxes and drawers, filled to overflowing. Six or seven +book-cases, holding in all some three thousand volumes, stood against +the walls; and scrap-books of all shapes and sizes confronted you +everywhere. + +It used to be a common saying in Congress that no man in Washington +could stand before the army of facts that Garfield could bring forward +at a moment's notice. This readiness was largely due to his systematic +course of reading, and his invaluable method of _indexing_. For +instance: if an author's views on some subject struck him as +particularly good and worth remembering, he would immediately make a +note of it in his commonplace-book, giving with the topic, the volume, +and page where the extract could be found. In this manner a rich fund of +information was always at hand; his "fruit between leaves" was always +ready to gather. + +The record of the Congressional Library shows that he took out more +books than any other member of Congress; and his reading embraced every +variety of subject, history, biography, law, politics, philosophy, +government, and poetry. + +At one time, during an unusually busy session, a friend found him behind +a big barricade of books. + +"I find I'm overworked," he said, "and need recreation. Now my theory is +that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it lie idle, but to put +it at something quite outside the ordinary line of employment. So, I am +resting by learning all the Congressional Library can show about Horace, +and the various editions and translations of his poems." + +Mrs. Garfield showed the same love for the classics as her husband. A +year or two ago, he said,-- + +"I taught my wife Latin at Hiram, and she was as good a pupil as I had. +She is now teaching the same Latin to my two big boys." + +Mary Clemmer wrote of her:-- + +"Mrs. Garfield has the 'philosophic mind' that Wordsworth sings of, and +she has a self-poise, a strength of unswerving absolute rectitude. Much +of the time that other women give to distributing visiting cards, Mrs. +Garfield has spent in the alcoves of the Congressional Library, +searching out books to carry home to study.... She has moved on in the +tranquil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life of absolute devotion to +duty; never forgetting the demands of her position or neglecting her +friends, yet making it her first charge to bless her home, to teach her +children, to fit her boys for college, to be the equal friend, as well +as the honored wife, of her husband." + +From a letter of Garfield's to President Hinsdale we follow the +indefatigable reader in still another course of study:-- + +"Since I left you I have made a somewhat thorough study of Goethe and +his epoch, and have sought to build up in my mind a picture of the state +of literature and art in Europe, at the period when Goethe began to +work, and the state when he died. I have grouped the various facts into +order, have written them out, so as to preserve a memoir of the +impression made upon my mind by the whole. The sketch covers nearly +sixty pages of manuscript. I think some work of this kind outside the +track of one's every day work is necessary to keep up real growth." + +In another letter to the same friend, he writes:-- + +"I have found a book which interests me very much. You may have seen it; +if not I hope you will get it. It is entitled, 'Ten Great Religions' by +James Freeman Clarke. I have read the chapter on Buddhism with great +interest. It is admirably written, in a liberal and philosophic spirit, +and I am sure will interest you. What I have read of it leads me to +believe that we have taken too narrow a view of the subject of +religion." + +Again, when a fit of sickness confined him to the house, he says-- + +"I am taking advantage of this enforced leisure to do a great deal of +reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the following: Sherman's two +volumes, Leland's 'English Gypsies', George Borrow's 'Gypsies of Spain', +Borrow's 'Rommany Rye', Tennyson's 'Mary', seven volumes of Froude's +England, several plays of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a +new book, 'The History of the English People,' by Prof. Green of +Oxford." + +For light literature, Garfield usually turned to Thackeray, Scott, +Dickens, Jane Austen, Kingsley, or Honore de Balzac. He was fond of +poetry, and his voluminous scrap-books contained many gems, from one of +which we cull the following verses, said to be his especial favorites.-- + + "Commend me to the friend that comes + When I am sad and lone, + And makes the anguish of my heart + The suffering of his own, + Who coldly shuns the glittering throng + At pleasure's gay levee + And comes to gild a sombre hour + And give his heart to me. + + "He hears me count my sorrows o'er; + And when the task is done + He freely gives me all I ask,-- + A sigh for every one. + He cannot wear a smiling face + When mine is touched with gloom, + But like the violet seeks to cheer + The midnight with perfume. + + "Commend me to that generous heart + Which like the pine on high, + Uplifts the same unvarying brow + To every change of sky, + Whose friendship does not fade away + When wintry tempests blow, + But like the winter's icy crown + Looks greener through the snow. + + "He flies not with the flitting stork. + That seeks a southern sky, + But lingers where the wounded bird + Hath lain him down to die. + Oh, such a friend! He is in truth, + Whate'er his lot may be + A rainbow on the storm of life, + An anchor on its sea." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + Tide of Unpopularity.--Misjudged.--Vindicated.--Re-elected.--The + De Golyer Contract.--The Salary Increase Question.--Incident + related by President Hinsdale. + + +It was impossible for a man of strong independent views like Garfield, +to mount the ladder of fame so rapidly without meeting some opposition. + +A lawyer by profession, he was at one time called to appear in the +Supreme Court in behalf of some Confederates who had been tried by a +court-martial and condemned to death. Of this case an able writer says, +the rebels had been "tried by martial law in a State, in time of peace +_de facto_ in the State, and in a section of State not under martial +law. The legal question was, whether any military body had such power +under the circumstances. Should the civil power be ignored in time of +peace, or in sections of the country where martial law had not been +proclaimed? It was a case for which Garfield received no pay, and was +undertaken as a test of this important principle." + +By his clear, forcible presentation of the case and the law, in which he +was fully sustained by the Court and the presiding justice--the +criminals were finally set at liberty. + +When the Ohio district that sent Garfield to Congress, heard that he had +been pleading in Court for condemned rebels, a large proportion voted +against him. As soon, however, as the facts of the case were fully +known, the tide of popular feeling again turned towards their favorite +leader, and Garfield was re-elected. + +The De Golyer contract was the next to excite unfavorable comment. But +again, when a thorough investigation had been made, Garfield was found +to be entirely innocent of the charges brought against him. + +Mr. Wilson, the chairman of the Congressional Committee of +Investigation, gives a clear statement of the case as follows:--. + +"The Board of Public Works at Washington was considering the question as +to the kind of pavements that should be laid. There was a contest as to +the respective merits of various wooden pavements. Mr. Parsons +represented, as attorney, the De Golyer & McClellan patent, and being +called away from Washington about the time the hearing was to be had +before the Board of Public Works on this subject, procured General +Garfield to appear before the Board in his stead and argue the merits on +this patent. This he did, and this was the whole of his connection in +the matter. It was not a question as to the kind of contract that +should be made, but as to whether this particular kind of pavement +should be laid. The criticism of the committee was not upon the +_pavement_ in favor of which General Garfield argued, but was upon the +_contract_ made with reference to it; and there was no evidence which +would warrant the conclusion that he had anything to do with the +latter." + +There were forty kinds of pavement presented, and for drawing up a brief +in favor of the De Golyer patent, Garfield received a fee of five +thousand dollars. + +This was an honorable business transaction. "There was not in my +opinion," adds Mr. Wilson, "any evidence that would have warranted any +unfavorable criticism upon his conduct." + +Garfield defended himself in a manly, straightforward manner. "If +anybody in the world," he said in conclusion, "holds that my fee in +connection with this pavement, even by suggestion or implication, had +any relation whatever to any appropriation by Congress for anything +connected with this District, or with anything else, it is due to me, it +is due to this committee, and it is due to Congress, that that person be +summoned. If there be a man on this earth who makes such a charge, that +man is the most infamous perjurer that lives, and I shall be glad to +confront him anywhere in this world." + +The political opponents of Garfield delighted to call him a "salary +grabber," but with how much justice the following facts will show. + +On the 7th of February, 1873, a bill was presented in Congress, together +with a report submitted by B. F. Butler, from the Judiciary Committee of +the House of Representatives, for the passing of the so-called +retroactive law. Its object was to increase the pay of members of +Congress for past services, a measure that Garfield strenuously opposed +from the first. A few days later Butler tried to incorporate it with the +miscellaneous appropriation bill. Of the whole matter, Garfield spoke as +follows:-- + +"I wish to state in a few words the condition of the salaries-increase +question in the conference committee of the Senate and the House. The +Senate conferees were unanimous in favor of fixing the salary at $7,500 +and cutting off all allowance except actual individual travelling +expenses of a member from his home to Washington and back again, once a +session. That proposition was agreed to by a majority of the conferees +on the part of the House. I was opposed to the increase in the +conference as I have been opposed to it in the discussion and in my +votes here; but my associate conferees were in favor of the Senate +amendment, and I was compelled to choose between signing the report and +running the risk of bringing on an extra session of Congress. I have +signed the report, and I present it as it is, and ask the House to act +on it in accordance with its best judgment." + +Garfield felt that Congress had no right to increase its own pay, but +those who favored the plan had attached it to another bill that he very +much desired to see passed. + +President Hinsdale who was in Washington at the time, says,-- + +"There is an incident connected with that bill which I will relate, not +because I was concerned in it, but because it shows something of the +working of Garfield's mind. I got to Washington on Saturday, and on +Sunday there was a long session of the committee on appropriations +devoted to the discussion of the increase of salaries. This feature was +a rider on one of the most important appropriation bills. Garfield +opposed the rider, but was overruled by the committee. On Monday, I +happened to pass the room of the committee on appropriations and I found +General Garfield walking up and down the corridor. He said to me,-- + +"'I've got to decide in fifteen minutes whether I will sign that bill or +not. If I do, I go on the record as indorsing a measure that I have been +opposing. If I do not, I lose all control of the bill. It will be +reported to the House by General Butler, and he will control the debate +on it. The session of Congress ends to-morrow, and if the bill fails to +pass, this Congress will expire without making provisions for carrying +on the government. Now, what would you do?' + +"I told him that I would sign the bill, and in the House I would briefly +explain why I had at last signed a bill which I had opposed. I don't +assume that his conduct was guided by my advice, but he pursued the +course I had indicated." + +The bill passed; but immediately upon the receipt of the back pay that +had been voted him, Garfield returned the money to the Treasury. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + The Credit Mobilier.--Garfield entirely Cleared of all + Charges Against him.--Tribute to him in Cincinnati + Gazette.--Elected U. S. Senator.--Extract from + Speech.--Sonnet. + + +A still more fruitful source of scandal was the association of +Garfield's name with the Credit Mobilier stock. The company bearing this +high-sounding French title was chartered, as early as 1859, under the +law of Pennsylvania, for the alleged purpose of buying land, loaning +money, building houses, etc. + +When the war broke out, it ceased operations, until in 1866 the +construction of the Pacific railroad brought it again into notice. + +By using the charter of this Credit Mobilier, Mr. Oakes Ames and his +associates saw an opportunity of making large sums of money. They bought +up a majority of the stock of the Pacific Railroad, and secured the +entire control of the Credit Mobilier. A contract was made with this +company to build the road at an exorbitant profit, the proceeds of which +were to be divided among themselves. The rights and interests of the +smaller stockholders were quite ignored, as well as those of the United +States, which, besides giving millions of acres, had also indorsed +$60,000,000 of its bonds, to assist in the building of the railroad. + +Of course, all this fraudulent dealing was kept a profound secret, and +the true character of the Credit Mobilier was not known to the public +for a long time. + +To prevent Congress from investigating this outrageous swindle, the ring +tried to dispose of some of their Credit Mobilier stock to different +members of Congress. + +George Francis Train called upon Garfield and asked him to invest. + +"You can double and treble your money in a year," he urged; "the object +of the company is to buy land where cities and villages are to spring +up." + +Garfield told Mr. Train that he had no money to invest, and even if he +had, he should want to make further inquiries before entering into such +a transaction. + +A year later Mr. Ames, who was a member of Congress, came to Garfield +and repeated the request. + +"If you have no money to spare," said Mr. Ames, "I will hold the stock +until you can find it convenient to pay for it." + +After taking a few days to consider the matter, Garfield told Mr. Ames +he had decided not to invest. + +The following July, 1867, Garfield sailed for Europe, and in order to +obtain funds for this trip, he turned over advanced drafts for several +months of his congressional salary. When he returned home in November, +he needed a small sum, for current expenses, and borrowed three hundred +dollars of Oakes Ames. This loan he paid back in 1869. + +Not long after this transaction, Garfield was informed that his name was +upon Oakes Ames' book as holding ten shares of the Credit Mobilier. + +He demanded an explanation, and Mr. Ames appeared before a committee of +investigation, upon December 17, 1872. His testimony was as follows,-- + +"In reference to Mr. Garfield," said the chairman, "you say that you +agreed to get ten shares for him and to hold them till he could pay for +them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"He never paid any money on that stock, nor received any money from it?" + +"Not on account of it." + +"He received no dividends?" + +"No, sir; I think not. He says he did not. My own recollection is not +very clear." + +"So, that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, +nor received any money on that transaction?" + +"No, sir; he had some money from me once, some three or four hundred +dollars, and called it a loan. He says that is all he ever received from +me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock and never +paid for it." + +"Did you understand it so?" + +"Yes; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him +any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money." + +Five weeks after this statement, Mr. Ames appeared a second time before +the committee with a memorandum in which there was an entry to the +effect that a certain amount of stock had been sold for $329 and paid +over to General Garfield; that it was not paid in money, but by a check +on the sergeant-at-arms. + +To this statement, the sergeant-at-arms, Mr. Dillon, testified that he +had paid a check of $329, but that the payment had been made to Mr. +Ames, not to General Garfield. + +It was conclusively proved that Garfield's name was not among the eleven +congressmen who had bought shares in the Credit Mobilier. + +In a long and able vindication of the purity of his motives, Garfield +concludes with the following words:-- + +"If there be a citizen of the United States who is willing to believe +that, for $329, I have bartered away my good name, and to falsehood have +added perjury, these lines are not addressed to him. If there be one +who thinks that any part of my public life has been gauged on so low a +level as these charges would place it, I do not address him; I address +those who are willing to believe that it is possible for a man to serve +the public without personal dishonor. + +"If any of the scheming corporations or corrupt rings that have done so +much to disgrace the country by their attempts to control its +legislation, have ever found in me a conscious supporter or ally in any +dishonorable scheme, they are at full liberty to disclose it. In the +discussion of the many grave and difficult questions of public policy +which have occupied the thoughts of the nation during the last twelve +years, I have borne some part; and I confidently appeal to the public +records for a vindication of my conduct." + +A writer in the Cincinnati _Enquirer_ at this time thus described +Garfield:-- + +"With as honest a heart as ever beat, above the competitions of sordid +ambition, General Garfield has yet so little of the worldly wise in him +that he is poor, and yet has been accused of dishonesty. He has no +capacity for investment, nor the rapid solution of wealth, nor profound +respect for the penny in and out of pound, and still, is neither +careless, improvident, nor dependent. The great consuming passion to +equal richer people, and live finely, and extend his social power, are +as foreign to him as scheming or cheating. But he is not a suspicious +nor a high-mettled man, and so he is taken in sometimes, partly from his +obliging, un-refusing disposition. Men who were scheming imposed upon +him as upon Grant and other crude-eyed men of affairs. The people of his +district, however, who are quick to punish public venality or defection, +heard him in his defence, and kept him in Congress and held up his +hand." + +Side by side with this testimony, listen to Garfield's own words in the +Ohio Senate just after his election:-- + +"During the twenty years I have been in the public service (almost +eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States), I have tried to do +one thing. I have represented, for many years a district in Congress +whose approbation I greatly desired, but, though it may seem perhaps a +little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation +of one person, and his name is Garfield. He is the only man that I am +compelled to sleep with, and eat with, and die with, and, if I could not +have his approbation, I should have bad companionship." + +The following sonnet, from an anonymous pen, appeared about this time in +the Washington _Evening Star_:-- + + +TO JAMES A. GARFIELD. + + "Thou who didst ride on Chickamauga's day, + All solitary, down the fiery line, + And saw the ranks of battle rusty shine, + Where grand old Thomas held them from dismay, + Regret not now, while meaner factions play + Their brief campaigns against the best of men; + For those spent balls of slander have their way, + And thou shalt see the victory again. + Weary and ragged, though the broken lines + Of party reel, and thine own honor bleeds, + That mole is blind that Garfield undermines! + That shot falls short that hired slander speeds! + That man will live whose place the state assigns, + And whose high mind the mighty nation needs!" + +[Illustration: PRIVATE RESIDENCE OF GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD, MENTOR, +OHIO.] + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + After the Ordeal.--Unanimous Vote of the General Assembly of + Ohio.--Extract from Garfield's Speech of Acceptance.--Purchase + of the Farm at Mentor.--Description of the New House.--Life + at Mentor.--The Garfield Household.--Longing for Home in his + Last Hours. + + +As gold is tried in the fire, so General Garfield passed through the +distressing ordeal of slander and fierce opposition. In January, 1880, +he was elected by a unanimous vote United States Senator from Ohio. In +his speech of acceptance, he says,-- + +"I do not undervalue the office that you have tendered to me yesterday +and to-day; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the +manner in which it was tendered to me is far more desirable than the +thing itself. That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly +of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their +confidence, is as touching and high a tribute as one man can receive +from his fellow-citizens." + +Three years previous to his election as Senator, Garfield was spending +his summer vacation near Cleveland, Ohio. Driving one day along the +stage-road that skirts the shores of Lake Erie, he came to the pretty +town of Mentor. + +His old fascination for the sparkling, blue waters returned--he was a +boy again, chopping wood in his uncle's forest and counting the sails +with every stroke! Why not make his summer home just here? + +Upon inquiry, he found in Mentor, waiting a purchaser, a fine farm of a +hundred and twenty acres. + +The little cottage upon the ground would accommodate his family for +awhile, and when they went back to Washington, a larger and more +convenient house could be built in its place. So the farm was purchased, +and "Lawnfield," the pleasant Mentor home, established. + +The new house, built upon the foundation of the old one, suggests +comfort rather than elegance. It is two and a half stories high, with +two dormer windows and a broad veranda in front. + +The wide, airy hall contains a large writing table, in addition to the +other furniture, and piles of books and papers greet you in every +corner. + +The first floor has a parlor, sitting-room, dining-room, kitchen, +wash-room and pantry, planned with every convenience by Mrs. Garfield, +to whom the architect's papers were submitted. + +Two of the pleasantest rooms on the second floor are fitted up +especially for "Grandma Garfield;" one of these has a large, +old-fashioned fire-place, and is conceded to be the brightest, +cheeriest room in the whole house. + +In the ell is a small room, thirteen and a half by fourteen feet, called +by the children "papa's snuggery." It is not the library, but the walls +are covered with book-shelves, and the little room seems to have been +used by the busy statesman as a sort of "sanctum sanctorum." + +The library is a separate building, a few steps to the northeast of the +house. Garfield used to call it his "workshop," and the books of +reference, indices, public documents, etc., piled up on the shelves, +show the numerous tools he employed in his "literary carpentry." + +This home at Mentor was purchased especially for the benefit of the +Garfield children, but both father and mother enjoyed the quiet country +life far better than the whirl of society at Washington. + +"Isn't it strange," exclaimed Garfield, to one of his guests, "how a man +will revive his early attachment to farm-life? For twenty-five years I +scarcely remained on a farm for a longer period than a few days, but now +I am an enthusiast. I can see now what I could not see when I was a boy. +It is delightful to watch the growing crops." + +As Washington turned with delight to the quiet shades of Mount Vernon, +so Garfield looked forward each year to his summer at Mentor. + +Oftentimes, his visitors would find him out in the fields, tossing hay +with his boys, superintending the farm-work, or planning some new +improvement. + +In a letter to a friend, he says,-- + +"You can hardly imagine how completely I have turned my mind out of its +usual channels during the last weeks. You know I have never been able to +do anything moderately, and, to-day, I feel myself lame in every muscle +with too much lifting and digging. I shall try to do a little less the +coming week." + +It was his custom at Mentor to rise very early in the morning; directly +after breakfast he would mount one of his horses and go all over the +farm, giving directions for the day's work. There were one hundred and +twenty acres in the original farm, but forty more were purchased soon +after. The beautiful lawn, together with the garden and orchard, takes +up about twelve acres. Seventy more are under cultivation, and the +remainder are in pasture lots and woodland. One piece of marshy ground +has been carefully drained, and from it an excellent crop of wheat is +obtained. Many other improvements have been made, as Garfield was an +enthusiast in scientific farming. He liked nothing better than to show +visitors over the place; and, in making the rounds, he would always take +them down the lane back of the house, and up to the top of the ridge +beyond, explaining how the level basin below was once a part of Lake +Erie. + +The little town of Mentor is largely settled by New Englanders, and the +hilly surface, the groves of maple, oak, and hickory, interspersed with +thrifty farms, remind one constantly of the Eastern States. Cleveland is +only twenty-five miles to the east, and the waters of Lake Erie form its +northern boundary. To reach Mentor by rail, one must take the Lake Shore +and Michigan Southern Railroad. + +A gentleman, who dined one day at Lawnfield, says,-- + +"I sat next to Mrs. Garfield, and I found her a ready and charming +conversationalist.... She is tall, fine-looking, has a kind, good face, +and the gentlest of manners. A pair of black eyes and a mouth about +which there plays a sweetly-bewitching smile, are the most attractive +features of a thoroughly expressive face. She is a quick observer, and +an intelligent listener." + +The two older boys, Harry and James, are fine, manly fellows, eighteen +and sixteen years of age. They are good scholars, and passed an +excellent examination upon their entrance to Williams College in the +fall of '81. Mollie, the only daughter, is a lovely girl of fourteen. +The next child, a boy of ten, bears the name of Irvin McDowell. + +"I had," said Garfield, "a personal acquaintance with General McDowell, +and I knew him to be an upright man and a good officer, and consequently +protested slightly to the abuse heaped upon him by giving my son his +name." + +The youngest child is seven years of age, and is called Abram, for his +grandfather. + +"Grandma Garfield," whose features, as well as those of the children and +their parents, have become so familiar to us, is a bright, active old +lady of eighty years. + +"I have seen Garfield," writes Mr. Campbell, the editor of the _Wheeling +Intelligencer_, "in the midst of his plain home life--beneath his +Western Reserve cottage farm-house. His surroundings were those of a man +of culture, but of a man of limited means. His board was frugally +spread--scarcely differing in any respect from the table of his humble +neighbors. He preferred frugality and self-denial to debt, and I came +away, doing honor in my mind to this sterling trait of his character." + +Some of the happiest hours of Garfield's life were spent in this modest +home at Mentor, and as one writer beautifully expresses it, through +those long, long summer days, "wounded to death, and looking out on the +yellow dreary Potomac, so dreary, so yellow in the throbbing midsummer +heat, his soul wandered in his dreams, not amid the scenes of his +ambitions or his achievements, but through the haunts of his boyhood, +through the streets of Cleveland, with the comrades of his prime; and +his last dream on earth was a dream of Mentor, the home of his happy and +prosperous manhood. Its modest walls, its harvest fields, its peaceful +glades, were the last pictures to fill his sight with delight before he +lifted his eyes to confront the glory of the Heavenly City." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Republican Convention at Chicago.--The Three + Prominent Candidates.--Description of + Conkling.--Logan.--Cameron.--Description of + Garfield.--Resolution Introduced by Conkling.--Opposition of + West Virginians.--Garfield's Conciliatory Speech.--His + Oration in Behalf of Sherman.--Opinions of the Press. + + +The National Convention of the Republican party that met at Chicago, in +June, 1880, will always be marked with a red-letter in the annals of our +country. The third-term issue, the unit rule, district representation, +and the arbitrary power of party managers, made the nomination for +President one long scene of hard fought battles. + +The three prominent candidates were General Grant; James G. Blaine, +Senator from Maine; and John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury. + +The third-term party who desired the nomination of Grant, was strongly +supported by Senator Conkling of New York, Senator Cameron of +Pennsylvania, and Senator Logan of Illinois. These three great political +leaders are thus described by a graphic writer, who was present at the +opening of the Convention:-- + +"Just as the great Exposition Building had nearly filled up, there was a +simultaneous huzza throughout the hall and galleries, and it speedily +broke out in a hearty applause. The tall and now silvered plume of +Conkling was visible in the aisle, and he strode down to his place at +the head of his delegation with the majesty of an emperor. He recognized +the compliment by a modest bow, without lifting his eyes to the +audience, and took his seat as serenely as if on a picnic and holiday. +The Grant men seemed to be more comfortable when they found him by their +side and evidently ready for the conflict. + +"Logan's swarthy features, flowing mustache, and Indian hair, were next +visible on the eastern aisle, but he stepped to the head of his +delegation so quietly that he escaped a special welcome. He sat as if in +sober reflection for a few moments, and then hastened over to Conkling +to perfect their counsel on the eve of battle. The two senatorial +leaders held close conference until the bustle about the chair gave +notice that the opposing lines were about to begin to feel each other, +and test their position. + +"Cameron had just stepped upon the platform with the elasticity of a +boy, and his youthful, but strongly-marked face was recognized at once. +There was no applause. They all knew that he never plays for the +galleries, and that cheers are wasted upon him. He quietly sat down for +ten minutes, although the time for calling the convention to order had +passed by an hour, and looked calmly out upon the body so big with +destiny for himself and his Grant associates. As he passed by he was +asked,-- + +"'What of the battle?' + +"'We have three hundred to start with,' he replied, 'and we will work on +till we win.' + +"This was said with all the determination that his positive manner and +expression could add to language, and it summed up his whole strategy." + +George F. Hoar, from Massachusetts, was appointed President of the +Convention; and among the delegates from Ohio, and enthusiastic +supporters of Sherman, was General Garfield, thus described by a writer +in the _Chicago Inter-Ocean_:-- + +"A big heart, a sympathetic nature, and a mind keenly sensitive to +everything that is beautiful in sentiment, are the artists that shade +down the gnarled outlines and touch with soft coloring the plain +features of his massive face. The conception of a grand thought always +paints a glow upon Garfield's face, which no one forgets who has seen +him while speaking. His eyes are a cold gray, but they are often--yes, +all the time when he is speaking--lit brilliantly by the warm light of +worthy sentiments, and the strong flame of a great man's conviction. + +"In speaking, he is not so restless as Conkling; his speech is an appeal +for thought and calm deliberation, and he stands still like the rock of +judgment while he delivers it. There is no invective or bitterness in +his effort, but there is throughout an earnestness of conviction and an +unquestionable air of sincerity, to which every gesture and intonation +of voice is especially adapted." + +On the second day of the convention a resolution was introduced by Mr. +Conkling that every member of the convention should support the nominee, +and that no one should hold a seat who was not willing thus to pledge +himself. The question was opposed by several voices, and when Mr. +Conkling called for a vote of the States, three delegates from West +Virginia voted in the negative. Another resolution was then offered by +Mr. Conkling, who declared that these delegates had forfeited their +seats in the convention. + +The West Virginians asserted that they were true Republicans, but could +not, and would not, pledge themselves in this manner. A hot contest of +words would probably have ensued, had not Garfield taken the floor and +spoken as follows:-- + +"I fear the convention is about to commit a grave error. Every delegate, +save three, has voted for the resolution, and the three gentlemen who +have voted against it have risen in their places and stated that they +expected, and intended, to support the nominee of the convention, but +that it was not, in their judgment, a wise thing, at this time, to pass +the resolution which all the rest of the delegates had voted for. Were +they to be disfranchised because they thought so? That was the question. +Was every delegate to have his republicanism inquired into before he was +allowed to vote? Delegates were responsible for their votes, not to the +convention, but to their constituents. He himself would never in any +convention vote against his judgment. He regretted that the gentlemen +from West Virginia had thought it best to break the harmony of the +convention by their dissent. He did not know these gentlemen, nor their +affiliations, nor their relations to the candidates. If this convention +expelled those men then the convention would have to purge itself at the +end of every vote and inquire how many delegates who had voted 'no' +should go out. He trusted that the gentleman from New York would +withdraw his resolution and let the convention proceed with its +business." + +One of the delegates from California immediately moved to lay the +resolution on the table, and Mr. Conkling thereupon withdrew it. + +On the fourth day of the convention, and just after the Grant men had +set forth in glowing terms the claims of their candidate, Garfield was +called to the platform to represent Ohio. A hearty cheering greeted him +as he began:-- + + "MR. PRESIDENT: I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of + this convention with deep solicitude. No emotion touches my + heart more quickly than a sentiment in honor of a great and + noble character. But as I sat on these seats and witnessed + these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean + in a tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and + tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the + dullest man. But I remember that it is not the billows, but + the calm level of the sea from which all heights and depths + are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm + settles on the ocean, when sunlight bathes its smooth + surface, then the astronomer and surveyor takes the level + from which he measures all terrestrial heights and depths. + + "Gentlemen of the convention, your present temper may not + mark the healthful pulse of our people. When our enthusiasm + has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we + shall find the calm level of public opinion below the storm + from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be + measured, and by which their final action will be + determined. + + "Not here, in this brilliant circle where fifteen thousand + men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic + to be decreed; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces + of seven hundred and fifty-six delegates waiting to cast + their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their + party, but by four million Republican firesides, where the + thoughtful fathers with wives and children about them, with + the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of + country, with the history of the past, the hopes of the + future, and the knowledge of the great men who have adorned + and blessed our nation in days gone by--there God prepares + the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work + to-night. Not in Chicago in the heat of June, but in the + sober quiet that comes between now and November, in the + silence of deliberate judgment will this great question be + settled. Let us aid them to-night. + + "But now, gentlemen of the convention, what do we want? + Twenty-five years ago this republic was wearing a triple + chain of bondage. Long familiarity with traffic in the + bodies and souls of men had paralyzed the consciences of a + majority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State + sovereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and most + beneficent powers of the national government, and the + grasping power of slavery was seizing the virgin territories + of the West and dragging them into the den of eternal + bondage. At that crisis the Republican party was born. It + drew its first inspiration from that fire of liberty which + God has lighted in every man's heart, and which all the + powers of ignorance and tyranny can never wholly extinguish. + + "The Republican party came to deliver and save the republic. + It entered the arena when the beleaguered and assailed + territories were struggling for freedom, and drew around + them the sacred circle of liberty which the demon of slavery + has never dared to cross. It made them free forever. + + "Strengthened by its victory on the frontier, the young + party, under the leadership of that great man who, on this + spot, twenty years ago, was made its leader, entered the + national capital and assumed the high duties of the + government. The light which shone from its banner dispelled + the darkness in which slavery had enshrouded the capital, + and melted the shackles of every slave, and consumed in the + fire of liberty every slave-pen within the shadow of the + capitol. + + "Our national industries by an impoverishing policy, were + themselves prostrated, and the streams of revenue flowed in + such feeble currents that the treasury itself was well-nigh + empty. The money of the people was the wretched notes of two + thousand uncontrolled and irresponsible state banking + corporations, which were filling the country with a + circulation that poisoned rather than sustained the life of + business. The Republican party changed all this. It + abolished the babel of confusion, and gave the country a + currency as national as its flag, based upon the sacred + faith of the people. It threw its protecting arm around our + great industries, and they stood erect as with new life. It + filled with the spirit of true nationality all the great + functions of the government. It confronted a rebellion of + unexampled magnitude, with slavery behind it, and, under + God, fought the final battle of liberty until victory was + won. Then, after the storms of battle were heard the sweet, + calm words of peace uttered by the conquering nation, and + saying to the conquered foe that lay prostrate at its + feet,-- + + "'This is our only revenge, that you join us in lifting to + the serene firmament of the Constitution, to shine like + stars forever and ever, the immortal principles of truth and + justice, that all men, white or black, shall be free and + stand equal before the law.' + + "Then came the question of reconstruction, the public debt, + and the public faith. In the settlement of the questions the + Republican party has completed its twenty-five years of + glorious existence, and it has sent us here to prepare it + for another lustrum of duty and of victory. How shall we do + this great work? We cannot do it, my friends, by assailing + our Republican brethren. God forbid that I should say one + word to cast a shadow upon any name on the roll of our + heroes. + + "This coming fight is our Thermopylae. We are standing upon a + narrow isthmus. If our Spartan hosts are united, we can + withstand all the Persians that the Xerxes of Democracy can + bring against us. Let us hold our ground this one year, for + the stars in their courses fight for us in the future. The + census taken this year will bring reinforcements and + continued power. But in order to win this victory now, we + want the vote of every Republican, of every Grant + Republican, and every anti-Grant Republican in America, of + every Blaine man and anti-Blaine man. The vote of every + follower of every candidate is needed to make our success + certain; therefore, I say, gentlemen and brethren, we are + here to take calm counsel together, and inquire what we + shall do. + + "We want a man whose life and opinions embody all the + achievements of which I have spoken. We want a man who, + standing on a mountain height, sees all the achievements of + our past history, and carries in his heart the memory of all + its glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to + meet the labor and the dangers to come. We want one who will + act in no spirit of unkindness towards those we lately met + in battle. The Republican party offers to our brethren of + the South the olive-branch of peace, and wishes them to + return to brotherhood, on this supreme condition, that it + shall be admitted forever and forevermore, that in the war + for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. On that + supreme condition we meet them as brothers, and on no other. + We ask them to share with us the blessings and honors of + this great republic. + + "Now, gentlemen, not to weary you, I am about to present a + name for your consideration--the name of a man who was the + comrade and associate and friend of nearly all those noble + dead whose faces look down upon us from these walls + to-night; a man who began his career of public service + twenty-five years ago; whose first duty was courageously + done in the days of peril on the plains of Kansas, when the + first red drops of that bloody shower began to fall which + finally swelled into the deluge of war. He bravely stood by + young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the + National Legislature, through all subsequent time his + pathway has been marked by labors performed in every + department of legislation. + + "You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty-five years + of national statutes. Not one great beneficent measure has + been placed in our statute books without his intelligent and + powerful aid. He aided these men to formulate the laws that + raised our great armies and carried us through the war. His + hand was seen in the workmanship of those statutes that + restored and brought back the unity and calm of the States. + His hand was in all that great legislation that created the + war currency, and in a still greater work that redeemed the + promises of the government and made the currency equal to + gold. And when at last called from the halls of legislation + into a high executive office, he displayed that experience, + intelligence, firmness and poise of character which has + carried us through a stormy period of three years. With + one-half the public press crying 'Crucify him,' and a + hostile Congress seeking to prevent success, in all this he + remained unmoved until victory crowned him. + + "The great fiscal affairs of the nation, and the great + business interests of the country he has guarded and + preserved, while executing the law of resumption and + effecting its object without a jar and against the false + prophecies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of + this continent. He has shown himself able to meet with + calmness the great emergencies of the government for + twenty-five years. He has trodden the perilous heights of + public duty, and against all the shafts of malice has borne + his breast unharmed. He has stood in the blaze of 'that + fierce light that beats against the throne,' but its + fiercest ray has found no flaw in his armor, no stain on his + shield. I do not present him as a better Republican or as a + better man than thousands of others we honor, but I present + him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate John + Sherman, of Ohio." + +Of this powerful speech, that was constantly interrupted by storms of +applause, Whitelaw Reid said,-- + +"It was admirably adapted to make votes for his candidate, if speeches +ever made votes. It was courteous, conciliatory, and prudent." + +The editor of the Chicago _Journal_ wrote as follows:-- + +"The supreme orator of the evening was General Garfield. He is a man of +superb power and noble character.... He indulged in no fling at others. +It was a model speech in temper and tone. The impression made was +powerful and altogether wholesome. Many felt that if Ohio had offered +Garfield instead of Sherman, she would have been more likely to win." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + The Battle still Undecided.--Sunday among the Delegates.--Garfield's + Remark.--Monday another Day of Doubt.--The Dark Horse.--The + Balloting on Tuesday.--Garfield's Remonstrance.--He is + Unanimously Elected on the Thirty-sixth Ballot.--Enthusiastic + Demonstrations, Congratulatory Speeches and Telegrams.--His + Speech of Acceptance. + + +Garfield's eloquent speech was followed by one from Mr. Billings, of +Vermont, who proposed Senator Edmunds as a nominee. Mr. Cassidy, of +Wisconsin, presented the name of Elihu B. Washburne, of Illinois, and +was seconded by Mr. Brandagee, of Connecticut. + +The battle was waged in this manner until a late hour on Saturday +evening. Many of the delegates wanted to continue the balloting after +midnight, and some urged the chairman, Judge Hoar, to ignore the Sabbath +and let the convention go on. + +"Never!" he replied; "this is a Sabbath-keeping nation, and I cannot +preside over this convention one minute after twelve." + +Garfield attended church in the morning, and dined with Marshall Field. +The conversation at table turned upon the dead-lock in the convention +and the quietus at Washington, where every one was waiting for further +developments. + +Addressing the friend who sat beside him, Garfield said,-- + +"Yes, this is a day of suspense, but it is also a day of prayer; and I +have more faith in the prayers that will go up from Christian hearts +to-day, than I have in all the political tactics which will prevail at +this convention." + +When President Hoar called the convention to order on Monday morning, an +anxious crowd hastily took their seats and prepared for the coming +battle. Eighteen ballots were cast during the day and ten more in the +evening, with no decisive result. The weather was extremely hot, but the +hall was filled to its utmost capacity, and at each roll-call the whole +twelve thousand would simultaneously rise to their feet with a noise +like the roar of thunder. It was late at night before the convention +broke up, and some of the delegates did not retire at all. + +On Tuesday morning, a pencilled note, it is said, passed from Conkling +to Garfield, which read as follows:-- + + "MY DEAR GARFIELD,--If there is to be a dark horse in this + convention there is no man I would prefer before yourself. + + CONKLING." + +The reply was,-- + + "MY DEAR CONKLING,--There will be no dark horse in this + convention. I am for Sherman. + + J. A. GARFIELD." + + + +By the time the thirty-fourth ballot was cast, however, it began to be +very evident that a "break" was imminent. Wisconsin gave thirty-six +votes for Garfield, Connecticut followed with eleven more, Illinois gave +seven, and Indiana twenty-nine. + +Garfield immediately rose to his feet and said he had refused to have +his name announced and voted for in the convention. + +"I have not given my consent"--he began; but amidst much laughter the +chairman interrupted, and said the gentleman was not stating a question +of order. + +The enthusiasm for the new candidate now rose to its highest pitch. When +the thirty-sixth ballot was called, Sherman and the Ohio delegation, +with the New York anti-Grant men, led off in a grand burst of applause +for Garfield. One after another the States transferred their votes to +him, till at last Wisconsin completed the majority. + +Before the roll was called a salute of guns was fired in the park +outside, the galleries sprang to their feet, and the wildest scene of +excitement followed. + +Each delegation had its State banner, and, with Massachusetts at the +head, an impromptu procession was formed that marched over to the Ohio +delegation and placed all the standards by the side of Garfield. The +military band in the hall then struck up, "Rally round the Flag," and +the whole immense audience enthusiastically joined in the stirring song. + +"I shall never forget," writes an eye-witness, "the expression of +Garfield's face at the time that delegation after delegation was +breaking from its moorings and going over to him. I scanned him with +intense curiosity as he listened to the call of States, and the certain +coming of his nomination. His cheeks had a flush upon them, and there +was a far-away expression in his eyes as he listened to the responses of +the chairman, as if he was communing with the future. I can see his face +at this moment as plainly as I saw it then, and I ask myself now whether +as he swept the horizon of the future with his mind's eye, could he +possibly have had a glimpse of the dark apparition that was even then +being invoked into life. He looked anxious, almost troubled." + +When the President of the convention announced that James A. Garfield of +Ohio had received three hundred and ninety-nine ballots, the majority of +the whole votes cast, Senator Conkling arose and said,-- + +"I move that he be unanimously presented as the nominee of the +convention. The Chair, under the rules, anticipated me, but being on my +feet, I avail myself of the opportunity to congratulate the Republican +party of the nation on the good-natured and well-tempered disposition +that has distinguished this animated convention. + +"I trust that the fervor and unanimity of the scenes of the convention +will be transplanted to the field of the country, and all of us who have +borne a part against each other here will be found with equal zeal, +bearing the banners and carrying the lances of the Republican party into +the ranks of the enemy." + +Senator Logan followed Conkling in a similar congratulatory speech; and +Eugene Hale, the defeated leader of the Blaine forces, said:-- + +"Standing here to return our heartfelt thanks to the many men in this +convention who have aided us in the fight that we made for the senator +from Maine, and speaking for them here, as I know that I do, I say this +most heartily: We have not got the man whom we hoped to nominate when we +came here, but we have got a man in whom we have the greatest and most +marked confidence. The nominee of this convention is no new and untried +man, and in that respect he is no 'dark horse.' When he came here, +representing his State in the front of his delegation and was seen here, +every man knew him because of his record; and because of that and +because of our faith in him, and because we were in the emergency, glad +to help make him the candidate of the Republican party for President of +the United States,--because, I say, of these things, I stand here to +pledge the Maine forces in this convention to earnest effort until the +ides of November, to help to carry him to the presidential chair." + +Short speeches followed from members of the other delegations and the +nomination of James A. Garfield was declared unanimous. + +While shaking hands with the crowd that gathered around him, Garfield +turned to a correspondent of the Cleveland _Herald_ and said gravely:-- + +"I wish you would say that this is no act of mine. I wish you would say +that I have done everything and omitted nothing to secure Secretary +Sherman's nomination. I want it plainly understood that I have not +sought this nomination, and have protested against the use of my name. +If Senator Hoar had permitted, I would have forbidden anybody to vote +for me. But he took me off my feet before I had said what I intended. I +am very sorry it has occurred, but if my position is fully explained, a +nomination, coming unsought and unexpected like this, will be the +crowning gratification of my life." + +Before nominating the Vice-President, the convention took a short +recess, and Garfield attempted to leave the hall. He was immediately +surrounded, however, by an enthusiastic crowd, who followed him to the +door and tried to take the horses off his carriage that they might draw +it themselves. + +A serenade followed at the Grand Pacific Hotel, but Garfield declined to +respond to the ovation further than to give his thanks. More than six +hundred congratulatory telegrams were received during the evening, among +the most notable of which were the following:-- + + + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + June 8th, 1880. + + _To General James A. Garfield:_ + + You will receive no heartier congratulations to-day than + mine. This both for your own and your country's sake. + + (Signed) R. B. HAYES. + + + WASHINGTON, June 8th, 1880. + + _Hon. James A. Garfield, Chicago:_ + + I congratulate you with all my heart upon your nomination as + President of the United States. You have saved the + Republican party and the country from a great peril, and + assured the continued success of Republican principles. + + (Signed) JOHN SHERMAN. + + + "The vote of Maine just cast for you is given you with my + hearty concurrence. I assure you of my belief that you will + have a glorious victory in November." + + JAMES G. BLAINE. + + + MILWAUKEE, June 8th, 1880. + + "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art + promised." LAWRENCE BARRETT. + + + WASHINGTON, June 8th 1880. + + "Accept my hearty congratulations. The country is to be + congratulated as well as yourself." C. SCHURZ. + +Similar dispatches were received from other members of the cabinet, and +from various senators and representatives at Washington. When General +Grant heard the news he said, "It is all right--I am satisfied." + +At the earnest request of the delegates, an informal reception was held +at the Grand Pacific, and near midnight Garfield responded to the +committee appointed to notify him officially of his nomination, as +follows:-- + + "MR. CHAIRMEN AND GENTLEMEN,--I assure you that the + information you have officially given me brings a sense of + very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the + fact that I was a member of your body, a fact that could not + have existed with propriety had I had the slightest + expectation that my name would be connected with the + nomination for the office. I have felt with you great + solicitude concerning the situation of our party during the + struggle, but believing that you are correct in assuring me + that substantial unity has been reached in the conclusion, + it gives me gratification far greater than any personal + pleasure your announcement can bring. + + "I accept the trust committed to my hands. As to the work + of our party and the character of the campaign to be entered + upon, I will take an early occasion to reply more fully than + I can properly do to-night. I thank you for the assurances + of confidence and esteem you have presented to me, and hope + we shall see our future as promising as are the indications + to-night." + +In a similar manner Senator Hoar and the committee officially apprized +General Arthur of his nomination to the Vice-Presidency; his acceptance +was given in a brief informal speech, but it was not till the "small +hours" that the excited crowds began to disperse. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Return Home.--Ovations on the Way.--Address at Hiram + Institute.--Impromptu Speech at Washington.--Incident of the + Eagle.--The Tract Distributor. + + +The next morning, Garfield left Chicago for his home in Mentor. The +journey thither was one continual scene of ovations. An immense throng +followed him from the hotel to the station, and a large committee from +Cleveland met the train at Elyria. + +As the car containing Garfield and Governor Foster of Ohio, entered the +depot at Cleveland, a salute of a thousand guns was fired. A procession +of the militia and the Garfield clubs accompanied them to the Kennard +House, and among the transparencies borne by the crowd was one with the +happy inscription:-- + + "Ohio's senator, Ohio's Major-General, Ohio's President. The + true favorite son of Ohio is the favorite son of the Union. + He who at the age of sixteen steered a canal-boat will steer + the ship of state at fifty." + +Garfield had promised to deliver an address at the commencement +exercises of Hiram College. + +The morning after his arrival in Cleveland, therefore, he left as +quietly as possible for the little town, where thirty years before he +had held the humble position of college janitor. + +"I have sought but one office in my life," he said one day to a friend, +"and that was the office of janitor at Hiram Institute." + +As he approached the college grounds the students came out in a body to +greet him. It was a touching scene, and his beautiful address to them is +given in full, in the latter part of the volume.[B] With all his honors +he never forgot this place so "full of memories." + +After a short stay at Hiram, he went on to his home in Mentor, to take a +few days' rest before returning to Washington. + +His address to the enthusiastic crowds that gathered around him when he +reached the Capitol, is so full of his peculiar magnetic power that we +give it entire:-- + + "FELLOW-CITIZENS:--While I have looked upon this great + array, I believe I have gotten a new idea of the majesty of + the American people. + + "When I reflect that whenever you find sovereign power, + every reverent heart on this earth bows before it, and when + I remember that here for a hundred years we have denied the + sovereignty of any man, and in place of it we have asserted + the sovereignty of all in place of one, I see before me so + vast a concourse it is easy for me to imagine that were the + rest of the American people gathered here to-night, every + man would stand uncovered, all in unsandalled feet in + presence of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this + Government under Almighty God. + + "And therefore to this great audience I pay the respectful + homage that in part belongs to the sovereignty of the + people. I thank you for this great and glorious + demonstration. I am not, for one moment, misled into + believing that it refers to so poor a thing as any one of + our number. I know it means your reverence for your + Government, your reverence for its laws, your reverence for + its institutions, and your compliment to one who is placed + for a moment in relations to you of peculiar importance. For + all these reasons I thank you. + + "I cannot at this time utter a word on the subject of + general politics. I would not mar the cordiality of this + welcome, to which to some extent all are gathered, by any + reference except to the present moment and its significance; + but I wish to say that a large portion of this assemblage + to-night are my comrades, late of the war for the Union. For + them I can speak with entire propriety, and can say that + these very streets heard the measured tread of your + disciplined feet, years ago, when the imperilled Republic + needed your hands and your hearts to save it, and you came + back with your numbers decimated; but those you left behind + were immortal and glorified heroes forever; and those you + brought back came, carrying under tattered banners and in + bronzed hands the ark of the covenant of your Republic in + safety out of the bloody baptism of the war, and you brought + it in safety to be saved forever by your valor and the + wisdom of your brethren who were at home, and by this you + were again added to the great civil army of the Republic. + + "I greet you, comrades and fellow-soldiers, and the great + body of distinguished citizens who are gathered here + to-night, who are the strong stay and support of the + business, of the prosperity, of the peace, of the civic + ardor and glory of the Republic, and I thank you for your + welcome to-night. + + "It was said in a welcome to one who came to England to be a + part of her glory--and all the nation spoke when it was said,-- + + "'Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, + But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee.' + + "And we say to-night of all nations, of all the people, + soldiers, and civilians, there is one name that welds us all + into one. It is the name of American citizen, under the + union and under the glory of the flag that led us to + victory and peace. For this magnificent welcome I thank you + with all my heart." + +A singular incident occurred in Washington, upon the day of Garfield's +nomination at Chicago. Almost at the very moment the ballot was cast, a +large bald eagle circled around the Park, and finally swooped down and +rested upon the little house on the corner of I and Thirteenth Streets. + +It was seen by Mr. George W. Rose, Garfield's private stenographer, who +occupied the house during his absence, and he says that "before the +eagle rose from its strange perch a dozen people had noticed and +commented upon it." + +Another curious coincident is worthy of notice. On that memorable +Tuesday morning as Garfield entered the Exposition building, where the +convention was assembled, a slip of paper was thrust into his hand by a +tract distributor. + +He put it mechanically into his pocket without reading, and was not a +little astonished that evening when it dropped out and he found upon it +these words:-- + +"This is the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is +become the head of the corner; neither is there salvation in any +other." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[B] See page 478. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + News of the Nomination Received with Delight.--Mr. + Robeson speaks for the Democrats in the House of + Representatives.--Ratification Meeting at Williams + College.--Governor Long's Opinion.--Hotly-contested + Campaign.--Garfield Receives the Majority of Votes.--Is + Elected President on the Second of November, 1880.--Extract + from Letter of an Old Pupil.--Review of Garfield's + Congressional Life.--His own Feelings in Regard to the + Election. + + +The news of the nomination at Chicago was received with unfeigned +delight throughout the country. In the House of Representatives at +Washington, Mr. Robeson, by request, spoke for the Democrats as well as +the Republicans, in terms of the highest commendation of the new +nominee; and three hearty cheers were given for him by both parties. + +A ratification meeting was immediately held at Williams College, and the +excited students sang as a chorus to "Marching through Georgia:" + + "Hurrah! hurrah! we'll shout for General G.! + Hurrah! hurrah! a Williams man was he, + And so we'll sing the chorus from old Williams to the sea, + And we'll cast a vote for Garfield!" + +Governor Long, of Massachusetts, when asked his opinion of the +nomination, said,-- + +"I feel an especial pride and satisfaction in the nomination of +Garfield, as I have both desired and publicly urged it from the first. + +"I regard General Garfield as a representative Republican, a sound +statesman, a thorough scholar, and with that good record as a soldier +which never yet has failed to be a claim upon the hearts of the American +people. I regard it as felicitous in General Garfield that, like so many +of his predecessors, he sprang from the humbler walks of life, and, by +his own efforts, has made his own way to eminence, and is not identified +as the special representative of wealth or any great controlling +interests. + +"As a representative from the old Joshua Giddings district, he has stood +from the first as an exponent of equal rights, and he has been an +advocate of honest money in the days when it cost something to face the +'Ohio idee.' Add to this his high personal character, his purity and +integrity, and yet his entire approachableness, and you have an ideal +candidate who commends himself to every good element in the party and +welds it firmly together again, and whose nomination is his election." + +The press were remarkably unanimous in their praise of Garfield. Even +the Southern papers seemed pleased with the nomination, and the New +Orleans _Times_ said,-- + +"Garfield is a very fair representative of the better element of the +Republican party, superior to most of his competitors at Chicago in +mental force, and equal to them in other essential attributes." + +When the Democratic candidate for President was announced, and the +strong names of Hancock and English were pitted against those of +Garfield and Arthur, a close contest was anticipated. And the hot +campaign that followed will long be remembered in the annals of our +country. + +Some of the states that had been securely counted upon by the +Republicans, went over to the Democrats; but, when the final returns +were given on the second day of November, 1880, it was found that +Garfield had carried twenty of the thirty-eight states, receiving two +hundred and fourteen of the electoral votes, while Hancock had but one +hundred and fifty-five. + +One of Garfield's old pupils, upon hearing the news, wrote to a friend +in New York as follows:-- + +"We of 'old Portage County,' where his ability was first recognized, and +from which no delegate to any convention where his name has been +presented ever voted against him, knowing him well and trusting him +fully, rejoice with exceeding joy in the results of Tuesday's +election.... We believe no manlier man ever headed a ticket for the +office. He is as pure as Washington, as brave as Jackson, as humane as +Lincoln, and as grand and able as Daniel Webster. He is broad enough for +the whole country, and sectionalism will find no sympathy in him." + +The editor of a leading Boston paper wrote the following fine review of +Garfield's congressional life:-- + +"The election of General Garfield to the office of President is, in some +sense, a departure from the custom of the country. He is the first man +who has had long and thorough experience in the legislative branch of +the government, holding for many years the position of a leader of a +party both while in power and while out of power, and, consequently, +thoroughly familiar with all the business of the nation, who has been +raised to the Presidential office. It had almost come to be thought that +no man could go directly from Congress to the Presidency. + +"It is not unreasonable to expect that the administration of General +Garfield will be marked by some peculiar features dependent upon these +conditions. For eighteen years he has been a member of the House of +Representatives, all the time a conspicuously active member, and a large +part of the time a recognized leader. He has served on all the more +important committees, and been chairman of several. He has been a close +and eager student of the theory and the practice of our form of +government, at once a philosophical statesman, a shrewd, practical +politician, and an accomplished debater of legislative measures. His +character, his accomplishments, his position, his tastes, have favored +and compelled him to form personal acquaintance with all classes of +influential men, so that probably there is not in the country another +who has so extensive a circle of acquaintances among men who are potent +in forming and directing public opinion. + +"Every great interest of American life knows that he has sounded it, and +apprehends and appreciates its capacity. In church, and college, and +market, and among the plain people who toil in shops and fields, he is +regarded as a friend who has regarded their necessities and spoken and +labored in their cause. + +"There is not a policy of administration which he has not analyzed; +there is not a department of the public service with the scope and work +of which he is not acquainted. He will come to his office better +equipped for intelligent conduct of national affairs than any man who +has preceded him for two generations at least, and the best part of his +equipment is his broad, hopeful faith in freedom, equal rights, and +impartial justice as the safe conditions of progress." + +In the midst of all this spontaneous burst of enthusiasm, Garfield +himself writes to a friend,-- + +"I believe all my friends are more gratified with the personal part of +my triumph than I am, and, although I am proud of the noble support I +have received, and the vindication it gives me against my assailants, +yet there is a tone of sadness running through this triumph which I can +hardly explain." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + + At Mentor.--The Journey to Washington.--Inauguration + Day.--Immense Concourse of People.--The Address.--Sworn into + Office.--Touching Scene.--Grand Display.--Inauguration + Ball.--Announcement of the Members of the Cabinet.--Two + Great Problems.--How they were Solved.--Disgraceful Rupture + in the Senate.--Prerogative of the Executive Office + vindicated. + + +The few months that elapsed between the election and the inauguration +were spent by Garfield in the quiet home at Mentor. + +One day an intimate friend of the family asked Mrs. Garfield if she were +not looking forward with pleasant anticipations to her life in the White +House. + +"No," she answered, simply and sincerely, "I can only hope it will not +be altogether unhappy." + +The words occasioned surprise at the time--afterwards they seemed like a +sad prophecy. + +Inauguration day drew near, and the journey from Mentor to Washington +was one continual series of ovations. Then that memorable fourth of +March at the capital. "Who that beheld the inspiring spectacle," +exclaims one writer, "can ever see it grow pale in memory!" + +Before noon thousands of people had gathered in front of the Capitol, +and when the doors of the rotunda were thrown open, the police were +obliged to push away the crowd that had assembled on the steps. + +Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Treasury and the Capitol grounds, was +one great sea of heads, and loud cheers arose from every side as the +long procession escorting the President-elect passed on to the Capitol. +The buildings along the whole route were beautifully decorated, and +handkerchiefs fluttered from every window. + +General Sherman, at the head of the Cleveland troops, led the way, and +the Columbia Commandery of Knights Templars formed an important part of +the escort. + +Upon reaching the Capitol, Garfield took his seat on the platform, with +President Hayes on his right hand, and Chief-Justice Waite on his left. +Just behind him sat Mr. Wheeler, and Vice-President Arthur. The mother +of the President-elect, his wife and little girl, were also on the +platform, and Mrs. Hayes and her daughter were seated just beside them. + +The Inaugural Address,[C] which occupied half an hour in its delivery, +was frequently applauded by the vast audience. The clear, ringing tones +of the speaker gave added force to every sentence; and his wonderful +magnetism held the whole crowd spell-bound. + +[Illustration: Eliza Ballou Garfield.] + +At the close of the address, the oath of office was administered by the +Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and then the immense throngs of +people began slowly to disperse. + +The threatening clouds of the early morning had all disappeared, and the +bright March sun looked down upon a most touching, beautiful picture, as +the new President turned around to his dear old mother, the guiding star +of his life--and tenderly kissed her. + + "Ah! not in Greece or Rome alone + High mother-hearts shall swell; + America's unsculptured stone! + Will Garfield legends tell,-- + How at the height of fame he durst-- + The proudest moment of his life-- + To put the white-haired mother first, + Then turned and kissed his wife." + +As soon as the evening twilight came on, a grand display of fireworks +illuminated the city. The Inauguration Ball was one of the most +brilliant ever held in Washington. The hall was finely decorated. Just +in the centre of the rotunda was a statue of America, surrounded by +tropical plants; in her left hand she held a shield, and from her right, +a powerful electric light in the form of a torch shone down the four +wings of the building. Heavy festoons of evergreens, intertwined with +rare flowers, hung from the ceiling, and the lofty pillars were +decorated with streamers of bunting and the shields of the States and +Territories. + +Some four thousand people had assembled in the building before the +arrival of the presidential party. Garfield did not take part in the +dancing, but after an hour spent in hand-shaking, he retired to a +balcony where his wife and mother were seated, and watched with evident +enjoyment the brilliant scene below. + +The next day the Senate had a special session, and the President +announced his Cabinet as follows:-- + + Secretary of State: JAMES G. BLAINE. + Secretary of the Treasury: WILLIAM WINDOM. + Secretary of the Interior: SAMUEL J. KIRKWOOD. + Secretary of the Navy: WILLIAM H. HUNT. + Secretary of War: ROBERT T. LINCOLN. + Postmaster-General: THOMAS L. JAMES. + Attorney-General: WAYNE MCVEAGH. + +The different elements of the Republican party represented by these +names seemed to presage rough waters for the ship-of-state; but the +choice was made with clear-sighted judgment. + +Two great problems confronted President Garfield as he assumed the reins +of government. First, what should be done with the national debt, so +rapidly maturing? + +After considerable investigation, it was deemed best to extend the bonds +at a lower rate of interest, that is, three and a half per cent. +Garfield's accurate knowledge of political economy and finance saved the +country many millions of dollars by this wise plan; and the loans as +fast as they have become due have been paid by new bonds issued at this +lower rate. + +The second problem was not to be solved so readily. How could half a +million of importunate office-seekers be appeased, when only a hundred +thousand offices were in the President's power to bestow? + +The baleful influence of the wretched spoils system began its evil work +at once. + +Said a leading political paper:-- + +"The feeling has become a very dominant one that the Government owes +every man a living. This is found all the way up from the country school +district to town, city, county, state and nation. It need not be said +this is an unhealthy condition of things in every aspect. It diverts +men's minds from the old paths of industry, and badly demoralizes +families and communities. It leads to all manner of crimes, and so +intensifies party spirit that all laws provided for their punishment are +practically inoperative." + +President Garfield had never had any sympathy with the system that tries +to appease its party by "liquidating personal obligations with public +trusts." In organizing his administration, he desired to unite and +consolidate the Republican party, and to make such appointments as were +for the manifest good of the whole country. But it was impossible for +him to do this without exciting opposition; the disgraceful rupture in +the Senate immediately followed, and the first weeks of his +administration presented one continued series of hotly-contested +battles. + +That the President held his own, in spite of all adverse criticism, +showed at once the strong, unyielding hand that guided the Ship of +State, and after-events proved that he was clearly right from first to +last. + +"President Garfield," said one able writer, "used political weapons to +combat politicians in the matter of the New York Custom House, but he +achieved much by so doing. For the first time since 1876 we have a +Republican party in New York distinct from the close corporation that +has controlled the organization there these recent years. A nucleus has +been established around which all shades of Republican opinion can rally +with the good hope of destroying the despotism that has virtually +ostracized the best Republicans of the State from influential +participation in national politics. The nucleus is an administration +party, which invites the co-operation of all who would liberalize the +organization. With the overthrow of "machine" control, as it has existed +in New York and Pennsylvania, and the old would-be dictators remanded to +their proper place, a great advance has been made towards that purer +condition of political and public affairs that all honest men favor." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[C] See page 480. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + The President Plans a Ten-Days' Pleasure-Trip.--Morning of + the Fateful Day.--Secretary Blaine Accompanies him to the + Station.--A Mysterious-looking Character.--Sudden Report of + a Pistol.--The President Turns and Receives the Fatal + Shot.--Arrest of the Assassin.--The President Recovers + Consciousness and is Taken Back to the White House. + + "A WASP flew out upon our fairest son, + And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft, + The while he chatted carelessly and laughed, + And knew not of the fateful mischief done. + And so this life, amid our lore begun, + Envenomed by the insect's hellish craft, + Was drunk by Death in one long, feverish draught, + And he was lost--our precious, priceless one! + Oh, mystery of blind, remorseless fate! + Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate! + That life so mean should murder life so great!" + + J. G. HOLLAND. + + +The anniversary of our National Independence was now close at hand. In +spite of the shameful and distressing party factions of the previous +weeks, the country had never seemed in a more prosperous condition. The +electric state of the political atmosphere had proved itself an element +of purification, not of destruction, and the outlook for the future +grew brighter every day. + +On the morning of July second, the President arose at an early hour. +Worn out with the harassing disturbances of the past weeks, he felt the +urgent need of a few days' rest and recreation. Mrs. Garfield, who had +been spending a little time at Long Branch, was to join him in New York; +and together with a few members of the Cabinet and their families, the +President had planned a ten-days' trip through New England. + +It was a lovely summer's morning. The dew sparkled on the beautiful lawn +and gay parterres in front of the White House, the cool trickle of the +fountain mingled with the twittering of the sparrows as they flitted in +and out of their nests under the great front porch. + +All nature seemed in sympathy with the joyous mood of the President, as +he gaily tried an athletic feat with one of his boys, laughed, jested, +and talked about the commencement exercises at Williams College, which +he hoped to attend in a few days. + +Not one breath of impending danger, not one note of warning was there in +the clear, sunny atmosphere of that bright July morning! + +Shortly after breakfast, Secretary Blaine drove up to the White House +and accompanied the President to the station of the Baltimore and +Potomac Railroad, where the express train to New York leaves at 9.30. + +Finding they were ten minutes before time, the President and his +Secretary remained in the carriage, earnestly talking, until the depot +official reminded them that the train was about to start. + +Arm in arm they passed through the broad entrance-door into the ladies' +waiting-room, which gave them the readiest access to the train beyond. + +The room was almost empty, as most of the passengers had already taken +their seats in the cars, but pacing nervously up and down the adjoining +rooms, was a thin, wiry-looking man, whose peculiar appearance had once +or twice been commented upon by some of the railroad officials. Still, +there was really nothing about him to excite suspicion. He might have +simply missed the train; and, as he seemed inclined to mind his own +business, no further notice had been taken of him. + +As the President passed through the room, this ill-favored looking man +suddenly sprang up behind him, and, taking a heavy revolver from his +pocket, deliberately aimed it at the noble, commanding figure. + +At the sharp report the President turned his head with a troubled look +of surprise, and Secretary Blaine sprang quickly to one side. The wretch +immediately re-cocked his pistol, set his teeth, and fired again. + +This time the President fell senseless to the floor, and a dazed crowd +surrounded him while Secretary Blaine sprang after the assassin. The +cowardly knave was easily secured, and then all thoughts centred upon +the suffering victim. Mrs. White, who had charge of the ladies' +waiting-room, was the first to see the President fall, and, running to +his assistance, she knelt down and supported him in her arms. The +dreadful tidings flew hither and thither on eagle-wings. +Postmaster-General James, Secretary Windom, Secretary Hunt, and others +of the party who were to accompany the President on his trip, were soon +at his side, and messengers were sent in all directions. + +A physician was soon on the spot; the wounded man was tenderly placed +upon a mattress, and carried without delay to the White House. + +Yet, before he was taken from the station, he suddenly aroused from his +half-unconscious state, and turning to one of his friends he said, with +his old, self-forgetting thoughtfulness,-- + +"Rockwell, I want you to send a message to my wife. Tell her I am +seriously hurt; how seriously I cannot yet say. I am myself, and hope +she will come to me soon. I send my love to her." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + At the White House.--The Anxious Throngs.--Examination of + the Wounds.--The President's Questions.--His Willingness to + Die.--Waiting for his Wife.--Sudden Relapse.--A Glimmer of + Hope.--A Sunday of Doubt.--Independence Day.--Remarks of + George William Curtis. + + +The members of the Cabinet and a number of the President's personal +friends were at the White House, when the ambulance containing the +wounded man drove slowly up the avenue. + +When he saw them on the porch, he raised his right hand, and with one of +his old, bright smiles, gave the military salute. But for the extreme +pallor of his face, no one would have guessed the intense pain he was +suffering, as he was borne upstairs to his own room in the southeast +corner. + +An excited crowd had already gathered about the White House, but troops +had been ordered from the Washington Arsenal, and armed sentinels kept a +vigilant guard about the executive Mansion. + +When Dr. Bliss and the other physicians in attendance examined the +wounds, they found the first shot had passed through the arm just below +the shoulder, without breaking any bones. The other ball had entered +the back just over the hips, but what direction it had taken, of where +it had lodged, could not be determined with any degree of certainty. The +physicians held a short consultation, and agreed to search for the ball +as soon as the President's condition would permit. + +The wounded man first complained of pain in his feet and legs, and for a +long time the "tiger clawing," as he called it, seemed harder to bear +than anything else. It is easy to understand now, how seriously the +spinal cord and the whole nervous system must have been affected by that +first fearful fracture of the vertebrae. + +As the shock began to pass off, the President turned to Secretary +Blaine, who was sitting beside him, and said,-- + +"What motive do you think that man could have had in trying to +assassinate me?" + +"Indeed, I cannot tell. He says he had no motive." + +"Perhaps," said Garfield, with a smile, "he thought it would be a +glorious thing to be a pirate king." + +Turning to Dr. Bliss, he said,-- + +"I want to know my true condition. Do not conceal anything from me; +remember, I am not afraid to die." + +The President's condition was extremely critical at that time, as there +were indications of internal hemorrhage, and the doctor frankly told him +that he feared he could live but a few hours. + +"God's will be done," he replied; "I am ready to go if my time has +come." + +As the little group stood in silence about his bed, they recalled his +words to Colonel Knox only a few days before, when warned of the danger +that might be lurking in hidden corners. + +"I must come and go as usual," he said; "I cannot surround myself with a +body-guard. _If the good of this country, the interests of pure +government and of the people against one-man power, demand the sacrifice +of my life, I think I am ready._" + +The arrival of Mrs. Garfield from Long Branch was anxiously awaited all +through that long, weary afternoon. An accident to the engine delayed +the train upon which she had started, and it was evening before she +reached the White House. + +The President's quick ears heard the carriage-wheels as they rolled over +the gravel driveway, and with a bright smile, he exclaimed,-- + +"That's my wife! God bless the little woman!" Then the strong-will power +that had kept him up to this moment, seemed suddenly to give way. His +attendants thought he was dying, and for hours his life hung upon the +merest thread. + +Slowly, but surely, the tide began to turn. At midnight he was still +conscious--the doctors thought there was "one chance" that he might +recover--the President had bravely taken that one chance; and with +lightning speed the good news was telegraphed all over the country. + +Sunday morning the President was so much better that he wanted to know +what had been said about the assassination--and what was the general +feeling throughout the country. + +"The country," replied Colonel Rockwell, "is full of sympathy for you. +We will save all the papers so that you can see them when you get well; +but you must not talk now." + +The President smiled, and in the broken slumber that followed he +murmured to himself,-- + +"The great heart of the people will not let the old soldier die!" + +The next night was one of fearful suspense, and the dawn of Independence +Day was ushered in with mingled feelings of hope and fear. + +A few days later, George William Curtis wrote as follows:-- + +"No Fourth of July in our history was ever so mournful as that which has +just passed. In 1826 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on +Independence Day. But the singular and beautiful coincidence was not +known for some time, and then it was felt to be a fitting and memorable +end of the life of venerable patriots long withdrawn from public +affairs. Nearly forty years later, 1863, there was intense and universal +anxiety when the great day dawned. Mr. Greeley, in his history, calls +the ten days preceding the Fourth of July in that year the very darkest +days the republic ever saw. But that was during the angry fury of civil +war, when passions and emotions of every kind were inflamed to the +utmost. There was fiery party rancor in the feeling of that time, and +the whole year was full of similar excitement. + +"But the emotion and the spectacle of this year are without parallel. In +every household there was a hushed and tender silence, as if one dearly +loved lay dying. In every great city and retired village the public +festivities were stayed, and the assembly of joy and pride and +congratulation was solemnized into a reverent congregation of heads +bowed in prayer. In foreign countries American gayety was suspended. In +the British Parliament, Whig and Tory and Radical listened to catch from +the lips of the Prime Minister the latest tidings from one sufferer. +From the French republic, from the old empire of Japan, and the new +kingdom of Bulgaria, from Parnell, the Irish agitator, and from the Lord +Mayor of Dublin, came messages of sympathy and sorrow. Sovereigns and +princes, the people and the nobles, joined in earnest hope for the life +of the Republican President. The press of all Christendom told the +mournful story, and moralized as it told. In this country the popular +grief was absolutely unanimous. One tender, overpowering thought called +a truce even to party contention. Old and young, men and women of all +nationalities and of all preferences, their differences forgotten, +waited all day for news, watched the flags and every sign that might be +significant, and lay down, praying, to sleep, thanking God that as yet +the worst had not come. + +"It was a marvellous tribute. In Europe, it was respect for a powerful +State; in America, it was affection for a simple and manly character. It +is plain that the tale of General Garfield's hardy and heroic life, the +sure and steady rise of this poor American boy, taking every degree of +honor in the great university of experience, equal to every occasion, to +peace and war, to good fortune and ill fortune, had profoundly touched +the heart of his countrymen. A year ago, every word and incident of that +life was told by party passion--on one side eulogized and extolled; on +the other, distorted and vilified. Out of the fiery ordeal he emerged +with a general kindly regard and high expectation. Mild and conciliatory +in character, of long and various political experience, a natural +statesman with an able mind amply stored and especially trained for +public duty, simply dignified in manner, a powerful man, singularly +blameless, he entered upon the presidency with every happy augury. The +country was at peace within and without, and hummed with universal +prosperity. The first measures of his administration were both wise and +fortunate, and the only trouble sprang from a source which is rapidly +becoming the fatal bane of the country--the patronage of office. This +breeds faction and makes faction fanatical and furious. If indignation +with fancied slights and supposed breaches of faith regarding patronage, +could so overmaster a conspicuous and experienced public man like Mr. +Conkling as to drive him suddenly to resign the highest political trust +which his State could bestow, to imperil his public career, to astound +his friends, and to abandon the control of the Senate to his political +opponents, it is not surprising that fancied neglect of political merit +and service should bewilder the light brain of an unbalanced and obscure +camp-follower like Guiteau, until, brooding with diseased mind upon his +'wrongs,' he should resolve to do 'justice' upon the supposed +wrong-doer. + +"So, in the most peaceful and prosperous moment that this country has +known for a half-century, the shot of the assassin is fired at a man +absolutely without personal enemies, and a President whom even his +political opponents respect. Then to the impression of brave and +generous and sagacious manhood, already produced by his career, was +added his sweet and tranquil bearing under the murderous blow. The +unselfish thought of others, the cheerful steadiness and even gayety of +temper, the lofty and manly resignation, with entire freedom from +ostentation of piety, the strong love of the strong man for those +dearest to him, and the noble response of his wife's calm and perfect +womanhood to this supreme and courageous manhood, filled the hearts of +his countrymen with sympathy and love and sorrow, and whether he lived +or died, his place in the affection of Americans was as secure as +Lincoln's. + +"Such feeling of millions of hearts for one man is profoundly touching. +It gives him a great distinction among all mankind. But it is also a +benediction for a people to be lifted by such an emotion. It is +impossible that party passion should not be somewhat subdued by it, and +that a wholesome sense of shame should not chasten factions and +disputes. If such are the men with whom bitter quarrels are waged, and +upon whom unstinted contumely and contempt are poured out, shall we not +all, upon every side, pause and reflect that to blow mere party fires to +fury, and to trample personal character in the mire of angry political +dispute, is to disgrace ourselves and the cause that we would serve, and +the country whose good name depends upon us? That is the reflection +which this last solemn Fourth of July undoubtedly suggested. It +recalled the country to emotions higher than those of the shop and the +caucus. It is character that makes a country. It is manhood like that of +Garfield and Lincoln which made the past of America, and which makes its +future possible. Commercial prosperity and politics and all national +interests rest at last upon the honesty and courage and intelligence of +the people, not upon mines and material resources, nor upon great +railroads or tariffs or free trade." + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + The Assassin.--What were his Motives.--His own + Confessions.--Statement of District-Attorney + Corkhill.--Sketch of Guiteau's Early Life. + + +Together with the overwhelming sense of grief and consternation that had +spread throughout the country, was the eager desire to know what motives +had actuated the assassin in his terrible deed. + +When questioned by the detective who took him to jail, Guiteau declared, +"I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts; I did it to save the Republican +party." + +"Is there anybody else with you in this matter?" + +"Not a living soul," he replied. "I have contemplated the thing for the +last six weeks and would have shot the President when he went away with +Mrs. Garfield, but I looked at her, and she looked so sick, I changed my +mind." + +After a careful investigation of the facts, District-Attorney Corkhill +published the following statement:-- + +"The interest felt by the public in the details of the assassination, +and the many stories published, justify me in stating that the +following is a correct and accurate statement concerning the points to +which reference is made: The assassin, Charles Guiteau, came to +Washington city on Sunday evening, March 6th, 1881, and stopped at the +Ebbitt House, remaining only one day. He then secured a room in another +part of the city, and had boarded and roomed at various places, the full +details of which I have. On Wednesday, May 18th, 1881, the assassin +determined to murder the President. He had neither money nor pistol at +the time. About the last of May he went into O'Meara's store, corner of +Fifteenth and F Streets, this city, and examined some pistols, asking +for the largest calibre. He was shown two similar in calibre, and only +different in the price. On Wednesday, June 8th, he purchased a pistol, +for which he paid $10, he having, in the mean time, borrowed $15 of a +gentleman in this city, on the plea that he wanted to pay his board +bill. On the same evening, about seven o'clock, he took the pistol and +went to the foot of Seventeenth Street, and practised firing at a board, +firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding-place and wiped the +pistol dry, and wrapped it in his coat, and waited his opportunity. On +Sunday morning, June 15th, he was sitting in Lafayette Park, and saw the +President leave for the Christian Church on Vermont Avenue, and he at +once returned to his room, obtained his pistol, put it in his pocket, +and followed the President to church. He entered the church, but found +he could not kill him there without danger of killing some one else. He +noticed that the President sat near a window. After church he made an +examination of the window, and found he could reach it without any +trouble, and that from this point he could shoot the President through +the head without killing any one else. The following Wednesday he went +to the church, examined the location and the window, and became +satisfied he could accomplish his purpose. He determined to make the +attempt at the church the following Sunday. Learning from the papers +that the President would leave the city on Saturday, the 18th of June, +with Mrs. Garfield, for Long Branch, he therefore decided to meet him at +the depot. He left his boarding-place about 5 o'clock Saturday morning, +June 18th, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth Street, +and fired five shots to practise his aim, and be certain his pistol was +in good order. He then went to the depot, and was in the ladies' +waiting-room of the depot, with his pistol ready, when the presidential +party entered. He says Mrs. Garfield looked so weak and frail that he +had not the heart to shoot the President in her presence, and, as he +knew he would have another opportunity, he left the depot. He had +previously engaged a carriage to take him to the jail. On Wednesday +evening, the President and his son, and, I think, United States Marshal +Henry, went out for a ride. The assassin took his pistol and followed +them, and watched them for some time, in hopes the carriage would stop, +but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening, July 1, he was sitting +on the seat in the park opposite the White House, when he saw the +President come out alone. He followed him down the avenue to Fifteenth +Street, and then kept on the opposite side of the street upon Fifteenth, +until the President entered the residence of Secretary Blaine. He waited +at the corner of Fifteenth and H Streets for some time, and then, as he +was afraid he would attract attention, he went into the alley in the +rear of Mr. Morton's residence, examined his pistol, and waited. The +President and Secretary Blaine came out together, and he followed over +to the gate of the White House, but could get no opportunity to use his +weapon. On the morning of Saturday, July 2d, he breakfasted at the Riggs +House about 7 o'clock. He then walked up into the park, and sat there +for an hour. He then took a horse-car and rode to Sixth Street, got out +and went into the depot and loitered around there; had his shoes +blacked; engaged a hackman for two dollars to take him to the jail; went +into a private room and took his pistol out of his pocket, unwrapped the +paper from around it, which he had put there to prevent the dampening +of the powder; examined his pistol; carefully tried the trigger, and +then returned and took a seat in the ladies' waiting-room, and, as soon +as the President entered, advanced behind him and fired two shots. + +"These facts, I think, can be relied upon as accurate, and I give them +to the public to contradict certain false rumors in connection with the +most atrocious of atrocious crimes." + +Can such a deliberate preparation as this be deemed an act of insanity? + +A gentleman who knew Guiteau as a boy, says that he is of French +descent, and that his father, J. W. Guiteau, was "an old resident and +respected citizen of Freeport, Ill. He married a very beautiful woman, +and with her and the younger children, he joined the Oneida Community. +He afterwards returned to Freeport, where he served as cashier of the +Second National Bank until his death. At one time he became deranged on +the subject of 'Perfection,' and lectured extensively through the North +and West on that subject. There were three children. An elder brother, +Wilkes Guiteau, for a long time practised law at Davenport, Iowa. A +younger sister, Flora, was a very promising girl. When the family left +Oneida Community, Charles, then fifteen or sixteen years old, was left +behind. He afterwards went to Chicago, where he studied law, being +cared for and supplied with money by his father. After completing his +studies, he went to Europe, where he travelled several years, imbibing +Socialistic and other eccentric doctrines. A few years ago he returned +to this country, and lectured on the second advent of Christ. He +published a pamphlet on the subject, in which the egotism of the man was +plainly shown. From what I knew of the boy, his education in the Oneida +Community, and his utterances on religion, I was not at all surprised at +his committing the act. I understand from people employed at the White +House that Guiteau had forced himself upon the President several times. +He was an applicant for the consulship at Marseilles; and one day +obtained access to the President, and acted so rudely that the President +had him removed. I have no doubt that, feeling offended by this act, he +determined on the course which culminated in the terrible tragedy of +July the second." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + Night of the Fourth.--Extreme Solicitude at the White + House.--Description of an Eye-witness.--Attorney McVeagh's + Remark.--Sudden Change for the Better.--Steady + Improvement.--The Medical Attendance. + + +The night of the Fourth was a time of extreme solicitude at the White +House. Said one who was present:-- + +"I sat in the great East Room with the Attorney-General.-- + +"'Ah,' he exclaimed, 'our Garfield was never a better President than he +was at the moment when Guiteau's bullet struck him down. He never saw +more clearly, and he never had a firmer or better purpose. He was going +to be all that the best thought of the country ever expected of him. He +was going to be a great President.' + +"The last time I had been in this East Room was at Mr. Hayes' last +diplomatic reception, when thousands of elegantly dressed people +thronged it, and music and lights made it, for that evening at least, +the handsomest room in the country. There were no lights now. The great +spaces were gloomy with what seemed to be the gloom of coming death. +Through the open windows on the south side the summer air stole lazily, +and the shadows of the draperies seemed to add to the darkness. There +was no music now--only the sound of whispered conversation as people +went up or down the stairs. The result of the early evening consultation +was unfavorable. Tympanites had again appeared, and apparently in a more +threatening form than before. Grave men shook their heads. Even the +brave Mrs. Garfield lost somewhat of the splendid courage that had +sustained her throughout her trying ordeal. For the first time after his +recovery from the shock of the bullet, the President seemed to lose hope +himself. + +"Suddenly there was a change for the better. Toward midnight, the +troubled slumbers of the President became peaceful, and he soon sank +into the best sleep he had enjoyed since the shooting on Saturday +morning. His pulse and temperature became better; there were signs of an +improved vitality; the breathing was easier; the pains ceased; there was +no longer any appearance of dangerous inflammation or of peritonitis. +Hope began to dawn where despondency had been; the faces that had been +full of gloom began to look hopeful; there was yet some encouragement. +Recovery flung out her signals in the steady breathings and the peaceful +slumber of the President. The improvement continued, and again it could +be said that there was hope of final recovery. It seemed as though the +strong will and constitution of the man had made one more effort for +life." + +The cheering bulletins on the following morning kindled fresh hope in +the hearts of the people. The general feeling was expressed that the +worst was over, and the nation began to take courage. By the ninth of +July the President was so much better, that his children were allowed to +come into the room. On the 13th, it was reported that his appetite was +improving, that he had asked for a steak, and sandwiches of bread and +scraped raw beef had been given him. This increase in the variety of his +food seemed to give him additional strength, and the condition of the +wound was so favorable that it was thought the ball had become encysted. + +The first physician who reached the President when he lay wounded at the +depot, was Dr. Smith Townshend, Health Officer of the District of +Columbia. As soon as he examined the wound, he pronounced it necessarily +fatal. Immediately after the shooting, the Secretary of War, according +to the President's wishes, had summoned Dr. Bliss, who with other +physicians reached the depot soon after Dr. Townshend. + +"On the following Sunday morning," says Dr. Bliss, "when the President +had fully reacted, had had several hours of rest, was cheerful and +competent to attend to any ordinary business, I presented the matter of +his professional attendance to him, Mrs. Garfield being present. I then +explained to him fully, the valuable professional assistance the large +number of medical gentlemen had rendered up to that time, representing, +as they did, the best medical talent in the city. His reply was,-- + +"'Of course, doctor, it will not do to continue the large number of +medical gentlemen in attendance; such a number of surgeons would be +cumbersome and unwieldy.' + +"I said then: 'Mr. President, it is your duty to select your medical +attendants now.' + +"He replied: 'I desire you to take charge of my case. I know of your +experience and skill, and have full confidence in your judgment, and +wish you to thank the doctors individually for their kind attendance.' I +thanked him, and replied that it would be necessary to select three or +four medical assistants as counsel in the case. He replied,-- + +"'I shall leave that entirely with you; you know what talent you +require, and your judgment is best upon that point.' I then selected in +order the gentlemen who were immediately associated in the case, +Surgeon-General J. K. Barnes, of the army; and Doctors J. J. Woodward +and Robert Reyburn, stating in each instance the reason for so doing. He +said that was eminently satisfactory to him. I then turned to Mrs. +Garfield and said,-- + +"'If you desire to add one or more to the number selected, I shall be +happy to unite them to our counsel.' Her reply was,--'I would not add +one to the number you have selected, and I want to say to you, doctor, +that you shall not be embarrassed in any way in your future treatment of +this case.' Neither the President nor Mrs. Garfield, nor any member of +the household from that time forward, suggested the name of any other +physician except the eminent counsel called from Philadelphia and New +York, Doctors Agnew and Hamilton." The last-mentioned physicians arrived +on Monday morning, and in the consultation that followed they expressed +their hearty approval of the treatment adopted. While so much +uncertainty remained as to the exact location of the ball, it was folly +to risk the President's life in an attempt to remove it. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + A relapse.--Cooling Apparatus at the White House--The + President writes a Letter to his Mother.--Evidences of + Blood-Poisoning.--Symptoms of Malaria.--Removal to Long + Branch.--Preparation for the Journey.--Incidents by the way. + + +On the morning of the twenty-third of July there came a relapse. While +the physicians were examining and dressing his wounds, the President +experienced a slight rigor, followed by an increase of febrile symptoms. +This was evidently owing to an interruption of the flow of pus, and, on +the twenty-fourth, an operation was performed upon the cavity, by which +the patient was relieved. + +The intense heat of those July days was very debilitating, and a variety +of ingenious plans were tried to lower the temperature in the sufferer's +room. The most successful experiment was that of Mr. Dorsay's, which was +based on the system used in cooling the air in mines. It required +considerable machinery, but by its means the temperature of the room was +reduced to seventy-five degrees. The system is as follows: A stationary +engine is first employed to compress the air which, when crowded into +less space, gives out a large amount of heat. This is carried away by +running water, and as soon as the air is again set free, it becomes as +cool by expansion as it had before been heated by compression. + +On the 27th of July, a piece of the fractured rib was removed; the +President was again able to take nourishing food, the fever subsided, +and all the bulletins began to assume a cheerful tone. + +And so the long, long days passed by, with frequent alternations of hope +and fear. On the 11th of August the President asked for pen and paper +that he might write a letter. + + "Through all those weary weeks of pain, + With death's dark angel nigh, + But once to grasp the accustomed pen + The trembling fingers try. + + "Those brave words from the strong man bowed, + Courageously death meeting, + To whom amid the courtly crowd + Of great ones sending greeting? + + "The mother-bosom beat afar-- + To her that tender letter; + To her--through life his guiding star-- + He writes he's 'getting better.'" + +By the middle of August it was evident that the President was suffering +from pyaemia, or blood-poisoning. The swollen parotid gland occasioned +fresh solicitude, and the stomach refused to perform its ordinary +functions. Nourishing enemeta were then administered with excellent +results, and the lancing of the parotid-swelling afforded temporary +relief. + +The sufferer longed for a change of air; the malarial atmosphere +surrounding the White House was a constant drawback to his recovery, and +early in September the physicians decided to remove him to Long Branch. +The sixth day of the month was appointed for the removal, and every +possible precaution was taken to make the journey as easy as possible. +The bed, and the train in general, were inspected the day before by +Surgeon-General Barnes and Drs. Bliss and Agnew. The train was run out +to Benning's Bridge, five miles from Washington, and the surgeons +thoroughly tested the couch. They said that it was perfect, and that no +better arrangement could have been made for the President's journey. In +the test of speed the doctors were surprised to find that there was +notably less motion and jar at forty miles than at thirty. + +The express wagon which was to convey the President to the depot, was in +waiting at the front entrance to the Executive Mansion all night. It was +a new vehicle, and the springs being well oiled, could not impart much +jarring to the bed on which the President would lie. + +When the track was being laid through Elberon, on which he was to be +taken to the Francklyn cottage as a last hope, the surveyor apologized +to a lady whose garden it laid waste. + +"Your flowers have required the labor of many summers, madam, and we +shall ruin them," he said. + +"O sir!" she cried, "I am willing you should ruin my house--all I have, +if it would help to save him!" + +There was to be a double departure from the White House. The President's +sons, Harry and James, were to start for Williams College, and shortly +before ten o'clock on the evening of the fifth, they bade their father +good-by, and took leave of their mother who was hopeful and courageous, +believing the journey to Long Branch would save her husband's life. +Their countenances were grave, and the passers-by, as they respectfully +made way for them, could not but feel that the two young men were just +about to start upon a career as, possibly, their distinguished father +was about to end one. + +Private Secretary Brown gives the following account of the trip to Long +Branch: "Upon leaving the Executive Mansion the President appeared to +enjoy the scenery and looked around inquiringly. All the way from the +White House to the depot the President was very anxious to observe +everything, and in this he was not prevented. He experienced little or +no disturbance in being transferred from the vehicle to the car, and his +pulse, although slightly accelerated, reaching about 115, fell to about +106 before the train started, and shortly afterward fell to 104 and +again to 102. The first stop of the train was made at Patapsco, at which +point the parotid gland was dressed. At half-past nine o'clock the +President's pulse was 108 and of good character. At that hour three +ounces of beef extract were administered. Between Philadelphia and +Monmouth Junction, the special train made several miles at the rate of +seventy miles per hour. Bay View, this side of Baltimore, was reached at +8.05, and a brief stop was made to enable the surgeons to make the +morning dressing of the wound. The wound was found to have suffered no +derangement by the travel. The dressing was soon accomplished, and the +train, after leaving Bay View, was run at the rate of about fifty miles +per hour. The track in this locality is very straight, and in excellent +condition, and though the speed was at times greater than fifty miles +per hour, the vibration of the President's bed, it is said, was no more +than had the train been moving twenty-five miles per hour. The attending +surgeons feel very much gratified with the manner in which the removal +was conducted, and are generally of the opinion that, with the +exception of being slightly fatigued, the President bore the journey +exceedingly well." + +"This is a great journey, Crete," he said to his wife, as the train +rushed on at lightning speed. "Let her go! The faster the better," he +added, when the doctors expressed their fears that the rapid motion of +the engine would tire him. + +"Don't put down the curtain! I want to see the people! Let them look +in!" he exclaimed, as he caught a glimpse of the eager, anxious crowds +at the different stations. + +One of the Boston dailies wrote as follows-- + +"In the preparations for the trip the great popular solicitude for the +well-being of the President infected even soulless railroad +corporations, as they are sometimes called, so that the management of +the lines over which he had to pass could not do too much to reduce the +fatigue or other injurious effect of the jaunt. It is a credit to our +common humanity, that everybody in any way connected with this transfer +of the President, from the mechanic to the railroad director, required +no spur but his own feelings to exert himself to the utmost for the +safety and comfort of him who had suffered so terribly, and evinced such +grand qualities under the most adverse circumstances. No railroad train +was ever the burden of so much anxious, prayerful solicitation as that +conveying the President to his destination. To change and apply one of +General Garfield's own expressions, the great heart of the nation must +have nobly sustained the presidential patient as he sped on his way to a +locality where, it is hoped, the recuperating processes of nature will +place him on the high road to convalescence. + +"Our despatches note the arrival of the presidential train at different +points, and the manner in which the patient bore the ride. As may well +be imagined, the people who gathered in Washington to see him on board +the train could not help remarking his generally emaciated appearance, +but he was sufficiently strong to turn upon his side and wave his adieus +to the crowd. The fortitude and will of the President are as surprising +as the many unusual episodes of his life." + + + + +CHAPTER. XXXIII. + + Description of the Francklyn Cottage.--The Arrival at Long + Branch.--The President is Drawn up to the Open + Window.--Enjoys the Sea View and the Sea Breezes.--The + Surgical Force Reduced.--Incident on the Day of Prayer. + + +"The Francklyn cottage at Long Branch, to which the President was taken, +is about fifty yards southeast of the hotel. Its front is within one +hundred feet of the edge of the bluff, from which a pebble can be +dropped into the surf. The building contains twenty rooms. It is a long, +rambling structure, two and one-half stories high, having seven gables +and being in fashion a mixture of the Queen Anne and Swiss chalet style. +The lower stories are painted a sienna color, and gables and roof a dark +slate. + +"A perfectly smooth lawn of well-kept turf surrounds it upon every side. +Its interior apartments are perfect; the kitchen is separated from the +main part of the building by a covered driveway, and none of the +culinary odors can reach the dwelling portion. Two spacious parlors and +an immense dining-hall faces the ocean, and a broad double window opens +upon a large uncovered veranda about six feet above the ground, +surrounded by a high railing. + +"The west or rear part of the dining-hall opens upon the main hall, a +roomy thoroughfare, from which by the landings a broad flight of stairs +ascend to the second floor. The stairs are of ample width, and allowed +the President's bed to be carried up them without difficulty. The +chamber occupied by the President is in the northeast corner of the +building. It is about twenty feet square. There is one broad window +facing the ocean on the east, and the windows facing the ocean on the +south. By leaving the door of the chamber open a breeze can be obtained +from every point of the compass except the north. The windows are +protected from the sun by awnings and blinds." + +The appointments of the chamber are perfect in every respect, being left +just as Mr. Francklyn's family occupied it. About one hundred yards +south of the Francklyn cottage is the cottage belonging to the hotel +assigned to Mrs. Garfield and her family. + +It was about a quarter past one when the President's train was observed +slowly making its way over the new track at Long Branch. There was no +whistling, no bell-ringing, no noisy puffing of the engine, no shouts +nor cheers. A powerful locomotive slowly, and almost silently, pushed +before it the cars of the train, the centre one being the President's. + +The train stopped opposite the Elberon, and immediately many flocked +about it to learn the particulars of the journey. All were told that the +trip had been successful, and the President was quite as well as when he +started. The delay was but for a moment. The forward car was uncoupled +from the train and a large force of men, held in readiness, gently +pushed it around the quarter circle and past the entrance to the +cottage. It was occupied by a few ladies and gentlemen of the +President's household, who at once left it and were escorted into the +house. + +Another gang of men pushed on the President's car close after it. It was +stopped at the proper place, and immediately a soldier mounted by ladder +to the roof and the sailcloth awning was raised. It did not, however, +completely conceal the passage on the side where the people were +gathered. The planks were put in position, and in a moment two or more +soldiers were seen to pass bearing a low bedstead. Many thought that the +President was resting on it, but this was a mistake. + +Three or four minutes later a mattrass on which was plainly discernible +under snowy coverings the form of a human body, was steadily and gently, +almost solemnly, borne from the car to the house, while two or three +hundred spectators, too far away and on too low a level to catch sight +of the face, held their breath in sympathy, their eyes meantime moist +with tears they cared not to conceal, and many doubtless praying with +deep earnestness that this heroic effort to save a precious life would +avail. There was not a cheer, not an audible sound uttered by any one. +Few scenes could be more impressive in their silence and their sympathy. + +"Please move me up where I can see the water," said the President, soon +after being placed in bed. His couch was immediately pushed up to the +wide open window; he was slightly raised upon it, and lay there for some +minutes looking out upon the sea. Although he was greatly fatigued by +the journey and his pulse was high, he slept better that night than he +had done for weeks. + +"Don't you think I look better!" he said next morning to one of the +attendants; "I feel better," he added. "This is good air." + +Previous to leaving Washington, after it had been determined to remove +the President to Long Branch, it appears the President asked his wife if +all the attending surgeons were going along. Mrs. Garfield replied that +she presumed they were. The President then expressed an opinion, the +effect of which was that he did not see why that was necessary. Further +discussion on the subject brought out the President's wishes, and the +withdrawal of Drs. Reyburn, Barnes, and Woodward was the result. Dr. +Bliss stated that there was no cause for the withdrawal or retirement of +the surgeons beyond the fact that it was the desire or whim of a very +sick man, and, as the President had entertained the idea that a fewer +number of physicians could manage his case as well as the number +heretofore engaged upon it, it was desired by Mrs. Garfield that his +wishes be complied with. The doctor stated further that the best of +feeling prevailed among the entire corps of surgeons, and that the +retirement of Messrs. Reyburn, Barnes and Woodward would not in any +manner affect the intimacy which had grown up between them since the +President was shot. After the wish of the President was made known to +one of the attending surgeons in Washington by Mrs. Garfield, a +consultation on the subject took place, resulting in its reference to +Dr. Agnew, with a view to obtaining his opinion as to the best mode of +procedure. Dr. Agnew recommended that the President be requested to name +the surgeons he was desirous of retaining in charge of his case, which +was done. Dr. Bliss, it appears, objected to assuming the entire +responsibility of removing the President to Long Branch, and insisted +that the entire number of surgeons should accompany the patient thither. +A compromise was then effected, which was that all the surgeons should +come to Long Branch with the President, but upon arrival, or as soon +thereafter as possible, the three mentioned should retire. + +The following day, September 8th, as the President sat in his reclining +chair by the open window he heard the stroke of bells from the little +church across the way. + +"Crete," he said to his wife, "what are they ringing that bell for?" + +"Why," said Mrs. Garfield, who had been waiting for the surprise, "the +people are all going there to pray for you to get well; and I am going +to pray too, James," she added, "that it may be soon, for I know already +that the other prayer has been heard." + +From where he lay, Garfield could see the carriages draw up and group +after group go in. He could even hear the subdued refrain of "Jesus, +lover of my soul," as it was borne by on its heavenward way. + +Thrilled with emotion, a tear trickled down the President's face. After +a while, a sweet woman's voice arose, singing from one of Sir Michael +Costa's noblest oratorios. + +"Turn thou unto me and have mercy upon me," sang the voice, "for I am +desolate; I am desolate and afflicted; the troubles of my heart are +enlarged. Oh, bring thou me out of my distresses, out of my distresses, +my God." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + + Hopeful Symptoms.--Official Bulletin.--Telegram to Minister + Lowell.--Incidents at Long Branch.--Sudden Change for the + Worse.--Touching Scene with his Daughter.--Another Gleam of + Hope.--Death ends the Brave Heroic Struggle.--The Closing + Scene. + + +On the evening of September 12th, the following official bulletin was +published:-- + + LONG BRANCH, Sept. 12--6 P. M. + + The President has experienced since the issue of the morning + bulletin further amelioration of symptoms. He has been able + to take an ample amount of food without discomfort and has + had several refreshing naps. At the noon examination the + temperature was 99.2, pulse 106, respiration 20. At 5.30 P. + M. the temperature was 98.6, pulse 100, respiration 18. + + D. W. BLISS. + D. HAYES AGNEW. + +The Attorney-General telegraphed:-- + + _To Lowell, Minister, London_--10 P. M.--In the absence of + Mr. Blaine, the attending physicians have requested me to + inform you of the President's condition. He has during the + day eaten sufficient food with relish, and has enjoyed at + intervals refreshing sleep. His wound and the incisions made + by the surgeons all look better; the parotid gland has + ceased suppuration, and may be considered as substantially + well. He has exhibited more than his usual cheerfulness of + spirits, his temperature and respiration are now normal, and + his pulse is less frequent and firmer than at the same hour + last evening. Notwithstanding these favorable symptoms, the + condition of the lower part of the right lung will continue + to be a source of anxiety for some days to come. + + MACVEAGH. + +The day before the President had been raised on his air pillows, so that +he lay looking out on the lawn beneath his window, and beyond that to +the sea. A soldier on duty as a guard was patrolling his beat at the +edge of the bluff. The soldier chanced to look toward the window of the +sick chamber, and the suffering President feebly raised his hand to give +the old soldier a salute. The President of the United States never +received a more heartfelt salute than the old soldier gave in return for +this gracious salutation, and about the camp all day the soldier, with +tears in his eyes, told how the great sufferer had honored him. But the +incident was of more than sentimental value, in that it showed that the +President took an interest in his surroundings, and had vitality enough +to tender a salute. There were hours at Elberon, when the listless eyes +would have looked out upon the sea and not have recognized the soldier. + +When Secretary Hunt called on the President, he informed him that there +was no business in his department requiring his (the President's) +attention. It had been the custom of the President to refer to the +secretary in various nautical terms, and after shaking the hand of the +President the secretary, pointing toward the ocean, remarked, "Well, Mr. +President, I see you have had to resort to my domain." "Yes," said the +President, "there it is, and isn't it beautiful?" + +Everything seemed to indicate certain, though it might be slow, +recovery. The people read the bulletins, and went about their work with +renewed hope and courage. On the 17th of September, however, Dr. +Hamilton stated that "the conditions, altogether, were more hazardous +than at any time since the patient had been at Long Branch." Severe +rigors had been followed by increased pulse, and there was constant +danger of his sinking into a comatose state. + +On the morning of the 19th Dr. Agnew remarked,-- + +"The vitality of our patient is something more remarkable than I have +ever met with in all my practice." + +The President awoke from a light slumber, and said to Dr. Bliss,-- + +"Doctor, I feel very comfortable, but I also feel dreadfully weak. I +wish you would give me the hand-glass and let me look at myself." + +General Swaim said: "Oh, no, don't do that, general. See if you cannot +get some sleep." + +[Illustration: In reclining chair, at Long Branch.] + +"I want to see myself," the President replied. + +Mrs. Garfield then gave him the hand-glass. He held it in a position +which enabled him to see his face. Mrs. Garfield, Dr. Bliss, Dr. Agnew, +General Swaim, and Dr. Boynton, stood around the bed, saying not a word, +but looking at the President. He studied the reflection of his own +features. At length he wearily let the glass fall upon the counterpane, +and, with a sigh, said to Mrs. Garfield,-- + +"Crete, I do not see how it is that a man who looks as well as I do +should be so dreadfully weak." + +In a moment or two he asked for his daughter Mollie. They told him that +she would see him later in the day. He said, however, that he wanted to +see her at once. + +When the child went into the room she kissed her father, and told him +that she was glad to see that he was looking so much better. + +He said: "You think I do look better, Mollie?" + +She said: "I do papa," and then she took a chair and sat near the foot +of the bed. + +A moment or two after, Dr. Boynton noticed that she was swaying in the +chair. He stepped up to her, but, before he could reach her, she had +fallen over in a faint. They carried her out where she could get the +fresh breeze from the ocean, and, after restoratives were applied, she +speedily recovered. The room was close, the windows were closed, and, +as Miss Mollie had not been very well, all these causes, combined with +anxiety, induced the fainting-fit. + +The President, they thought, had not noticed what had happened to his +petted child, for he seemed to have sunk into the stupor which had +characterized his condition much of the time. But, when Dr. Boynton came +back into the room, he was astonished to hear the President say,-- + +"Poor little Mollie. She fell over like a log. What was the matter?" + +They assured the President that the fainting-fit was caused by the +closeness of the room, and that she was quite restored. He again sank +into a stupor or sleep, which lasted until the noon examination. + +Hope returned during the afternoon, as there was no recurrence of the +rigors, and the evening bulletin was more encouraging than the one +issued at noon. There seemed to be every indication that the President +would pass a comfortable night. + +"Dr. Bliss," said the Attorney-General, "at 9.30, went to the cottage to +make his final examination before he retired for the night. He found +that the pulse, temperature, and respiration were exactly as they were +when the evening bulletin was issued. There had been no change of any +kind. There was every promise of a quiet night. All of the doctors +retired at once for the night, as did all of the attendants, except +General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell. They remained, and nothing +transpired until about 10.20; then the President said, 'I am suffering +great pain. I fear the end is near.' The attendant sent for Dr. Bliss, +who had retired to Private Secretary Brown's cottage. Dr. Bliss came +very rapidly. When he entered the room he found that the President was +in an unconscious state, and that the action of the heart had almost +ceased. Dr. Bliss said at once that the President was dying, and +directed the attendants to send for Mrs. Garfield and Drs. Agnew and +Hamilton." + +A _Herald_ postscript had the following from Long Branch: "The death-bed +scene of the President was a peculiarly sad and impressive one. As soon +as the doctors felt that there was no hope, the members of the family +assembled. The lights in the sick-room were turned down. Dr. Bliss stood +at the head of the bed with his hand on the pulse of the patient, and +consulted in low whispers with Dr. Agnew. The private secretary stood on +the opposite side of the bed, with Mrs. Garfield. Miss Lulu Rockwell and +Miss Mollie Garfield came into the room at the time the President lost +consciousness. Those about the bed occasionally went into the corners of +the room and spoke to each other. The solemnity of the occasion fully +impressed itself upon them. There was no sound heard except the gasping +for breath of the sufferer, whose changing color gave indication of the +near approach of the end. After he had repeated 'It hurts,' he passed +into a state of unconsciousness, breathing heavily at times and then +giving a slight indication that the breath of life was still in his +body. The only treatment that was given was hypodermic injections of +brandy by Dr. Agnew, assisted by Dr. Boynton. Occasionally they spoke +with Dr. Bliss in quiet whispers. The President suffered no pain after +the time he placed his hand upon his heart. He passed away almost +quietly. The line between life and death was marked by no physical +exhibition, nor any word. There was absolutely no scene. The intervals +between gaspings became longer and presently there was no sound. Every +one present knew that death had come quickly without pain. When it +became evident that he was dead, Mrs. Rockwell placed her arm around +Mrs. Garfield and led her quietly from the room. She uttered no word. +One by one the spectators left the scene, the doctors only remaining in +the room, and windows were closed. Directly afterward Private Secretary +Brown telegraphed the boys, James and Harry, at Williams College, Mass., +and Mrs. Eliza Garfield. Those were the first despatches sent after the +death." + +The following and last "official bulletin" was issued at Elberon:-- + + _September 19th, at half-past eleven, P. M._ + + "The President died at 10.35 P. M. After the bulletin was + issued at 5.30 this evening, the President continued in much + the same condition as during the afternoon, the pulse + varying from 102 to 106, with rather increased force and + volume. After taking nourishment he fell into a quiet sleep + about thirty-five minutes before his death, and while asleep + his pulse rose to 120, and was somewhat more feeble. At ten + minutes after ten o'clock he awoke, complaining of severe + pain over the region of the heart, and almost immediately + became unconscious, and ceased to breathe at 10.35." + + (Signed) D. W. BLISS. + FRANK H. HAMILTON. + D. HAYES AGNEW. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + + The Midnight Bells.--Universal Sorrow.--Queen Victoria's + Messages.--Extract from a London Letter.--The Whitby + Fishermen.--The Yorkshire Peasant.--World-wide + Demonstrations of Grief. + + "There passed a sound at midnight through the land, + A solemn sound of sorrow and of fear; + A sound that fell on every wakening ear + Bearing a message all could understand." + + +The tolling of the bells in every city, town, and village throughout the +country announced the sad tidings of the President's death. The whole +world stopped to shed a sympathizing tear, and among the first +expressions of condolence received by Mrs. Garfield was the following +telegram from Queen Victoria:-- + + "BALMORAL. + + "Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel with you. May + God support and comfort you as He alone can. + + (Signed) THE QUEEN." + +To Minister Lowell the Queen telegraphed as follows:-- + + "With deep grief I and my children learn the sad but not + unexpected news of the fatal termination of the sufferings + of the President. His loss is a great misfortune. I have + learned with deep sorrow that the President has passed + away." + +Smalley, the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ writing from London +said,-- + +"It was about four o'clock in the morning of Tuesday, by English time, +that President Garfield died. An hour later the news was here, and some +of the morning papers published it in a few late copies of their morning +edition. It was known in the provinces at the same moment, and published +in the same way. Before I say anything about the feeling it evoked in +high places and with the general public, I should like to mention what +occurred in the town where I was staying; Whitby, a fishing town and +small seaport which is also a watering-place on the northeast coast of +Yorkshire. At this season Whitby is the rendezvous for herring-fishers, +and its little harbor is crowded with boats hailing from ports all the +way from Pentland Firth to Penzance; Penzance itself sending a large +contingent. The fishermen are a simple folk, leading a hard life, +untaught, and as free from any concern on shore in the general affairs +of the world as any body of men that could be got together. But when +they heard that President Garfield was dead they one and all hoisted +their bits of flag at half-mast, and so kept them during the day. They +held no meeting, passed no resolutions. I suppose not a man among them +could have made a speech or drawn up a formal declaration of sorrow. +They acted with no concert of any kind. Their way of life makes them all +rivals and often enemies. Hartlepool has nothing to say to Lowestoft, +Sunderland quarrels with Arbroath, and Whitby itself keeps but ill terms +with any of its many guests. But somehow they agreed for this once. The +boats that lay in the river above the bridge, next the railway station, +were the first to hang out their signal of grief. Those in the port +below soon followed. Not long after, without anybody being able to say +how the news spread, the fleet at anchor outside the harbor one by one +ran up their ensigns, hauled them half down, and there made them fast +for the day. + +"Amid the innumerable demonstrations of sorrow to be seen and heard +these last two days all over England, I know of none which more truly +indicates the essentially popular character of the regret which the +President's death has excited.... An English friend who was shooting ten +days ago over a Yorkshire moor told me that, as the scattered line of +sportsmen were pushing through the heather in silence, the gamekeeper +met him some yards away, turned and asked: 'Can you tell me, sir, how +President Garfield is?' There on that lonely hillside, three thousand +miles and more distant from the sufferer, in the early morning, beneath +a sun which was not yet shining upon the President, breathing an air he +never breathed, this Yorkshire peasant, who had spent his life without +so much as hearing the President's name till a few weeks before; who +knew not the letters of which it was formed; who knew about grouse and +guns and dogs and the weather, and nothing else whatever; whose interest +in life never went beyond the stone hut in which he slept and ate, and +the stretch of furz-clad upland which lifted itself against the western +sky,--he, like the fishermen, had come to think or to feel that, somehow +or other, the life or death of that far-away martyr concerned him too. +It is easy to say that beneath the shooting-jacket and the jersey beats +the same human heart. No doubt it does. But what was it that set it +beating in unison with so many millions of others like it with sympathy +for the President? Lord Palmerston said he never knew what fame was till +he heard of the Tartar mothers on the steppes of Russia in Asia +frightening their children into quiet with some queer travesty of his +dreaded name. Yorkshire is not so remote as Russian Asia, indeed, but +the friendly concern of the gamekeeper was surely a truer measure of +real fame than the ignorant terror of the Muscovite mother. I know I +thought when I heard it that the President who lay dying would have +valued such a proof of the universality of the interest in him not less +than those expressions of it--certainly not less genuine--which came +from much higher quarters." + +[Illustration: Francklyn Cottage, where the President died.] + +Said another writer:-- + +"The American people cannot fail to be deeply impressed by the +multitudinous expressions of sympathy which have come from foreign +lands. It was to be expected that there would be the usual and formal +messages from the various rulers, but it is something of quite a +different sort, and something altogether beyond precedent which we are +witnessing. From all the governments of Europe, and from those of the +Orient as well, and from our nearer neighbors, Canada and Mexico, words +of sympathy and condolence have come. But beyond all this, and more +precious, are the manifestations of popular feeling in countries other +than our own, and especially in Great Britain and Canada. We hear of +public and private buildings draped in mourning, of mourning-flags upon +English Cathedrals, of the tolling of bells in English and Canadian +churches, of English and French journals with mourning borders. The +Queen sends a warm, womanly message of sympathy to the widow; and the +English Court puts on mourning for a week. And all these world-wide +demonstrations of grief, sincere, spontaneous and universal, are called +out by the death of this uncrowned republican of our Western world, a +man born of the people, schooled in hardship, but strong and noble in +all that pertains to true manhood. Such a spectacle as this, such +tributes as these from foreign potentates and peoples whose ideas and +methods of government vary so widely from ours, should not pass without +being heeded, and the lesson which they convey should be laid to heart. +It is true, as one of the leading English journals has well expressed +it, that a common sorrow unites the ocean-sundered members of the +English race to-day more closely than it has ever been since 1776, and +that there is scarcely an Englishman in a thousand who did not read of +President Garfield's death, with a regret as real and as deep as if he +had been a ruler of their own." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + The Services at Elberon.--Journey to Washington.--Lying in + State.--Queen Victoria's Offering.--Impressive Ceremonies in + the Capitol Rotunda. + + +On the morning of September twenty-first, the black-cloth casket, +containing all that was mortal of President Garfield, was placed in the +parlor of the Francklyn Cottage, at Long Branch; and for one brief hour, +a motley throng of city people and country folk were permitted to look +upon the wasted form of one they had learned to regard as a personal +friend. + +Brief religious services were read by Rev. C. J. Young of the Dutch +Reformed Church at Long Branch, and then Mrs. Garfield and her daughter, +followed by the members of the Cabinet, entered the waiting train; the +casket was placed in the funeral car, and slowly, sadly, amidst the +solemn tolling of the bells, the heavily draped train left the Elberon +station. At Princeton Junction, three hundred students with uncovered +heads stood on either side the track, and scattered choice flowers +beside the train for more than a hundred yards. Bells were tolled in all +the towns and villages through which the funeral party passed, and a +reverent stillness pervaded the waiting throngs at the various stations +on the way. + +At four, P. M., the train reached Washington, and the casket was borne +at once to the Capitol. + +All night long, the remains of the martyred President remained exposed +to view, and without cessation the stream of visitors passed through the +rotunda. At an early hour in the morning the throng at the east front of +the Capitol began to increase, and at eight o'clock fully five thousand +people were patiently and quietly waiting in two lines. From that hour +the crowd constantly increased, and at eleven o'clock there was a dense +mass of people in front of the main steps on the east front, extending +for two squares up East Capitol Street. People from the outlying country +flocked to the city, while every incoming train upon the several +railroads was heavily freighted with those who had come to testify their +profound sorrow at the nation's bereavement. + +Queen Victoria had telegraphed to the British minister to have a floral +tribute prepared and presented in her name. It was placed at the bier of +the President. It was very large, and was an exquisite specimen of the +florist's art, composed of white roses, smilax and stephanotis. It was +accompanied by a mourning card bearing the following inscription:-- + + "Queen Victoria to the memory of the late President + Garfield. An expression of her sorrow and sympathy with Mrs. + Garfield and the American nation. + + "Sept. 22, 1881," + +By half-past one, P. M., on Friday, the 23d, arrangements for the +funeral ceremonies in the rotunda were all completed and the chairs and +sofas labelled to designate for whom they were reserved. The positions +of the floral offerings were changed, and now nothing remained upon the +casket save a few branches of palm. At the head of the catafalque stood +a broken column of white and purple flowers, surmounted by a white dove. +On either side of this were tastefully arranged a crown and a pyramid of +roses. At the foot, and resting against the black drapery, was the +wreath which by order of the queen was the day before placed upon the +casket. Arranged on each side of this offering from the queen were +handsome crosses, while at their base was placed a magnificent floral +pillow on which was inscribed in violets "Our Martyr President." Next to +this was placed "The Gates Ajar," which also attracted much admiration. +The Knights of Malta contributed a large Maltese cross, and the Union +Veteran corps of which General Garfield was a member, a pillow of white +flowers bearing in violet letters the inscription, "U. V. C., to their +comrade." The whole appearance of the catafalque was tasteful and +elegant. In front of the chairs which were placed on the south side of +the casket were arranged sofas for the accommodation of Mrs. Garfield +and the family of the late President. Directly opposite and on the north +side of the catafalque seats were reserved for the members of the +cabinet and distinguished guests. The front row of chairs in the +northwestern section of the rotunda were placed at the disposal of the +justices of the Supreme Court, while in the rear of these several rows +were selected for the accommodation of senators. The representatives +occupied seats on the southeastern and southwestern sections. Behind +these a row of chairs were reserved for the representatives of the +press, and the remainder of the seats in that section were given to the +public generally. + +At exactly quarter to two o'clock the doors of the rotunda were opened. +The first society to arrive was the Knights Templars, Beausant +Commandery of Baltimore. They entered in full regalia, but did not +remain in the hall, simply passing around the catafalque in double file. +Four of their number--Sir Knights Stevens, Lawton, Butler and +Jennings--bore a floral offering in the shape of an immense Maltese +cross, which was reverently placed at the head of the dais. At ten +minutes past two the army of the Cumberland filed in by the door +leading from the senate chamber, and took the seats reserved for them. +Immediately after the doors were thrown open to all holders of tickets. + +In ten minutes the chairs set apart for the general public were +completely filled. Soon the members of the diplomatic corps arrived, and +were ushered to the seats reserved for them. + +Services were opened by Rev. Dr. Powers promptly at three o'clock. He +ascended the dais and briefly announced the opening hymn, "Asleep in +Jesus, blessed sleep," which was rendered by a choir of fifty voices. + +Rev. Dr. Rankin then ascended the raised platform at the head of the +catafalque, and read in a clear, distinct voice the scriptural +selections. Rev. Dr. Isaac Errett then offered prayer. + +Immediately after the close of the services the floral decorations were +all removed (Mrs. Garfield having requested that they be sent to her +home at Mentor) except the beautiful wreath, the gift of Queen Victoria, +which had been placed upon the head of the coffin when the lid was +closed, and which remained there when the coffin was borne to the +hearse, and will be upon it till the remains are buried. This touching +tribute of Queen Victoria greatly moved Mrs. Garfield, as only a woman +can feel a woman's sympathy at the time of her greatest earthly sorrow. + +The coffin having been placed in the hearse, a single gun was fired from +Hanneman's battery, the Second Artillery Band struck up a funeral march, +and the procession moved around the south front of the Capitol to the +avenue. At least 40,000 people were gathered about the Capitol to +witness the start of the procession, while along the line of march to +Sixth Street the crowd was even greater than on the 4th of March. +Everywhere it was most orderly and quiet; and as the hearse containing +the remains moved along the avenue, from the very door of the Capitol to +the entrance of the depot, all heads were uncovered. + +On reaching the depot the military were drawn up in line upon the +opposite side of the street, facing the Sixth Street entrance. The +remains were borne from the hearse upon the shoulders of six soldiers of +the Second Artillery and placed in the funeral car. The ten officers +from the army and navy, selected as the guard of honor, stood with +uncovered heads as the remains were taken from the hearse, and then +escorted them to the car. The diplomatic corps and others who were not +going upon either of the trains did not alight from their carriages. +President Arthur entered the depot with Secretary Blaine, and a few +minutes after entered the Secretary's carriage, and with Ex-President +Grant was driven up the avenue to his temporary home at the residence of +Senator Jones of Nevada. To avoid the crowd about the depot, Mrs. +Garfield was taken to the corner of Maine Avenue and Sixth Street, and +an engine and two cars, including the one intended for her use, were run +down the track, and she was taken on board the train without attracting +any attention. The funeral train was the same used on the trip from Long +Branch, with two additional cars. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII. + + Journey to Cleveland.--Lying in State in the Catafalque in + the Park.--Immense Concourse.--Funeral Ceremonies.--Favorite + Hymn.--At the Cemetery. + + +The sad journey to Cleveland was marked at every station by touching +tributes of affection. + +After lying in state Saturday and Sunday in the catafalque in the park +at Cleveland, the remains of President Garfield were solemnly committed +to the tomb at Lake View Cemetery with solemn and impressive rites, the +occasion fittingly reflecting the great sorrow under which the nation +lies. + +The heat of Sunday and Monday was intense, but until the closing of the +park gates in the forenoon previous to the beginning of the funeral +service, the stream of people passing through the catafalque, to view +the casket enclosing the remains, was continuous, and the number who so +paid their last respects must have aggregated at least 150,000. + +Promptly at half-past ten o'clock the ceremonies at the pavilion began. +The immediate members of the family, and near relatives and friends, +took seats about the casket, and at each corner was stationed a member +of the Cleveland Grays. Dr. J. P. Robinson, president of the +ceremonies, announced that the exercises would be opened by the +singing, by the Cleveland Vocal Society, of the "Funeral Hymn," by +Beethoven, whereupon the hymn was sung as follows:-- + + "Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee, + Since God is thy ransom, thy guardian, and guide, + The Saviour has passed through its portals before thee, + And Death has no sting since the sinless hath died." + +The scripture selections were then read by Right Rev. Bishop Bedell of +the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. + +Rev. Ross C. Houghton, pastor of the First Methodist-Episcopal Church, +then offered prayer. After which the Vocal Society sang as follows:-- + + "To thee, O Lord I yield my spirit, + Who breaks in love this mortal chain; + My life I but from thee inherit, + And death becomes my chiefest gain. + In thee I live, in thee I die, + Content, for thou art ever nigh." + +Rev. Isaac Errett of Cincinnati then delivered an eloquent address, +taking for his text the following: "And the archers shot King Josiah, +and the king said to his servants, 'Have me away, for I am sore +wounded.' His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put +him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to +Jerusalem, and he died and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his +fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah, and Jeremiah +lamented for Josiah, and all the singing men and singing women spoke of +Josiah in their lamentation to this day, and made them an ordinance in +Israel, and behold they are written in the Lamentations. Now the rest of +the acts of Josiah and his goodness, according to that which was written +in the law of the Lord, and his deeds, first and last, behold, they are +written in the book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. For behold the +Lord, the Lord of Hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah +the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread and the whole stay of +water. The mighty man, and the man of war, and the prophet, and the +prudent, and the ancient, the captain of fifty, and the honorable man, +and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. +The voice said 'Cry,' and he said 'What shall I cry?' All flesh is +grass, and all the godliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The +grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord +boweth upon it. Surely the people is grass; the grass withereth, the +flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever." + +Dr. Errett was listened to with close and earnest attention. He spoke +for forty minutes, and when he closed a hush for a moment hung over the +vast audience. + +Rev. Jabez Hall then read President Garfield's favorite hymn,-- + + "Ho' reapers of life's harvest + Why stand with rusted blade + Until the night draws round ye, + And day begins to fade? + Why stand ye idle waiting + For reapers more to come? + The golden morn is passing: + Why sit ye idle, dumb? + + Thrust in your sharpened sickle, + And gather in the grain: + The night is fast approaching, + And soon will come again, + The master calls for reapers; + And shall he call in vain? + Shall sheaves lie there ungathered, + And waste upon the plain? + + Mount up the heights of wisdom, + And crush each error low; + Keep back no words of knowledge + That human hearts should know. + Be faithful to thy mission, + In service of thy Lord, + And then a golden chaplet + Shall be thy just reward." + +At 11.45, Rev. Dr. James S. Pomeroy delivered the final prayer, and +pronounced the closing benediction. + +A few minutes after the benediction had been pronounced, the casket was +lifted reverently from its resting-place, and borne on the shoulders of +the United States artillery sergeants who had acted as its special +bearers from Long Branch to the funeral car. The funeral procession +moved from Monumental Park at 11.55. The military presented a +magnificent appearance. The column was headed by that veteran volunteer +association, the Boston Fusileers, who had travelled from Massachusetts +in order to pay a last tribute to their deceased comrade by +participating in the obsequies. They were followed by two companies of +the Seventy-Fourth New York, the Buffalo Cadets and the Buffalo City +Guards; next came the United States barracks band of Columbus, followed +by the Governor's Guard, the Toledo Cadets, the District Infantry, the +Washington Infantry of Pittsburg, the Gatling Gun and Cleveland Light +Artillery; then followed all the civic and military organizations, in +the order of march already arranged, excepting that the Columbia +Commandery of Knights Templars of Washington marched with the guard of +honor and pall-bearers in the division having charge of the funeral car. + +Euclid avenue, for its six miles of length, seemed literally shrouded +with mourning emblems, and an immense concourse numbering hundreds of +thousands watched the slow progress of the procession. + +At 3.30 o'clock the procession entered the gate-way, which was arched +over with black, with appropriate inscriptions. In the key-stone were +the words, "Come to rest." On one side were the words, "Lay him to rest +whom we have learned to love." On the other, "Lay him to rest whom we +have learned to trust." A massive cross of evergreen swung from the +centre of the arch. The United States Marine Band, continuing the sweet, +mournful strain it had kept up during the entire march, entered first. +Then came the Forest City Troop, of Cleveland, which was the escort of +the President to his inauguration. Behind it came the funeral car, with +its escort of twelve United States artillerymen, followed by a battalion +of Knights Templars and the Cleveland Grays. The mourners' carriages and +those containing the guard of honor, comprised all of the procession +that entered the grounds. The cavalry halted at the vault and drew up in +line facing it, with sabres presented. The car drew up in front, with +the mourners' carriages and those of the cabinet behind. The band played +"Nearer, my God, to Thee," as the military escort lifted the coffin from +the car and carried it into the vault, the local committee of reception, +Secretary Blaine, Marshal Henry, and one or two personal friends, +standing at either side of the entrance. + +None of the President's family except two of the boys, left the +carriages during the exercises, which occupied less than half an hour. + +Dr. J. P. Robinson, as president of the day, opened the exercises by +introducing Rev. J. H. Jones, Chaplain of the Forty-Second Ohio +Regiment, which General Garfield commanded, who made a short address. + +After an ode by Horace, sung in Latin by the German Singing Society, Mr. +Robinson announced the late President's favorite hymn, "Ho! Reapers of +Life's Harvest," which the German vocal societies of Cleveland sang with +marked effect. The exercises closed with the benediction by President +Hinsdale, of Hiram College. + +Re-entering their carriages the mourners drove hurriedly back to the +city, to avoid another shower which was threatened. The Military and +Masonic escort left the cemetery in the same order in which they +entered, and kept in line until the catafalque was reached, where they +were dismissed. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVIII. + + Lakeview Cemetery.--Talk with Garfield's Mother.--First + Church where he Preached.--His Religious + Experience.--Garfield as a Preacher. + + +The lot in Lakeview Cemetery that was selected for the burial-place is +on the brow of a high ridge commanding an extensive view of Lake Erie. +It was the President's desire that his last resting-place might be in +this beautiful spot, and his mother, speaking of it, said,-- + +"It is proper that he should be buried in Cleveland. It is the capital +of the county in which he was born, and of the section where he grew +into prominence. Mentor had been his home but a short time, although he +had intended to spend the balance of his life there. Most of his years +have been spent in Solon and Orange, and it seems best that his final +resting-place should be near the places that he loved the best." + +The brave old lady trembled with emotion while talking of her son. + +"It is wonderful," she said, "how I live upon the thoughts of him. I +ride a little every day to get the fresh air, and look at the fields +and woods he loved so well." + +Mrs. Garfield was with her daughter, Mrs. Larrabee, in Solon, Ohio, when +the last sad tidings came. For days she had been greatly depressed--her +hopes of his recovery growing fainter with every telegram received. + +"Oh! it is too dreadful! it cannot be true!" she exclaimed, when the sad +news was gently broken to her. It was some time before she could control +her feelings. At last she murmured through her tears: "God knew best, +but it is very hard to bear!" + +A few days later, when a friend called to see her, she said,-- + +"He was the best son a mother ever had--so good, kind, generous and +brave. Did you ever see such an uprising? That ought to break the fall +for me, but it doesn't seem to. I want my boy." + +This little home at Solon is not far from the spot where the old log +cabin stood, and the first frame house was built. + +"I am glad you have been over to the old homestead," added the old lady +to her visitor. "My son loved every foot of it. He and his brother built +the frame house for me, near the well where the pole has been erected. +It was rude carpentry, but they both took their first lessons on it, +and I always loved the old home. It was burned down just after we left +it." + +The humble Church of the Disciples, where Garfield first preached, is +close by. Once, when addressing some young people, he spoke as follows +of his first religious experience,-- + +"Make the most of the present moment! No occasion is unworthy of your +best efforts. God in his providence often uses humble occasions and +little things to shape the whole course of a man's life. I might say +that the wearing of a certain pair of stockings led to a complete change +in my own career. I had made one trip as a boy on a canal-boat, and was +expecting to leave home for another trip. But I accidentally injured my +foot in chopping wood. The blue dye in the yarn of my home-made socks +poisoned the wound, and I was kept at home. Then a revival of religion +broke out in the neighborhood. I was thus kept within its influence, and +was converted. New desires and purposes then took possession of me, and +I determined to seek an education that I might live more usefully for +Christ. You can never know when these providential turning-points in +your life are at hand; so seek to improve each passing day." With this +we may connect the account of his conversion given by his friend, Rev. +Isaac Errett, D. D., of Cincinnati. "The lad," he says, "attended these +meetings for several nights, and after listening night after night to +the sermon, he went one day to the minister, and said to him: 'Sir, I +have been listening to your preaching night after night, and I am fully +persuaded that if these things you say are true, it is the duty and the +highest interest of every man, and especially of every young man, to +accept that religion and seek to be a man; but really I do not know +whether this thing is true or not. If I were sure it were true, I would +most gladly give it my heart and my life.' So, after a long talk, the +minister preached that night on the text, '_What is truth?_' and +proceeded to show that, notwithstanding all the various and conflicting +theories and opinions of men, there was one assured and eternal alliance +for every human soul in Christ Jesus as the Way and the Truth and the +Life; that every soul would be safe with him; that he never would +mislead; and that any young man giving him his hand and heart would not +go astray. After due reflection, young Garfield seized upon this. He +came forward and gave his hand to the minister in pledge of the +acceptance of the guidance of Christ for his life, and turned his back +upon the sins of the world forever." + +"He was never formally ordained," says one of his old pupils at Hiram +Institute, "hence some have inferred that his preaching was confined to +occasional and unofficial discourses. But while he was a student in +Williams College he supplied in vacations and at other times the pulpit +of the Disciples' church at Poestenkill, a few miles from Williamstown. +For this he received some compensation which assisted him in his course. +He had the ministry in view. Becoming Principal at Hiram, he also +accepted the position of regular pastor of the church of Disciples in +that town. This office he filled during a large part of his +Principalship, bearing its responsibilities and receiving what +compensation attached to it. It was a large village church, and the only +one in the place, except a small Methodist church. He was called from +year to year." The people loved him as their pastor, and the house was +crowded to hear him preach. He officiated at their funerals, and +administered the ordinances of baptism (which was always immersion) and +the Lord's Supper. The fact that he had not been ordained in due form +was not objectionable to the Disciples, and a matter of greater +indifference even among them at that time than it would be perhaps +to-day. Doubtless his appointment as Principal of their Institute was +regarded as equivalent to a sanction of his full ministry. He preached +Sunday morning and afternoon, and administered the communion every +Sunday. In the evening there was a prayer-meeting. The students were +required to be present at church at least twice in the day. He always +preached without notes, with great simplicity and practicalness, +interesting persons of mature years, and at the same time taking special +pains to reach the young. There was a bright little boy with whom he was +accustomed to talk after preaching, to make sure that he had been +understood. In prayer he impressed his congregation as a man who was +really speaking with God. On Saturday afternoons he visited socially +among the people. + +In 1857 his preaching was accompanied by a revival of religion. Meetings +were held nearly every night, and fifty-two united at one time with the +church. These Mr. Garfield baptized in the open air. Many of the +converts were students, and when he gave them the hand of fellowship at +the communion table he presented each one of them with a copy of the +Word of God. This was not the only time he led candidates into baptismal +waters. There were frequent occasions of this kind. One is remembered +which took place in the evening in the fall of the year, when the +moonlight was bright enough for the singers to read the music and the +hymns. He entered into the spirit of such scenes with great devotion and +zeal. + +Garfield always held to that side which emphasized man's need of the +Holy Spirit, and the necessity of believing in Christ from the heart. +This he always enforced in his preaching, and as urgently declared that +this faith must be followed by obedience. His public prayers were often +addressed to Christ. Our informant feels sure that he was far from being +a Unitarian. He was not pleased with the way in which Garfield, in +accordance with the usages of the Disciples, received candidates for +baptism, and one day said to him: "It seems to me that your practice, +Mr. Garfield, is hardly consistent with your doctrine in this matter. +You preach excellent sermons to the impenitent, and point out the way of +salvation in language which I can endorse; but when persons come forward +for baptism, you have no examination by the church to see if their +conversion is sound." The answer was: "I show them clearly that they +must believe from the heart. If they say they do, I leave the +responsibility with them." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIX. + + The Sunday Preceding the Burial.--The Crowded Churches.--The + one Theme that Absorbed all Hearts.--Across the Water.--At + Alexandra Palace.--At St. Paul's Cathedral.--At Westminster + Abbey.--Paris.--Berlin.--Extract from London Times. + + +On the Sunday that the remains of the martyred President were lying in +state at Cleveland, the churches throughout the country were crowded +with congregations in sober and reverent mood. One thought engrossed all +minds, and one topic alone occupied the preacher's desk. + +"It was most touching," said one writer, "to see with what sympathy and +sadness every appreciative tribute to the dead President was received; +to perceive by a thousand little indications how profoundly this great +event absorbing all thoughts had stirred the hearts of the people; to +detect the unbidden tears stealing down the cheeks of so many women, +aye, and of men too. The ministers felt the inspiration of the occasion, +and were uplifted by it to greater than ordinary eloquence, to more +tender and more hearty words." + +Not only in America but throughout Europe the mourning crowds were +gathered to offer their tributes of respect. At the Alexandra Palace, in +London, a memorial service was held, at which forty thousand persons +were present, many of them in deep mourning. + +St. Paul's Cathedral was crowded to overflowing at the announcement that +the services would relate to the death of President Garfield. When the +"Dead March in Saul" was played the whole congregation, numbering many +thousands, arose and remained standing, all showing grief and many +weeping. Canon Stubbs preached, and specially referred to the cruel +manner of President Garfield's death. He extolled his life and virtues, +and expressed sympathy for the sorrowing American nation. + +The following sonnet was written in the Cathedral just after the funeral +anthem for President Garfield had been sung,-- + +SEPTEMBER 25. + + Through tears to look upon a tearful crowd, + And hear the anthem echoing + High in the dome till angels seem to fling + The chant of England up through vault and cloud, + Making ethereal register aloud + At heaven's own gate. It was a sorrowing + To make a good man's death seem such a thing + As makes imperial purple of his shroud. + Some creeds there be like runes we cannot spell, + And some like stars that flicker in their flame, + But some so clear the sun scarce shines so well; + For when with Moses' touch a dead man's name + Finds tears within strange rocks as this name can, + We know right well that God was with the man. + +At both the morning and evening services in Westminster Abbey reference +was made to President Garfield's death. At the afternoon service Canon +Duckworth said the American people were richer in all that could dignify +national life by President Garfield's death. Had the shattered frame +revived, it would be hard to believe that he could have impressed his +greatness more effectually. At St. Margaret's, Westminster, the Rev. Mr. +Roberts described the assassination as a crime against the whole English +humanity. At all the principal churches of all denominations Garfield's +death formed the subject of sympathetic allusion. + +In Paris, Pere Hyacinthe held a memorial service, and at Berlin, one of +the Emperor's chaplains spoke at length upon the martyred President. + +The London _Times_, summing up the events of the week, said: "Such a +spectacle has never before been presented as the mourning with which the +whole civilized world is honoring the late President Garfield. Emperors +and kings, Senates and ministers, are, in spirit, his pall-bearers, but +their peoples, from the highest to the lowest, claim to be equally +visible and audible as sorrowing assistants." + + + + +CHAPTER XL. + + National Day of Mourning.--Draping of Public Buildings and + Private Residences.--Touching Incident.--Tributes to + Garfield.--Senator Hoar's Address.--Whittier's + Letter.--Senator Dawes' Remarks. + + +Monday, September 26th, the day when the funeral rites were celebrated +at Cleveland, was appointed by President Arthur as a national day of +mourning. The public buildings throughout the country and many private +residences were draped with mourning, while beautiful and appropriate +emblems of the nation's sorrow were seen in almost every window. A +touching incident is told of a poor colored washerwoman at Long Branch +who tore up her one Sunday gown, a cheap black gingham, and hung it +about her door. When remonstrated with, she said, quietly,-- + +"He was my President, too." It would take volumes to give any adequate +collection of the many beautiful tributes to Garfield delivered in the +pulpit, from the forum, and through the public press, but from them we +select a few. + +At Mechanic's Hall in Worcester, Senator George F. Hoar spoke as +follows: "I suppose at this single hour there is deeper grief over the +civilized world than at any other single hour in its history. Heroes, +and statesmen, and monarchs, and orators, and warriors, and great +benefactors of the race, have died and been buried. There have been men +like William the Silent and his kinsmen of England, and men like +Lincoln, whose death generations unborn will lament with a sense as of +personal bereavement. But in the past the knowledge of great events and +great characters made its way slowly to the minds of men. The press and +the telegraph have this summer assembled all Christendom morning and +evening at the door of one sick-chamber. The gentle and wise Lincoln had +to overcome the hatred and bitterness of a great civil war. It was the +fortune of President Garfield, as it was never the fortune of any other +man, that his whole life has been unrolled as a scroll to be read of all +men. The recent election had made us familiar with that story of the +childhood in the log cabin, of the boyhood on the canal boat, of the +precious school time, of the college days at the feet of our saintly +Hopkins, of the school-teacher, of the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate, of the Christian preacher, of the soldier saving +the army at Chickamauga, of the statesman leading in great debates in +Congress, and of the orator persuading the conscience and judgment of +Ohio, and, through her, saving the nation's honor and credit in the +great strife for public honesty, of the judge determining the great +issue of the title to the presidency, of the loved and trusted popular +leader, to whom was offered the choice of three great offices, +Representative, Senator, and President at once. We know it all by heart, +as we know the achievements of the brief and brilliant administration of +the presidential office and the heroic patience and cheer of that long +dying struggle, when every sigh of agony was uttered in a telephone at +which all mankind were listening. No wonder the heart burst at last. +While it was throbbing and pulsing with fever and pain, it furnished the +courage which held up for seventy-nine days the sinking hopes of a +world. This man touched the common life of humanity, touched its +lowliness, touched its greatness, at so many points. His roots were in +New England puritanism, were in the yeomanry of Worcester and Middlesex. +He grew up to manhood in Ohio. The South had learned to know him. Her +soldiers had met him in battle. When he died she was making ready to +clasp the hand he was holding out to her returning loyalty. The child in +the log cabin knows all about the childhood so like his own. Scholarship +mourns the scholar who was struck down when he was hastening to lay his +untarnished laurel at the feet of his college. Every mother's heart in +America stirred within her when the first act of the new President was +to pay homage to his own mother. The soldiers and sailors of England, +the veterans of Trafalgar and Waterloo, join his own comrades in +mourning for a hero whom they deemed worthy to be ranked with the heroes +who held out the livelong day with Wellington, or who obeyed Nelson's +immortal signal. The laborer misses a brother who has known all the +bitterness of poverty and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of +his brow. The Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India, and +sovereign of Cyprus and Malta and Gibraltar and Canada and Jamaica, knew +her peer when she laid her wreath, last Friday, on the coffin of a king. +The last we heard of him in health he was playing like a boy with his +boy. As our friend said in the pulpit yesterday, the saints of mankind, +when they saw him, knew the birthmark of their race, and bowed their +heads. The American people have anointed him as the representative of +their sovereignty. Washington and Lincoln came forward to greet him and +welcome him to a seat beside their own. I say there is deeper grief at +this hour over the civilized world than at any other single hour in +history. It seems to me that the death of President Garfield is the +greatest single calamity this country ever suffered. I have no doubt +there were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of men who would gladly +have bought his life with their own, but we shall dishonor our dead +here if, even while his grave is open, we allow ourselves to utter a cry +of despair. It is true of nations, even more than of man, that "Whom the +Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." +Our republic was planted in sorrow. One-half of the pilgrims died at +Plymouth the first winter, and yet not one of the original colony went +back to England. Is there any man now who would they had not died, or +wishes they had found summer and plenty and ease on the coast of +Massachusetts? Could we celebrate Yorktown with the same lofty triumph +without the memories of Valley Forge and the death of Hale and Warren? I +think even the widow who goes mourning all her days will hardly wish now +that our regiments had come home from the war with full ranks. God has +taken from us our beloved, but think what has been brought into this +precious life. Fifty millions of people, of many races, of many climes, +the workman, the farmer, the slave just made free, met together to +choose the man whom they could call to the presidency among mankind. God +took him in his first hour of triumph and stretched him for seventy-nine +days upon a rack. He turned in upon that sick-chamber a Drummond light +that all mankind might look in upon that cruel assay, and see what +manner of men and what manner of women Freedom calls to her high +places. He revealed to them courage, constancy, cheerfulness, woman's +love, faith in God, submission to his will. Into what years of Europe, +into what cycles of Cathay were ever crowded so much of hope and cheer +for humanity as into the tragedy of Elberon? Your prayers were not +answered; the bitter cup has not passed from you, but, so long as human +hearts endure, humanity will be strengthened and comforted, because you +have drunk it." + + * * * * * + +The following letter, from John G. Whittier, was read at the funeral +services of President Garfield, held in Amesbury:-- + + DANVERS, MASS., 9TH MO., 24, 1881. + W. H. B. CURRIER. + + _My Dear Friend_,--I regret that it is not in my power to + join the citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury in the memorial + services on the occasion of the death of our lamented + President. But in heart and sympathy, I am with you. I share + the great sorrow which overshadows the land; I fully + appreciate the irretrievable loss. But it seems to me that + the occasion is one for thankfulness as well as grief. + Through all the stages of the solemn tragedy which has just + closed with the death of our noblest and best, I have felt + that the Divine Providence was overruling the mighty + affliction--that the patient sufferer at Washington was + drawing with cords of sympathy all sections and parties + nearer to each other. And now, when South and North, + Democrat and Republican, Radical and Conservative, lift + their voices in one unbroken accord of lamentation; when I + see how, in spite of the greed of gain, the lust of office, + the strifes and meanness of party politics, the great heart + of the nation proves sound and loyal, I feel a new hope for + the republic. I have a firmer faith in its stability. It is + said that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself; and the + pure and noble life of Garfield, and his slow, long + martyrdom so bravely borne in the view of all are, I + believe, bearing for us, as a people, "the peaceable fruits + of righteousness." We are stronger, wiser, better for them. + + With him it is well. His mission fulfilled, he goes to his + grave by the lakeside, honored and lamented as man never was + before. The whole world mourns him. There is no speech nor + language where the voice of his praise is not heard. About + his grave gathers, with heads uncovered, the vast + brotherhood of man. + + And with us it is well also. We are nearer a united people + than ever before. We are at peace with all; our future is + full of promise; our industrial and financial condition is + hopeful. God grant that, while our material interests + prosper, the moral and spiritual influence of this occasion + may be permanently felt; that the solemn sacrament of sorrow + whereof we have been partakers may be blest to the promotion + of the "righteousness which exalts a nation." Thy friend, + + JOHN G. WHITTIER. + +Said Senator Dawes:-- + +"Garfield was indeed a great man. This will be the judgment of those who +knew him personally and of history. This tragedy prevents the +corroboration of that judgment by results; for he had but just entered +upon the work for which his preparation and development had fitted him +and has finished nothing but a life of great promise and expectation. +His growth has been a wonderful study to those who were by his side +during its progress. It was constant to the last moment. The last year +had turned it into an altogether new and untried channel. It had been +begun and carried on until that time in quite a different direction. He +had never had executive experience, and a modesty and distrust, rare in +minds conscious of great power, led him to hesitate and shrink from what +was before him. His first remark to a long-tried friend on taking his +hand after the Chicago convention was this: 'I fear I am no man for this +place; I have felt that I could reasonably count on six years more of +labor and study and growth in the new and larger opportunity already +secured to me in my accustomed field, but this is an untried sphere to +me, and I dread the experiment.' The short time he has been permitted, +however, to labor in this new field has yet been long enough to bring +out great qualities and high purposes that the nation can ill spare. He +was conscious of great powers carefully trained, but he lacked +confidence to take hold of new things. His mind did not work quickly, +though it did surely. Always feeling the ground under every step he +took, he never ventured his foot where he could not, by some process of +reasoning, however slow, satisfy himself that he knew what was under +him. Hence the man who was a great leader in battle, and of unflinching +personal courage, and better fitted than any contemporary to +demonstrate and defend a political principle, had not yet come to be a +safe political leader in a sudden emergency, where there is no time for +logic or processes of reasoning, but action must follow instinct and +first impression. At such times he distrusted himself and left to +others, with not a tithe of his real power, the guidance of political +movements. As free from political as from personal guile, he was too +confiding and open-hearted to be safe in the hands of men less +scrupulous and less selfish. + +"Those who saw him enter public life, and were with him to the end, have +in mind a wonderful growth, and have in admiration, also, a wonderful +character, personal, mental and moral, ever charming, sure to be +instructive and always exemplary. In private intercourse with those he +loved he was as simple and trusting as a child, as tender and +affectionate as a woman, and as true and valiant as a knight. One of the +most touching scenes, illustrative of what manner of man he was, will +never be forgotten. The great cares of state had well-nigh worn him out; +the wife of his love lay lingering between life and death, and he had +been going from official labor and responsibility to her bedside night +after night, and, for the last two, had scarcely closed his eyes. The +report had gone out that Mrs. Garfield was dying; a near friend called +to inquire. Coming out of the sick-room, and grasping his hand, the +President begged him to sit down, and there this greatest of all public +men unbosomed himself like a broken-hearted woman. Dwelling with +surprising tenderness upon the love and beauty of his married life, and +the noble character of her who had made it what it was, he exclaimed, +with great emotion, 'I have had in this trial glimpses of a better and +higher life beyond, which have made this life I am leading here seem +utterly barren and worthless. Whatever may come of this peril, I fear +that I shall never again have ambition or heart to go through with that +to which I have been called.' To human view he has not been permitted to +finish the work for which he was fitted and to which he aspired, but he +has left valuable material for the study and instruction of public men, +covering a greater range of topics, a more thorough investigation, and +sounder conclusions than have been left by any one so constantly active +in the daily and current demands of public life. Let us thank God for +such a life, of such infinite value to the republic. Its example, its +teachings, its ambitions, its lofty aspirations and high resolves, and +its demonstrations of what man can make of himself, have no parallel in +history, and will have no measure in their beneficent effect upon those +who shall hereafter honestly study them. He dies loved, admired and +mourned before all others, but not yet fully appreciated. His loss is +irreparable, his lesson invaluable." + + + + +CHAPTER XLI. + + Subscription Fund for the President's Family.--Ready + Generosity of the People.--Touching Incident.--Total Amount + of the Fund.--How the Money was Invested.--Project for + Memorial Hospital in Washington.--Cyrus W. Field's Gift of + Memorial Window to Williams College.--Garfield's Affection + for his Alma Mater.--Reception given Mark Hopkins and the + Williams Graduates.--Garfield's Address to his Classmates. + + +Soon after the President's assassination, the New York Chamber of +Commerce, headed by Cyrus W. Field and other leading capitalists, +started a subscription for Mrs. Garfield and her children. To this fund +all classes of the people contributed with a readiness and generosity +that gave touching evidence of the sincerity of their love and sympathy. +Little children sent their hoarded pennies, many a poor working woman +denied herself some needed comfort that she might add her mite, and one +old man, in tattered clothes, came into the office of Drexel & Co., +where subscriptions were received, and putting a bottle of ink on the +table, said,-- + +"It's all I have, but I must do something." + +As soon as the story was told, the ink was taken and sold again and +again that day, until it brought in fifty dollars. + +When Mrs. Garfield was first apprised of this subscription fund, she +said,-- + +"I wish it were possible for me to go around and see all these dear +people!" + +After the President's death it was stated that the fund would close on +the fifteenth day of October. The total amount received was $360,345.74, +and this was at once given over to the United States Trust Company, of +New York, for investment. The Company paid the amount of $348,968.75 for +the purchase of $300,000 four per cent. registered bonds, and the +balance of cash, $11,376.09, was placed in charge of this same Trust +Company. + +Among the numerous tributes to the memory of Garfield is a project for a +national memorial hospital in Washington on the spot where the President +was assassinated, and an organization has been formed to carry it into +effect. The object has the sympathy and endorsement of President Arthur, +General Sherman, members of the Cabinet, and other distinguished and +influential persons. The land on which the depot stands belongs to +Government, it is said, and is held on sufferance by the railroad +company. + +Cyrus W. Field is to place a memorial window in the chapel of Williams +College. + +"Nothing," says one writer, "has more illustrated the strong and tender +affection which Garfield retained for the master at whose feet he +learned the law of love, than the natural way in which he turned to Dr. +Hopkins after his career had reached its flower. The first reception in +the White House was given to Mark Hopkins and the Williams graduates. It +was the President's own planning. The alumni in Washington, resident and +visitors, including a large number of the class of '56, were notified of +the President's wishes, and went to the White House marshalled by the +venerable doctor. They were drawn up in the form of a horseshoe, and Dr. +Hopkins addressed the Chief Magistrate. The speaker was profoundly +moved, and exhorted his pupil to maintain the high ideals which had +marked his past. President Garfield, with wet eyes, replied in one of +those moving and inspired speeches which he sometimes uttered. He voiced +the deepest love and reverence for his old teacher, and ascribed the +good impulse of his career to lessons learned among the hills of +Berkshire. The forty or more alumni present were affected to tears." + + * * * * * + +Garfield was greatly attached to his Alma Mater; on the night previous +to his inauguration he met his college classmates, and, in an address to +them, spoke as follows: + +"CLASSMATES,--To me there is something exceedingly pathetic in this +reunion. In every eye before me I see the light of friendship and love, +and I am sure it is reflected back to each one of you from my inmost +heart. For twenty-two years, with the exception of the last few days, I +have been in the public service. To-night I am a private citizen. +To-morrow I shall be called to assume new responsibilities, and on the +day after the broadside of the world's wrath will strike. It will strike +hard. I know it and you will know it. Whatever may happen to me in the +future, I shall feel that I can always fall back upon the shoulders and +hearts of the class of '56 for their approval of that which is right and +for their charitable judgment wherein I may come short in the discharge +of my public duties. You may write down in your books now the largest +percentage of blunders which you think I will be likely to make, and you +will be sure to find in the end that I have made more than you have +calculated--many more. + +"This honor comes to me unsought. I have never had the presidential +fever, not even for a day; nor have I it to-night. I have no feeling of +elation in view of the position I am called upon to fill. I would thank +God were I to-day a free lance in the House or the Senate; but it is not +to be, and I will go forward to meet the responsibilities and discharge +the duties that are before me with all the firmness and ability I can +command. I hope you will be able conscientiously to approve my conduct, +and when I return to private life I wish you to give me another +class-meeting." + + + + +CHAPTER XLII. + + Removal of the President's Remains.--Monument Fund + Committee.--Garfield Memorial in Boston.--Extracts from + Address by Hon. N. P. Banks. + + +On the 22d of October, Garfield's remains were removed from the public +vault in Lakeview Cemetery to a private vault on the grounds, there to +remain until the completion of the crypt, where they will permanently +repose. + +A Garfield Monument Fund Committee was organized at Cleveland +immediately after the funeral, and contributions have been received by +it from all sections of the country. + +Upon Thursday, the 20th day of October, Memorial services were held in +Boston at Tremont Temple. From the address delivered by Hon. N. P. Banks +we give the following extracts:-- + +"The history of the Plymouth colony of 1620, which preceded the +embarkation of the Massachusetts colony, was blistered with the results +of a bitter and apparently relentless destiny, against which it would +have been scarcely possible for any people but the Massachusetts +Puritans and Pilgrims to have secured a triumph like that which the +Deity they worshipped vouchsafed to them. + +"Its founders were fugitives from England and exiles from Holland. They +gladly accepted the chances of suffering and death in the New World, to +gain liberty of conscience and freedom to worship God. For the first ten +years of its existence population increased slowly, and numbered but +three hundred souls in 1630. + +"The Massachusetts colony, with which Plymouth was united, left the Old +World under happier auspices. It started with concessions and +congratulations from the Crown. The best men in England were ambitious +to share its fortunes. Winthrop, Saltonstall and Sir Harry Vane--'the +sad and starry Vane'--were among its leaders; and such men as John +Hampden, Pym, Oliver Cromwell, and many others of that heroic type, were +restrained from emigration at the moment of embarkation by the order of +the king. Four thousand families--twenty thousand souls--people of +culture, capacity and character, no decayed courtiers or adventurers, +but merchants, seamen, husbandmen and others devoted to the highest +interests of man, had landed in Boston in ten years from the foundation +of the city. + +"Among them came, in 1630, Edward Garfield, the paternal ancestor of the +late President of the United States. He was a man of gentle blood, of +military instincts and training, possessing some property, and a +thoughtful and vigorous habit of mind and body. The earliest record of +his name in the annals of the colony indicated an origin from some one +of the great German families of Europe, and his alliance by marriage +with a lady of that blood and birth confirmed the original impression of +the people with whom he identified his fortunes. His emigration +suggested a purpose consistent with his capacity and character, and with +the higher aspirations of the colony. He coveted possession of land, and +for that reason probably, among others, settled in Watertown, where +territory was abundant, and boundary lines yet delicate and dim, +especially toward the west, where they were mainly defined by the +receding and vanishing forms of the aboriginal inhabitants of the +country. In the realm they had abandoned it was a maxim among men that +home was where the heart was. But in the New World the colonists had +discovered that both home and heart were where there were liberty and +land. + +"He chose a residence near Charles River, a stream unsurpassed in beauty +by any water that flows, since honored by the residence and immortalized +by the verse of Longfellow, and the original and marvellous industries +that enrich its peaceful and prosperous people. + +"Edward Garfield, the founder of this new American family, did not long +linger near the boundaries of Boston. His first share in the +distribution of land to the freemen, by the town, was a small lot or +homestall of six acres, on the line of territory afterwards incorporated +as the town of Waltham. Another general grant of land by the town, in +1636, 'to the freemen and all the townsmen then inhabiting,' one hundred +and twenty in number, called the Great Dividends, gave to Garfield a +tract of thirty acres, the whole of which was within the territory set +off to Waltham. In 1650 the land allotted to Mr. Phillips, the first +minister of Watertown (about forty acres, in the same locality), was +sold by his heirs to Garfield and his sons. A portion of this estate was +purchased from the heirs of Garfield by Governor Gore, who constructed +upon it, from imported plans and materials, on his return from England, +a country seat, still admired as one of the most elegant and stately +residences in America. The first distinctive title ever given to the +territory now embraced within the limits of Waltham was that of 'The +Precinct of Captain Garfield's Company.' It is said that, after the +incorporation of that town, this name rarely appears on the records of +Watertown. + +"While citizens of Watertown, Garfield and his descendants were assigned +to responsible military commands by the governors of the colony, and +frequently chosen for the board of selectmen and other town offices. +Captain Benjamin Garfield held a captain's commission from the governor, +was nine times elected representative of the town, and appointed to many +other offices. Others were honored in a similar manner in Watertown, in +Waltham, and wherever they planted themselves. + +"They did not hive in the settled and safe centres of the colony, but +struck out boldly for the frontier, where danger was to be encountered +and duty performed. They adhered zealously to the principles of the +colony, and the controversies that arose from considerations of that +nature, at the very outset of its history, settled upon an unchangeable +basis the character of its government. + +"An important and instructive illustration of this free spirit of the +people occurred in the second year of its settlement. Without previous +consultation of the several towns, the governor and assistants levied, +in 1632, an assessment of eight pounds sterling upon them for +construction of military defences in what is now Cambridge. This order +was declared to be subversive of their rights, and the people of +Watertown, the most populous and influential inland town, met in church, +with their pastor and elders, according to their custom, and after much +debate deliberately refused to pay the money, on the ground, they said, +'that it was not safe to pay monies after that sort, for fear of +bringing themselves and their posterity into bondage.' + +"When summoned before the governor they were obliged to retract the +declaration and submit; but they set on foot such an agitation through +the colony as to secure, within three months of their original debate, +an order for the appointment of two persons from each town to advise +with the governor and assistants as to the best method of raising public +moneys. This order ripened, in 1634, into the creation of a +representative body of deputies elected by the people, having full power +to act for all freemen, except in elections. This was the origin of the +House of Representatives in Massachusetts. After ten years' contest the +body of assistants to the governor was separated from the body of +deputies, and, sitting as a Senate, left to the deputies chosen by the +towns an absolute negative upon the legislation of the colony. Thus was +established, substantially as it now exists, the Legislature of +Massachusetts. + +"As the people began to be represented in the government of the colony, +so the direction of civil affairs in the towns came to be entrusted to a +municipal body of freemen, peculiar to New England, chosen for that +purpose, and known as the board of selectmen. It is a pleasure to know +that, during the violent contest for this right of representation in +State and local governments, Edward Garfield, the earliest American +ancestor of the martyr President whose loss we mourn, as a selectman of +Watertown, in the very crisis of that contest, did a freeman's duty with +a freeman's will, in securing to the people of Massachusetts the right +of representation they now enjoy. + +"The Massachusetts family of Garfields, in the male line at least, were +churchmen, freemen, fighting men, thoughtful and thrifty men, and +working men. They were enterprising, active, and brave, fond of +adventure, distinguished for endurance and strength, athletic feats, +sallies of wit, cheerful dispositions, and, like their eminent successor +so recently passed away, noted always for a manly spirit and a +commanding person and presence. It was a prolific and long-lived race. +Marriages were at a premium, and families were large and numerous. Among +the people of the Massachusetts colony who made their way quickly to the +frontier when new towns were to be planted, the Garfields were well +represented. The foundation of a new municipality was then a solemn +affair, usually preceded by 'a day of humiliation, and a sermon by Mr. +Cotton.' When the territory of Massachusetts was overstocked, they +passed to other States in New England, and ultimately to the great West. +Wherever they were they asserted and defended the principles they +inherited from the founders of Massachusetts. + +"Abram Garfield, of the fifth generation, a minute-man from Lincoln, +engaged in the fight with the British at Concord, and was one of the +signers of a certificate, with some of the principal citizens of that +town, declaring that the British began that fight. We should not feel so +much solicitude about that matter now. + +"Abram Garfield, a nephew of the soldier at Concord, whose name he bore, +and who represented the seventh generation of the family, settled later +in Otsego County, N. Y., where he received the first fruits of toil as a +laborer on the Erie Canal. The construction of canals by the Government +of Ohio drew him, with other relatives, to that State, where his +previous experience gained for him a contract on the Ohio Canal. The +young men and women who left the earlier settlements for the frontier +States sometimes consecrated the friendships of their youth by a +contract of marriage when they met again in the great West. Abram +Garfield in this way met and married (Feb. 3, 1821) Eliza Ballou, a New +Hampshire maiden, whom he had known in earlier years. It was a long +wait, but a solid union. They were nearly twenty years of age when +married. A log cabin, with one room, was their home. His vocation was +that of an excavator of canals in the depths of the primeval forests of +Ohio. There was not much of hope or joy in the life before them; but +still it was all there was for them of hope or joy. They could not +expect the crown of life until they had paid its forfeit. They adhered +to the religious customs of childhood. Their labor prospered. Amid their +suffering and toil in the construction of the arteries of civilization +and the foundation of States and empires that will hereafter rule the +world, four children came to bless them. The last of the four was James +Abram Garfield (Nov. 19, 1831), destined, in the providence of God, to +be and to die President of the Republic. + + * * * * * + +"Garfield had pre-eminent skill in directing and applying the labor and +attainments of others to the success of his own work. This is a somewhat +rare, but a most invaluable capacity. No one man can do everything. In +labor, as in war, to divide is to conquer. There have been men who knew +everything, and could do everything,--whose incomparable capacities +would have been sufficient, under wise direction, to have given the +highest rank among the few men that have changed the destiny of the +world; but who could not succeed in government, because they never saw +men until they ran against them. + +"Such admirable qualities, united to such strength and love for active +service, gave him reputation and rank, and opened the way to the +campaigns in Kentucky against Marshall, at Prestonburg and Middle +Creek,--the last a cause of other victories elsewhere,--and at Tullahoma +and Chickamauga. + +"His knowledge of law opened a new field of activity and service, of +great benefit to him and to the Government. But little attention had +been given by professors of legal science, at the opening of the war, to +the study of military law. In the field where it was to be administered, +great difficulties were encountered in determining what the law was and +who was to execute it. A distinguished jurist, Dr. Francis Lieber, was +appointed by the Government to codify and digest the principles and +precedents of this abstruse department of the science of law. But it +opened to Garfield, long before the digest was completed, a peculiar +field for tireless research and labor in new fields of inquiry. Once +installed as an officer of courts-martial, his services were found to be +indispensable. From the West he was called to Washington, was in +confidential communication with President Lincoln in regard to the +military situation in the West, was a member of the most important +military tribunals, became a favorite and protege of the Secretary of +War, and, upon the express wish of the President and Secretary, +accepted his seat in the House of Representatives, to which he had been +chosen in 1862. + +"His career in Congress is the important record of his life. For that he +was best fitted; with it he was best satisfied; in it he continued +longest, and from it rose to the great destiny which has given him a +deathless name and page in the annals of the world. + +"The House of Representatives in the age of Clay, Calhoun and Webster +was an institution quite unlike that of our own time. Its numbers then +were small; its leading men comparatively few; but few subjects were +debated, and members of the House rarely or never introduced bills for +legislative action. Its work was prepared by committees, upon official +information, and gentlemen prepared to speak upon its business could +always find an opportunity. Now its numbers have been doubled. More than +ten thousand bills for legislative consideration are introduced in every +Congress. The increase of appropriations, patronage and legislation is +enormous, and the pressure for action often disorderly and violent. +Little courtesy is wasted on such occasions, when one or two hundred +members are shouting for the floor, and when one is named by the Speaker +it must be a strong man, ready, able, eloquent, to gain or hold the ear +of the House. Garfield never failed in this. His look drew audience and +attention. He was never unprepared, never tedious; always began with +his subject, and took his seat when he had finished. He had few +controversies, and was never called 'to order' for any cause. He was a +debater rather than an orator; always courteous, intelligent, +intelligible, and honorable. The House listened to him with rapt +attention, and he spoke with decisive effect upon its judgment. He liked +it to be understood that he was abreast of the best thought of the time, +had a great regard for the authority of scientific leaders, and walked +with reverential respect in the tracks of the best thinkers of the age. +It is a pleasant thing, this method of settling all problems by +demonstration of exact science. Hudibras must have been in error when he +spoke so lightly of these scholastic methods, saying, or rather +singing,-- + + 'That all a rhetorician's rules + Teach him but to name his tools.' + +"The people watched with great interest his long and terrible struggle +for life, and their hearts trembled with alternations of hope and fear, +as they studied with close attention the morning and the evening +bulletins giving the ebb and flow of life's dark tide with the precision +of exact science; but they read with infinite relief, if not always with +satisfaction, the telegrams of the Secretary of State to the American +minister at London, stating, in the language of common life, the +changes that had occurred in the condition of the President from day to +day. + +"As chairman or prominent member of the principal business committees of +the House, Garfield had always access to the floor, and an eager +assembly as his audience. His topics were generally of a national +character, connected with the organization and maintenance of the +government; but there is scarcely any subject brought before Congress to +which he has not, at some time, given a thorough and able exposition of +his views. The best known and most influential of his speeches have been +in relation to the war, financial affairs, the currency, and the tariff. +These all involved national interests, and exhibit on his part a +profound study of every subject necessary to their support. He was from +the first, and constantly, a hard-money man, a leader in discussion, and +a supporter by his votes of every proposition necessary to maintain a +sound currency. On the subject of the tariff, while he did not deny +that, as an abstract question, the doctrine of free trade presented an +aspect of truth, yet he always declared that under a government like +ours protection of national industries was indispensable. He advocated +duties high enough to enable the home manufacturer to make a wholesome +competition with foreigners, but not so high as to subject consumers to +a monopoly of product or supply. A moderate and permanent protection was +the doctrine he always ably sustained. It would be instructive to recall +the expression of his views embodied in his speeches upon these +subjects, which he photographed upon the minds of those to whom they +were addressed, but it is inappropriate on the present occasion. Few men +in the history of the House of Representatives have acquired a higher +reputation, and none will be more kindly and permanently remembered. + + * * * * * + +"There was much force in a declaration made by the Pastor of the +Disciples' Church, at the funeral of President Garfield, in the rotunda +of the Capitol at Washington. The gigantic proportions of this apartment +excite a strange sensation in every visitor. One familiar with the +scene, recalls at his entrance an ancient tradition, often repeated +before the war, that this majestic central apartment of the Capitol +would, some day, witness the coronation of a king. Apart from the +unusual solemnity of this occasion, the scene was of an extraordinary +character. The light that fell from the dome above gave a solemn aspect +to the apartment. Distinguished personages moved silently and slowly to +the positions assigned them. Two ex-Presidents, immediate predecessors +of the deceased, the only occupants of the presidential office that +have attended at such a time, sat in front of the eastern entrance of +the rotunda. The diplomatic corps, in full court costume, were placed in +rear of the ex-Presidents. Senators, judicial officers in their robes, +officers of the army and navy, in brilliant uniforms, were on the right. +Members and ex-members of the House, in large numbers, attended by the +Speaker, were massed upon the left, and the space around them was +crowded by citizens from every part of the country. The vast assembly +rose as the President, with the Cabinet officers and the stricken family +of mourners, passed to their seats near the casket of the deceased Chief +Magistrate,--which lay upon the same bier that bore the body of +President Lincoln, just beneath the centre of the canopy that from the +dome overhangs the rotunda,--guarded by veterans of the Army of the +Cumberland. The walls were hung with representations of important events +in American history;--the Landing of Columbus, De Soto's Discovery of +the Mississippi, the Baptism of Pocahontas, the Embarkation of the +Pilgrims, the Declaration of Independence, the Surrender of Cornwallis +at Yorktown, and the Resignation of Washington. On the belt of the +rotunda above were seen Cortez entering the Temple of the Sun in Mexico, +the Battle of Lexington, and other studies of varied and memorable +scenes in the history of the Republic. + +"Simple, brief, and impressive ceremonies heightened the deep and +general interest of the occasion. The funeral discourse was of a purely +religious character, with scarcely more than a brief allusion to the +career of the deceased President, and no mention, I think, of his title +or his name. But these omissions intensified the general interest in his +brief personal allusions. 'I do believe,' he said, 'that the strength +and beauty of this man's character will be found in his discipleship of +Christ.' + +"It is not my province to speak of the spiritual character of this +connection, but in another relation I believe it is true. + +"The Church of the Disciples, to which he belonged, is one of the most +primitive of Christian communions, excluding every thought of distrust, +competition, or advantage. It gave him a position and mission unique and +generic, like and unlike that of other men. While he rarely or never +referred to it himself, and wished at times, perhaps, to forget it, he +was strengthened and protected by it. It was buckler and spear to him. +It brought him into an immediate communion--a relation made sacred by a +common faith, barren of engagements and responsibilities--with +multitudes of other organizations and congregations, adherents and +opponents, able and willing to assist and strengthen him, present or +absent, at home or abroad, who dismissed aspersions upon his conduct +and character as accusations of Pharisees against a son of faith, and +gave him at all times a friendly greeting and welcome, whenever and +wherever he felt inspired to give the world his thought and word. All +great migrations and revolutions of men and nations are born of this +spirit and power. + +"In another direction he possessed extraordinary capacities. He was +animated by an intense and sleepless spirit of acquisition. It was not, +apparently, a common thirst for wealth, precedence, or power which +stimulates many men in our time. His ambition was for the acquisition of +knowledge. From early youth to the day of his last illness it was a +consuming passion. He gave to it days and nights, the strength of youth +and the vigor of middle age. When in the forests of New York, he made +the rocks and trees to personate the heroes of his early reading. When +engaged in the duties of his professorship, he found time for other +studies than those prescribed by the faculty, and for lectures, +addresses, and many other intellectual pursuits. He studied law while at +college without the knowledge of his intimate friends, until he was +admitted to the bar. When in Congress, he would occupy a whole night in +examination of questions to be considered the next day, and debate them +as if nothing unusual had occurred. + + * * * * * + +"It was said by one of the wisest of the ancient Greeks that it was +'impossible to penetrate the secret thoughts, quality and judgment of +man till he is put to proof by high office and administration of the +laws.' Whatever we may think of the splendid record of the late +President in every walk of life he followed, it does not enable us to +anticipate the character and success of the Administration upon which he +so happily entered. In other positions of public life, the concurrence +of so many different influences is required to accomplish even slight +results, that individual credit or responsibility therefor is but slight +and intangible. In the administration of government, the highest secular +duty to which men are ever called, responsibility is indivisible and +unchangeable; and the final results, whether for good or evil, are +indelibly stamped on the woof and warp of the web of time, and will so +remain forever. Good intentions are of no account, and a plea of +confession and avoidance,--admitting failure and disclaiming error,--so +advantageous in other cases, never governs the world in judging men who +fail rightly to administer government. We are happy in being absolved +from the responsibility of judgment where decision is impossible. + +"Undoubtedly, the open assertion in some parts of the world of the right +of assassination as a method of reform in administration and government +may have intensified the general interest in this calamitous event. But +the courage and composure with which the presidential martyr bore his +affliction; the firmness and constancy of his aged mother; the serenity +and saint-like resignation of the heroic wife, administering consolation +and courage to the husband and father, in a voice sweet as the zephyrs +of the south, with a spirit as gentle as love, and a soul as dauntless +as the hearts of the women of Israel,--were not unobserved or unhonored. +It melted hearts in the four quarters of the globe, and drew from the +sons of men, in every land and clime, such an attestation and confession +of the faith that all created beings are the children of one Father, as +never before fell from human lips. We should be dead to sensibility and +honor did we not feel such unwonted tests of the universal scope and +sweep of human sympathy vouchsafed to us by the appointed leaders of +churches, empires and democracies, and by that august lady the Queen of +England and Empress of India, who presides over the councils of the +empire whence we derive our ideas of Christian faith, language, liberty +and law, who gave to the afflicted children of revolted and republican +America the emblems of mourning, reserved by the customs of her court to +the best beloved and bravest of her realm, and sent, over her own hand, +to the wife, mother and orphans, swift and touching evidence of the +strength of her sympathy and the depths of her sorrow--the grandest of +sovereigns and noblest of women! + +"We turn from this record of active and honorable service to a brief +consideration, such as the occasion permits, of the elements of +character which distinguished President Garfield. After all, character +is the only enduring form of wealth. It is the power by which the world +is ruled, and the only legacy of true value that can be transmitted to +posterity. + +"We cannot forget what occurred during the administration of Mr. +Lincoln, or of his successor, Mr. Johnson. We have witnessed no such +political convulsions in our day. No one ever justified the +assassination of Mr. Lincoln on such grounds, or would now counsel such +violence against the chiefs of earlier administrations. Neither can it +now be done with truth or justice. Those who enlisted in the opposition +to past administrations were men whose intellectual and moral natures +restrained them from the execution of purposes dictated by passion. To +those whose feeble intellects deprive them of moral restraint we should +give support, and never justify, by thought or act, conduct that, under +other circumstances, might have endangered the lives of every President +of the Republic! There is no cause or incitement to crime in the +political controversies of this year, that might not have occurred under +any other administration; and no cause or justification, of any kind +whatever, for such an ineffable and inexpiable crime as the murder of +the mild, generous, warm-hearted, forgiving, and Christian Chief +Magistrate whose loss we mourn. + +"Political assassination is not insanity. It proceeds from infection and +distemper of the mind. It is not necessarily limited to the reform +administrations and governments, nor to any special form of government. +It can as well be applied to the settlement of a grocery bill, if an +excitation be created, as to the overthrow of a dynasty. + +"It is another form of the doctrine of annihilation, and the remedy for +its evil is to avoid convulsions, private and public, restrain passion, +avoid injustice, practise moderation in all things, and do no evil that +good may come. + +"The year 1881 is the complement of the full half-century since the +first open movement was organized for the control or destruction of our +government. The lesson of this half-century, with all its trials, +sacrifices and triumphs, is that it is good to maintain and defend the +government of our country and its lawfully constituted authorities, +whether or not we created them or like them. In the contemplation of +this half-century, can we find cause to wish the government had been +destroyed? Or can we now wish it destroyed? + +"The lesson of Garfield's life is an admonition to protect and defend +the government. His birth marks the period when it was first assailed by +enemies domestic; and at the close of his life he gave his last hours of +health and strength to improve and protect it. His last friend should +give his last sigh to maintain it, not for his honor, which is +untarnished, nor his glory, which is immaculate, but for his country, +which still has perils to encounter, and liberties to defend, for the +benefit of mankind." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIII. + + Southern Feeling.--Memorial Services at Jefferson, + Kentucky.--Extracts from Address by Henry + Watterson.--Senator Bayard.--Ex-Speaker Randall.--Senator + Hill.--Extracts from some of the Southern Journals. + + +At the United States military post at Jefferson, Kentucky, memorial +services were held in the presence of fifteen thousand people. + +Henry Watterson, the Democratic ex-Congressman, gave an eloquent +address, from which we quote the following:-- + +"I knew him well, and know now that I loved him. He was a man of ample +soul, with the strength of a giant, the courage of a lion, and the heart +of a dove. There never lived a man who yearned for the approval of his +fellow-men, who felt their anger more. There never lived a man who +struggled harder to realize Paul's idea, and to be all things to all +men. Did ever the character sketched by Paul find a nobler example, for +he was blameless, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, apt to teach, not +given to filthy lucre. No one without the little family circle of +relatives and friends in which he lived will ever know how a certain +dismal, though in truth trivial, episode in his career cut him to the +soul. Born a poor man's son, to live and die a poor man, with +opportunities unbounded for public pillage, with licensed robbery going +on all around him, and he pinched for the bare means to maintain +himself, his wife and his little ones with decency and comfort, to be +held up to the scorn of men as one not honest! He is gone now, and +before he went he had outlived the wounds which party friends alike with +party foes had sought to put upon his honor and manhood, and maybe +to-day somewhere among the stars he looks down upon the world and sees +at last how selfish and unreal were the assaults of those in whose way +he stood. It is a pleasure to me to reflect amid these gloomy scenes +that some friendly words of mine gratified him at a moment when he +suffered most. Not in the last campaign, for it would have been a crime +in me to have hesitated then, but away back when no vision of the +presidency had crossed the disc of his ambition, and when the cruelest +blows were struck from behind. It is also a pleasure for me to remember +the last time I saw him. It was during an all-night session of the +House, when in company with Joseph Hawley of Connecticut, Randall Gibson +of Louisiana, and Randolph Tucker, we took possession of the committee +rooms of Proctor Knott, who joined us later, and turned all bickerings +and jars into happy forgetfulness of section and party. I do well +remember how buoyant he was that night in spirit and how robust in +thought, full of suggestion, and in repartee, unaffected and genial +ever; how delighted to lay aside the statesman and the partisan and be a +boy again, and how loth he was, with the rest, to recross the narrow +confines which separate the real and ideal, and to descend into the hot +abyss below. I could not have gone thence to blacken that man's +character any more than to do another deed of shame; and Republican +though he was, and party chief, he had no truer friends than the +brilliant Virginian whom he loved like a brother, and the eminent +Louisianian whose counsels he habitually sought. I refer to an incident +unimportant in itself to illustrate a character which unfolded to the +knowledge of the world through affliction, and whose death has awakened +the love and admiration of mankind. + +"All know that he was a man of spotless integrity who might have been +rich by a single deflection, but who died poor, who broadened and rose +in height with each rise in fortune, who was not less a scholar because +he had wanted early advantages, and who, not yet fifty, leaves as a +priceless heritage to his countrymen the example of how God-given +virtues of the head and heart may be employed to the glory of God and +the uses of men, by one who makes all things subordinate to the +development of the good within him. On all these points we think +together; there are not two opinions. We stand upon common ground; we +shall separate and go hence, and each shall take his way. Interests +shall clash, beliefs shall jar, party spirit shall lift its horned head +and interpose to chill and cloud our better natures. That is but a +condition of our being. We are mortal and we live in a free land. Out of +discussion and dissension ends are shapened; we rough-hewing in spite of +us. However, occasions come which remind us that we have a country and +are countrymen; which tell us we are a people bound together by many +kindred ties. No matter for our quarrels, they will pass away. No matter +for our mistakes, they shall be mended. But yesterday we were at war one +with the other. The war is over. But yesterday we were arrayed in the +anger of party conflict; behold how its passions sleep in the grave with +Garfield. I am here to-day to talk to you of him, and through him and in +his memory and honor to talk of our country. He was its chief +magistrate, our President, representative of things common to us all; +stricken down in the fulness of life and hope by wanton and aimless +assassination. He fell like a martyr; he suffered like a hero; he died +like a saint. Be his grave forever and aye a resting place for the +people, and for the seeds that burst thereon to let the violets bring +spring flowers of peace and love for all the people. Citizens, the flag +which waves over us was his flag and it is our flag. Soldiers, standing +beneath that flag and this armed fortress of the Republic, I salute your +flag and his flag reverently. It is my flag. I thank God, and I shall +teach my children to thank God, that it did not go down amid the +fragments of a divided country, but that it floats to-day, though at +half mast, as a symbol of union and liberty, assuring and reassuring us, +that though the heart that conceived the words be cold, and the lips +that uttered them be dumb, 'God reigns and the government at Washington +still lives.'" + +The tributes paid to the memory of Garfield by his political opponents +show strikingly how widely he was honored and beloved by those who knew +him as a friend as well as the leader of a party. + +Senator Bayard always treated the President with affectionate respect, +and mourns him deeply. Ex-Speaker Randall "knew him intimately and +respected him greatly." Senator Hill is much affected by the death. +"Poor Garfield," he says, "was a big-hearted and a big-brained man. I +shall never forget the last time I saw him. He was so cheerful and +apparently happy. I never saw him fuller of mental and physical vigor +and of hope for the future than then. I want to always remember him as +he appeared to me then--a perfect man." + +The _Courier-Journal_ of Louisville, Kentucky, said: "The President is +dead, and all the nations responding to that touch of sympathy which +makes the whole world kin stand uncovered in the presence of a calamity; +for tragedies, ever calamitous, are doubly so when they spring from +murder and attach themselves to the head of the State, the symbol of +power, the representative of the people and law. If ever mortal stood in +these relations to his country and his time, this man did so. It was the +universal sense that he did so which brought around his bedside his +fellow citizens without distinction of political opinion, and caused +women who had never seen him to pray for him, and little children, who +conceived not the emergency nor the magnitude nor the contingencies +hanging upon his life, to ask each day after his well-being, as if he +were a father ill and dying in some far-off place. Perhaps, too, the +flash of the assassin's pistol let in to many a heart a feeling of +honest regret, before dormant and unconscious, that they had consented +to see so good and so useful a man so pitilessly assailed in his private +honor during periods of angry partisan contention, and a consequent +wish, personally, to disavow this and to make a part of it at least up +to him in his dire misfortune." + +The _Baltimore Sun_ (Independent), alluding to President Garfield's +death, said: "Turning from the peculiarly tragic and distressing +circumstances of the President's death, 'tis difficult to exaggerate the +loss which the nation sustains in his death at this time. Although his +Administration was in its infancy, President Garfield had already met +the confidence of his country in the integrity of his purposes, the +moderation, soundness and conservatism of his policy." + +Said another Southern Journal: "In his death, mournful as it is, the +sections will evince a common sympathy that may cement more closely the +bonds of that fraternity so essential to the keeping of the compact +between the States. North, South, East and West will join in the grief +over the grave of the dead President--a sure sign that the currents of +the national life flow as strong as they ever did in the history of the +Union." + +The _New Orleans Times_ said: "Throughout our whole land parties stand +disarmed, and citizens bitterly deplore the death of James A. Garfield. +Henceforth he lives in memory, and though he was permitted to accomplish +but little during his presidential service, by his death he has given to +his countrymen a deeper scrutiny into themselves--a most precious +service." + +The _Picayune_, after referring to the assassination of President +Lincoln, said: "This is a sadder story in our national life. It was +Garfield's fortune to come to the high office of chief magistrate at a +time when peace and prosperity reigned throughout the broad confines of +this great land. There was naught but sincere respect for his authority +among the masses, and earnest wishes in the hearts of nearly all her +citizens that his administration might prove a happy one for himself as +it promised a prosperous one for the country. He was worthy of so proud +a position, and in his inaugural proclaimed the new life of a nation +united not in name but in truth." + + + + +CHAPTER XLIV. + + Extracts from some of the President's Private Letters to a + Friend in Boston, bearing the same Family Name.--To Corydon + E. Fuller, a College Classmate. + + +One of the last letters written by President Garfield was to a gentleman +in Boston, who bore the same family name. They were warm friends and +mutually interested in the Garfield genealogy. They had often spoken of +the pleasure they would take in going over the country in the +neighborhood of Boston, where their common ancestors had had their +homes, and they had agreed, should chance ever bring them together here, +to take a little excursion, and as the President was about starting on a +New England tour, the letter related to the long anticipated pleasure. +If possible, the President was to take leave of his formal escort at +Concord and enjoy a quiet buggy drive with his friend, keeping perfectly +_incognito_. They were to visit the scenes of interest at Concord, where +the President's great-uncle, Abram Garfield, from whom he gets his +middle name, stood, perhaps, shoulder to shoulder with John Hoar, the +grandfather of the chairman of the Republican convention at Chicago +which so unexpectedly nominated him for his fateful office. Thence they +were to drive through Lincoln, Weston, Waltham and Watertown--towns +where the homes of their ancestors and kinsmen had stood. At Watertown +the intention was to rejoin the regular party. + +The letter was evidently written late on the evening before he was shot, +and was in the handwriting of the President's private secretary, but +bore the clear signature of J. A. Garfield. It was not sent from +Washington until after Guiteau's shot had been fired, for it bore the +postmark of 1 P. M. General Garfield had had considerable correspondence +with his friend about family matters, and his letters formed the basis +of much of the accurate article on his family genealogy printed in the +_Herald_ shortly after the Chicago convention. In a letter he wrote:-- + +"You can hardly imagine the pleasure which your letter of the 3d inst. +has given me. You will better understand why, when I tell you the causes +which have so nearly shut me off from any knowledge of my ancestry. My +father moved into the wild woods of Ohio before he was twenty years of +age, and died when he was thirty-three, and of course when all his +children were small, and I, the youngest, but an infant. Separated thus +from the early home of our father, we had but scanty means of obtaining +anything like accurate information of his ancestry. The most I knew, +until quite recently, were the family traditions retained in the memory +of my mother, as she had heard them from father and his mother. During +the last eighteen years I have, from time to time, picked up fragmentary +facts and traditions concerning our family and its origin. Many of these +traditions are vague and no doubt worthless, but I have no doubt they +have some truth in them. One of them is that the family was originally +from Wales. This tallies with what you say concerning the original +Edward Garfield coming from the neighborhood of Chester, Eng. I stood on +the walls of Chester a little more than four years ago, and looked out +on the bleak mountains of Wales, whose northern boundary lay at my feet, +along the banks of the Dee. Possibly I was near our ancestral home. A +Welsh scholar told me, not many years ago, that he had no doubt our +family was connected with the builders of an old castle in Wales, long +since in ruins, but still known as Gaerfill Castle. I give you this +conjecture for what it is worth. While I was in college at Williamstown, +Mass., in 1854 to 1856, I went down to old Tyringham and Lee, in +Berkshire County, Mass., and there found a large number of Garfields, +some twenty families, old residents of that neighborhood. Among them +were the names Solomon and Thomas, which seemed to have continued along +in the family. I found that they had come from the neighborhood of +Boston. In an old graveyard in Tyringham (now Monterey) I found the +tombstone of Lieutenant Isaac Gearfield (for that, I learn, was the +early spelling of the name), and on the stone was recorded 1755 as the +date of his death. The family told me that he (Lieutenant Isaac) crossed +the mountains into the wilderness of western Massachusetts in about +1739, and slept the first night under his cart.... I am sure I do not +need to apologize to you for this long letter, for if it gives you half +the pleasure yours has given me, you will not tire of its length. I beg +you to write me any further details you may possess, and any you may +hereafter obtain." + +Following are a number of extracts from letters addressed to Mr. Corydon +E. Fuller:-- + + "WARRENSVILLE, Jan. 16, 1852. + +"MY DEAR CORYDON: Well, I quit writing that evening to attend the +Warrensville Literary Club, of which I am a member. We had a very good +time considering the 'timber.' We have resolved ourselves into a senate, +each member representing some State in the Union. I am not only +President, but also a representative from South Carolina, to watch the +interests of my nullifying constituents. The bill before our senate for +our next evening is, 'That we will assist financially the Hungarian +exiles, Kossuth and his compatriots, from our national Treasury.' We +shall undoubtedly have a warm time. By the way, what do you think of the +effect of the excitement in reference to Kossuth upon our Nation and +popular liberty? How far may our Government safely interfere in the +Hungarian struggle? But I am certainly rhapsodical this time. You must +write to me and trim me up. I am seated in my school-house, a room about +18 by 20, with a stove in the centre and in school, the scholars being +all around me--forty on the list. With these facts before me I am led to +exclaim,-- + + "Of all the trades by men pursued + There's none that's more perplexing + Than is the country's pedagogue's-- + It's every way most vexing. + + Cooped in a little narrow cell, + As hot as black Tartarus, + As well in Pandemonium dwell, + As in this little schoolhouse. + + "Your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + +The following is taken from a letter dated Feb. 2, 1852, written near +the close of the village school at Warrensville, Ohio,-- + +"Oh, that I possessed the power to scatter the firebrands of ambition +among the youth of the rising generation, and let them see the +greatness of the age in which they live and the destiny to which mankind +are rushing, together with the part which they are destined to act in +the great drama of human existence. But, if I cannot inspire them with +that spirit, I intend to keep it predominant in my own breast, and let +it spur me forward to action. But let us remember that knowledge is only +an increase of power, and is only good when directed to good ends. +Though a man may have all knowledge, and have not the love of God in his +heart, he will fall far short of true excellence." + +Here is an extract from a letter written in April, 1853,-- + + "To my mind the whole catalogue of fashionable friendships + and polite intimacies are not worth one honest tear of + sympathy or one heartfelt emotion of true friendship. Unless + I can enter the inner chambers of the soul and read the + inscriptions there upon those ever-during tablets, and thus + become acquainted with the inner life and know the inner + man, I care not for intercourse, for nothing else is true + friendship.... I have no very intimate associates here, and + hence, if it please you, I will be social with my pen and be + often cheered by a letter from you. Let us in all the varied + fortunes of human life look forward to that lamp which will + enlighten the darkness of earth, the valley of death, and + then become the bright and morning star in the heaven of + heavens. Give my love to your father and mother for they + seem like mine also, and you know you have the love of your + brother, + + JAMES." + +The following shows how keenly sensitive Garfield was, even as a boy, +and how early in life he determined to make a name for himself,-- + + "WILLIAMSTOWN, Jan. 28, 1854. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: I wish you were here to-night; I feel like + waking up the ghosts of the dead past, and holding communion + with spirits of former days. In this calm "night that + broodeth thoughts" the shadows of by-gone days flit past, + and I review each scene. That long strange story of my + boyhood, the taunts, jeers, and cold, averted looks of the + rich and the proud, chill me again for a moment, as did the + real ones of former days. Then comes the burning heart, the + high resolve, the settled determination, and the days and + nights of struggling toil, those dreary days when the + heavens seemed to frown and the icy heart of the cold world + seemed not to give one throb in unison with mine.... With + regards, I remain, as ever, your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "NIAGARA, Nov 5, 1853. + + "CORYDON, MY BROTHER: I am now leaning against the trunk of + an evergreen tree on a beautiful island in the midst of + Niagara's foaming waters. I am alone. No breath of wind + disturbs the leaves of evergreen, which hang mute and + motionless around me. Animated nature is silent, for the + voice of God, like the "sound of many waters," is lifted up + from the swathing clouds of hoary foam that rest upon the + dark abyss below. + + 'Oh, fearful stream. + How do thy terrors tear me from myself + And fill my soul with wonder.' + + I gaze upon the broad green waters as they come placid and + smooth, like firm battalions of embattled hosts, moving in + steady columns, till the sloping channel stirs the depths + and maddens all the waters. Then with angry roar the legions + bound along the opposing rocks, until they reach the awful + brink, where, all surcharged with frantic fury, they leap + bellowing down the fearful rocks which thunder back the + sullen echoes of thy voice, and shout God's power above the + cloudy skies! Oh man! frail child of dust thou art to lift + thy insect voice upon this spot where the Almighty thunders + from the swelling floods that lift to heaven their hoary + breath, like clouds of smoking incense. Oh, that the + assembled millions of the earth could now behold this scene + sublime and awful, and adore the everlasting God whose + fingers piled these giant cliffs, and sent his sounding + seas to thunder down and shout in deafening tones, 'We come + from out the hollow of His hand, and haste to do His + bidding.' + + "Your friend and brother, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + +Here are a few lines written in 1859, just after his nomination to the +Senate of Ohio,-- + + "Long ago, you know, I had thought of a public career, but I + fully resolved to forego it all, unless it could be obtained + without wading through the mire into which politicians + usually plunge. The nomination was tendered me, and by + acclamation, though there were five candidates. I never + solicited the place, nor did I make any bargain to secure + it. I shall endeavor to do my duty, and if I never rise any + higher, I hope to have the consolation that my manhood is + unsullied by the past." + + "WLLLIAMSTOWN, June 19, 1855. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: Your favor of the 4th inst. was received + about ten days ago, but I have been entirely unable to + answer until this time. A day or two after it came I left + for Pittstown, N. Y., to attend a yearly meeting of + Disciples, where I spent some four days, and last Saturday I + left again for Poestenkill, and spoke to the people Saturday + evening and three discourses on Lord's Day.... We had good + meetings in each place, and much interest. I cannot resist + the appeals of our brethren for aid while I have the + strength to speak to them.... I tell you, my dear brother, + the cause in which we are engaged must take the world. It + fills my soul when I reflect upon the light, joy, and love + of the ancient Gospel, and its adaptation to the wants of + the human race.... I long to be in the thickest of the + fight, and see the army of truth charge home upon the + battalions of hoary-headed error. But I must be content to + be a spy for a time, till I have reconnoitred the enemy's + stronghold, and then I hope to work. Ever your friend and + classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "DORCHESTER HEIGHTS, Jan. 5, 1856. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON AND MARY: I want to pencil a few lines to + you from this enchanting spot on the sea-shore, six miles + from Boston, and when I return, perhaps I will ink it in a + letter to you. I am spending the night here with a classmate + of mine, one of the dearest friends I have in college. I am + in an old house--every timber of oak--built more than one + hundred years ago. To one who has seen cities rise from the + wild forest in the space of a dozen years, and has hardly + ever seen a building older than himself, you may be assured + that many reflections are awakened by the look of antiquity + that everything has around me. The quaint old beams and + panelled walls, the heavy double windows that look out + oceanward, in short, the whole air of the building speaks of + the days of the olden time. To think that these walls have + echoed to the shouts of loyalty to George the King---have + heard all the voices of the spirit-stirring Revolution, the + patriotic resolve, the tramp of the soldier's foot, the + voice of the beloved Washington, (for within a few rods of + here he made his first Revolutionary encampment,) the cannon + of Bunker Hill, the lamentations of defeat and shouts of + victory--all these cannot but awaken peculiar reflections. + To how many that are now sleepers in the quiet church-yard, + or wanderers in the wide, cold world, has this been the dear + ancestral hall where all the joys of childhood were + clustered. Within this oaken-ceiled chamber how many bright + hopes have been cherished and high resolves formed; how many + hours of serene joy, and how many heart-throbs of bitter + anguish! If these walls had a voice I would ask them to tell + me the mingled scenes of joy and sorrow they have witnessed. + But even their silence has a voice, and I love to listen. + But without there is no silence, for the tempest is howling + and snows are drifting. The voice of the great waves, as + they come rolling up against the wintry shore, speak of Him + 'whose voice is as the sound of many waters.' Only a few + miles from here is the spot where-- + + 'The breaking waves dashed high + On a stern and rock-bound coast, + And the woods against a stormy sky + Their giant branches tossed; + And the heavy night hung dark, + The hills and waters o'er, + When a band of pilgrims moored their bark + On the wild New-England shore.' + + "But the coal has sunk to the lowest bar in the grate beside + me--'tis far past the noon of night, and I must close.... As + ever, your own affectionate + + JAMES." + +The following letter, written to Mr. Fuller while Gen. Garfield was +chief-of-staff to Gen. Rosecrans, will be of special historical value,-- + + "HEADQUARTERS DEPT, OF THE CUMBERLAND, + + "MURFREESBORO, Tenn., May 4, 1863. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: Yours of April 1 was received by the hand + of Lieut. Beeber, and I assure you it was read with great + pleasure. When I was in Washington last winter I saw Mr. + Colfax, who spoke very kindly and highly of you. I have now + fully recovered my health, and for the last three months + have been very hardy and robust. My duties are very full of + work here, and I have never been more pressingly crowded + with labor than now. I have not retired on an average before + two o'clock for the last two months and a half. Gen. + Rosecrans shares all his counsels with me, and places a + large share of the responsibility of the management of this + wing upon me; even more than I sometimes wish he did. This + army is now in admirable condition. The poor and weak + material has been worked out, and what we now have is hard + brawn and solid muscle. It is in an admirable state of + discipline, and when its engineries are fully set in motion, + it will make itself felt. From all the present indications + it cannot be long before we meet the rebel army now in our + front, and try its strength again. When that day arrives, it + bids fair to be the bloodiest fighting of the war. One thing + is settled in my mind. Direct blows at the rebel army, + bloody fighting is all that can end the rebellion. In + European wars, if you capture the chief city of a nation, + you have substantially captured the nation. The army that + holds London, Paris, Vienna or Berlin, holds England, + France, Austria or Prussia. Not so in this war. The rebels + have no city the capture of which will overthrow their + power. If we take Richmond, the rebel Government can be put + on wheels and trundled away into the interior with all its + archives in two days. Hence our real objective point is not + any place or district, but the rebel army, wherever we find + it. We must crush and pulverize them, and then all places + and territories fall into our hands as a consequence. These + views lead me to a hope and belief that before many days we + shall join in a death-grapple with Bragg and Johnson. God + grant that we may be successful. The armies are nearly equal + in number, and both are filled with veteran soldiers well + drilled and disciplined. The little circumstance you related + to me of the soldier in the Fifty-first Indiana touches my + heart." [A soldier who was killed had written home to his + wife to name their child, born during the former's absence, + after Gen. Garfield.] "I wish you would write a letter for + me to Joseph Lay, the young man's father, and express my + sympathy with him for the loss of his brave son, who was + many times with me under the fire of the enemy. I want to + know of the health of his family, and especially of that + little one to whom the affection of the father gave my name. + With the love of other days, I am, as ever, your brother, + + JAMES." + +Here is a glimpse of his home life,-- + + "WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 1876. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: On Saturday last I addressed a large + Republican meeting at Hackensack, four miles from + Schraalenburg, where I went with you twenty-two years ago. I + have never been so near there before, and it brought up the + old memories to be so near. I was called here by telegraph + to the bedside of our little boy Edward, who is very ill + and I fear will not recover. He was recovering from the + whooping cough, and his disease went to his brain. He has + now been lying in an unconscious state nearly four days, and + unless the pressure can soon be removed, he cannot last + long. He is a beautiful child of two years, and the thought + of losing him rives our hearts. But he is in the keeping of + our good Father, who knows what is best for us. All the rest + of us are well. I have worked very hard this campaign, + having spoken almost constantly for two months. You have + probably seen that I was re-elected by about 9,000 majority, + this being my eighth election; but of what avail is public + honor in the presence of death? It has been a long time + since I have heard from you, and I hope that you will write + soon. 'Crete joins me in love to you and Mary. + + "Ever your friend and classmate, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + "WASHINGTON, Nov. 9, 1876. + + "MY DEAR CORYDON: I arrived in this city yesterday afternoon + and found that your kind letter of the 2d inst. was awaiting + me. Our precious little Eddie died on the 25th of October, + and the same evening 'Crete and I left with the body, and on + the 27th we buried him beside our little girl who died + thirteen years ago. Both are lying in the graveyard at + Hiram, and we have come back to those which are still left + us, but with a desolation in our hearts known only to those + who have lost a precious child. It seems to me that we are + many years older than we were when the dear little boy died. + His little baby ways so filled the house with joy that the + silence he has left is heartbreaking. It needs all my + philosophy and courage to bear it. It was very hard to go on + with the work of the great campaign with so great a grief in + my heart, but I knew that it was my duty, and I did it as + well as I could. I spoke almost every day till the election, + but it now appears that we are defeated. What the future of + our country will be no one can tell. The only safety we can + rely on lies in the closeness of the vote both on the + Presidency and on the members of the House of + Representatives. We have so far reduced the strength of the + Democratic House that I hope they will not be able to do + much harm. Still we shall have a hard, uncomfortable + struggle to save the fruits of our great war. We shall need + all the wisdom and patriotism the country possesses to save + ourselves from irretrievable calamity. If we had carried the + House of Representatives it was almost certain that I should + have been elected Speaker; but, of course, that has gone + down in the general wreck. 'Crete joins me in kindest + regards to you and May. I hope the time may come when we can + sit down and renew the memories of other days and enjoy a + long visit. I am here now for the winter, and shall soon be + at work in the Supreme Court, where I am having a number of + important cases. With as much love as ever, I am your friend + and brother, + + "JAMES A. GARFIELD." + + + + +CHAPTER XLV. + + Reminiscences of Corydon E. Fuller.--Of one of the Pupils at + Hiram Institute.--Garfield's Keen Observation.--His Kindness + of Heart.--Anecdote of the Game of Ball.--Of the Lame Girl + in Washington.--Of Brown, the ex-Scout and old Boat + Companion. + + +Mr. Corydon E. Fuller, to whom the letters in the preceding chapter were +addressed, was one of the most intimate of the late President Garfield's +friends, and shared with him the early privations of his academic and +collegiate life. Mr. Fuller said: "My first acquaintance with Mr. +Garfield was in the Eclectic Institute at Hiram College in the year +1851. We entered the school at the same time. My first recollection of +him is as a young man, looking all of twenty years old, about six feet +in height, powerfully built, with a head of bushy hair, and weighing +about one hundred and eighty-five pounds. I remember him attired in +Kentucky jean clothes with calico sleeves, ringing the bell for the +opening of recitations. We very soon became acquainted, and that was +during the Fall term of 1851. At this time the Boynton boys and girls, +numbering six, were also at the school. These were closely related to +Garfield. One of them was the Mrs. Arnold, killed at the Newberg +railroad disaster at the same time with Thomas Garfield, uncle of the +late President. In the winter of 1851-2 Mr. Garfield taught school at +Warrensville, Cuyahoga County, and I at Hamilton, Geauga County. At that +time we commenced corresponding, and kept it up until the time of his +assassination." + +"I remember once asking him," said one of Garfield's pupils, "what was +the best way to pursue a certain study, and he said: 'Use several +textbooks. Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that +way you can plow a broader furrow. I always study in that way.' He tried +hard to teach us to observe carefully and accurately. He broke out one +day in the midst of a lesson with 'Henry how many posts are there under +the building downstairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and the question +went around the class, hardly one getting it right. Then it was: 'How +many boot-scrapers are there at the door?' 'How many windows in the +building?' 'How many trees in the field!' 'What were the colors of +different rooms, and the peculiarities of any familiar objects?' He was +the keenest observer I ever saw, I think he noticed and numbered every +button on our coats." + +"There was one grand thing about President Garfield," said one who knew +him well, "and that was he never felt ashamed to work, no matter what +position he filled. He was always engaged in something, and I have never +seen him alone when his thoughts were not deeply engaged in something. +One great thing that was no doubt the greatest secret of his success, +was his constant desire to be elevated to a higher position. He was +always reaching for something, and never gave up until he received that +for which he was working. Again, he never was ashamed of his low +condition or poverty, and I have often heard him say, during the course +of conversations, that 'there never was a grander thing to see than a +man or woman in earnest in anything they undertake. No matter whether +they may be right or wrong, to see them in dead earnest and working for +dear life for the object of their desire is a noble sight to witness.' +I'll call your attention to another fact: he always went along with his +eyes and ears open, catching up every opportunity to learn something. He +would walk along the street, and to merely glance at a stranger would +not satisfy him, but he would watch a person and try to discover +something in his countenance, and he couldn't look at a lady without +being able to tell you the color of every ribbon on her hat. He has +often told me that the great keeness of his perceptive faculties were +often painful to him. If travelling on a railroad train, and the cars +by chance would stop a short time, he was out inquiring the cause of the +delay, and while walking leisurely along some highway he would meet a +German or Irishman working, when he would stop and interrogate them, and +then tell his friends what he had learned. He was always determined to +learn something." + +At one time when walking with a friend through the streets of Cleveland, +Garfield suddenly stopped and then darted down a cellar-way. Over the +door was the sign "Saws and Files," and a clicking sound could be heard +below. + +"I think this fellow is cutting files," said Garfield, "and I have never +seen a file cut." + +He was right; there was a man below stairs who was re-cutting an old +file, so the two friends stayed there some ten minutes, until the whole +process of file-cutting was thoroughly understood. + +"Garfield would never go by anything," said his friend, "without +understanding it." + +His native kindness of heart is seen in an incident that occurred while +he was principal at Hiram Institute. Ruling in the schoolroom with great +firmness, he was always ready to join the boys in their games on the +playground. One day, when he had taken his place in a game of ball, he +happened to see some small boys close by the fence, who were looking on +with wistful eyes. + +"Are these boys not in the game?" he said to the players. + +"What! those little tads? Of course not. They'd spoil the game." + +"But they want to play," said the principal, "just as much as we do. Let +them come in." + +"Oh no!" was the exclamation; "it's no use to spoil the game; they can't +play." + +"Well," said Garfield, laying down his bat, "if they can't play I +won't." + +"All right, then, let them come in," was the answer, and so the +kind-hearted teacher won the day. + +Another story is told as follows: Two Southern ladies engaged in +charitable work connected with their church society became interested in +the case of a family consisting of a blind man, his invalid wife, and a +lame daughter. The latter was at work in the fourth story of a +government building in Washington, at a salary of $400 per annum, and to +get this small amount she was obliged to walk (using a crutch) nearly +three miles each way daily between her house and the printing-room, and +to climb four nights of stairs to her labors. This so exhausted the poor +child that she was fast losing her health. These two Southern ladies +looked about them to see who, among the influential men in Washington, +had the broadest human sympathy, and decided that General James A. +Garfield, then M. C. was the man most likely to help them in benefiting +this afflicted family. They accordingly visited General Garfield's +house, and found a carriage before the door. Though complete strangers +to him, they sent their cards to the general, who immediately came down +stairs. He had his overcoat thrown over his arm, but very courteously +greeted the ladies and asked what he could do for them. They said,-- + +"We notice you appear to be about leaving, and perhaps we detain you." +He replied, "I am about to take the cars, but I will delay till next +train if I can in any way be of service to you;" and he showed them into +the parlor and introduced them to his wife. When he was told the case he +replied that he should be away from Washington for two or three days, +but if they would remind him on his return, he would do all he could to +assist them. Mrs. Garfield engaged to remind the general on his return, +which she did, and through his kindness and effort this lame girl was +transferred from the fourth floor to the first, and her salary made +$1200 instead of $400. + +Still another instance of Garfield's kindness of heart is shown in the +following story:-- + +One time when he was about to deliver an address at Cornell, a heavy +hand was laid upon his shoulder, and turning about, he saw Brown, his +ex-scout and old boat companion. He was a sad-looking wreck--with +bleared eyes, bloated face, and garments that were half tatters. He had +come, he said, while the tears rolled down his cheeks, to that quiet +place to die, and now he could die in peace because he had seen his +'gineral.' + +Garfield gave him money and got him quarters among some kind people, and +left him, telling him to try to be a man; but, in any event, to let him +know if he ever needed further help. A year or more passed, and no word +came from Brown; but then the superintendent of the public hospital at +Buffalo wrote the general that a man was there very sick, who, in his +delirium, talked of him, of the Ohio Canal, and of the Sandy Valley +expedition. Garfield knew at once that it was Brown, and immediately +forwarded funds to the hospital, asking that he should have every +possible care and comfort. The letter which acknowledged the remittance +announced that the poor fellow had died--died, muttering, in his +delirium, the name 'Jim Garfield.' + +Garfield paid his funeral expenses. + +"Poor Brown!" he exclaimed, "he had a rare combination of good and bad +qualities, with strong traits, a ruined man; and yet, underneath the +ruins, a great deal of generous, self-sacrificing noble-heartedness." + + + + +CHAPTER XLVI. + + Remarks of a Personal Friend.--Reminiscences of the + President's Cousin Henry Boynton.--Garfield as a Freemason. + + +Said a personal friend,-- + +"No one who saw President Garfield after his installation in the White +House can fail to have observed the great change which his accession to +power had occasioned in him. Only at intervals did his bright joyousness +shine out again, as at the pleasant home at Mentor. The very day after +he became President, the struggle for the spoils of office began with a +fierceness hitherto unparalleled in all the strife of that kind which +has been seen at Washington. He was half-maddened by his desire to do +justice to all the contending factions. It was this feeling which made +him slow to give irrevocable decisions. I was at the White House one +morning, and he referred to his anxiety not to take a step in haste +which he might repent at leisure. The humor of his own cautious slowness +brought back the twinkle in his eye, the smile on the rosy lip. 'I don't +know when I shall get around to that,' he said. 'You know, there's no +telling when the Mississippi River will reach a given point.' The +sluggish movement of the great Father of Waters was hit off to the life +by this impromptu epigram." + +Hardly had Garfield been nominated for the presidency, when his +neighbors, those who had known him from boyhood, together with his +kinsmen, gathered, and raised upon his old home, near the spot where he +was born, a pole, and placed thereon the candidate's name. The pole was +erected where the house stood which Garfield with his brother erected +for their mother and sisters with their own hands, after the log hut, a +little farther out in the field nearer the wood, had become unfit for +habitation. Thomas Garfield, an old man eighty years of age, the one who +was killed in a railroad accident soon after Gen. Garfield had been +inaugurated President, directed the manual labor of rearing the shaft, +and was proud of his work. Soon after it was erected Garfield himself +came from Mentor to look over the old place again, and with proud +satisfaction looked upon this expression of friendship of his old +neighbors. There is nothing except this pole left to mark his +birthplace, and the old well, not two rods off, which he and his brother +dug to furnish water for the family. On the day of the funeral services, +the torn and tattered banner which those who knew him from childhood to +manhood had erected in his honor, was lazily floating in the breeze +half-way down the pole, showing in its plain way the sorrow of those who +so gladly erected it less than twelve months ago. In the little maple +grove to the left, children played about the country school-house, which +has replaced the log one where the dead President first gathered the +rudiments upon which he built to such purpose. The old orchard in its +sere and yellow leaf, the dying grass, and the turning maple-leaves, +seemed to join in the general mourning. + +Adjoining the field where the flag floats is an unpretentious farm +almost as much identified with General Garfield's early history as the +one he helped to clear of the forest timber while he was a child, but it +is now free of buildings. Near by is the home of Henry B. Boynton, +cousin of the dead President, and a brother of Dr. Boynton, who has been +so conspicuously connected with the Garfield family since Mrs. +Garfield's illness last spring. "General Garfield and I were like +brothers," said he to a visitor, as he turned from giving some +directions to his farm hands, now sowing the fall grain upon ground +which the dead President first helped to break. He looked off tearfully, +as he spoke, toward the flag at half-mast, marking the birthplace of his +life-long friend. "His father died yonder, within a stone's throw of us, +when the son was but one and a half years old and I was but three and a +half. He knew no other father than mine, who watched over the family as +if it had been his own. I bore a peculiar relation to the general. His +father and my father were half-brothers, and his mother and my mother +were sisters. This very house in which I live was as much his home as it +was mine." They walked toward the house as he spoke, and had here +reached the plain mansion which was the house of the speaker's +ancestors, as well as General Garfield's, and passed inside, to find his +good housewife silent and tearful, and whose swollen eyes told plainer +than words the terrible sorrow they all felt. + +"Over there," said he, pointing to the brick schoolhouse in the grove of +maples, around which the happy children were playing, "is where he and I +first went to school. I have read a statement that he could not read or +write until he was nineteen. He could do both before he was nine; and +before he was twelve, so familiar was he with the Indian history of the +country, that he had named every tree in the orchard, which his father +planted before he was born, with the name of some Indian chief. One +favorite tree of his he named 'Tecumseh,' and the branches of many of +those old trees have been cut since his promotion to the presidency by +relic hunters and carried away. General Garfield was a remarkable boy, +sir, as well as man. It is not possible to tell you the fight he made +amid poverty for a place in life, and how gradually he obtained it. When +he was a boy he would rather read than work. But he became a great +student. He had to work after he was twelve years of age. In those days +we were all poor, and it took hard knocks to get on. He worked clearing +the fields yonder with his brother, and then cut cordwood and did other +farm labor to get the necessaries of life for his mother and sisters. + +"His experience upon the canal was a severe one, but perhaps useful. I +can remember the winter when he came home after the summer's service +there. He had the chills all that fall and winter, yet he would shake, +and get his lessons at home; go over to the school and recite, and thus +keep up with his class. The next spring found him weak from constant +ague. Yet he intended to return to the canal. Here came the turning +point in his life. Mr. Bates, who taught the school, pleaded with him +not to do so, and said that, if he would continue in school until the +next fall, he could get a certificate. I received my certificate about +the same time. The next year we went to the seminary at Chester, only +twelve miles distant. Here our books were furnished us, and we cooked +our own victuals. We lived upon a dollar a week each. Our diet was +strong, but very plain; mush and molasses, pork and potatoes. Saturdays +we took our axes and went into the woods and cut cordwood; during +vacations we labored in the harvest field, or taught a district school, +as we could. Yonder," said he, pointing off toward a beautiful valley, +"about two miles distant stands the school-house where Garfield first +taught school. He got twelve dollars a month and boarded around. I also +taught school in a neighboring town. You see," continued the farmer, +"that the general and myself were very close to one another from the +time either of us could lisp until he became President. He visited me +here just before election, and looked with gratification upon that pole +yonder and its flag, erected by his neighbors and kinsmen. He wandered +over the fields he himself had helped clear, and pointed out to me +trees, from the limbs of which he had shot squirrel after squirrel, and +beneath the branches of which he had played and worked in the years of +his infancy and boyhood. + +"I forgot to say that one of General Garfield's striking characteristics +while he was growing up was that, when he saw a boy in the class excel +him in anything, he never gave up until he reached the same standard, +and even went beyond it. It got to be known that no scholar could be +ahead of him. Our association as men has been almost as close as that of +boys, although not as constant. The general never forgot his neighbors +or less fortunate kinsmen, and often visited us, as we did him. + +"Just before he was inaugurated I had a conversation with him, which +impressed me more than any other talk of our lives. He said: 'Henry, I +approach the duties of the Presidency with much reluctance. I had +thought that at some future time it might be possible for me to aspire +to that position, but I had been elected to the Senate, and should have +preferred to serve the six years in that body to which my own State +people had elected me. It would have been six years of comparative rest, +for service in the Senate is much easier than in the House. I hope I may +discharge the duties of the Presidency with satisfaction. There is one +thing, however, that distresses me more than all else. All my life I +have been making friends, and I have a great many sincere ones. But from +the hour I assume the Presidency I must necessarily begin making +enemies. Any man who wants an office and does not get it, will feel +himself aggrieved.' Our conversation at this time was long and earnest, +and seemed like returning to the days when we were schoolboys together." + +Garfield was made a Mason in Magnolia Lodge, No. 20, at Columbus, Nov. +22, 1861, while he was commander at Camp Chase. His affiliation at the +time of his death was with Pentalpha Lodge, No. 23, and Columbia +Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templars, at Washington, D. C. Suitar says +that he was the eighth Mason, but the first Knight Templar, who was +ever honored with the Presidency. He was a true and courteous knight, +and was not only an earnest supporter, but a charter member of Pentalpha +Lodge. After his election to the Presidency, his commandery sought to +express their esteem for him by attending the inauguration, and, +although the Masonic law forbids any interference with or participation +in politics, the occasion was regarded by the right eminent grand +commander as sufficiently important and devoid of partisan coloring to +grant the desired permission for five platoons of sixteen knights each +to attend President Garfield. On the 19th of July, 1881, he was elected +an honorary member of Hanselmann Commandery, No. 16, at Cincinnati, and +they sent him handsomely engraved resolutions of sympathy, which were +brought to his personal notice during his sickness, to which he +appropriately replied through his private secretary. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVII. + + Poems in Memory of Garfield, by Longfellow.--George + Parsons Lathrop.--From _London Spectator_.--Oliver + Wendell Holmes.--N. Bernard Carpenter.--John Boyle + O'Reilly.--Joaquin Miller. M. J. Savage.--Julia Ward + Howe.--Rose Terry Cooke.--Prize Ode.--Kate Tannett Woods. + + +To the tributes we have already given, we add a few of the many fine +poems published in memory of the martyred President. + + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD. + +BY HENRY W. LONGFELLOW. + +"_E venni dal martirio a questa pace._" + + These words the poet heard in Paradise, + Uttered by one who, bravely dying here, + In the true faith, was living in that sphere, + Where the Celestial Cross of sacrifice + Spread its protecting arms athwart the skies; + And, set thereon, like jewels crystal clear, + The souls magnanimous, that knew not fear, + Flashed their effulgence on his dazzled eyes. + Ah, me! how dark the discipline of pain, + Were not the suffering followed by the sense + Of infinite rest and infinite release! + This is our consolation; and again + A great soul cries to us in our suspense: + "I come from martyrdom unto this peace!" + + CAMBRIDGE, MASS, Sept 26, 1881. + + _The Independent._ + + +GARFIELD, PRESIDENT OF THE PEOPLE. + +(Died Sept. 19, 1881.) + + What is this silence, that calls? + What is this deafness that hears? + The silence is Death. Like a voice it falls; + It rings in the heedless ears + + That never shall hearken again + To the words of our blame or praise, + Nor the low-hushed moan of a nation's pain + As it rolls through the darkened days! + + And the motionless body must yield + To the spell of that hushed command. + Oh, that one of us, dying, had been the shield + To save that life for our land! + + Man that was trusted of men-- + Brave, and not fearing to die + More than to face life's meanness, when + It clamored its partisan lie! + + Though you leave us, we lose you not! + In the Republic you live + Sacred, and part of its deathless lot, + For whose life your life you give. + + Garfield--the name so plain, + The name we knew so well!-- + The name we shall never forget again, + Of the man who for honesty fell! + + Like another Winkelried, + You drew to yourselves the spears + Of tyrannous hate, though yourself must bleed; + And left us--our pride and our tears. + + Legacy meet and rare, + Of one who dared to be pure! + In the hearts of the people who love what is fair, + That precious renown shall endure. + + O sorrow that falls like a stone + In the midst of the calm of our peace, + As the waves of pity around you have grown, + So may our truth increase! + + GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. + + IN ENGLAND, Sept. 20, 1881. + + _New York Tribune._ + + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD. + + The hush of the sick-room; the muffled tread; + Fond, questioning eye; mute lip, and listening ear; + Where wife and children watch 'twixt hope and fear, + A father's, husband's living-dying bed!-- + The hush of a great nation, when its head + Lies stricken! Lo! along the streets he's borne, + Pale, through rank'd crowds, this gray September morn, + 'Mid straining eyes, sad brows unbonneted, + And reverent speechlessness!--a "people's voice!" + Nay but a peoples silence! through the soul + Of the wide world its subtler echoes roll, + O brother nation England for her part + Is with thee: God willing she whose heart + Throbbed with thy pain shall with thy joy rejoice. + + SEPT. 6, 1881. + + _London Spectator._ + + +AFTER THE BURIAL. + +BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + + Fallen with autumns falling leaf, + Ere yet his summers noon was past, + Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief,-- + What words can match a woe so vast? + + And whose the chartered claim to speak + The sacred grief where all have part, + When sorrow saddens every cheek, + And broods in every aching heart? + + Yet nature prompts the burning phrase + That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall, + The loud lament, the sorrowing praise, + The silent tear that love lets fall. + + In loftiest verse, in lowliest rhyme, + Shall strive unblamed the minstrel choir,-- + The singers of the new born time, + And trembling age with outworn lyre. + + No room for pride, no place for blame-- + We fling our blossoms on the grave, + Pale, scentless, faded,--all we claim, + This only,--what we had we gave. + + Ah, could the grief of all who mourn + Blend in one voice its bitter cry, + The wail to heaven's high arches borne + Would echo through the caverned sky. + + + II. + + O happiest land whose peaceful choice + Fills with a breath its empty throne! + God, speaking through thy people's voice, + Has made that voice for once his own. + + No angry passion shakes the State + Whose weary servant seeks for rest,-- + And who could fear that scowling hate + Would strike at that unguarded breast? + + He stands, unconscious of his doom, + In manly strength, erect, serene,-- + Around him summer spreads her bloom: + He falls,--what horror clothes the scene! + + How swift the sudden flash of woe + Where all was bright as childhood's dream! + As if from heaven's ethereal bow + Had leaped the lightning's arrowy gleam. + + Blot the foul deed from history's page,-- + Let not the all-betraying sun + Blush for the day that stains an age + When murder's blackest wreath was won. + + + III. + + Pale on his couch the sufferer lies, + The weary battle-ground of pain; + Love tends his pillow, science tries + Her every art, alas! in vain. + + The strife endures how long! how long! + Life, death, seem balanced in the scale; + While round his bed a viewless throng + Awaits each morrow's changing tale. + + In realms the desert ocean parts, + What myriads watch with tear filled eyes, + His pulse beats echoing in their hearts, + His breathings counted with their sighs! + + Slowly the stories of life are spent, + Yet hope still battles with despair,-- + Will heaven not yield when knees are bent? + Answer, O Thou that hearest prayer! + + But silent is the brazen sky,-- + On sweeps the meteor's threatening train,-- + Unswerving Nature's mute reply + Bound in her adamantine chain. + + Not ours the verdict to decide + Whom death shall claim or skill shall save: + The hero's life though Heaven denied, + It gave our land a martyr's grave. + + Nor count the teaching vainly sent + How human hearts their griefs may share,-- + The lesson woman's love has lent + What hope may do, what faith can bear! + + Farewell! the leaf-strewn earth enfolds + Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears, + And autumn's golden sun beholds + A nation bowed, a world in tears. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +SONNET--JAMES A. GARFIELD. + +BY REV. H. BERNARD CARPENTER + + Lo! as a pure white statue wrought with care + By some strong hand, which moulds from Life and Death + Beauty more beautiful than blood or breath, + And straight 'tis veiled, and, whilst all men repair + To see this wonder in the workshops there! + Behold it gleams unveiled to curious eye + Far-seen, high-placed in Art's pale gallery, + Where all stand mute before a work so fair: + So he, our man of men, in vision stands, + With Pain and Patience crowned imperial, + Death's veil has dropped, far from this house of woe + He hears one love chant out of many lands, + Whilst from his mystic noon-height he lets fall + His shadow o'er these hearts that bleed below. + + SEPT. 26, 1881. + + _The Independent._ + + +MIDNIGHT. + +SEPTEMBER 19, 1881. + +BY JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY. + + Once in a lifetime we may see the veil + Tremble and lift, that hides symbolic things: + The spirit's vision, when the senses fail, + Sweeps the weird meaning that the outlook brings. + + Deep in the midst of turmoil it may be,-- + A crowded street, a forum, or a field,-- + The soul inverts the telescope, to see + To-day's event in future years revealed. + + Back from the present, let us look at Rome; + Now see what Cato meant, what Brutus said. + Hark! the Athenians welcome Cimon home! + How clear they are, those glimpses of the dead! + + But we hard toilers, we who plan and weave + Through common days the web of common life, + What word, alas! shall teach us to receive + The mystic meaning of our peace and strife? + + Whence comes our symbol? Surely God must speak; + No less than he can make us heed or pause: + Self-seekers we, too busy or too weak + To search beyond our daily lives and laws. + + 'Gainst things occult our earth-turned eyes rebel; + No sound of destiny can reach our ears; + We have no time for dreaming--Hark! a knell,-- + A knell at midnight! All the nation hears! + + A second grievous throb! The dreamers wake; + The merchant's soul forgets his goods and ships; + The humble workmen from their slumbers break; + The women raise their eyes with quivering lips; + + The miner rests upon his pick to hear; + The printer's type stops midway from the case; + The solemn sound has reached the roisterer's ear, + And brought the shame and sorrow to his face. + + Again it booms! Oh, mystic veil, upraise!-- + Behold, 'tis lifted! On the darkness drawn, + A picture, lined with light! The people's gaze, + From sea to sea, beholds it till the dawn: + + A death-bed scene--a sinking sufferer lies, + Their chosen ruler, crowned with love and pride; + Around, his counsellors, with streaming eyes; + His wife, heart-broken, kneeling by his side: + + Death's shadow holds her, it will pass too soon; + She weeps in silence--bitterest of tears; + He wanders softly--Nature's kindest boon, + And as he whispers all the country hears. + + For him the pain is past, the struggle ends: + His cares and honors fade: his younger life + In peaceful Mentor comes, with dear old friends; + His mother's arms take home his sweet young wife; + + He stands among the students, tall and strong, + And teaches truths republican and grand: + He moves--ah, pitiful!--he sweeps along, + O'er fields of carnage leading his command! + + He speaks to crowded faces; round him surge + Thousands and millions of excited men: + He hears them cheer, sees some great light emerge, + Is borne as on a tempest: then--ah, then! + + The fancies fade, the fever's work is past; + A moment's pang--then recollections thrill: + He feels the faithful lips that kiss their last, + His heart beats once in answer, and is still! + + The curtain falls; but hushed, as if afraid, + The people wait, tear-stained, with heaving breast; + 'Twill rise again, they know, when he is laid + With Freedom, in the Capitol, at rest. + + Once more they see him, in his coffin there, + As Lincoln lay in blood-stained martyr sleep; + The stars and stripes across his honored bier, + While Freedom and Columbia o'er him weep. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +REJOICE. + +BY JOAQUIN MILLER. + +"_Bear me out of the battle, for lo! I am sorely wounded._" + + + I. + + From out my deep, wide-bosomed West, + Where unnamed heroes hew the way + For worlds to follow, with stern zest,-- + Where gnarled old maples make array, + Deep-scarred from red men gone to rest,-- + Where pipes the quail, where squirrels play + Through tossing trees, with nuts for toy,-- + A boy steps forth, clear-eyed and tall, + A bashful boy, a soulful boy, + Yet comely as the sons of Saul,-- + A boy, all friendless, poor, unknown, + Yet heir-apparent to a throne. + + + II. + + Lo! Freedom's bleeding sacrifice! + So like some tall oak tempest-blown + Beside the storied stream he lies + Now at the last, pale-browed and prone. + A nation kneels with streaming eyes, + A nation supplicates the throne, + A nation holds him by the hand, + A nation sobs aloud at this: + The only dry eyes in the land + Now at the last, I think, are his. + Why, we should pray, God knoweth best, + That this grand, patient soul should rest. + + + III. + + The world is round. The wheel has run + Full circle. Now behold a grave + Beneath the old loved trees is done. + The druid oaks lift up, and wave + A solemn welcome back. The brave + Old maples murmur, every one, + "Receive him, Earth!" In centre land, + As in the centre of each heart, + As in the hollow of God's hand, + The coffin sinks. And with it part + All party hates! Now, not in vain + He bore his peril and hard pain. + + + IV. + + Therefore, I say, rejoice! I say, + The lesson of his life was much,-- + This boy that won, as in a day, + The world's heart utterly; a touch + Of tenderness and tears; the page + Of history grows rich from such; + His name the nation's heritage,-- + But oh! as some sweet angel's voice + Spake this brave death that touched us all, + Therefore, I say, Rejoice! rejoice! + Run high the flags! Put by the pall! + Lo! all is for the best for all! + + _Boston Globe._ + + +J. A. G. + +HUMANITAS REGNANS. + +BY M. J. SAVAGE. + + With finger on lip, and breath bated + With an eager and sad desire, + The world stood hushed, as it waited + For the click of the fateful wire,-- + + "_Better_:" and civilization + Breathed freer and hoped again; + "_Worse_:" and through every nation + Went throbbing a thrill of pain. + + A cry at midnight! and listening-- + "_Dead!_" tolled out the bells of despair; + And millions of eyelids were glistening + As sobbed the sad tones on the air. + + But who is he toward whom all eyes are turning. + And who is he for whom all hearts are yearning? + + What is the threat at which earth holds its breath + While one lone man a duel fights with death? + + No thrones are hanging in suspense; + No kingdoms totter to their fall. + Peace, with her gentle influence, + Is hovering over all. + + 'Tis just one man at Elberon, + Who waiteth day by day, + Whose patience all our hearts hath won + As ebbs his life away. + + His birthday waked no cannon-boom; + No purple round him hung; + A backwoods cabin gave him room; + And storms his welcome sung. + + He seized the sceptre of that king + Who treads a freehold sod; + He wore upon his brow that ring + That crowns a son of God. + + By his own might he built a throne, + With no unhuman arts, + And by his manhood reigned alone + O'er fifty millions hearts. + + Thus is humanity's long dream, + Its highest, holiest hope begun + To harden into fact, and gleam + A city 'neath the sun-- + + A city, not like that which came + In old-time vision from the skies; + But wrought by man through blood and flame, + From solid earth to rise,-- + + Man's city; the ideal reign + Where every human right hath place; + Where blood, nor birth, nor priest again + Shall bind the weary race,-- + + _In which no king but man shall be_. + 'Twas this that thrilled with loving pain + The heart of all the earth, as he + Died by the sobbing main. + + For, mightiest ruler of the earth, + He was the mightiest, not because + Of priestly touch or blood, or birth. + But by a people's laws. + + * * * * * + + O Garfield! brave and patient soul! + Long as the tireless tides shall roll + About the _Long Branch_ beaches, where + Thy life went out upon the air, + So long thy land, from sea to sea, + Will hold thy manhood's legacy. + + There _were_ two parties: there were those, + In thine own party, called thy foes; + There _was_ a North; there _was_ a South, + Ere blazed the assassin's pistol-mouth. + + But lo! thy bed became a throne: + And as the hours went by, at length + The weakness of thine arm alone + Grew mightier than thy strongest strength. + + No petulant murmur; no vexed cry + Of balked ambitions; but a high, + Grand patience! And thy whisper blent + In one heart all the continent. + To-day there are no factions left, + But _one America_ bereft. + + * * * * * + + O Garfield! fortunate in death wast thou, + Though at the opening of a grand career! + Thou wast a meteor flashing on the brow + Of skies political, where oft appear, + + And disappear, so many stars of promise. Then, + While all men watched thy high course, wondering + If them wouldst upward sweep, or fell again, + Thee from thine orbit mad hands thought to fling; + + And lo! the meteor, with its fitful light, + All on a sudden stood, and was a star,-- + A radiance fixed, to glorify the night + There where the world's proud constellations are. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +J. A. G. + +BY JULIA WARD HOWE. + + Our sorrow sends its shadow round the earth. + So brave, so true! A hero from his birth! + The plumes of Empire moult, in mourning draped, + The lightning's message by our tears is shaped. + + Life's vanities that blossom for an hour + Heap on his funeral car their fleeting flower. + Commerce forsakes her temples, blind and dim, + And pours her tardy gold, to homage him. + + The notes of grief to age familiar grow + Before the sad privations all must know; + But the majestic cadence which we hear + To-day, is new in either hemisphere. + + What crown is this, high hung and hard to reach, + Whose glory so outshines our laboring speech? + The crown of Honor, pure and unbetrayed; + He wins the spurs who bears the knightly aid. + + While royal babes incipient empire hold, + And, for bare promise, grasp the sceptre's gold, + This man such service to his age did bring + That they who knew him servant hailed him king. + + In poverty his infant couch was spread; + His tender hands soon wrought for daily bread; + But from the cradle's bound his willing feet + The errand of the moment went to meet. + + When learning's page unfolded to his view, + The quick disciple straight a teacher grew; + And, when the fight of freedom stirred the land, + Armed was his heart and resolute his hand. + + Wise in the council, stalwart in the field! + Such rank supreme a workman's hut may yield. + His onward steps like measured marbles show, + Climbing the height where God's great flame doth glow. + + Ah! Rose of joy, that hid'st a thorn so sharp! + Ah! Golden woof, that meet'st a severed warp! + Ah! Solemn comfort, that the stars rain down! + The hero's garland his, the martyr's crown! + +NEWPORT, Sept. 25, 1881. + + _Boston Globe._ + + +HOME AT LAST. + +BY ROSE TERRY COOK. + + So long he prayed to come, + Lingered so long away; + Now, with the muffled beat of drum + And solemn dirges, at last he hath come, + Come home to stay. + + Yes, he has come to stay! + The homesick heart is still, + The hurried pulse and the aching breast + Now in the lap of home shall rest; + He has his will. + + No more of heat or chill, + No frost or evil blight, + The work of living a life is done, + The long fight over, the victory won, + He sleeps to-night. + + Silent is home's delight, + Peaceful its tranquil cheer; + Here is the cool, unbroken calm, + The soft wind's breath and the fir-tree's balm, + All, all are here. + + He and the dying year + Lie in their slumber deep. + Safe in the heart of home at last, + Anxious slumber nor grievous past + Shall stir his sleep. + + Woe for us to keep, + For him a joy to last! + Woe for the land in years to come, + Wail, O trumpet! and mutter, drum! + The dead comes home at last! + +WINSTED, CONN. + + _The Independent._ + + +AN ODE ON THE ASSASSINATION. + +[A prize offered by a London weekly for the best poem on the attempted +assassination of President Garfield was awarded to the author of the +following.] + + Veil now, O Liberty! thy blushing face, + At the fell deed that thrills a startled world; + While fair Columbia weeps in dire disgrace, + And bows in sorrow o'er the banner furled. + + No graceless tyrant falls by vengeance here, + 'Neath the wild justice of a secret knife; + No red Ambition ends its grim career, + And expiates its horrors with its life. + + Not here does rash Revenge misguided burn, + To free a nation with the assassin's dart; + Or roused Despair in angry madness turn, + And tear its freedom from a despot's heart. + + But where blest Liberty so widely reigns, + And Peace and Plenty mark a smiling land, + Here the mad wretch its fair white record stains, + And blurs its beauties with a "bloody hand." + + Here the elect of millions, and the pride + Of those who own his mild and peaceful rule,-- + Here virtue sinks and yields the crimson tide, + Beneath the vile unreason of a fool! + + +FATHERLESS. + +BY KATE TANNATT WOODS. + + Over the land the tidings sped, + "The leader has fallen, our chief is dead." + And over the land a cry of pain + Began and ended with Garfield's name. + + "He is dead," said each, with tearful eye: + "So strong, so true, why must he die?" + And the children paused that autumn day + To talk of the good man passed away. + + Over the land when the tidings came, + Even the babies lisped his name; + And youthful eyes grew sad that day + For the fatherless children far away. + + Fatherless,--word with a life of pain; + Fatherless,--never complete again; + Always to miss, and never to know, + The joy of his greeting,--his love below. + + Missing the cheerful smile each day, + Missing his care in studies or play, + Missing each hour, each day, each year, + The sound of a voice so tender and dear. + + Fatherless! only the children can tell + The sound of that dreary funeral knell; + For only they, in all coming years, + Find the roses of youth bedewed with tears. + + Over the land from shore to shore, + The prayer of the children is echoed o'er,-- + "God of the fatherless, help we pray, + The wards of our mourning nation to-day." + + _Boston Globe._ + +SALEM, Sept. 24, 1881. + + + + +CHAPTER XLVIII. + + Currency.--Lincoln.--Forms of Government.--The + Draft.--Slavery.--Human Progress.--Independence.-- + Republicanism and Democracy.--The Rebellion.--Protection + and Free Trade.--Radicalism.--Education.--Reconstruction.-- + William H. Seward.--Fourteenth Amendment.--Classical + Studies.--History.--Law.--Liberty.--Statistical + Science.--Poverty.--Growth.--Ethics.--The Salary + Clause.--The Railway Problem.--Church and State.-- + Courage.--Art.--Literature.--Character.--Public + Opinion.--The Revenue.--Statesmanship.--Science.-- + Truth.--Elements of Success.--Suffrage.--Gustave + Schleicher.--Appeal to Young Men.--The Union.--Inaugural. + +[Speech on the Currency.--46th Congress.] + + +No man can doubt that within recent years, and notably within recent +months, the leading thinkers of the civilized world have become alarmed +at the attitude of the two precious metals in relation to each other; +and many leading thinkers are becoming clearly of the opinion that, by +some wise, judicious arrangement, both the precious metals must be kept +in service for the currency of the world. And this opinion has been very +rapidly gaining ground within the past six months to such an extent, +that England, which for more than half a century has stoutly adhered to +the single gold standard, is now seriously meditating how she may +harness both these metals to the monetary car of the world. And yet +outside of this capital, I do not this day know of a single great and +recognized advocate of bi-metallic money who regards it prudent or safe +for any nation largely to increase the coinage standard of silver at the +present time beyond the limits fixed by existing laws.... Yet we, who +during the past two years have coined far more silver dollars than we +ever before coined since the foundation of the Government; ten times as +many as we coined during half a century of our national life; are to-day +ignoring and defying the enlightened universal opinion of bi-metallism, +and saying that the United States, single-handed and alone, can enter +the field and settle the mighty issue. We are justifying the old proverb +that "fools rush in where angels fear to tread." It is sheer madness, +Mr. Speaker. I once saw a dog on a great stack of hay that had been +floated out into the wild overflowed stream of a river, with its +stack-pen and foundation still holding together, but ready to be +wrecked. For a little while the animal appeared to be perfectly happy. +His hay-stack was there, and the pen around it, and he seemed to think +the world bright and his happiness secure, while the sunshine fell +softly on his head and hay. But by and by he began to discover that the +house and the barn, and their surroundings were not all there, as they +were when he went to sleep the night before; and he began to see that he +could not command all the prospect, and peacefully dominate the scene as +he had done before. + +So with this House. We assume to manage this mighty question which has +been launched on the wild current that sweeps over the whole world, and +we bark from our legislative hay-stacks as though we commanded the whole +world. In the name of common sense and sanity, let us take some account +of the flood; let us understand that a deluge means something, and try +if we can to get our bearings before we undertake to settle the affairs +of all mankind by a vote of this House. To-day we are coining one-third +of all the silver that is being coined in the round world. China is +coining another third; and all other nations are using the remaining +one-third for subsidiary coin. And if we want to take rank with China, +and part company with all of the civilized nations of the Western world, +let us pass this bill, and then "bay the moon" as we float down the +whirling channel to take our place among the silver mono-metallists of +Asia. + + +[Letter to B. A. Kimball.] + + COLUMBUS, OHIO, February 16, 1861. + +Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every +point on the route is astonishing. The reception here was plain and +republican, but very impressive. He has been raising a respectable pair +of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no +appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty. On the whole, I am +greatly pleased with him. He clearly shows his want of culture, and the +marks of western life; but there is no touch of affectation in him, and +he has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, direct, and +thoroughly honest. His remarkable good sense, simple and condensed style +of expression, and evident marks of indomitable will, give me great +hopes for the country. And, after the long, dreary period of Buchanan's +weakness and cowardly imbecility, the people will hail a strong and +vigorous leader. + + +[To the Same.] + +A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, because its +sovereignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if it be powerful +enough, will crush it. + +As an abstract theory, the doctrine of Free Trade seems to be +universally true, but as a question of practicability, under a +government like ours, the protective system seems to be indispensable. + + +[Speech on a Draft Bill, June 21, 1864.] + +It has never been my policy to conceal a truth _merely_ because it is +unpleasant. It may be well to smile in the face of danger, but it is +neither well nor wise to let danger approach unchallenged and +unannounced. A brave nation, like a brave man, desires to see and +measure the perils which threaten it. It is the right of the American +people to know the necessities of the Republic when they are called upon +to make sacrifices for it. It is this lack of confidence in ourselves +and the people, this timid waiting for events to control us when they +should obey us, that makes men oscillate between hope and fear; now in +the sunshine of the hill-tops, and now in the gloom and shadows of the +valley. To such men the bulletin which heralds success in the army gives +exultation and high hope; the evening dispatch, announcing some slight +disaster to our advancing columns, brings gloom and depression. Hope +rises and falls by the accidents of war, as the mercury of the +thermometer changes by the accidents of heat and cold. Let us rather +take for our symbol the sailor's barometer, which faithfully forewarns +him of the tempest, and gives him unerring promise of serene skies and +peaceful seas. + + +[Speech in New York City, 1865, on the Assassination of President +Lincoln.] + +By this last act of madness, it seems as though the Rebellion had +determined that the President of the soldiers should go with the +soldiers who have laid down their lives on the battle-field. They slew +the noblest and gentlest heart that ever put down a rebellion upon this +earth. In taking that life they have left "the iron" hand of the people +to fall upon them. Love is on the front of the throne of God, but +justice and judgment, with inexorable dread, follow behind; and where +law is slighted and mercy despised, when they have rejected those who +would be their best friends, then comes justice with her hoodwinked eye, +and with the sword and scales. From every gaping wound of your dead +chief, let the voice go up for the people to see to it that our house is +swept and garnished. I hasten to say one thing more. For mere vengeance +I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. +But for security of the future I would do everything. + + +[Speech in Congress on the Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery, +January 13, 1865] + +On the 21st day of June, 1788, our national sovereignty was lodged, by +the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still +resides, and for its preservation our armies are to-day in the field. In +all these stages of development, from colonial dependence to full-orbed +nationality, the people, not the States, have been omnipotent. _They_ +have abolished, established, altered, and amended, as suited their +sovereign pleasure. _They_ made the Constitution. That great charter +tells its own story best: + + "We, _the people_ of the United States, in order to form a + more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic + tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the + general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to + ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this + Constitution for the United States of America." + + * * * * * + +That Constitution, with its amendments, is the latest and the greatest +utterance of American sovereignty. The hour is now at hand when that +majestic sovereign, for the benignant purpose of securing still farther +the 'blessings of liberty,' is about to put forth another oracle; is +about to declare that universal freedom shall be the supreme law of the +land. Show me the power that is authorized to forbid it.... They made +the Constitution what it is. They could have made it otherwise then: +they can make it otherwise now. + + * * * * * + +In the very crisis of our fate, God brought us face to face with the +alarming truth, that we must lose our own freedom, or grant it to the +slave. In the extremity of our distress, we called upon the black man to +help us save the Republic, and amidst the very thunder of battle we made +a covenant with him, sealed both with his blood and ours, and witnessed +by Jehovah, that when the nation was redeemed, he should be free, and +share with us the glories and blessings of freedom. In the solemn words +of the great proclamation of emancipation, we not only declared the +slaves forever free, but we pledged the faith of the nation "to maintain +their freedom"--mark the words, "_to maintain their freedom_." The +Omniscient witness will appear in judgment against us if we do not +fulfil that covenant. Have we done it? Have we given freedom to the +black man? What is freedom? Is it a mere negation? the bare privilege of +not being chained, bought, and sold, branded, and scourged? If this be +all, then freedom is a bitter mockery, a cruel delusion, and it may well +be questioned whether slavery were not better. + +But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality. It +is the realization of those imperishable truths of the Declaration, +"that all men are created equal," that the sanction of all just +government is "the consent of the governed." Can these truths be +realized until each man has a right to be heard on all matters relating +to himself? + +Mr. Speaker, we did more than merely to break off the chains of the +slaves. The abolition of slavery added four million citizens to the +Republic. By the decision of the Supreme Court, by the decision of the +attorney-general, by the decision of all the departments of our +government, those men made free are, by the act of freedom, made +citizens. + + * * * * * + +If they are to be disfranchised, if they are to have no voice in +determining the conditions under which they are to live and labor, what +hope have they for the future? It will rest with their late masters, +whose treason they aided to thwart, to determine whether negroes shall +be permitted to hold property, to enjoy the benefits of education, to +enforce contracts, to have access to the courts of justice--in short, to +enjoy any of those rights which give vitality and value to freedom. Who +can fail to foresee the ruin and misery that await this race to whom the +vision of freedom has been presented only to be withdrawn, leaving them +without even the aid which the master's selfish, commercial interest in +their life and service formerly afforded them? Will these negroes, +remembering the battle-fields on which nearly two hundred thousand of +their number have so bravely fought, and many thousands have heroically +died, submit to oppression as tamely and peaceably as in the days of +slavery? Under such conditions there could be no peace, no security, no +prosperity. The spirit of slavery is still among us; it must be utterly +destroyed before we shall be safe. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Speaker, I know of nothing more dangerous to a Republic than to put +into its very midst four million people, stripped of every attribute of +citizenship, robbed of the right of representation, but bound to pay +taxes to the government. If they can endure it, we can not. The murderer +is to be pitied more than the murdered man; the robber more than the +robbed. And we who defraud four million citizens of their rights are +injuring ourselves vastly more than we are injuring the black man whom +we rob. + + * * * * * + +Throughout the whole web of national existence we trace the golden +thread of human progress toward a higher and better estate. + + * * * * * + +The life and light of a nation are inseparable. + + * * * * * + +We confront the dangers of suffrage by the blessings of universal +education. + + * * * * * + +We should do nothing inconsistent with the spirit and genius of our +institutions. We should do nothing for revenge, but everything for +security: nothing for the past; everything for the present and future. + + * * * * * + +There are two classes of forces whose action and reaction determine the +condition of a nation--the forces of Repression and Expression. The one +acts from without; limits, curbs, restrains. The other acts from within; +expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional forms, statutory limitations, +conservative customs, belong to the first. The free play of individual +life, opinion, and action, belong to the second. If these forces be +happily balanced, if there be a wise conservation and correlation of +both, a nation may enjoy the double blessing of progress and permanence. + + * * * * * + +It matters little what may be the forms of National institutions, if the +life, freedom, and growth of society are secured. + + * * * * * + +There is no horizontal stratification of society in this country like +the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and +let another come to the surface to stay there forever. Our +stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free +to move, and where from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop +may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls. + + * * * * * + +The Union and the Congress must share the same fate. They must rise or +fall together. + + * * * * * + +Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political +parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real +political issues of the day declare themselves and come out of the depth +of that deep which we call public opinion. The nation has a life of its +own as distinctly defined as the life of an individual. The signs of its +growth and the periods of its development make issues declare +themselves; and the man or the political party that does not discover +this, has not learned the character of the nation's life. + + +[Reply to Mr. Lamar, in a Committee of the Whole.] + +Mr. Chairman, great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as +the gods, whose feet were shod with wool. Our war of independence was a +war of ideas, of ideas evolved out of two hundred years of slow and +silent growth. When, one hundred years ago, our fathers announced as +self-evident truths the declaration that all men are created equal, and +the only just power of governments is derived from the consent of the +governed, they uttered a doctrine that no nation had ever adopted, that +not one kingdom on the earth then believed. Yet to our fathers it was so +plain that they would not debate it. They announced it as a truth +"self-evident." + +Whence came the immortal truths of the Declaration? To me this was for +years the riddle of our history. I have searched long and patiently +through the books of the _doctrinaires_ to find the germs from which the +Declaration of Independence sprang. I find hints in Locke, in Hobbes, in +Rousseau, and Fenelon; but they were only the hints of dreamers and +philosophers. The great doctrines of the Declaration germinated in the +hearts of our fathers, and were developed under the new influences of +this wilderness world, by the same subtile mystery which brings forth +the rose from the germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to themselves, +the great truths were growing under the new conditions, until, like the +century-plant, they blossomed into the matchless beauty of the +Declaration of Independence, whose fruitage, increased and increasing, +we enjoy to-day. + + * * * * * + +It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak of the gigantic revolution +through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and +settled by a change of administration. It was cyclical, epochal, +century-wide, and to be studied in its broad and grand perspective--a +revolution of even wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the +Revolution of 1776. We have been dealing with elements and forces which +have been at work on this continent more than two hundred and fifty +years. I trust I shall be excused if I take a few moments to trace some +of the leading phases of the great struggle. And in doing so, I beg +gentlemen to see that the subject itself lifts us into a region where +the individual sinks out of sight and is absorbed in the mighty current +of great events. It is not the occasion to award praise or pronounce +condemnation. In such a revolution men are like insects that fret and +toss in the storm, but are swept onward by the resistless movements of +elements beyond their control. I speak of this revolution not to praise +the men who aided it, or to censure the men who resisted it, but as a +force to be studied, as a mandate to be obeyed. + +In the year 1620 there were planted upon this continent two ideas +irreconcilably hostile to each other. Ideas are the great warriors of +the world; and a war that has no ideas behind it is simply brutality. +The two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock, from the _Mayflower_, +and the other from a Dutch brig at Jamestown, Virginia. One was the old +doctrine of Luther, that private judgment, in politics as well as +religion, is the right and duty of every man; and the other, that +capital should own labor, that the negro had no rights of manhood, and +the white man might justly buy, own, and sell him and his offspring +forever. Thus freedom and equality on the one hand, and on the other the +slavery of one race and the domination of another, were the two germs +planted on this continent. In our vast expanse of wilderness, for a long +time, there was room for both; and their advocates began the race across +the continent, each developing the social and political institutions of +their choice. Both had vast interests in common; and for a long time +neither was conscious of the fatal antagonisms that were developing. + +For nearly two centuries there was no serious collision; but when the +continent began to fill up, and the people began to jostle against each +other; when the Roundhead and the Cavalier came near enough to measure +opinions, the irreconcilable character of the two doctrines began to +appear. Many conscientious men studied the subject, and came to the +belief that slavery was a crime, a sin, or, as Wesley said, 'the sum of +all villanies.' This belief dwelt in small minorities for a long time. +It lived in the churches and vestries, but later found its way into the +civil and political organizations of the country, and finally found its +way into this chamber. A few brave, clear-sighted, far-seeing men +announced it here, a little more than a generation ago. A predecessor of +mine, Joshua R. Giddings, following the lead of John Quincy Adams, of +Massachusetts, almost alone held up the banner on this floor, and from +year to year comrades came to his side. Through evil and through good +report he pressed the question upon the conscience of the nation, and +bravely stood in his place in this House, until his white locks, like +the plume of Henry of Navarre, showed where the battle of freedom raged +most fiercely. + +And so the contest continued; the supporters of slavery believing +honestly and sincerely that slavery was a divine institution; that it +found its high sanctions in the living oracles of God and in a wise +political philosophy; that it was justified by the necessities of their +situation; and that slave-holders were missionaries to the dark sons of +Africa, to elevate and bless them. We are so far past the passions of +that early time that we can now study the progress of the struggle as a +great and inevitable development, without sharing in the crimination and +recrimination that attended it. If both sides could have seen that it +was a contest beyond their control; if both parties could have realized +the truth that "unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of +nations," much less for the fate of political parties, the bitterness, +the sorrow, the tears, and the blood might have been avoided. But we +walked in the darkness, our paths obscured by the smoke of the conflict, +each following his own convictions through ever-increasing fierceness, +until the debate culminated in "the last argument to which kings +resort." + +This conflict of opinion was not merely one of sentimental feeling; it +involved our whole political system; it gave rise to two radically +different theories of the nature of our government; the North believing +and holding that we were a nation, the South insisting that we were only +a confederation of sovereign States, and insisting that each State had +the right, at its own discretion, to break the Union, and constantly +threatening secession where the full rights of slavery were not +acknowledged. + +Thus the defence and aggrandizement of slavery, and the hatred of +abolitionism, became not only the central idea of the Democratic party, +but its master passion,--a passion intensified and inflamed by +twenty-five years of fierce political contest, which had not only driven +from its ranks all those who preferred freedom to slavery, but had +absorbed all the extreme pro-slavery elements of the fallen Whig party. +Over against this was arrayed the Republican party, asserting the broad +doctrines of nationality and loyalty, insisting that no State had a +right to secede, that secession was treason, and demanding that the +institution of slavery should be restricted to the limits of the States +where it already existed. But here and there many bolder and more +radical thinkers declared, with Wendell Phillips, that there never could +be union and peace, freedom and prosperity, until we were willing to see +John Hancock under a black skin. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to surrender its truncheon of +command to the Democracy? The gentleman from Mississippi says, if this +were England, the ministry would go out in twenty-four hours with such a +state of things as we have here. Ah, yes! that is an ordinary case of +change of administration. But if this were England, what would she have +done at the end of the war? England made one such mistake as the +gentleman asks this country to make, when she threw away the +achievements of the grandest man that ever trod her highway of power. +Oliver Cromwell had overturned the throne of despotic power, and had +lifted his country to a place of masterful greatness among the nations +of the earth; and when, after his death, his great sceptre was +transferred to a weak though not unlineal hand, his country, in a moment +of reactionary blindness, brought back the Stuarts. England did not +recover from that folly until, in 1689, the Prince of Orange drove from +her island the last of that weak and wicked line. Did she afterward +repeat the blunder? + + * * * * * + +I am aware that there is a general disposition "to let by-gones be +by-gones," and to judge of parties and of men, not by what they have +been, but by what they are and what they propose. + +That view is partly just and partly erroneous. It is just and wise to +bury resentments and animosities. It is erroneous in this, that parties +have an organic life and spirit of their own--an individuality and +character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of a nation. + + * * * * * + +I will close by calling your attention again to the great problem before +us. Over this vast horizon of interests North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand, onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate +its glory, to save liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles, until they +shall have crystalized into the form of enduring law, and become +inwrought into the life and the habits of our people. + +And, until these great results are accomplished, it is not safe to take +one step backward. It is still more unsafe to trust interests of such +measureless value in the hands of an organization whose members have +never comprehended their epoch, have never been in sympathy with its +great movements, who have resisted every step of its progress, and whose +principal function has been + + "'To lie in cold obstruction' + +across the pathway of the nation. + +"No, no, gentlemen, our enlightened and patriotic people will not follow +such leaders in the rearward march. Their myriad faces are turned the +other way; and along their serried lines still rings the cheering cry, +'Forward! till our great work is fully and worthily accomplished.'" + + +[From a Speech in Congress, 1866.] + +Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with +the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the +foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price +as they please. This is my doctrine of protection.... I am for a +protection that leads to ultimate free trade. I am for that free trade +which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection. + + +[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale.] + + WASHINGTON, January 1, 1867. + +I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I +have been for a long time.... Really there seems to be a fear on the +part of many of our friends that they may do some absurdly extravagant +thing to prove their radicalism. I am trying to do two things: dare to +be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibitions +around me, is a matter of no small difficulty.... My own course is +chosen, and it is quite probable it will throw me out of public life. + +We provide for the common defence by a system which promotes the general +welfare. + + +[From an Address at Hiram College, June 14, 1867.] + +It is to me a perpetual wonder how any child's love of knowledge +survives the outrages of the school-house. I, for one, declare that no +child of mine shall ever be _compelled_ to study one hour, or to learn +even the English alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin at +least seven years of muscle and bone. + + +[From the Same.] + +The student should study himself, his relations to society, to nature, +and to art, and above all, in all, and through all these, he should +study the relations of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the +Author of them all. + + +[From the Same] + +It is well to know the history of those magnificent nations whose origin +is lost in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a thousand years +ago--but if we cannot know both, it is far better to study the history +of our own nation, whose origin we can trace to the freest and noblest +aspirations of the human heart--a nation that was formed from the +hardiest, purest, and most enduring elements of European civilization--a +nation that, by its faith and courage, has dared and accomplished more +for the human race in a single century than Europe accomplished in the +first thousand years of the Christian era. The New England township was +the type after which our Federal Government was modelled, yet it would +be rare to find a college student who can make a comprehensive and +intelligible statement of the municipal organization of the township in +which he was born, and tell you by what officers its legislative, +judicial, and executive functions were administered. One half of the +time which is now almost wasted, in district schools, on English +Grammar, attempted at too early an age, would be sufficient to teach our +children to love the Republic, and to become its loyal and life-long +supporters. After the bloody baptism from which the nation has arisen to +a higher and nobler life, of this shameful defect in our system of +education be not speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite +contempt of future generations. I insist that it should be made an +indispensable condition of graduation in every American college, that +the student must understand the history of this continent since its +discovery by Europeans, the origin and history of the United States, its +constitution of government, the struggles through which it has passed, +and the rights and duties of citizens who are to determine its destiny +and share its glory. + +Having thus gained the knowledge which is necessary to life, health, +industry, and citizenship, the student is prepared to enter a wider and +grander field of thought. If he desires that large and liberal culture, +which will call into activity all his powers, and make the most of the +material God has given him, he must study deeply and earnestly the +intellectual, the moral, the religious, and the aesthetic nature of man; +his relations to nature, to civilization, past and present, and above +all, his relations to God. These should occupy nearly, if not fully, +half the time of his college course. In connection with the philosophy +of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathematics, and the +general laws of thought. In connection with moral philosophy, he should +study political and social ethics--a science so little known either in +colleges or congresses. Prominent among all the rest should be his +study of the wonderful history of the human race, in its slow and +toilsome march across the centuries--now buried in ignorance, +superstition and crime; now rising to the sublimity of heroism and +catching a glimpse of a better destiny; now turning remorselessly away +from, and leaving to perish, empires and civilizations in which it had +invested its faith, and courage, and boundless energy for a thousand +years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Britain, to +build for itself new empires, better fitted for its new aspirations; +and, at last, crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, and building +in the wilderness of a new hemisphere its latest and proudest monuments. + + +[Speech in the House of Representatives, February 12, 1867.] + +I cannot forget that we have learned slowly.... I cannot forget that +less than five years ago I received an order from my superior officer +commanding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave, and if found, to +deliver him up to a Kentucky captain who claimed him as his property; +and _I had the honor to be perhaps the first officer in the army who +peremptorily refused to obey such an order_. We were then trying to save +the Union without hurting slavery.... It took us two years to reach a +point where we were willing to do the most meagre justice to the black +man, and to recognize the truth that + + "A man's a man for a' that!" + +Sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work, leading us by +degrees out of the blindness of our prejudices, to see that the fortunes +of the Republic and the safety of the party of liberty are inseparably +bound up with the rights of the black man. At last our party must see +that if it would preserve its political life, or maintain the safety of +the Republic, we must do justice to the humblest man in the Nation, +whether black or white. I thank God that to-day we have struck the rock; +we have planted our feet upon solid earth. Streams of light will gleam +out from the luminous truth embodied in the legislation of this day. +This is the _ne plus ultra_ of reconstruction, and I hope we shall have +the courage to go before our people everywhere with "This or nothing" +for our motto. + +Now, sir, as a temporary measure, I give my support to this military +bill properly restricted. It is severe. It was written with a steel pen +made out of a bayonet; and bayonets have done us good service hitherto. +All I ask is that Congress shall place civil governments before these +people of the rebel States, and a cordon of bayonets behind them. + + * * * * * + +Now, what does this bill propose? It lays the hands of the Nation upon +the rebel State governments, and takes the breath of life out of them. +It puts the bayonet at the breast of every rebel murderer in the South +to bring him to justice. It commands the army to protect the life and +property of citizens whether black or white. It places in the hands of +Congress absolutely and irrevocably the whole work of reconstruction. + +With this thunderbolt in our hands shall we stagger like idiots under +its weight? Have we grasped a weapon which we have neither the courage +nor the wisdom to wield? + + +WILLIAM H. SEWARD.[D] + +When in Europe in 1867, my attention was particularly drawn to the +significant fact that the pictures of Lincoln and Seward were the only +portraits of American statesmen that were notably prominent, and that +these were everywhere seen together. I asked a Frenchman of distinction +why Seward was held in such high estimation; and his answer most +seriously impressed me with the thought that perhaps, after all the +slanders of his detractors, Mr. Seward had builded for the future more +wisely than we knew. This gentleman said: "Mr. Seward is the American +statesman who looms up the most prominently from over the water. His +diplomacy in Mexico has placed the imprint of greatness upon his name. +Halting for a moment in the midst of the turmoil of the civil war, with +his pen he dismembered the coalition organized to place Maximilian upon +the Mexican throne, and thus placed the first mine under the throne of +the Third Bonaparte. He has undertaken what the combined powers of +Europe have not ventured to essay--to break the sceptre of the Second +Empire." The views entertained by this distinguished Frenchman seem also +to have been held in Mexico, for upon the occasion of the death of Mr. +Seward, the press of that country all made the most grateful mention of +his services in that regard. + +The enthusiasm of this Frenchman, continued General Garfield, had not +perished from my memory later when public duties called me to the State +Department. The Alaska treaty had just been signed. I found the Sage of +Auburn alone, in the thoughtful mood so common to him when meditating +upon great subjects. Our conversation fell upon himself, and I found +that he had been meditating upon his withdrawal from public life. He had +been eight years in the second highest place in this Nation. He had +almost had the Presidency within his grasp; but the displeasure of his +party had fallen upon him, and he was about to retire from the political +arena. He told me that power was sweet to him; that he clung even then +fondly to its shadow; and that he relinquished his sceptre with regret. +His exact language, in speaking of his past career was: "It is +unpleasant to yield up power." The conversation turned upon Alaska. The +Secretary fell into the dream-like attitude that was never seen except +by those who were familiar with him, and commenced to explain his theory +of the Alaska purchase in forcible, prophetic, almost pathetic words +which I never shall forget. I left the room then with grander ideas of +the man than I had ever entertained before. His conversation indicated +that he had been following a particular course of study, for he remarked +that, to his notion, the two greatest books of the century were Marsh's +"Man in Nature," and the Duke of Argyll's "Reign of Law." The +application of Argyll's theory of law as applied to political +development, Mr. Seward had evidently studied with much care. He had +been reasoning upon natural laws as they affect a nation. He had been +speculating upon the elementary forces of a nation's grandeur, and upon +the contrivance in combining them to make them operate in a direction +desired. This theory was founded upon the possibility of tracing these +forces in history, and of discovering the operation of these laws under +conditions which had actually determined the course of mankind and +nations in definite directions. The text of his theory was the history +of the world's seas. History had taught him that the grandest +achievements of man had been associated with the shores of the world's +seas. To go back no further than the beginning of the Christian era, the +most sacred, solemn story of the hopes of man had been written in +wanderings on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. With the progress of +Christian civilization, thus sea-born, the advancing tide of human +progress was staid by the banks of the Mediterranean. It was along the +borders of this sea that the Byzantine Empire flourished and was +destroyed; that Rome attained her supremacy, and fell. With the progress +of time, and the advance of civilization westward, the Atlantic took the +place of the Galilean Sea and of the Mediterranean. It is the sea of +the present. But unless the laws of political geography are false, the +contests of the future are to be around the shores of the "still sea," +now our own Pacific. The nation of the future is the nation that holds +the key of those waters. The purchase of Alaska has given our Republic a +foothold on both sides of that sea. It is a geographical impossibility +that any other nation can occupy a position in its own territory upon +both sides of the Pacific. This is the theory of the purchase. It +secures the control of the Pacific to the young Republic. It assures the +future of the world's dominion to Yankee civilization. This was the +theory. + +And his outlook, said General Garfield, with enthusiasm, was grand. In +his political horoscope, he saw the Republic enjoying a prosperity of +which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; he saw our +country rising to the place of umpire among the world's powers; he saw +how, by wise statesmanship, our material prosperity and peaceful +conquests grew together; how our increasing commerce made us mistress of +the seas; how Western civilization and Oriental decrepitude were staid +upon the borders of that Pacific sea, and compelled to render homage to +Young America, who had become the keeper of the world's keys. + +These were the grand thoughts of Mr. Seward as he was about to +relinquish the mantle of his power, and, continued General Garfield, +his views have left a lasting impression upon me. Mr. Seward could not +have died more successfully than he did. He passed away in the lull +between two elections, and received the merited eulogiums of both +parties. He bore success followed by failure better than any American I +know. He was for nearly a decade next to the source of power, and missed +the place which was the goal of his later years, retiring from public +life suffering the displeasure of his party. But he quietly retired to +private life, and never lost his genial spirit or his noble ways. + +[This report of the conversation is indorsed by General Garfield as "in +the main correct." + +J. C] + + +[Speech on the Currency Question, 1868.] + +As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what +ships are to the transportation of merchandise. If a hundred vessels, of +a given tonnage, are just sufficient to carry all the commodities +between two ports, any increase of the number of vessels will +correspondingly decrease the value of each as an instrument of commerce; +any decrease below one hundred will correspondingly increase the value +of each. If the number be doubled, each will carry but half its usual +freight, will be worth but half its former value for that trade. There +is so much work to be done, and no more. A hundred vessels can do it +all. A thousand can do no more than all. + + * * * * * + +When the money of the country is gold and silver, it adapts itself to +the fluctuations of business without the aid of legislation. If at any +time we have more than is needed, the surplus flows off to other +countries through the channels of international commerce. If less, the +deficiency is supplied through the same channels. Thus the monetary +equilibrium is maintained. So immense is the trade of the world, that +the golden streams pouring from California and Australia into the specie +circulation are soon absorbed in the great mass, and equalized +throughout the world, as the waters of all the rivers are spread upon +the surface of all the seas. + +Not so, however, with an inconvertible paper currency. Excepting the +specie used in payment of customs and the interest on our public debt, +we are cut off from the money currents of the world. Our currency +resembles rather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in +stagnation or rise to full banks at the caprice of the gate-keeper. + + +[A Speech on Currency and the Banks, 1870.] + +The business of the country is like the level of the ocean, from which +all measurements are made of heights and depths. Though tides and +currents may for a time disturb, and tempests vex and toss its surface, +still through calm and storm the grand level rules all its waves and +lays its measuring-lines on every shore. So the business of the country, +which, in the aggregated demands of the people for the exchange of +values, marks the ebb and flow, the rise and fall of the currents of +trade, and forms the base-line from which to measure all our financial +legislation, and is the only safe rule by which the volume of our +currency can be determined. + + * * * * * + +The State bank system was a chaos of ruin, in which the business of the +country was again and again ingulfed. The people rejoice that it has +been swept away, and they will not consent to its re-establishment. In +its place we have the National-bank system, based on the bonds of the +United States, and sharing the safety and credit of the government. +Their notes are made secure, first, by a deposit of government bonds, +worth at least ten per cent. more than the whole value of the notes; +second, by a paramount lien on all the assets of the banks; third, the +personal liability of all the shareholders to an amount equal to the +capital they hold; and, fourth, the absolute guarantee by the government +to redeem them at the National Treasury if the banks fail to do so. +Instead of seven thousand different varieties of notes, as in the State +system, we have now but ten varieties, each uniform in character and +appearance. Like our flag, they bear the stamp of nationality, and are +honored in every part of the Union. + + +[From a Speech in the House, April 1, 1870.] + +As an abstract theory of political economy free-trade has many +advocates, and much can be said in its favor; nor will it be denied that +the scholarship of modern times is largely on that side; that a large +majority of the great thinkers of the present day are leading in the +direction of what is called free-trade. + +While this is true, it is equally undeniable that the principle of +protection has always been recognized and adopted in some form or +another by all nations, and is to-day, to a greater or less extent, the +policy of every civilized government.... + +Protection, in its practical meaning, is that provident care for the +industry and development of our own country which will give our own +people an equal chance in the pursuit of wealth, and save us from the +calamity of being dependent upon other nations with whom we may any day +be at war. + +In so far as the doctrine of free-trade is a protest against the old +system of oppression and prohibition, it is a healthy and worthy +sentiment. But underlying all theories, there is a strong and deep +conviction in the minds of a great majority of our people in favor of +protecting American industry.... + + +[Speech on the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, April 4, 1871.] + +... Nothing more aptly describes the character of our Republic than the +solar system, launched into space by the hand of the Creator, where the +central sun is the great power around which revolve all the planets in +their appointed orbits. But while the sun holds in the grasp of its +attractive power the whole system, and imparts its light and heat to +all, yet each individual planet is under the sway of laws peculiar to +itself. + +Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all the +tenantries of the planet live and move. So, sir, the States move on in +their orbits of duty and obedience, bound to the central government by +this Constitution, which is their supreme law; while each State is +making laws and regulations of its own, developing its own energies, +maintaining its own industries, managing its local affairs in its own +way, subject only to the supreme but beneficent control of the Union. +When State-rights ran mad, put on the form of secession, and attempted +to drag the States out of the Union, we saw the grand lesson, taught in +all the battles of the late war, that a State could no more be hurled +from the Union, without ruin to the nation, than could a planet be +thrown from its orbit without dragging after it, to chaos and ruin, the +whole solar universe. + +In 1865 we had a debt of two billions seven hundred and seventy-two +millions of dollars upon our hands, the debt accumulated from the great +results of the war; we were compelled to pay from that debt one hundred +and fifty-one millions of dollars in coin a year as interest, and that +was a dreadful annual burden. In the year after the war ended, we paid +five hundred and ninety millions of dollars over our counter in settling +the business of the war and maintaining the ordinary expenses of the +government. These tremendous burdens it seemed for a time we could not +carry, and there were wicked men, and despairing men, and men who said +we ought not to try to carry the burdens; but the brave nation said, +This burden is the price of our country's life, all through it there is +the price of blood and the price of liberty, and, therefore, we will bow +our knees to the burden, we will carry it upon the stalwart shoulders of +the nation. + + +[Letter to Professor Demmon December 16, 1871.] + +... Since I entered public life, I have constantly aimed to find a +little time to keep alive the spirit of my classical studies, and to +resist that constant tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty +in literary studies, and particularly in the classical studies. I have +thought it better to select some one line of classical reading, and, if +possible, do a little work on it each day. For this winter I am +determined to review such parts of the Odes of Horace as I may be able +to reach. And, as preliminary to that work, I have begun by reading up +the bibliography of Horace. + +The Congressional Library is very rich in materials for this study, and +I am amazed to find how deep and universal has been the impress left on +the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writings. + + * * * * * + +The Student should study himself his relation to Society, to Nature and +to Art--and above all, in all, and through all these, he should study +the relations of Himself, Society, Nature, and Art to God the Author of +them all. + + * * * * * + +Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument of Thought ever invented by +Man, and its Literature has never been equalled in purity of style and +boldness of expression. + + * * * * * + +History is but the unrolled scroll of Prophecy. The world's history is a +divine Poem, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and every +man a word. Its strains have been pealing along down the centuries, and +though there have been mingled the discords of warring cannon and dying +men, yet to the Christian, Philosopher, and Historian--the humble +listener--there has been a divine melody running through the song which +speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. + + * * * * * + +The lesson of History is rarely learned by the actors themselves. + + * * * * * + +Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material +universe, and from its inanimate existences demonstrated the Power, +Wisdom, and Goodness of God; but we know of no one who has demonstrated +the same attributes from the History of the human race. + + * * * * * + +Mankind have been slow to believe that order reigns in the universe, +that the world is a Cosmos, not a chaos. + +The assertion of the reign of Law has been stubbornly resisted at every +step. The divinities of Heathen superstition still linger in one form or +another in the faith of the ignorant, and even many intelligent men +shrink from the contemplation of one Supreme Will acting regularly, not +fatuitously, through laws beautiful and simple, rather than through a +fitful and capricious Providence. + + * * * * * + +English liberty to-day rests not so much on the government as on those +rights which the people have wrested from the government. The rights of +the Englishman outnumber the rights of the Englishman's king. + + * * * * * + +Poetry is the language of Freedom. + + * * * * * + +Liberty can be safe only when Suffrage is illuminated by education. + + +[Speech on the last Census.] + +The developments of statistics are causing history to be re-written. +Till recently the historian studied nature in the aggregate, and gave us +only the story of princes, dynasties, sieges, and battles. Of the people +themselves--the great social body, with life, growth, forces, elements, +etc.--he told us nothing. Now, statistical inquiry leads us into the +hovels, houses, workshops, mines, fields, prisons, hospitals, and all +places where human nature displays its weakness and strength. In these +explorations he discovers the seeds of national growth and decay, and +thus becomes the prophet of his generation. + +Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In +legislation, as in physical science, it is beginning to be understood +that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The +legislator must formulate in his statistics not only the national will +but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics. He must +study society rather than black-letter learning. He must learn the truth +that "society usually prepares the crime, and the criminal is only the +instrument that completes it," that statesmanship consists rather in +removing causes than in punishing, or evading results. + + +[Speech on National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872.] + +We look sometimes with great admiration at a government like Germany, +that can command the light of its education to shine everywhere, that +can enforce its school laws everywhere throughout the Empire. Under our +system we do not rejoice in that, but we rather rejoice that here two +forces play with all their vast power upon our system of education. The +first is that of the local municipal power under our State government. +There is the centre of responsibility. There is the chief educational +power.... + +But there is another force even greater than that of the State and the +local governments. It is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that +force which has built up the multitude of private schools, academies, +and colleges throughout the United States, not always wisely, but always +with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. + + * * * * * + +I am considering what is the best system of organizing the educational +work of a nation, not from the political stand-point alone, but from the +stand-point of the school-house itself. This work of public education +partakes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the human mind in its +efforts for culture. The mind must be as free from extraneous control as +possible; must work under the inspiration of its own desires for +knowledge; and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the +fullest and highest success must spring from the power of self-help. + +So the best system of education is that which draws its chief support +from the voluntary effort of the community, from the individual effort +of citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily +impose upon themselves.... Government shall be only a help to them, +rather than a commander, in the work of education. + + * * * * * + +I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong. + + * * * * * + +Present evils always seem greater than those that never come. + + * * * * * + +Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten +the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard +and compelled to sink or swim for himself. In all my acquaintance I +never knew a man to be drowned who was worth the saving. + + * * * * * + +For the noblest man that lives there still remains a conflict. + + * * * * * + +No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes +up from a thousand minds that acts upon him and makes the speech. + + * * * * * + +After the battle of Arms comes the battle of History. + + * * * * * + +There is a fellowship among the Virtues by which one great, generous +passion stimulates another. + + * * * * * + +Growth is better than Permanence, and permanent growth is better than +all. + + * * * * * + +The principles of Ethics have not changed by the lapse of years. + + * * * * * + +The possession of great power no doubt carries with it a contempt for +mere external show. + + +[From a Speech on Repealing the Salary Clause, 1873.] + +One of the brightest and greatest of men I know in this nation [Louis +Agassiz], a man who, perhaps, has done as much for its intellectual life +as any other, told me not many months ago that he had made it the rule +of his life to abandon any intellectual pursuit the moment it became +commercially valuable; that others would utilize what he had discovered; +that his field of work was above the line of commercial values, and when +he brought down the great truths of science from the upper heights to +the level of commercial values, a thousand hands would be ready to take +them, and make them more valuable in the markets of the world. He +entered upon his great career, not for the salary it gave him, for that +was meagre compared with the pay of those in the lower walks of life; +but he followed the promptings of his great nature, and worked for the +love of truth and the instruction of mankind. + + +[Letter to B. A. Hinsdale, 1874.] + +The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been +greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work +relating to others. + + +[Speech on the Currency and the Public Faith, April 8, 1874.] + +There never did exist on this earth a body of men wise enough to +determine by any arbitrary rule how much currency is needed for the +business of a great country. The laws of trade, the laws of credit, the +laws of God impressed upon the elements of this world, are superior to +all legislation; and we can enjoy the benefits of these immutable laws +only by obeying them. + + * * * * * + +It has been demonstrated again and again that upon the artisans, the +farmers, the day-laborers falls at last the dead weight of all the +depreciation and loss that irredeemable paper-money carries in its +train. Let this policy be carried out, and the day will surely and +speedily come when the nation will clearly trace the cause of its +disaster to those who deluded themselves and the people with what +Jefferson fitly called "legerdemain tricks of paper-money." + + +[Speech on the Railway Problem, June 22, 1874.] + +We are so involved in the events and movements of society that we do not +stop to realize--what is undeniably true--that during the last forty +years all modern societies have entered upon a period of change more +marked, more pervading, more radical than any that has occurred during +the last three hundred years. In saying this, I do not forget our own +political and military history, nor the French Revolution of 1793. The +changes now taking place have been wrought, and are being wrought, +mainly, almost wholly, by a single mechanical contrivance, the steam +locomotive. Imagine, if you can, what would happen if to-morrow morning +the railway locomotive, and its corollary, the telegraph, were blotted +from the earth. At first thought, it would seem impossible to get on at +all with the feeble substitutes we should be compelled to adopt in place +of these great forces. To what humble proportions mankind would be +compelled to scale down the great enterprises they are now pushing +forward with such ease! But were this calamity to happen, we should +simply be placed where we were forty-three years ago. + +There are many persons now living who well remember the day when Andrew +Jackson, after four weeks of toilsome travel from his home in Tennessee, +reached Washington and took his first oath of office as President of the +United States. On that day the railway locomotive did not exist. During +that year Henry Clay was struggling to make his name immortal by linking +it with the then vast project of building a national road--a +turnpike--from the national capital to the banks of the Mississippi. + +In the autumn of that very year George Stephenson ran his first +experimental locomotive, the "Rocket," from Manchester to Liverpool and +back. The rumble of its wheels, redoubled a million times, is echoing +to-day on every continent. + + * * * * * + +The American people have done much for the locomotive, and it has done +much for them. We have already seen that it has greatly reduced, if not +wholly destroyed, the danger that the government will fall to pieces by +its own weight. The railroad has not only brought our people and their +industries together, but it has carried civilization into the +wilderness, has built up States and Territories, which, but for its +power, would have remained deserts for a century to come. "Abroad and at +home," as Mr. Adams tersely declares, "it has equally nationalized +people and cosmopolized nations." It has played a most important part in +the recent movement for the unification and preservation of nations. + +It enabled us to do what the old military science had pronounced +impossible--to conquer a revolted population of eleven millions, +occupying a territory one-fifth as large as the continent of Europe. In +an able essay on the railway system, Mr. Charles F. Adams, Jr. has +pointed out some of the remarkable achievements of the railroad in our +recent history. For example, a single railroad track enabled Sherman to +maintain eighty thousand fighting men three hundred miles beyond his +base of supplies. Another line, in a space of seven days, brought a +re-enforcement of two fully equipped army corps around a circuit of +thirteen hundred miles, to strengthen an army at a threatened point. He +calls attention to the still more striking fact that for ten years past, +with fifteen hundred millions of our indebtedness abroad, an enormous +debt at home, unparalleled public expenditures, and a depreciated paper +currency, in defiance of all past experience, we have been steadily +conquering our difficulties, have escaped the predicted collapse, and +are promptly meeting our engagements; because, through energetic +railroad development, the country has been producing real wealth, as no +country has produced it before. Finally, he sums up the case by +declaring that the locomotive has "dragged the country through its +difficulties in spite of itself." + + * * * * * + +In the darkness and chaos of that period, the feudal system was the +first important step toward the organization of modern nations. Powerful +chiefs and barons intrenched themselves in castles, and, in return for +submission and service, gave to their vassals rude protection and ruder +laws. But as the feudal chiefs grew in power and wealth, they became the +oppressors of their people, taxed and robbed them at will, and finally, +in their arrogance, defied the kings and emperors of the Mediaeval +States. From their castles, planted on the great thoroughfares, they +practised the most capricious extortions on commerce and travel, and +thus gave to modern language the phrase, "levy blackmail." + +The consolidation of our great industrial and commercial companies, the +power they wield, and the relations they sustain to the State and to the +industry of the people, do not fall far short of Fourier's definition of +commercial or industrial feudalism. The modern barons, more powerful +than their military prototypes, own our greatest highways, and levy +tribute at will upon all our vast industries. And, as the old feudalism +was finally controlled and subordinated only by the combined efforts of +the kings and the people of the free cities and towns, so our modern +feudalism can be subordinated to the public good only by the great body +of the people, acting through their governments by wise and just laws. + +I shall not now enter upon the discussion of methods by which this great +work of adjustment may be accomplished. But I refuse to believe that the +genius and energy which have developed these new and tremendous forces, +will fail to make them, not the masters, but the faithful servants of +society. It will be a disgrace to our age and to us, if we do not +discover some method by which the public functions of these +organizations may be brought into full subordination to the public, and +that, too, without violence, and without unjust interference with the +rights of private individuals. It will be unworthy of our age, and of +us, if we make the discussion of this subject a mere warfare against +men. For in these great industrial enterprises have been, and still are +engaged, some of the noblest and worthiest men of our time. It is the +system--its tendencies and its dangers--which society itself has +produced, that we are now to confront. And these industries must not be +crippled, but promoted. The evils complained of are mainly of our own +making. States and communities have willingly and thoughtlessly +conferred these great powers upon railways; and they must seek to +rectify their own errors without injury to the industries they have +encouraged. + + * * * * * + +It depends upon the wisdom, the culture, the self-control of our people +and their representatives, to determine how wisely and how well this +question shall be settled. But that it will be solved, and solved in the +interest of liberty and justice, I do not doubt. And its solution will +open the way to a solution of a whole chapter of similar questions that +relate to the conflict between capital and labor. + + +[From a Speech in the House of Representatives, June, 1874.] + +The division between church and state ought to be so absolute that no +church property anywhere, in any State or in the nation, should be +exempt from taxation; for, if you exempt the property of any church +organization, to that extent you impose a church-tax upon the whole +community. + + * * * * * + +Occasion may be the bugle-call that summons an army to battle, but the +blast of a bugle can never make soldiers or win victories. + + * * * * * + +Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up. + + * * * * * + +We cannot study nature profoundly without bringing ourselves into +communion with the spirit of art which pervades and fills the universe. + + * * * * * + +If there be one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire +better than another, it is a brave man; it is a man who dares to look +the devil in the face, and tell him he is a devil. + + * * * * * + +It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish thought. + + * * * * * + +True art is but the anti-type of nature, the embodiment of discovered +beauty in utility. + + * * * * * + +In order to have any success in life, or any worthy success, you must +resolve to carry into your work a fulness of knowledge; not merely a +sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. + + * * * * * + +Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. + + * * * * * + +If you are not too large for the place, you are too small for it. + + * * * * * + +What the arts are to the world of matter, literature is to the world of +mind. + + * * * * * + +Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony between the +rushing of the train and the haste of the author; but to enjoy standard +works, we need the quiet of a winter evening; an easy-chair before a +cheerful fire, and all the equanimity of spirits we can command. + + * * * * * + +He who would understand the real spirit of literature should not select +authors of any one period alone, but rather go to the fountain-head, add +trace the little rill as it courses along down the ages, broadening and +deepening into the great ocean of thought which the men of the present +are exploring. + + * * * * * + +The true literary man is no mere gleaner, following in the rear and +gathering up the fragments of the world's thought; but he goes down +deep into the heart of humanity, watches its throbbings; analyzes the +forces at work there; traces out, with prophetic foresight, their +tendencies, and thus, standing out far beyond his age, holds up the +picture of what it is and is to be. + + +[Letter to A. B. Hinsdale, 1876.] + +I have followed this rule [as a lawyer]: whenever I have had a case, I +have undertaken to work out thoroughly the principles involved in it; +not for the case alone, but for the sake of comprehending thoroughly +that branch of the law. + + +[From "Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth," June 22, 1876.] + +We can study no life intelligently except in its relation to causes and +results. Character is the chief element; for it is both a result and a +cause--the result of all the elements and forces that combined to form +it, and the chief cause of all that is accomplished by its possessor.... + +Every character is the joint product of nature and nurture. By the +first, we mean those inborn qualities of body and mind inherited from +parents, or rather from a long line of ancestors. Who shall estimate the +effect of those latent forces, enfolded in the spirit of a new-born +child, which may date back centuries, and find their origin in the +unwritten history of remote ancestors--forces, the germs of which, +enveloped in the solemn mystery of life, have been transmitted silently, +from generation to generation, and never perish? All-cherishing Nature, +provident and unforgetting, gathers up all these fragments that nothing +may be lost, but that all may reappear in new combinations. Each new +life is thus the "heir of all the ages," the possessor of qualities +which only the events of life can unfold. + +By the second element, nurture, culture, we designate all those +influences which act upon this initial force of character, to retard or +strengthen its development. There has been much discussion to determine +which of these elements plays the more important part in the formation +of character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes the one and +sometimes the other is the greater force; but so far as life and +character are dependent upon voluntary action, the second is no doubt +the element of chief importance. + + +[From the Same.] + +Not enough attention has been paid to the marked difference between the +situation and possibilities of a life developed here in the West, during +the first half of the present century, and those of a life nurtured and +cultivated in an old and settled community like that of New England. + +Consider, for example, the measureless difference between the early +surroundings of John Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Both were +possessed of great natural endowments. Adams was blessed with parents +whose native force of character, and whose vigorous and thorough culture +have never been surpassed by any married pair in America. Young Adams +was thoroughly taught by his mother until he had completed his tenth +year; and then, accompanying his father to France, he spent two years in +a training-school at Paris and three years in the University at Leyden. +After two years of diplomatic service, under the skilful guidance of his +father's hand, he returned to America, and devoted three years to study +at Harvard, where he was graduated at the age of twenty-one; and, three +years later, was graduated in the law, under the foremost jurist of his +time. With such parentage and such opportunities, who can wonder that by +the time he reached the meridian of his life, he was a man of immense +erudition, and had honored every great office in the gift of his +country? + +How startling the contrast, in every particular, between his early life +and that of Abraham Lincoln.... Born to an inheritance of the extremest +poverty, wholly unaided by his parents, surrounded by the rude forces of +the wilderness, only one year at any school, never for a day master of +his own time until he reached his majority, forcing his way to the +profession of the law by the hardest and roughest road, and beginning +its practice at twenty-eight years of age, yet, by the force of +unconquerable will and persistent hard work, he attained a foremost +place in his profession. + + "And, moving up from high to higher, + Became, on fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire." + + +[From the Same.] + +It is one of the precious mysteries of sorrow, that it finds solace in +unselfish work. + + * * * * * + +A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. Let not poverty stand as an +obstacle in your way. + + * * * * * + +Here is the volume of our laws. More sacred than the twelve tables of +Rome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above the +people and the President, above the courts, above Congress, commanding +everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority. + + * * * * * + +That man makes a vital mistake who judges truth in relation to financial +affairs from the changing phases of public opinion. He might as well +stand on the shore of the Bay of Fundy, and from the ebb and flow of a +single tide attempt to determine the general level of the sea, as to +stand upon this floor, and from the current of public opinion on any +one debate, judge of the general level of the public mind. It is only +when long spaces along the shore of the sea are taken into account that +the grand level is found from which the heights and depths are measured. +And it is only when long spaces of time are considered, that we find at +last that level of public opinion which we call the general judgment of +mankind. + + * * * * * + +Bad faith on the part of an individual, a city, or even a State, is a +small evil in comparison with the calamities which follow bad faith on +the part of a sovereign government. + + * * * * * + +In the complex and delicately adjusted relations of modern society, +confidence in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of trade and +commerce. It is the vital air Labor breathes. It is the light which +shines on the pathway of prosperity. + + * * * * * + +An act of bad faith on the part of a State or municipal corporation, +like poison in the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding +generations. + + * * * * * + +We are accustomed to hear it said that the great powers of government in +this country are divided into two classes; National powers and State +powers. That is an incomplete classification. Our fathers carefully +divided all governmental powers into three classes; one they gave to +the States, another to the Nation; but the third great class, +comprising the most precious of all powers, they refused to confer on +the State or Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third class of +powers has been almost uniformly overlooked by men who have written and +discussed the American system. + + * * * * * + +Congress must always be the exponent of the political character and +culture of the people, and if the next centennial does not find us a +great Nation with a great and worthy Congress, it will be because those +who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the +Nation do not aid in controlling the political forces which are employed +to select the men who shall occupy the great places of trust and power. + + * * * * * + +There is scarcely a conceivable form of corruption or public wrong that +does not at last present itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. +The Legislature therefore, that stands at the cashier's desk and watches +with its Argus eyes the demands for payment over the counter is most +certain to see all the forms of public rascality. + + * * * * * + +A steady and constant Revenue drawn from sources that represent the +prosperity of the nation,--a Revenue that grows with the growth of +national wealth, and is so adjusted to the expenditures, that a +constant and considerable surplus is annually left in the Treasury above +all the necessary current demands, a surplus that keeps the Treasury +strong, that holds it above the fear of sudden panic, that makes it +impregnable against all private combinations, that makes it a terror to +all stock-jobbing and gold-gambling,--this is financial health. + + +[From the "Atlantic Monthly," July, 1877.] + +The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact, that so many +citizens of high character and solid judgment pay but little attention +to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall +make their laws.... It is precisely this neglect of the first steps in +our political processes that has made possible the worst evils of our +system. Corrupt and incompetent presidents, judges, and legislators can +be removed, but when the fountains of political power are corrupted, +when voters themselves become venal, and elections fraudulent, there is +no remedy except by awakening the public conscience, and bringing to +bear upon the subject the power of public opinion and the penalties of +the law.... In a word, our national safety demands that the fountains of +political power shall be made pure by intelligence, and kept pure by +vigilance; that the best citizens shall take heed to the selection and +election of the worthiest and most intelligent among them to hold seats +in the national legislature; and that when the choice has been made, the +continuance of their representative shall depend upon his faithfulness, +his ability, and his willingness to work. + + +[Speech on the presentation to Congress of Carpenter's painting of +President Lincoln and his Cabinet, at the time of his first reading of +the Proclamation of Emancipation, January 16, 1878.] + +Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force of +character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience of +public affairs, and in national reputation, the cabinet that sat around +that council-board has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our history. +Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the great leader of +the senate, had come to crown his career with those achievements which +placed him in the first rank of modern diplomatists. Chase, with a +culture and a frame of massive grandeur, stood as the rock and pillar of +the public credit, the noble embodiment of the public faith. Stanton was +there, a very Titan of strength, the great organizer of victory. Eminent +lawyers, men of business, leaders of states, and leaders of men, +completed the group. + +But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided its +determinations, was a character so unique that he stood alone, without +a model in history, or a parallel among men. Born on this day, +sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance of extremest poverty, surrounded +by the rude forces of the wilderness; wholly unaided by parents; only +one year in any school; never, for a day, master of his own time until +he reached his majority; making his way to the profession of the law by +the hardest and roughest road; yet, by force of unconquerable will and +persistent, patient work, he attained a foremost place in his +profession, + + "And, moving up from high to higher, + Became, on fortune's crowning slope, + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire." + +At first it was the prevailing belief that he would be only the nominal +head of his administration; that its policy would be directed by the +eminent statesmen he had called to his council. How erroneous this +opinion was, may be seen from a single incident. Among the earliest, +most difficult, and most delicate duties of his administration, was the +adjustment of our relations with Great Britain. Serious complications, +even hostilities, were apprehended. On the 21st day of May, 1861, the +Secretary of State presented to the President his draught of a letter of +instructions to Minister Adams, in which the position of the United +States and the attitude of Great Britain were set forth with the +clearness and force which long experience and great ability had placed +at the command of the Secretary. + +Upon almost every page of that original draught are erasures, additions, +and marginal notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit +a sagacity, a breadth of wisdom, and a comprehension of the whole +subject, impossible to be found except in a man of the very first order. +And these modifications of a great state-paper were made by a man who, +but three months before, had entered, for the first time, the wide +theatre of executive action. + +Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have +called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the +logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in his own +quaint, original way, without ostentation or offence to his associates, +he was pilot and commander of his administration. He was one of the few +great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, and whose spirit +grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were multiplied. + + +[From the "North American Review," May-June, 1878.] + +The Secretary of War is a civil officer; one of the constitutional +advisers of the President--his civil executive to direct and control +military affairs, and conduct army administration for the President.... +This was clearly understood in our early history, and it is worthy of +note that our most eminent Secretaries of War have been civilians, who +brought to the duties of the office great political and legal +experience, and other high qualities of statesmanship. + +Perhaps it was wise in Washington to choose as the first Secretary of +War, a distinguished soldier, for the purpose of creating and setting in +order the military establishment; but it may well be doubted if any +subsequent appointment of a soldier to that position has been wise. In +fact, most of the misadjustments between the Secretary of War and the +army, so much complained of in recent years, originated with a Secretary +of War who had been a soldier, and could hardly refrain from usurping +the functions of command.... + +No very serious conflict of jurisdiction and command occurred until +Jefferson Davis became Secretary of War. His early training as a +soldier, his spirit of self-reliance and habits of imperious command, +soon brought him into collision with General Scott, and were the +occasion of a correspondence, perhaps the most acrimonious ever carried +on by any prominent public man of our country. + + +[From a Speech at Faneuil Hall, Boston, September 11, 1878.] + +The Republican party of this country has said, and it says to-day, that, +forgetting all the animosities of the war, forgetting all the fierceness +and the passion of it, it reaches out both its hands to the gallant men +who fought us, and offers all fellowship, all comradeship, all feelings +of brotherhood, on this sole condition, and on that condition they will +insist forever: That in the war for the Union we were right, forever +right, and that in the war against the Union they were wrong, forever +wrong. We never made terms, we never will make terms, with the man who +denies the everlasting rightfulness of our cause. That would be treason +to the dead and injustice to the living; and on that basis alone our +pacification is complete. We ask that it be realized, and we shall +consider it fully realized when it is just as safe and just as honorable +for a good citizen of South Carolina to be a Republican there as it is +for a good citizen of Massachusetts to be a Democrat here. + + +[From an Address at Hiram College.] + +Our great dangers are not from without. We do not live by the consent of +any other nation. We must look within to find elements of danger. + + +[From a Speech on the Ninth Census.] + +Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing, or +evading results. + + +[From a Speech, December 10, 1878.] + +The man who wants to serve his country must put himself in the line of +its leading thought, and that is the restoration of business, trade, +commerce, industry, sound political economy, hard money, and the payment +of all obligations; and the man who can add anything in the direction of +accomplishing any of these purposes is a public benefactor. + + * * * * * + +The scientific spirit has cast out the Demons and presented us with +Nature, clothed in her right mind and living under the reign of law. It +has given us for the sorceries of the alchemist, the beautiful laws of +chemistry; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sublime truths of +astronomy; for the wild visions of cosmogony, the monumental records of +geology; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws of God. + + * * * * * + +We no longer attribute the untimely death of infants to the sin of Adam, +but to bad nursing and ignorance. + + * * * * * + +Truth is so related and correlated that no department of her realm is +wholly isolated. + + * * * * * + +Truth is the food of the human spirit, which could not grow in its +majestic proportions without clearer and more truthful views of God and +his universe. + + * * * * * + +Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no ideas +behind it is simply brutality. + + * * * * * + +I love to believe that no heroic sacrifice is ever lost, that the +characters of men are moulded and inspired by what their fathers have +done; that, treasured up in American souls are all the unconscious +influences of the great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from Agincourt to +Bunker Hill. + + * * * * * + +Eternity alone will reveal to the human race its debt of gratitude to +the peerless and immortal name of Washington. + + * * * * * + +I doubt if any man equalled Samuel Adams in formulating and uttering the +fierce, clear, and inexorable logic of the Revolution. + + * * * * * + +The last eight decades have witnessed an Empire spring up in the full +panoply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness. + + * * * * * + +In their struggle with the forces of nature, the ability to labor was +the richest patrimony of the colonist. + + * * * * * + +The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless +sea. + + * * * * * + +To him a battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of +brave men and frantic horses involved in vast explosions of gunpowder. +It was rather a calm rational combination of force against +force.--_Oration on Geo. H. Thomas._ + + * * * * * + +After the fire and blood of the battle-fields have disappeared, nowhere +does war show its destroying power so certainly and so relentlessly as +in the columns which represent the taxes and expenditures of the nation. + + +[From a Speech, June 2, 1879.] + +The Resumption of Specie Payments closes the most memorable epoch in our +history since the birth of the Union. Eighteen hundred and sixty-one and +eighteen hundred and seventy-nine are the opposite shores of that +turbulent sea whose storms so seriously threatened with shipwreck the +prosperity, the honor, and the life of the nation. But the horrors and +dangers of the middle-passage have at last been mastered; and out of the +night and tempest the Republic has landed on the shore of this new year, +bringing with it union and liberty, honor and peace. + + * * * * * + +Our country needs not only a national but an international currency. + + * * * * * + +Let us have equality of dollars before the law, so that the trinity of +our political creed shall be--equal States, equal men, and equal dollars +throughout the Union. + + +[Address, at the Memorial Meeting, in the House of Representatives, +January 16, 1879.] + +No page of human history is so instructive and significant as the record +of those early influences which develop the character and direct the +lives of eminent men. To every man of great original power, there comes +in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery--of self recognition--when +his own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, for the first +time, a strain of that immortal song to which his own spirit answers, +and which becomes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of his life-- + + "Like noble music unto noble words." + +More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg, on the Rhine, in obedience +to the commands of his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying the +mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his spirit as best he could upon +the formal and artificial poetry of his native land, when a page of +William Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the whole current of his +life. Abandoning the law, he created and crowned with an immortal name +the grandest epoch of German literature. + +Recording his own experience, he says: + + At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius, I made the glad + confession that something inspiring hovered above me.... The + first page of his that I read made me his for life; and when + I had finished a single play, I stood like one born blind, + on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a moment. I saw, + I felt, in the most vivid manner that my existence was + infinitely expanded. + +This Old World experience of Goethe's was strikingly reproduced, though +under different conditions and with different results, in the early life +of Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident worthily recounted; +but let us linger over it a moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough +Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the handicraft of the +jeweler, unconscious of his great power, delighted with romance and the +drama, dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his attention was +suddenly arrested by a single page of an humble book of science which +chanced to fall into his hands. It was not the flash of a poetic vision +which aroused him. It was the voice of great Nature calling her child. +With quick recognition and glad reverence his spirit responded; and from +that moment to the end of his long and honored life, Joseph Henry was +the devoted student of science, the faithful interpreter of nature. + +To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not surprising that ever +afterward he kept the little volume near him, and cherished it as the +source of his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame he recorded +on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his words: + + This book, under Providence, has exerted a remarkable + influence on my life.... It opened to me a new world of + thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost + unnoticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the + study of nature, and caused me to resolve, at the time of + reading it, that I would devote my life to the acquisition + of knowledge. + +We have heard from his venerable associates with what resolute +perseverance he trained his mind and marshalled his powers for the +higher realms of science. He was the first American after Franklin who +made a series of successful original experiments in electricity and +magnetism. He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, Oersted, Davy, +and Ampere, the great exploring philosophers of the world, and added to +their work a final great discovery, which made the electro-magnetic +telegraph possible. + +It remained only for the inventor to construct an instrument and an +alphabet. Professor Henry refused to reap any pecuniary rewards from his +great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what nature and science had +given to him. The venerable gentleman of almost eighty years, who has +just addressed us so eloquently, has portrayed the difficulties which +beset the government in its attempt to determine how it should wisely +and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. It was a perilous moment for +the credit of America when that bequest was made. In his large +catholicity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the bequest with +conditions. In nine words he set forth its object--"for the increase and +diffusion of knowledge among men." He asked and believed that America +would interpret his wish aright, and with the liberal wisdom of +science.... + +For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine words of Smithson and +could not handle them. Some political philosophers of that period held +that we had no constitutional authority to accept the gift at all +[laughter] and proposed to send it back to England. Every conceivable +proposition was made. The colleges clutched at it; the libraries wanted +it; the publication societies desired to scatter it. The fortunate +settlement of the question was this: that, after ten years of wrangling, +Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own ignorance, and +authorized a body of men to find some one who knew how to settle it. +[Applause.] And these men were wise enough to choose your great comrade +to undertake the task. Sacrificing his brilliant prospects as a +discoverer, he undertook the difficult work. He drafted a paper, in +which he offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, mapped out a +plan which would meet the demands of science, and submitted it to the +suffrage of the republic of scientific scholars. After due deliberation +it received the almost unanimous approval of the scientific world. With +faith and sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan and steadily +resisted all attempts to overthrow it. + +In the thirty-two years during which he administered the great trust, he +never swerved from his first purpose; and he succeeded at last in +realizing the ideas with which he started. + + The germ of our political institutions, the primary cell + from which they were evolved, was in the New England town, + and the vital force, the informing soul of the town, was the + Town Meeting, which for all local concerns was king, lords, + and commons in all. + + It is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend + the reputation of worthy public servants as to detect public + rascals. + + Political parties, like poets, are born, not made. No act of + political mechanics, however wise, can manufacture to order + and make a platform, and put a party on it which will live + and flourish. + + +[On the Relation of the Government to Science, February 11, 1879.] + +What ought to be the relation of the National Government to science? +What, if anything, ought we to do in the way of promoting science? For +example, if we have the power, would it be wise for Congress to +appropriate money out of the Treasury, to employ naturalists to find out +all that is to be known of our American birds? Ornithology is a +delightful and useful study; but would it be wise for Congress to make +an appropriation for the advancement of that science? In my judgment, +manifestly not. We would thereby make one favored class of men the +rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their private way, following +the bent of their genius, may be working out the results of science in +that field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out of our Treasury +for that purpose would be a positive injury to the advancement of +science, just as an appropriation to establish a church would work +injury to religion. + +Generally, the desire of our scientific men is to be let alone to work +in free competition with all the scientific men of the world; to develop +their own results, and get the credit of them each for himself; not to +have the Government enter the lists as the rival of private enterprise. + +As a general principal, therefore, the United States ought not to +interfere in matters of science, but should leave its development to the +free, voluntary action of our great third estate, the people themselves. + +In this non-interference theory of the Government, I do not go to the +extent of saying that we should do nothing for education--for primary +education. That comes under another consideration--the necessity of the +nation to protect itself, and the consideration that it is cheaper and +wiser to give education than to build jails. But I am speaking now of +the higher sciences. + +To the general principle I have stated, there are a few obvious +exceptions which should be clearly understood when we legislate on the +subject. In the first place, the Government should aid all sorts of +scientific inquiry that are necessary to the intelligent exercise of its +own functions. + +For example, as we are authorized by the Constitution and compelled by +necessity to build and maintain light-houses on our coast and establish +fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary scientific inquiries in +reference to light and its laws, sound and its laws--to do whatever in +the way of science is necessary to achieve the best results in lighting +our coasts and warning our mariners of danger. So, when we are building +iron-clads for our navy or casting guns for our army, we ought to know +all that is scientifically possible to be known about the strength of +materials and the laws of mechanics which apply to such structures. In +short, wherever in exercising any of the necessary functions of the +Government scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it, to the fullest +extent, and at the public expense. + +There is another exception to the general rule of leaving science to the +voluntary action of the people. Wherever any great popular interest, +affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the community, +imperatively need scientific investigation, and private enterprise +cannot accomplish it, we may wisely intervene and help where the +Constitution gives us authority. For example, in discovering the origin +of yellow-fever and the methods of preventing its ravages, the nation +should do, for the good of all, what neither the States nor individuals +can accomplish. I might perhaps include in a third exception those +inquiries which, in consequence of their great magnitude and cost, +cannot be successfully made by private individuals. Outside these three +classes of inquiries, the Government ought to keep its hands off, and +leave scientific experiment and inquiry to the free competition of those +bright, intelligent men whose genius leads them into the fields of +research. + +And I suspect, when we read the report of our commissioner to the late +Paris Exposition, which shows such astonishing results, so creditable +to our country, so honorable to the genius of our people, it will be +found, in any final analysis of causes, that the superiority of +Americans in that great Exposition resulted mainly from their superior +freedom, and the greater competition between mind and mind untrammelled +by Government interference; I believe it will be found we are best +serving the cause of religion and science, and all those great primary +rights which we did not delegate to the Congress or the States, but left +the people free to enjoy and maintain them. + + +[Speech on the National Election.] + +The great danger which threatens this country is, that our sovereign may +be dethroned or destroyed by corruption. In any monarchy of the world, +if the sovereign be slain or become lunatic, it is easy to put another +in his place, for the sovereign is a person. But our sovereign is the +whole body of voters. If you kill, or corrupt, or render lunatic our +sovereign, there is no successor, no regent to take his place. The +source of our sovereign's supreme danger, the point where his life is +vulnerable, is at the ballot-box, where his will is declared; and if we +cannot stand by that cradle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and protect +it to the uttermost against all assassins and assailants, we have no +government and no safety for the future. + + +[Remarks, in the House of Representatives, February 11, 1879, on the +Life and Character of Gustave Schleicher.] + +We are accustomed to say, and we have heard to-night, that he [Gustave +Schleicher] was born on foreign soil. In one sense that is true; and yet +in a very proper historic sense he was born in our fatherland. One of +the ablest of recent historians begins his opening volume with the +declaration that England is not the fatherland of the English-speaking +people, but the ancient home, the real fatherland of our race, is the +ancient forests of Germany. The same thought was suggested by +Montesquieu long ago, when he declared in his Spirit of Laws that the +British constitution came out of the woods of Germany. + +To this day the Teutonic races maintain the same noble traits that +Tacitus describes in his admirable history of the manners and character +of the Germans. We may therefore say that the friend whose memory we +honor to-night is one of the elder brethren of our race. He came to +America direct from our fatherland, and not, like our own fathers, by +the way of England. + +We who were born and have passed all our lives in this wide New World +can hardly appreciate the influences that surrounded his early life. +Born on the borders of that great forest of Germany, the Odenwald, +filled as it is with the memories and traditions of centuries, in which +are mingled Scandinavian mythology, legends of the middle ages, romances +of feudalism and chivalry, histories of barons and kings, and the +struggles of a brave people for a better civilization; reared under the +institutions of a strong, semi-despotic government; devoting his early +life to personal culture, entering at an early age the University of +Giessen, venerable with its two and a half centuries of existence, with +a library of four hundred thousand volumes at his hand, with a great +museum of the curiosities and mysteries of nature to study, he fed his +eager spirit upon the rich culture which that Old World could give him, +and at twenty-four years of age, in company with a band of thirty-seven +young students, like himself, cultivated, earnest, liberty-loving almost +to the verge of communism--and who of us would not be communists in a +despotism?--he came to this country, attracted by one of the most wild +and romantic pictures of American history, the picture of Texas as it +existed near forty years ago; the country discovered by La Salle at the +end of his long and perilous voyage from Quebec to the northern lakes +and from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; the country possessed +alternately by the Spanish and the French and then by Mexico; the +country made memorable by such names as Blair, Houston, Albert Sidney +Johnson, and Mirabeau Lamar, perhaps as adventurous and daring spirits +as ever assembled on any spot of the earth; a country that achieved its +freedom by heroism never surpassed, and which maintained its perilous +independence for ten years in spite of border enemies and European +intrigues. + +It is said that a society was formed in Europe embracing in its +membership men of high rank, even members of royal families, for the +purpose of colonizing the new Republic of the Lone Star, and making it a +dependency of Europe under their patronage; but without sharing in their +designs, some twenty thousand Germans found their way to the new +Republic, and among these young Schleicher came. + + +[From the "North American Review," March, 1879.] + +The ballot was given to the negro not so much to enable him to govern +others as to prevent others from misgoverning him. Suffrage is the sword +and shield of our law, the best armament that liberty offers to the +citizen. + + +[From the Same, June, 1879.] + +If our republic were blotted from the earth and from the memory of +mankind, and if no record of its history survived, except a copy of our +revenue laws and our appropriation bills for a single year, the +political philosopher would be able from these materials alone to +reconstruct a large part of our history, and sketch with considerable +accuracy the character and spirit of our institutions. + + +[Speech in Congress, on the first anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death.] + +There are times in the history of men and nations when they stand so +near the veil that separates mortals and immortals, time from eternity, +and men from their God, that they can almost hear the breathings, and +feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time +has this nation passed. When two hundred and fifty thousand brave +spirits passed from the field of honor through that thin veil to the +presence of God, and when at last its parting folds admitted the +martyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the republic, +the nation stood so near the veil that the whispers of God were heard by +the children of men. Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people +knelt in tearful reverence, and made a solemn covenant with God and each +other that this nation should be saved from its enemies; that all its +glories should be restored, and on the ruins of slavery and treason the +temples of freedom and justice should be built, and stand forever. It +remains for us, consecrated by that great event, and under that covenant +with God, to keep the faith, to go forward in the great work until it +shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and obeying +the high behests of God, let us remember + + "He has sounded forth his trumpet, that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat; + Be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet; + For God is marching on." + +Every great political party that has done this country any good has +given to it some immortal ideas that have outlived all the members of +that party. + + +[Speech at Cleveland, Ohio, October 11, 1879.--Resumption of Specie +Payments.] + +Now, what has been the trouble with us? 1860 was one shore of +prosperity, and 1879 the other; and between these two high shores has +flowed the broad, deep, dark river of fire and blood and disaster +through which this nation has been compelled to wade, and in whose +depths it has been almost suffocated and drowned. In the darkness of +that terrible passage we carried liberty in our arms; we bore the Union +on our shoulders; and we bore in our hearts and on our arms what was +even better than liberty and Union--we bore the faith, and honor, and +public trust of this mighty Nation. And never, until we came up out of +the dark waters, out of the darkness of that terrible current, and +planted our feet upon the solid shore of 1879--never, I say, till then +could this country look back to the other shore and feel that its feet +were on solid ground, and then look forward to the rising uplands of +perpetual peace and prosperity that should know no diminution in the +years to come. + + +[Speech at Cleveland, October 11, 1879.--Appeal to Young Men.] + +Now, I tell you, young man, don't vote the Republican ticket just +because your father votes it. Don't vote the Democratic ticket, even if +he does vote it. But let me give you this one word of advice, as you are +about to pitch your tent in one of the great political camps. Your life +is full and buoyant with hope now, and I beg you, when you pitch your +tent, pitch it among the living and not among the dead. If you are at +all inclined to pitch it among the Democratic people and with that +party, let me go with you for a moment while we survey the ground where +I hope you will not shortly lie. It is a sad place, young man, for you +to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than +like a camp for the living. Look at it! It is billowed all over with the +graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of +disgraced doctrines. You cannot live in comfort in such a place. Why, +look here! Here is a little double mound. I look down on it and I read, +"Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty and the Dred Scott +decision." A million and a half of Democrats voted for that, but it has +been dead fifteen years--died by the hand of Abraham Lincoln, and here +it lies. Young man, that is not the place for you. + +But look a little farther. Here is another monument--a black tomb--and +beside it, as our distinguished friend said, there towers to the sky a +monument of four million pairs of human fetters taken from the arms of +slaves, and I read on its little headstone this: "Sacred to the memory +of human slavery." For forty years of its infamous life the Democratic +party taught that it was divine--God's institution. They defended it, +they stood around it, they followed it to its grave as a mourner. But +here it lies, dead by the hand of Abraham Lincoln. Dead by the power of +the Republican party. Dead by the justice of Almighty God. Don't camp +there, young man. + +But here is another--a little brimstone tomb--and I read across its +yellow face in lurid, bloody lines these words: "Sacred to the memory of +State Sovereignty and Secession." Twelve millions of Democrats mustered +around it in arms to keep it alive; but here it lies, shot to death by +the million guns of the Republic. Here it lies, its shrine burnt to +ashes under the blazing rafters of the burning Confederacy. It is dead! +I would not have you stay in there a minute, even in this balmy night +air, to look at such a place. + +But just before I leave it I discover a new-made grave, a little +mound--short. The grass has hardly sprouted over it, and all around it I +see torn pieces of paper with the word "fiat" on them, and I look down +in curiosity, wondering what the little grave is, and I read on it: +"Sacred to the memory of the Rag Baby nursed in the brain of all the +fanaticism of the world, rocked by Thomas Ewing, George H. Pendleton, +Samuel Cary, and a few others throughout the land." But it died on the +1st of January, 1879, and the one hundred and forty millions of gold +that God made, and not fiat power, he upon its little carcass to keep it +down forever. + +Oh, young man, come out of that! That is no place in which to put your +young life. Come out, and come over into this camp of liberty, of order, +of law, of justice, of freedom, of all that is glorious under these +night stars. + +Is there any death here in our camp? Yes! yes! Three hundred and fifty +thousand soldiers, the noblest band that ever trod the earth, died to +make this camp a camp of glory and of liberty forever. + +But there are no dead issues here. There are no dead ideas here. Hang +out our banner from under the blue sky this night until it shall sweep +the green turf under your feet! It hangs over our camp. Read away up +under the stars the inscription we have written on it, lo! these +twenty-five years. + +Twenty-five years ago the Republican party was married to Liberty, and +this is our silver wedding, fellow-citizens. A worthily married pair +love each other better on the day of their silver wedding than on the +day of their first espousals; and we are truer to Liberty to-day, and +dearer to God than we were when we spoke our first word of liberty. Read +away up under the sky across our starry banner that first word we +uttered twenty-five years ago! What was it? "Slavery shall never extend +over another foot of the territories of the great West." Is that dead or +alive? Alive, thank God, forevermore! And truer to-night than it was the +hour it was written! Then, it was a hope, a promise, a purpose. To-night +it is equal with the stars--immortal history and immortal truth. + +Come down the glorious steps of our banner. Every great record we have +made we have vindicated with our blood and with our truth. It sweeps the +ground, and it touches the stars. Come there, young man, and put in your +young life where all is living, and where nothing is dead but the +heroes that defended it! I think these young men will do that. + + +[From a Speech, January 14, 1880.] + +I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden-wall of +party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the +gardens of this world, and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy +their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. + + +[Letter of Acceptance, July 10, 1880.] + +Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without +which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its +interests are intrusted to the States, and to the voluntary action of +the people. Whatever help the Nation can justly afford should be +generously given to aid the States in supporting common schools; but it +would be unjust to our people, and dangerous to our institutions, to +apply any portion of the revenues of the Nation or of the States to the +support of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State +in everything relating to taxation should be absolute. + + * * * * * + +Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant +natural resources, possess the requisite skill at any time to clothe, +arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all +the necessary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the +founders of the Government to provide for the common defence, not by +standing armies alone, but by raising among the people a greater army of +artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to +the safety and glory of the nation. + + * * * * * + +Over this vast horizon of interests, North and South, above all party +prejudices and personal wrong-doing, above our battle hosts and our +victorious cause, above all that we hoped for and won, or you hoped for +and lost, is the grand onward movement of the Republic to perpetuate its +glory, to save Liberty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice to +all, to protect and foster all these priceless principles until they +shall have crystallized into the form of enduring law and become +inwrought into the life and habits of our People. + + * * * * * + +I look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave people, one +in heart, one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that +the darkness through which we have travelled was but a part of that +stern but beneficent discipline by which the great Disposer of events +has been leading us on to a higher and nobler national life. + + * * * * * + +The hope of our National perpetuity rests upon that perfect individual +Freedom which shall forever keep up the circuit of perpetual change. + + * * * * * + +Whatever opinions we may now entertain of the Federalists as a party, it +is unquestionably true that we are indebted to them for the strong +points of the Constitution and for the stable government they founded +and strengthened during the administration of Washington and Adams. + + * * * * * + +While it is true that no party can stand upon its past record alone, yet +it is also true that its past shows the spirit and character of the +organization, and enables us to judge what it will probably do in the +future. + + * * * * * + +Parties have an organic life and spirit of their own--an individuality +and character which outlive the men who compose them; and the spirit and +traditions of a party should be considered in determining their fitness +for managing the affairs of the nation. + + * * * * * + +It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legislation, that whatever +the people can do without legislation will be better done than by the +intervention of the State and Nation. + + +[From a Speech, at the unveiling of a Soldiers' Monument Painesville, +Ohio, July 4, 1880.] + +I once entered a house in old Massachusetts, where over its doors were +two crossed swords. One was the sword carried by the grandfather of its +owner on the field of Bunker Hill, and the other was the sword carried +by the English grand-sire of the wife on the same field, and on the +other side of the conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the restored +harmony of domestic peace, lived a happy and contented and free family, +under the light of our republican liberties. I trust the time is not far +distant when, under the crossed swords and the locked shields of +Americans, north and south, our people shall sleep in peace and rise in +liberty, love, and harmony, under the union of our flag of the stars and +stripes. + + +[Speech to a Delegation of four hundred Young Men--First Voters--of +Cleveland, Ohio, at Mentor, October 8, 1880.] + +... I have not so far left the coast of youth to travel inland but that +I can very well remember the state of young manhood, from an experience +in it of some years, and there is nothing to me in this world so +inspiring as the possibilities that lie locked up in the head and breast +of a young man. The hopes that lie before him the great inspirations +around him, the great aspirations above him, all these things, with the +untried pathway of life opening up its difficulties and dangers, inspire +him to courage, and force, and work. + + +[From a Speech in New York, August 6, 1880.] + +... Ideas outlive men. Ideas outlive all things, and you who fought in +the war for the Union fought for immortal ideas, and by their might you +crowned our war with victory. But victory was worth nothing except for +the fruits that were under it, in it, and above it. We meet to-night as +veterans and comrades, to stand sacred guard around the truths for which +we fought, and while we have life to meet and grasp the hands of a +comrade, we will stand by the great truths of the war; and, comrades, +among the convictions of that war which have sunk deep in our hearts +there are some that we can never forget. Think of the great elevating +spirit of the war itself. We gathered the boys from all our farms, and +shops, and stores, and schools, and homes, from all over the Republic, +and they went forth unknown to fame, but returned enrolled on the roster +of immortal heroes. They went in the spirit of those soldiers of Henry +at Agincourt, of whom he said, "Who this day sheds his blood with me, +to-day shall be my brother. Were he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle +his condition;" and it did gentle the condition and elevate the heart +of every working soldier who fought in it, and he shall be our brother +for evermore; and this thing we will remember; we will remember our +allies who fought with us. Soon after the great struggle began we looked +behind the army of white rebels and saw 4,000,000 of black people +condemned to toil as slaves for our enemies, and we found that the +hearts of this 4,000,000 were God-inspired with the spirit of freedom, +and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag +and fight to kill the Union, but in all that long, dreary war we never +saw a traitor in a black skin. Our prisoners, escaping from the +starvation of prison, and fleeing to our lines by the light of the +North-star, never feared to enter the black man's cabin and ask for +bread. In all that period of suffering and danger no Union soldier was +ever betrayed by a black man or woman, and now that we have made them +free, so long as we live we will stand by these black citizens. We will +stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our +Constitution, shall shine with equal rays upon every man, black or +white, throughout the Union. Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers, in +this there is all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we +will stand forever. + + +[Remarks at Chatauqua August 1, 1880] + +I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion. + + +[From an Address at the Anniversary of Hiram College, directly after the +Chicago Convention, 1880.] + +FELLOW-CITIZENS, NEIGHBORS, AND FRIENDS OF MANY YEARS: It always has +given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has +always given me new courage and new friends. It has brought back a large +share of that richness that belongs to those things out of which come +the joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, +watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address which +has just been delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing you have +that all men envy--I mean all men who have reached the meridian of +life--is, perhaps, the thing that you care for less, and that is your +leisure,--the leisure you have to think, the leisure you have to be let +alone, the leisure you have to throw the plummet with your hand, and +sound their depths and find out what is below, the leisure you have to +walk about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong they are, or +how weak they are, and determine what needs building up, and determine +how to shape them, that you may make the final being that you are to be. +Oh, these hours of building! If the superior beings of the universe +would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it +would be the unfinished, unformed character of young men, or of young +women. These behind me have, probably, in the main settled such +questions. Those who have passed into middle manhood and middle +womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is little left +of interest or curiosity as to our development. But to your young and +yet uninformed natures no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured +up in your hearts and intellects; and while you are working up these +possibilities with that splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all +classes of men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your +leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your wealth, as your +means, out of which you can demand all the possible treasures that God +laid down when He formed your nature, and unveiled and developed the +possibility of your future. This place is too full of memories for me to +trust myself to speak upon, and I will not; but I draw again to-day, as +I have for a quarter of a century, evidences of strength and affection +from the people who gather in this place, and I thank you for the +permission to see you, and meet you, and greet you, as I have done +to-day. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[D] "nother talk that I recall was at a social gathering. It was at a +dinner party after the failure of Greeley's campaign. The host was, +perhaps the most original genius in Washington. He was an old companion +of Greeley at Brook Farm. He was giving the dinner in payment of a bet +he had lost by reason of Greeley's defeat. The conversation embraced all +the topics of the day and in the course of it turned to Seward. A member +of the company thought that Seward had been dead years before he was put +into the grave. General Garfield thought differently, and delivered, on +the spur of the moment, a remarkable eulogy on the dead statesman. Soon +afterward, I reduced to notes the outlines of that eulogy, so far as my +memory served me, and I reproduce it here. General Garfield possesses +rare conversational powers, and uses, in social discourse, a diction not +less eloquent and elegant than that to which he is accustomed in the +forum."--_Washington Correspondent of the Chicago Tribune._ + + + + +THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS. + +PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S FIRST OFFICIAL WORDS TO THE COUNTRY. + + +Fellow Citizens,--We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a +hundred years of national life, a century crowded with perils, but +crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the +onward march, let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our +faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our +people have travelled. It is now three days more than a hundred years +since the adoption of the first written Constitution of the United +States, the articles of confederation and perpetual union. The new +Republic was then beset with danger on every hand. It had not conquered +a place in the family of nations. The decisive battle of the war for +independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon be gratefully +celebrated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colonists were +struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against +the settled opinions of mankind, for the world did not believe that the +supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the +guardianship of the people themselves. We cannot overestimate the +fervent love of liberty, the intelligent courage and the saving common +sense with which our fathers made the great experiment of +self-government. When they found, after a short trial, that the +confederacy of States was too weak to meet the necessities of a vigorous +and expanding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its stead +established a national union founded directly upon the will of the +people, endowed with future powers of self-preservation, and with ample +authority for the accomplishment of its great objects. Under this +Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the +foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth in +all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of +the founders, and given new hopes to their descendants. Under this +Constitution our people long ago made themselves safe against danger +from without, and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights +on all the seas. Under this Constitution twenty-five States have been +added to the Union, with constitutions and laws framed and enforced by +their own citizens to secure the manifold blessings of local +self-government. The jurisdiction of this Constitution now covers an +area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States, and +a population twenty times greater than that of 1780. The supreme trial +of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil +war. We ourselves are witnesses that the Union emerged from the blood +and fire of that conflict purified and made stronger for all the +beneficent purposes of good government. + +And now, at the close of this first century of growth, with the +inspirations of its history in their hearts, our people have lately +reviewed the condition of their nation, passed judgment upon the conduct +and opinions of political parties, and have registered their will +concerning the future administration of the Government. To interpret and +to execute that will in accordance with the Constitution is the +paramount duty of the Executive. Even from this brief review it is +manifest that the nation is resolutely facing to the front, resolved to +employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of the +future. Sacredly preserving whatever has been gained to liberty and good +government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind +them all those bitter controversies, including things which have been +irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir +up strife and delay the onward march. The supremacy of the nation and +its laws should be no longer a subject of debate. That discussion which +for half a century threatened the existence of the Union was closed at +last in the high court of war by a decree from which there is no appeal, +that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof are and +shall continue to be the supreme law of the land, binding alike upon the +States and the people. This decree does not disturb the autonomy of the +States nor interfere with any of their necessary rules of local +self-government, but it does fix and establish the permanent supremacy +of the Union. The will of the nation speaking with the voice of battle +and through the amended Constitution has fulfilled the great promise of +1776 by proclaiming "Liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants +thereof." + +The elevation of the negro race from slavery to the full rights of +citizenship is the most important political change we have known since +the adoption of the Constitution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to +appreciate its beneficent effect upon our institutions and people. It +has freed us from the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. It has +added immensely to the moral and industrial forces of our people. It has +liberated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged +and enfeebled both. It has surrendered to their own guardianship the +manhood of more than 5,000,000 of people, and has opened to each one of +them a career of freedom and usefulness. It has given new inspiration +to the power of self-help in both races, by making labor more honorable +to the one and more necessary to the other. The influence of this force +will grow greater and bear richer fruit with the coming years. No doubt +the great change has caused serious disturbance to our Southern +community. This is to be deplored, though it was unavoidable. But those +who resisted the change should remember, that under our institutions +there was no middle ground for the negro race between slavery and equal +citizenship. There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the +United States; freedom can never yield its fullness of blessings so long +as the law or its administration places the smallest obstacles in the +pathway of any virtuous citizen. The emancipated race has already made +remarkable progress; with unquestioning devotion to the Union, with a +patience and gentleness not born of fear, they have "followed the light +as God gave them to see the light." They are rapidly laying the material +foundations for self-support, widening the circle of intelligence, and +beginning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of +industrious poor. They deserve the generous encouragement of all good +men. So far as my authority can lawfully extend, they shall enjoy the +full and equal protection of the Constitution and the laws. + +The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in question, and a frank +statement of the issue may aid its solution. It is alleged, that in many +communities negro citizens are practically denied the freedom of the +ballot. In so far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is +answered, that in many places honest local government is impossible if +the mass of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These are grave +allegations. So far as the latter is true, it is the only palliation +that can be offered for opposing the freedom of the ballot. Bad local +government is certainly a great evil which ought to be prevented, but to +violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil; +it is a crime, which, if persisted in, will destroy the government +itself. Suicide is not a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to +compass the death of the king, it should be counted no less a crime here +to strangle our sovereign power and stifle its voice. It has been said +that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It +should be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question of the +suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States of the nation, +until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes, and keeps the ballot +free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. But the danger which +arises from ignorance in the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field +far wider than that of negro suffrage and the present condition of that +race. It is a danger that lurks and hides in the sources and fountains +of power in every State. We have no standard by which to measure the +disaster that may be brought upon us by ignorance and vice in the +citizens, when joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. The +voters of the Union who make and unmake constitutions, and upon whom +will hang the destinies of our governments, can transmit their supreme +authority to no successor save the coming generation of voters, who are +the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that generation comes to its +inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall of the +republic will be certain and remediless. The census has already sounded +the alarm, in the appalling figures which mark how dangerously high the +tide of illiteracy has risen among our voters and their children. To the +South, this question is of supreme importance, but the responsibility +for the existence of slavery did not rest upon the South alone; the +nation itself is responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is +under special obligations to aid in removing the illiteracy which it has +added to the voting population. + +For the North and South alike there is but one remedy. All the +constitutional power of the nation and of the States, and all the +volunteer forces of the people, should be summoned to meet this danger +by the saving influence of universal education. It is the high +privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their +successors, and fit them by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance +which awaits them. In this beneficent work, sections and races should be +forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. Let our people find a new +meaning in the Divine oracle which declares that "a little child shall +lead them," for our little children will soon control the destinies of +the republic. + +My countrymen, we do not now differ in our judgment concerning the +controversies of past generations, and fifty years hence our children +will not be divided in their opinions concerning our controversies. They +will surely bless their fathers and their fathers' God that the Union +was preserved, that slavery was overthrown, and that both races were +made equal before the law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot +prevent the final reconciliation. Is it not possible for us now to make +a truce with time by anticipating and accepting its inevitable verdict? +Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material +well-being invite us and offer ample scope for the employment of our +best powers. Let all our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields +of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and the +restored Union win the grander victories of peace. + +The prosperity which now prevails is without a parallel in our history; +fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not done +all. The preservation of the public credit and the resumption of specie +payments, so successfully attained by the administration of my +predecessor, has enabled our people to secure the blessings which the +seasons brought. By the experience of commercial nations in all ages it +has been found that gold and silver afford the only safe foundation for +a monetary system. Confusion has recently been created by variations in +the relative value of the two metals. But I confidently believe that +arrangements can be made between the leading commercial nations which +will secure the general use of both metals. Congress should provide that +the compulsory coinage of silver, now required by law, may not disturb +our monetary system by driving either metal out of circulation. If +possible, such an adjustment should be made that the purchasing power of +every coined dollar will be exactly equal to its debt-paying power in +all the markets of the world. The chief duty of the national government, +in connection with the currency of the country, is to coin and declare +its value. Grave doubts have been entertained whether Congress is +authorized by the Constitution to make any form of paper money legal +tender. The present issue of United States notes has been sustained by +the necessities of war, but such paper should depend for its value and +currency upon its convenience in use, and its prompt redemption in coin +at the will of its holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. +These notes are not money, but promises to pay money if the holders +demand it. These promises should be kept. + +The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be +accomplished without compelling the withdrawal of the national bank +notes and thus disturbing the business of the country. I venture to +refer to the position I have occupied on financial questions during a +long service in Congress, and to say that time and experience have +strengthened the opinions I have so often expressed on these subjects. +The finances of the government shall suffer no detriment which it may be +possible for my administration to prevent. + +The interests of agriculture deserve more attention from the government +than they have yet received. The farms of the United States afford homes +and employment for more than one-half our people, and furnish much the +largest part of all our exports. As the government lights our coasts for +the protection of mariners and the benefit of commerce, so it should +give to the tillers of the soil the lights of practical science and +experience. Our manufactures are rapidly making us industrially +independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable +fields of employment. This steady and healthy growth should still be +maintained. Our facilities for transportation should be promoted by the +continued improvement of our harbors and great interior waterways, and +by the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The development of the +world's commerce has led to an urgent demand for shortening the great +sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canals or railways +across the isthmus which unites the two continents. Various plans to +this end have been suggested, and will need consideration, but none of +them have been sufficiently matured to warrant the United States in +extending pecuniary aid. The subject, however, is one which will +immediately engage the attention of the government, with a view to a +thorough protection to American interests. We will urge no narrow +policy, nor seek peculiar or exclusive privileges on any commercial +route, but, in the language of my predecessor, I believe it to be the +right and duty of the United States to assert and maintain such +supervision and authority over any inter-oceanic canal across the +isthmus that connects North and South America, as will protect our +national interests. + +The Constitution guarantees absolute religious freedom. Congress is +prohibited from making any law respecting an establishment of religion, +or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The territories of the United +States are subject to the direct legislative authority of Congress, and +hence the general government is responsible for any violation of the +Constitution in any of them. It is therefore a reproach to the +government, that in the most populous of the territories, the +constitutional guarantee is not enjoyed by the people, and the authority +of Congress is set at naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the +moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the +administration of justice through the ordinary instrumentalities of law. +In my judgment, it is the duty of Congress, while respecting to the +uttermost the conscientious convictions and religious scruples of every +citizen, to prohibit, within its jurisdiction, all immoral practices, +especially of that class which destroy the family relations and endanger +social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical organization be safely +permitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the functions and powers of +the national government. + +The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis, until it +is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the +protection of those who are entrusted with this appointing power, +against the waste of time and obstruction to the public business, +caused by the inordinate pressure for place, and for the protection of +incumbents against intrigue and wrong, I shall at the proper time ask +Congress to fix the tenure of the minor offices of the several executive +departments, and prescribe the grounds upon which removals shall be made +during terms for which incumbents have been appointed. + +Finally, acting always within the authority and limitations of the +Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved +rights of the people, it will be the purpose of my administration to +maintain its authority, and in all places within its jurisdiction, to +enforce obedience to all laws of the Union in the interest of the +people, to demand rigid economy in all expenditures of the government, +and to require the honest and faithful service of all executive +officers, remembering that the offices were created, not for the benefit +of the incumbents or their supporters, but for the service of the +government. And now, fellow citizens, I am about to assume the great +trust which you have committed to my hands. I appeal to you for that +earnest and thoughtful support, which makes this government, in fact as +it is in law, a government of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the +wisdom and patriotism of Congress, and of those who may share with me +the responsibilities and duties of administration; and above all, upon +our efforts to promote the welfare of this great people and their +government, I reverentially invoke the support and blessings of Almighty +God. + + + + +ADDENDA. + + +I. + + HEADQUARTERS DEPT. OF THE CUMBERLAND, + MURFREESBORO, June 12, 1864. + +_General_: In your confidential letter of the 8th inst., to the corps +and division commanders and generals of cavalry, of this army, there +were substantially five questions propounded for their consideration and +answer, viz:-- + +1. Has the enemy of our front been materially weakened by detachments to +Johnston, or elsewhere? + +2. Can this army advance on him at this time, with strong reasonable +chances of fighting a great and successful battle? + +3. Do you think an advance of our army at present likely to prevent +additional reinforcements being sent against General Grant by the enemy +in our front? + +4. Do you think an immediate advance of the army advisable? + +5. Do you think an early advance advisable? + +Many of the answers to these questions are not categorical, and cannot +be clearly set down either as affirmative or negative. Especially in +answer to the first question, there is much indefiniteness resulting +from the difference of judgment as to how great a detachment could be +considered a material reduction of Bragg's strength. For example, one +officer thinks it has been reduced ten thousand and not "materially +weakened." The answers to the second question are modified in some +instances by the opinion that the rebels will fall back behind the +Tennessee River, and thus no battle can be fought, either successful or +unsuccessful. + +So far as these opinions can be stated in tabular form, they will stand +thus,-- + + Yes. No. + Answer to first question, 6 11 + " " second " 2 11 + " " third " 4 10 + " " fourth " - 15 + " " fifth " - 2 + +On the fifth question, three gave it as their opinion that this army +ought to advance as soon as Vicksburg falls, should that event happen. +The following is a summary of the reasons assigned why we should not at +this time advance upon the enemy:-- + +1. With Hooker's army defeated, and Grant's bending all its energies in +a yet undecided struggle, it is bad policy to risk our only reserve army +to the chances of a general engagement. A failure here would have most +disastrous effect on our lines of communication and on politics in the +loyal States. + +2. We should be compelled to fight the enemy on his own grounds or +follow him in a fruitless chase; or, if we attempted to outflank him and +turn his position, we should expose our line of communication, and run +the risk of being pushed back into a rough country well known to the +enemy and little to ourselves. + +3. In case the enemy should fall back without accepting battle he could +make our advance very slow, and with a comparatively small force posted +in the gaps of the mountains could hold us back while he crossed the +Tennessee River, where he would be measurably secure and free to send +reinforcements to Johnston. His force in East Tennessee could seriously +harass our left flank and constantly disturb our communication. + +4. The withdrawal of Burnside's ninth army corps deprives us of an +important reserve and flank protection, thus increasing the difficulty +of an advance. + +5. General Hurlburt has sent the most of his force away to General +Grant, thus leaving West Tennessee uncovered, and laying our right +flank and rear open to raids of the enemy. + +The following incidental opinions are expressed,-- + +1. One officer thinks it probable that the enemy has been strengthened +rather than weakened, and that he (the enemy) would have reasonable +prospect of victory in a general battle. + +2. One officer believes the result of a general battle would be +doubtful, a victory barren, and a defeat most disastrous. + +3. Three officers believe that an advance would bring on a general +engagement. Three others believe it would not. + +4. Two officers express the opinion that the chances of success in a +general battle are nearly equal. + +5. One officer expresses the belief that our army has reached its +maximum strength and efficiency, and that inactivity will seriously +impair its effectiveness. + +6. Two officers say that an increase of our cavalry by about six +thousand men would materially change the aspect of our affairs, and give +us a decided advantage. + +In addition to the above summary, I have the honor to submit an estimate +of the strength of Bragg's army, gathered from all the data I have been +able to obtain, including the estimate of the general commanding, in +his official report of the battle of Stone River, and facts gathered +from prisoners, deserters, and refugees, and from rebel newspapers. +After the battle Bragg consolidated many of his decimated regiments and +irregular organizations; and at the time of his sending reinforcements +to Johnston, his army had reached the greatest effective strength. It +consisted of five divisions of infantry, composed of ninety-four +regiments, and two independent battalions of sharp-shooters,--say +ninety-five regiments. By a law of the confederate Congress, regiments +are consolidated when their effective strength falls below two hundred +and fifty men. Even the regiments formed by such consolidation (which +may reasonably be regarded as the fullest) must fall below five hundred. +I am satisfied that four hundred is a large estimate of the average +strength. + +The force, then, would be,-- + + Infantry, 95 regiments, 400 each, 38,000 + Cavalry, 35 regiments, say 500 each, 17,500 + Artillery, 26 batteries, say 100 each, 2,600 + ------ + Total 58,600 + +This force has been reduced by detachments to Johnston. It is as well +known as we can ever expect to ascertain such facts, that three brigades +have gone from McConn's division, and two or three from +Breckinridge's,--say two. It is clear that there are now but four +infantry divisions in Bragg's army, the fourth being composed of +fragments of McConn's and Breckinridge's divisions, and must be much +smaller than the average. Deducting the five brigades, and supposing +them composed of only four regiments each, which is below the general +average, it gives an infantry reduction of twenty regiments, four +hundred each--eight thousand--leaving a remainder of thirty thousand. It +is clearly ascertained that at least two brigades of cavalry have been +sent from Van Dorn's command to the Mississippi, and it is asserted in +the Chattanooga _Rebel_, of June 11th, that General Morgan's command has +been permanently detached and sent to eastern Kentucky. It is not +certainly known how large his division is, but it is known to contain at +least two brigades. Taking this minimum as the fact, we have a cavalry +reduction of four brigades. + +Taking the lowest estimate, four regiments to the brigade, we have a +reduction, by detachment, of sixteen regiments, five hundred each, +leaving his present effective cavalry force nine thousand five hundred. +With the nine brigades of the two arms thus detached, it will be safe to +say there have gone,-- + + Six batteries, 80 men each, 480 + Leaving him 20 batteries, 2,120 + Making a total reduction of 16,480 + Leaving, of the three arms, 41,680 + +In this estimate of Bragg's strength, I have placed all doubts in his +favor, and I have no question that my estimate is considerably beyond +the truth. General Sheridan, who has taken great pains to collect +evidence on this point, places it considerably below these figures. But +assuming these to be correct, and granting what is still more +improbable, that Bragg would abandon all his rear posts, and entirely +neglect his communications, and could bring his last man into battle, I +next ask: What have we with which to oppose him? + +The last official report of effective strength now on file in the office +of the assistant adjutant-general, is dated from June 11th, and shows +that we have in this department, omitting all officers and enlisted men +attached to department, corps, division and brigade headquarters,-- + +1. Infantry--One hundred and seventy-three regiments; ten battalions +sharp-shooters; four battalions pioneers; and one regiment of engineers +and mechanics, with a total effective strength of seventy thousand nine +hundred and eighteen. + +2. Cavalry--Twenty-seven regiments and one unattached company, eleven +thousand eight hundred and thirteen. + +3. Artillery--Forty-seven and a half batteries field artillery, +consisting of two hundred and ninety-two guns and five hundred and +sixty-nine men,--making a general total of eighty-seven thousand eight +hundred. + +Leaving out all commissioned officers, this army represents eighty-two +thousand seven hundred and sixty-seven bayonets and sabres. This report +does not include the Fifth Iowa cavalry, six hundred strong, lately +armed; nor the First Wisconsin cavalry; nor Coburn's brigade of +infantry, now arriving; nor the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four convalescents, now on light duty in "Fortress Monroe." + +There are detached from this force as follows,-- + + At Galatin, 969 + At Carthage, 1,149 + At Fort Donelson, 1,485 + At Clarkesville, 1,138 + At Nashville, 7,292 + At Franklin, 900 + At Lavergne, 2,117 + ------ + Total 15,130 + +With these posts as they are, and leaving two thousand five hundred +efficient men, in addition to the two thousand three hundred and +ninety-four convalescents, to hold the works at this place, there will +be left sixty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-seven bayonets and +sabres to show, against Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and +eighty. + +I beg leave, also, to submit the following considerations,-- + +1. Bragg's army is weaker now than it has been since the battle of Stone +River, or is likely to be, at present; while our army has reached its +maximum strength, and we have no right to expect reinforcements for +several months, if at all. + +2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the determination of its fate +will give large reinforcements to Bragg. If Grant is successful, his +army will require many weeks to recover from the shock and strain of his +late campaign, while Johnston will send back to Bragg a force sufficient +to insure the safety of Tennessee. If Grant fails, the same result will +inevitably follow, so far as Bragg's army is concerned. + +3. No man can predict, with a certainty, the results of any battle, +however great the disparity in numbers. Such results are in the hand of +God. But, reviewing the question in the light of human calculation, I +refuse to entertain a doubt that this army, which in January last +defeated Bragg's superior numbers, cannot overwhelm his present greatly +inferior forces. + +4. The most unfavorable course for us that Bragg could take, would be to +fall back without giving us battle; but this would be very disastrous to +him. Besides the loss of material of war, and the abandonment of the +rich and abundant harvest, now nearly ripe in Central Tennessee, he +would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known that a wide-spread +dissatisfaction exists among his Kentucky and Tennessee troops. They are +already deserting in large numbers. A retreat would greatly increase +both the desire and the opportunity for desertion, and would very +materially reduce his physical and moral strength. While it would +lengthen our communication, it would give us possession of McMinnville, +and enable us to threaten Chattanooga and East Tennessee; and it would +not be unreasonable to expect an early occupation of the former place. + +5. But the chances are more than even that a sudden and rapid movement +would compel a general engagement, and the defeat of Bragg would be, in +the highest degree, disastrous to the rebellion. + +6. The turbulent aspect of politics in the loyal States renders a +decisive blow against the enemy, at this time, of the highest importance +to the success of the government at the polls, and in the enforcement of +the Conscript Act. + +7. The government and the War Department believe that this army ought +to move upon the enemy. The army desire it, and the country is anxiously +hoping for it. + +8. Our true objective point is the rebel army, whose last reserves are +substantially in the field, and an effective blow will crush the shell, +and soon be followed by the collapse of the rebel government. + +9. You have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a general movement hitherto, +till your army could be massed, and your cavalry could be mounted. Your +mobile force can now be concentrated in twenty-four hours, and your +cavalry, if not equal in numerical strength to that of the enemy, is +greatly superior in efficiency and morale. For this reason I believe an +immediate advance of all our available forces is advisable, and, under +the providence of God, will be successful. + +Very respectfully, your obedient servant, + + J. A. GARFIELD, + _Brigadier-General, Chief of Staff_. + + Major-General ROSECRANS, + Commanding Dept. of Cumberland. + + +II. + + _The following is the official record of the post-mortem + examination of the body of President_ JAMES A. GARFIELD, + _made Sept. 20, 1881, commencing at 4:30 P. M. eighteen + hours after death, at Francklyn Cottage, Elberon, N. J._ + +There were present and assisting, Dr. D. W. Bliss; Surgeon-General J. K. +Barnes, U. S. A.; Surgeon J. J. Woodward, U. S. A.; Dr. Robert Reyburn; +Dr. Frank H. Hamilton; Dr. D. Hayes Agnew; Dr. Andrew H. Smith, of +Elberon and New York, and acting as the assistant surgeon, and D. S. +Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, Washington, D. C. + +Before commencing the examination a consultation was held by the +physicians in the room adjoining that in which the body lay, and it was +unanimously agreed that the dissection should be made by Dr. Lamb, and +that Surgeon Woodward should record the observations made. It was +further unanimously agreed that the cranium should not be opened. +Surgeon Woodward then proposed that the examination should be conducted +as follows: That the body should be viewed externally, and any morbid +appearances existing recorded; that a catheter should then be passed +into the wound, as was done during life to wash it out, for the purpose +of assisting to find the position of the bullet; that a long incision +should next be made from the superior extremity of the sternum to the +pubis, and this crossed by a transverse one just below the umbilicus; +that the abdominal flaps thus made should then be turned back and the +abdominal viscera examined; that after the abdominal cavity was opened, +the position of the bullet should be ascertained, if possible, before +making any further incision, and that, finally, the thoracic viscera +should be examined. This order of procedure was unanimously agreed to, +and the examination was proceeded with. + +[Illustration: Dr. Woodward. Dr. Reyburn. Dr. Barnes. Dr. Bliss. Dr. +Hamilton. Dr. Agnew.] + +The following external appearances were first observed: The body was +considerably emaciated, but the face was much less wasted than the +limbs. A preservative fluid had been injected by the embalmer a few +hours before into the left femoral artery. The pipes used for the +purpose were still in position. The anterior surface of the body +presented no abnormal appearances, and there was no ecchymosis or other +discoloration of any part of the front of the abdomen. Just below the +right ear, and a little behind it, there was an oval ulcerated opening +about half an inch in diameter, from which some sanious pus was +escaping, but no tumefaction could be observed in the parotid region. A +considerable number of purpura-like spots were scattered thickly over +the left scapula, and thence forward as far as the axilla. They ranged +from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch in diameter, were slightly +elevated and furfuraceous on the surface, and many of them were +confluent in groups of two to four or more. A similar, but much less +abundant, eruption was observed sparsely scattered over the +corresponding region on the right side. An oval excavated ulcer, about +an inch long, the result of a small carbuncle, was seated over the +spinous process of the tenth dorsal vertebra. Over the sacrum there were +four small bed sores, the largest about half an inch in diameter. A few +acute pustules and a number of irregular spots of post-mortem hypostatic +congestion were scattered over the shoulders, back and buttocks. The +inferior part of the scrotum was much discolored by hypostatic +congestion. A group of hemorrhoidal tumors rather larger than a walnut +protruded from the anus. The depressed cicatrix of the wound made by the +pistol bullet was recognized over the tenth intercostal space at three +and a half inches to the right of the vertebral spines. A deep linear +incision made in part by the operation of July 24, and extended by that +of August 8, occupied a position closely corresponding to the upper +border of the right twelfth rib. It commenced posteriorly about two +inches from the vertebral spines and extended forward a little more +than three inches. At the anterior extremity of this incision there was +a deep, nearly square, abraded surface, about an inch across. A flexible +catheter, fourteen inches long, was then passed into this wound, as had +been done to wash it out during life. More resistance was at first +encountered than had usually been the case, but after several trials the +catheter entered, without any violence, its full length. It was then +left in position, and the body disposed supinely for the examination of +the viscera. The cranium was not opened. A long incision was made from +the superior extremity of the sternum to the pubis, followed by a +transverse incision crossing the abdomen, just below the umbilicus. The +four flaps thus formed were turned back, and the abdominal viscera +exposed. The subcutaneous adipose tissue, divided by the incision, was +little more than one-eighth of an inch thick over the thorax, but was +thicker over the abdomen, being about a quarter of an inch thick along +the linear alba and as much as half an inch thick towards the outer +extremity of the transverse incision. On inspection of the abdominal +viscera in situ, the transverse colon was observed to lie a little above +the line of the umbilicus. It was firmly adherent to the anterior edge +of the liver. The greater omentum covered the intestines pretty +thoroughly from the transverse colon almost to the pubis. It was still +quite fat and was very much blackened by venous congestion. On both +sides its lateral margins were adherent to the abdominal parietes +opposite the eleventh and twelfth ribs. On the left side the adhesions +were numerous, firm, well organized, and probably old. [A foot-note here +says: These adhesions and the firm ones on the right side, as well as +those of the spleen, possibly date back to an attack of chronic +dysentery, from which the patient is said to have suffered during the +civil war.] On the right side there were a few similar adhesions and a +number of more delicate and probably recent ones. A mass of black, +coagulated blood covered and concealed the spleen and the left margin of +the greater omentum. On raising the omentum it was found that a blood +mass extended through the left lumbar and iliac regions, and dipped down +into the pelvis, in which there was some clotted blood and rather more +than a pint of bloody fluid. [A foot-note here says: A large part of +this fluid had probably transuded from the injection material of the +embalmer.] The blood coagula, having been turned out and collected, +measured very nearly a pint. It was now evident that secondary +hemorrhage had been the immediate cause of death, but the point from +which the blood had escaped was not at once apparent. The omentum was +not adherent to the intestines, which were moderately distended with +gas. No intestinal adhesions were found other than those between the +transverse colon and the liver, already mentioned. + +The abdominal cavity being now washed out as thoroughly as possible, a +fruitless attempt was made to obtain some indication of the presence of +the bullet before making any further incision. By pushing the intestines +aside, the extremity of the catheter, which had been pressed into the +wound, could be felt between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, +but it had evidently doubled upon itself, and, although a prolonged +search was made, nothing could be seen or felt to indicate the presence +of the bullet, either in that region or elsewhere. The abdominal viscera +were then carefully removed from the body, placed in suitable vessels +and examined seriatim, with the following result: The adhesions between +the liver and the transverse colon proved to bound an abscess cavity +between the under surface of the liver, the transverse colon and the +transverse mesocolon, which involved the gall-bladder, and extended to +about the same distance on each side of it, measuring six inches +transversely, and four inches from before backward. This cavity was +lined by a thick pyogenic membrane, which completely replaced the +capsule of that part of the under surface of the liver occupied by the +abscess. It contained about two ounces of greenish-yellow fluid, a +mixture of pus and biliary matter. This abscess did not involve any +portion of the substance of the liver, except the surface with which it +was in contact. No communication could be traced between it and any part +of the wound. Some recent peritoneal adhesions existed between the upper +surface of the right lobe of the liver and the diaphragm. The liver was +larger than normal, weighing eighty-four ounces; its substance was firm, +but of a pale yellowish color on its surface, and throughout the +interior of the organ, from fatty degeneration. No evidence that it had +been penetrated by the bullet could be found, nor were there any +abscesses or infractions in any part of its tissue. The spleen was +connected to the diaphragm by firm, probably old, peritoneal adhesions. +There were several rather deep congenial fissures in its margins, giving +it a lobulated appearance. It was abnormally large, weighing eighteen +ounces, of a very dark, lake-red color. Its parenchyma was soft and +flabby, but contained no abscesses or infractions. There were some +recent peritoneal adhesions between the posterior wall of the stomach +and the posterior abdominal parietes. With this exception, no +abnormities were discovered in the stomach or intestines, nor were any +other evidences of general or acute peritonitis found besides those +already specified. The right kidney weighed six ounces, the left kidney +seven. Just beneath the capsule of the left kidney, at about the middle +of its convex border, there was a little abscess one-third of an inch in +diameter. There were three small serous cysts on the convex border of +the right kidney, just beneath its capsule. In other respects the tissue +of both kidneys was normal in appearance and in texture. The urinary +bladder was empty. Behind the right kidney, after the removal of that +organ from the body, the dilated track of the bullet was discovered. It +was found that, from the point at which it had fractured the right +eleventh rib, three inches and a half to the right of the vertebral +spines, the missile had gone to the left obliquely forward, passing +through the body of the first lumbar vertebra, and lodging in the +adipose collective tissue, immediately below the lower border of the +pancreas, about two inches and a half to the left of the spinal column, +and behind the peritoneum. It had become completely encysted. The track +of the bullet between the point at which it had fractured the eleventh +rib and that at which it entered the first lumbar vertebra was +considerably dilated, and the pus had burrowed downward through the +adipose tissue behind the right kidney, and thence had found its way +between the peritoneum and the right iliac fossa, making a descending +channel, which extended almost to the groin. The adipose tissue behind +the kidney, in the vicinity of the descending channel, was much +thickened and condensed by inflammation. In the channel, which was found +almost free from pus, lay the flexible catheter introduced into the +wound at the commencement of the autopsy. Its extremity was found +doubled upon itself immediately beneath the peritoneum, reposing upon +the iliac fossa, where the channel was dilated into a pouch of +considerable size. This long descending channel, now clearly seen to +have been caused by the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed, +during life, to have been the track of the bullet. The last dorsal, +together with the first and second lumbar vertebra and the twelfth rib, +were then removed from the body for more thorough examination. When this +examination was made, it was found that the bullet had penetrated the +first lumbar vertebra in the upper part of the right side of the body. +The aperture by which it entered the intervertebral cartilage next +above, was situated just below and anterior to the intervertebral +foramen, from which the upper margin was about one-quarter of an inch +distant. Passing obliquely to the left, and forward through the upper +part of the body of the first lumbar vertebra, the bullet emerged by the +aperture, the centre of which was about half an inch to the left of the +median line, and which also involved the intervertebral cartilage next +above. The cancellated tissue of the body of the first lumbar vertebra +was very much comminuted, and the fragments somewhat displaced. Several +deep fissures extended from the track of the bullet into the lower part +of the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra. Others extended through the +first lumbar vertebra into the intervertebral cartilage, between it and +the second lumbar vertebra. Both this cartilage and the next above were +partly destroyed by ulceration. A number of minute fragments from the +fractured lumbar vertebra had been driven into the adjacent soft parts. +It was further found that the right twelfth rib also was fractured at a +point one and a quarter inches to the right of the transverse process of +the twelfth dorsal vertebra. This injury had not been recognized during +life. On sawing through the vertebra, a little to the right of the +median line, it was found that the spinal canal was not involved by the +track of the ball. The spinal cord and other contents of this portion of +the spinal canal presented no abnormal appearance. The rest of the +spinal cord was not examined. Beyond the first lumbar vertebra, the +bullet continued to go to the left, passing behind the pancreas to the +point where it was found. Here it was enveloped in a firm cyst of +connective tissues, which contained, beside the ball, a minute quantity +of inspissated somewhat cheesy pus, which formed a thin layer of a +portion of the surface of the lead. There was also a black shred +adherent to a part of the cyst wall, which proved, on microscopal +examination, to be the remains of a blood clot. For about an inch from +this cyst, the track of the ball behind the pancreas was completely +obliterated by the healing process. Thence as far backward as the body +of the first lumbar vertebra the track was filled with coagulated blood, +which extended on the left into an irregular space rent in the adjoining +adipose tissue behind the peritoneum and above the pancreas. The blood +had worked its way to the left, bursting finally through the peritoneum +behind the spleen into the abdominal cavity. + +The rending of the tissues by the extravasation of this blood was +undoubtedly the cause of the paroxysms of pain which occurred a short +time before death. This mass of coagulated blood was of irregular form, +and nearly as large as a man's fist. It could be distinctly seen from in +front through the peritoneum, after the greater curvature of the stomach +had been exposed by the dissolution of the greater omentum from the +stomach, and especially after some delicate adhesions between the +stomach and the part of the peritoneum covering the blood mass had been +broken down by the fingers. From the relations of the mass, as thus +seen, it was believed that the hemorrhage had proceeded from one of the +mesenteric arteries; but, as it was clear that a minute dissection +would be required to determine the particular branch involved, it was +agreed that the infiltrated tissues and the adjoining soft parts should +be preserved for subsequent study. On the examination and dissection +made in accordance with this agreement, it was found that the fatal +hemorrhage proceeded from a rent, nearly four tenths of an inch long, in +the main trunk of the splenic artery, two inches and a half to the left +of the coeliac axis. The rent must have occurred at least several days +before death, since the everted edges in the slit in the vessel were +united by firm adhesions to the surrounding connective tissue, thus +forming an almost continuous wall, bounding the adjoining portion of the +blood clot. Moreover, the peripheral portion of the clot in this +vicinity was disposed in pretty firm concentric layers. It was further +found that the cyst below the lower margin of the pancreas, in which the +bullet was found, was situated three and one-half inches to the left of +the coeliac axis. Beside the mass of coagulated blood just described, +another about the size of a walnut was found in the greater omentum, +near the splenic extremity of the stomach. The communication, if any, +between this and the larger hemorrhagic mass could not be made out. + +The examination of the thoracic viscera resulted as follows: The heart +weighed eleven ounces. All the cavities were entirely empty, except the +right ventrical, in which a few shreds of soft reddish coagulated blood +adhered to the internal surface. On the surface of the mitral valve +there were several spots of fatty degeneration. With this exception the +cardiac valves were normal. The muscular tissues of the heart were soft +and tore easily. A few spots of fatty degeneration existed in the lining +membrane of the aorta, just above the semilunar valves, and a slender +clot of fibrine was found in the aorta, where it was divided, about two +inches from these valves, for the removal of the heart. On the right +side slight pleuritic adhesions existed between the convex surface of +the lower lobe of the lung and the costal pleura, and firm adhesions +between the anterior edge of the lower lobe, the pericardium and the +diaphragm. The right lung weighed thirty-two ounces. The posterior part +of the fissure between its upper and lower lobes was congenitally +incomplete. The lower lobe of the right lung was hypostatically +congested, and considerable portions, especially toward its base, were +the seat of broncho-pneumonia. The bronchial tubes contained a +considerable quantity of stringy mucous pus. Their mucous surface was +reddened by catarrhal bronchitis. The lung tissue was oedematous. [A +foot-note here says: A part at least of this condition was doubtless due +to the extravasation of the injecting fluids by the embalmer. But it +contained no abscesses or infractions.] On the left side the lower lobe +of the lung was bound behind to the costal pleura, above to the upper +lobe, and below to the diaphragm by pretty firm pleuritic adhesions. The +left lung weighed twenty-seven ounces. The condition of its bronchial +tubes and of the lung tissues was very nearly the same as on the right +side, the chief difference being that the area of broncho-pneumonia in +the lower lobe was much less extensive in the left lung than in the +right. In the lateral part of the lower lobe of the left lung, and about +an inch from its pleural surface, there was a group of four minute areas +of gray hepatization, each about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. +There were no infractions and no abscesses in any part of the lung +tissue. + +The surgeons assisting at the autopsy were unanimously of the opinion +that, in reviewing the history of the case in connection with the +autopsy, it was quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, +and especially the fractured, spongy tissue of the vertebra, furnished a +sufficient explanation of the septic conditions which existed during +life. About an hour after the post-mortem examination was completed the +physicians named at the commencement of this report assembled for +further consultation in an adjoining cottage. A brief outline of the +results of the post-mortem examination was drawn up, signed by all the +physicians, and handed to Private Secretary J. Stanley Brown, who was +requested to furnish copies to the newspaper press. + + D. W. BLISS. + J. K. BARNES. + J. J. WOODWARD. + ROBERT REYBURN. + D. S. LAMB. + +As the above report contains paragraphs detailing the observations made +at Washington on the pathological specimens preserved for that purpose, +the names of Drs. J. H. Hamilton, D. Hayes Agnew, and A. H. Smith, are +not appended to it. It has, however, been submitted to them, and they +have given their assent to the other portions of the report. + + +III. + +SENATOR HOAR'S ADDRESS. + +I should indulge myself in a strange delusion if I hoped to say anything +of President Garfield which is not already well known to his countrymen, +or to add further honor to a name to which the judgment of the world, +with marvelous unanimity, has already assigned its place. The public +sorrow and love have found utterance, if not adequate, yet such as +speech, and silence, and funeral rite, and stately procession, and +prayers, and tears could give. On the twenty-sixth day of September, the +day of the funeral, a common feeling stirred mankind as never before in +history. That mysterious law, by which, in a great audience, every +emotion is multiplied in each heart by sympathy with every other, laid +its spell on universal humanity. At the touch which makes the whole +world kin, all barriers of rank, or party, or State, or Nation +disappeared. His own Ohio, the State of his birth and of his burial, New +England, from whose loins came the sturdy race from which he descended, +whose college gave him his education, can claim no pre-eminence in +sorrow. + +From farthest south comes the voice of mourning for the soldier of the +Union. Over fisherman's hut and frontiersman's cabin is spread a gloom +because the White House is desolate. The son of the poor widow is dead, +and palace and castle are in tears. As the humble Campbellite disciple +is borne to his long home, the music of the requiem fills cathedral +arches and the domes of ancient synagogues. On the coffin of the +canal-boy a queen lays her wreath. As the bier is lifted, word comes +beneath the sea that the nations of the earth are rising and bowing +their heads. From many climes, in many languages they join in the solemn +service. This is no blind and sudden emotion, gathering and breaking +like a wave. It is the mourning of mankind for a great character already +perfectly known and familiar. If there be any persons who fear that +religious faith is dying, that science has shaken the hold of the moral +law upon the minds of men, let them take comfort in asking themselves if +any base or ignoble passion could have so moved mankind. Modern science +has called into life these mighty servants, press and telegraph, who +have created a nerve which joins together all human hearts and pulses +simultaneously over the globe. To what conqueror, to what tyrant, to +what selfish ambition, to what mere intellectual greatness would it not +have refused response? The power in the universe that makes for evil, +and the power in the universe that makes for righteousness, measure +their forces. A poor, weak fiend shoots off his little bolt, a single +human life is stricken down, and a throb of divine love thrills a +planet. + +Every American State has its own story of the brave and adventurous +spirits who were its early settlers; the men who build commonwealths, +the men of whom commonwealths are builded. The history of the settlement +of Massachusetts, of central New York, and of Ohio, is the history of +the Garfield race. They were, to borrow a felicitous phrase, "hungry for +the horizon." They were natural frontiersmen. Of the seven generations +born in America, including the President, not one was born in other than +a frontiersman's dwelling. + +Two of them, father and son, came over with Winthrop in 1630. Each of +the six generations who dwelt in Massachusetts has left an honorable +record still preserved. Five in succession bore an honorable military +title. Some were fighters in the Indian wars. "It is not in Indian +wars," Fisher Ames well says, "that heroes are celebrated, but it is +there they are formed." At the breaking out of the Revolution the male +representatives of the family were two young brothers. One, whose name +descended to the President, was in arms at Concord bridge, at sunrise, +on the 19th of April. The other, the President's great grandfather, +dwelling thirty miles off, was on his way to the scene of action before +noon. When the Constitution rejected by Massachusetts in 1778 was +proposed, this same ancestor, with his fellow-citizens of the little +town of Westminster, voted unanimously for the rejection, and put on +record their reasons. "It is our opinion that no constitution whatever +ought to be established till previously thereto a bill of rights be set +forth, and the constitution be framed therefrom, so that the lowest +capacity may be able to determine his natural rights, and judge of the +equitableness of the constitution thereby." "And as to the Constitution +itself, the following appears to us exceptionable, viz, the fifth +article," [Excepting negroes, mulattoes and Indians from the right to +vote], "which deprives a portion of the human race of their natural +rights on account of their color, which, in our opinion, no power on +earth has a just right to do. It therefore ought to be expunged the +Constitution." No religious intolerance descended in the Garfield race. +But the creed of this Westminster catechism they seem never to have +forgotten. When the war was over, the same ancestor took his young +family and penetrated the forest again. He established his home in +Otsego county, in central New York, at the period and amid the scenes +made familiar by Cooper, in his delightful tale, _The Pioneers_. Again +the generations moved westward, in the march of civilization, keeping +ever in the van, until in 1831, James Garfield was born, in a humble +Ohio cabin where he was left fatherless in his infancy. In a new +settlement the wealth of the family is in the right arm of the father. +To say that the father, who had himself been left an orphan when he was +an infant, left his son fatherless in infancy, is to say that the family +was reduced to extreme poverty. + +I have not given this narrative as the story of a mean or ignoble +lineage. Such men, whether of Puritan, or Huguenot, or Cavalier stock, +have ever been the strength and the security of American States. From +such homes came Webster, and Clay, and Lincoln and Jackson. It is no +race of boors that has struck its axes into the forests of this +continent. These men knew how to build themselves log houses in the +wilderness. They were more skillful still to build constitutions and +statutes. Slow, cautious, conservative, sluggish, unready, in ordinary +life, their brains move quick and sure as their rifles flash, when great +controversies that determine the fate of States are to be decided, when +great interests that brook no delay are at stake, and great battles that +admit no indecision, are to be fought. The trained and disciplined +soldiers of England could not anticipate these alert farmers. On the +morning of the Revolution they were up before the sun. When Washington +was to be defended in 1861 the scholar, or the lawyer, or the man of the +city, dropped his book, left his court-house or his counting-room, and +found his company of yeomen waiting for him. They are ever greatest in +adversity. I would not undervalue the material of which other republics +have been built. The polished marbles of Greece and Italy have their own +grace. But art or nature contain no more exquisite beauty than the color +which this split and unhewn granite takes from the tempest it +withstands. There was never a race of men on earth more capable of +seeing clearly, of grasping, and of holding fast the great truths and +great principles which are permanent, sure, and safe for the government +of the conduct of life, alike in private and public concerns. If there +be, or ever shall be, in this country, a demos, fickle, light-minded, +easily moved, blind, prejudiced, incapable of permanent adherence to +what is great or what is true, whether it come from the effeminacy of +wealth or the scepticism of a sickly and selfish culture, or the poverty +and ignorance of great cities, it will find itself powerless in this +iron grasp. + +Blending with this Saxon stock, young Garfield inherited on the mother's +side the qualities of the Huguenots, those gentle but not less brave or +less constant Puritans, who, for conscience sake, left their beloved +and beautiful France, whose memory will be kept green so long as Maine +cherishes Bowdoin College, or Massachusetts Faneuil Hall; or New York +the antique virtue of John Jay, or South Carolina her Revolutionary +history--who gave a lustre and a glory to every place and thing they +touched. The child of such a race, left fatherless in the wilderness, +yet destined to such a glory, was committed by Providence to three great +teachers, without either of whom he would not have become fitted for his +distinguished career. These teachers were a wise Christian mother, +poverty, and the venerable college president who lived to watch his +pupil through the whole of his varied life, to witness his inauguration +amid such high hopes, and to lament his death. To no nobler matron did +ever Roman hero trace his origin. Few of the traditions of his Puritan +ancestry could have come down to the young orphan. It is said there were +two things with which his mother was specially familiar--the Bible and +the rude ballads of the war of 1812. The child learned the Bible at his +mother's knee, and the love of country from his cradle-hymns. + +I cannot, within the limits assigned to me, recount every circumstance +of special preparation which fitted the young giant for the great and +various parts he was to play in the drama of our republican life. It +would be but to repeat a story whose pathos and romance are all known by +heart to his countrymen. The childhood in the cabin; the struggle with +want almost with famine, the brother proudly bringing his first dollar +to buy shoes for the little bare feet; the labor in the forest, the +growth of the strong frame and the massive brain; the reading of the +first novel; the boy's longing for the sea; the canal-boat; the +carpenter's shop; the first school; the eager thirst for knowledge; the +learning that an obstacle seems only a thing to be overcome; the +founding of the college at Hiram; the companionship in study of the +gifted lady whose eulogy he pronounced; the Campbellite preaching; the +ever-wise guidance of the mother; the marriage to the bright and +beautiful schoolmate; we know them better even, than we know the youth +of Washington and of Webster. General Garfield said in 1878, that he had +not long ago conversed with an English gentleman, who told him that in +twenty-five years of careful study of the agricultural class in England +he had never known one who was born and reared in the ranks of farm +laborers that rose above his class and became a well-to-do citizen. The +story of a childhood passed in poverty, of intellect and moral nature +trained in strenuous contests with adversity, is not unfamiliar to those +who have read the lives of the men who have been successful in this +country in any of the walks of life. It is one of the most beneficent +results of American institutions that we have ceased to speak of poverty +and hardship, and the necessity for hard and humble toil as +disadvantages to a spirit endowed by nature with the capacity for +generous ambitions. In a society where labor is honorable, and where +every place in social or public life is open to merit, early poverty is +no more a disadvantage than a gymnasium to an athlete, or drill and +discipline to a soldier. + +General Garfield was never ashamed of his origin. He + + "Did not change, but kept in lofty place + The wisdom which adversity had bred." + +The humblest friend of his boyhood was ever welcome to him when he sat +in the highest seats, where Honor was sitting by his side. The poorest +laborer was sure of the sympathy of one who had known all the bitterness +of want and the sweetness of bread earned by the sweat of the brow. He +was ever the simple, plain, modest gentleman. When he met a common +soldier it was not the general or military hero that met him, but the +comrade. When he met the scholar, it was not the learned man, or the +college president, but the learner. It was fitting that he who found +open the road through every gradation of public honor, from the log +cabin to the Presidency, simply at the price of deserving it, should +have answered in the same speech the sophistries of communism and the +sinister forebodings of Lord Macaulay. "Here," he said, "society is not +fixed in horizontal layers, like the crust of the earth, but as a great +New England man said years ago, it is rather like the ocean, broad, +deep, grand, open, and so free in all its parts that every drop that +mingles with the yellow sand at the bottom, may ride through all the +waters, till it gleams in the sunshine on the crest of the highest +waves. So it is here in our free society, permeated with the light of +American freedom. There is no American boy, however poor, however +humble, orphan though he may be, that, if he have a clear head, a true +heart, a strong arm, he may not rise through all the grades of society, +and become the crown, the glory, the pillar of the State. Here there is +no need for the Old World war between capital and labor. Here is no need +of the explosion of social order predicted by Macaulay." + +When seeking a place of education in the East, young Garfield wrote to +several New England colleges. The youth's heart was touched, and his +choice decided by the tone of welcome in the reply of Dr. Hopkins, the +president of Williams. It was fortunate that his vigorous youth found +itself under the influence of a very great but very simple and sincere +character. The secret of Dr. Hopkins' power over his pupils lay, first, +in his own example, profound scholarship, great practical wisdom, +perfect openness and sincerity, and humility, second, in a careful study +of the disposition of each individual youth, third, justice, absolute, +yet accompanied by sympathy and respect, seldom severity, never scorn, +in dealing with the errors of boyhood. No harsh and inflexible law, cold +and pitiless as a winter's sea, dealt alike with the sluggish and the +generous nature. No storm of merciless ridicule greeted the shy, +awkward, ungainly, backwoodsman. And, beyond all, Dr. Hopkins taught his +pupils that lesson in which some of our colleges so sadly +fail--reverence for the republican life of which they were to form a +part, and for the great history of whose glory they were inheritors. It +was my fortune, on an evening last spring, to see the illustrious pupil, +I suppose for the last time on earth, take leave of the aged teacher +whose head the frosts of nearly fourscore winters had touched so +lightly, and to hear him say at parting, "I have felt your presence at +the beginning of my administration like a benediction." The President +delighted in his college. He kept unbroken the friendships he formed +within her walls. He declared that the place and its associations were +to him a fountain of perpetual youth. He never forgot his debt to her. +When he was stricken down he was on his way, all a boy again, to lay his +untarnished laurels at her feet. + +It would have been hard to find in this country a man so well equipped +by nature, by experience, and by training, as was Garfield when he +entered the Ohio Senate, in 1860, at the age of twenty-eight. He was in +his own person the representative of the plainest life of the backwoods +and the best culture of the oldest eastern community. He had been used +in his youth to various forms of manual labor. The years which he +devoted to his profession of teacher and of college president, were +years of great industry, in which he disciplined his powers of public +speaking and original investigation. Dr. Hopkins said of him: "There was +a large general capacity applicable to any subject and sound sense. What +he did was done with facility, but by honest and avowed work. There was +no pretence of genius or alternation of spasmodic effort and of rest, +but a satisfactory accomplishment in all directions of what was +undertaken." His sound brain and athletic frame could bear great labor +without fatigue. He had a thoroughly healthy and robust intellect, +capable of being directed upon any of the pursuits of life or any of the +affairs of State in any department of the public service. We have no +other example in our public life of such marvellous completeness of +intellectual development. He exhibited enough of his varied mental +capacity to make it sure that he could have attained greatness as a +metaphysician or a mathematician in any of the exact sciences, as a +linguist, as an executive officer, as he did in fact attain it as a +military commander, as an orator, as a debater and a parliamentary and +popular leader. + +The gigantic scale on which the operations of our late war were +conducted, has dwarfed somewhat the achievements of individual actors. +If in the history of either of the other wars in which our people have +engaged, whether before or after the Declaration of Independence, such a +chapter should be found as the narrative of Garfield's Kentucky +campaign, it would alone have made the name of its leader immortal. It +is said that General Rosecrans received the young schoolmaster with some +prejudice. "When he came to my headquarters," he says, "I must confess +that I had a prejudice against him, as I understood he was a preacher +who had gone into politics, and a man of that cast I was naturally +opposed to." In his official report Rosecrans says:-- + + "I especially mention Brigadier-General Garfield, ever + active, prudent and sagacious. I feel much indebted to him + for both counsel and assistance in the administration of + this army. He possesses the energy and the instinct of a + great commander." + +We must leave to soldiers and to military historians to assign then +relative historic importance to the movements of the war. But we may +safely trust the popular judgment which pronounces Garfield's role at +Chickamauga one of the most conspicuous instances of personal heroism, +and the Kentucky campaign a most brilliant example of fertility of +resource, combined audacity and prudence, sound military judgment, and +success against great odds. We may safely trust, too, the judgment of +the accomplished historian, who pronounces his report in favor of the +advance that ended with the battle of Chickamuauga "the ablest military +document submitted by a chief of staff to his superior during the war." +We may accept, also, the award of Lincoln, who made him major-general +for his brilliant service at Chickamauga, and the confidence of Thomas, +who offered him the command of an army corps. Great as was his capacity +for military service, the judgment of Abraham Lincoln did not err, when +it summoned him to the field of labor where his greatest laurels were +won. It is the fashion, in some quarters, to lament the decay of +statesmanship, and to make comparisons, by no means complimentary, +between persons now entrusted with the conduct of public affairs, and +their predecessors. We may at least find consolation in the knowledge +that when any of our companions die they do not fail to receive full +justice from the hearts of the people. + +Suppose any of the statesmen who preceded the war, or some intelligent +and not unfriendly foreign observer--some De Tocqueville or Macaulay--to +look forward with Garfield to the duties which confronted him when he +entered Congress in 1863. With what despair, in the light of all past +experience, would he have contemplated the future. How insignificant the +difficulties which beset the men of the preceding seventy years compared +with those which have crowded the seventeen which were to follow. How +marvellous the success the American people have achieved in dealing with +these difficulties compared with that which attended the statesmanship +of the times of Webster and Clay and Calhoun, giants as they were. The +greatness of these men is not likely to be under-valued anywhere, least +of all in Massachusetts. They contributed each in his own way those +masterly discussions of the great principles by which the Constitution +must be interpreted, and the economic laws on which material prosperity +depends, which will abide as perpetual forces so long as the republic +shall endure. Mr Webster, especially, aided in establishing in the +jurisprudence of the country the great judgments, which, on the one +hand, asserted for the national government its most necessary and +beneficent powers, and, on the other hand, have protected property and +liberty from invasion. He uttered in the Senate the immortal argument +which convinced the American people of the unity of the republic and the +supremacy and indestructibility of the national authority. It has been +well said that the cannon of the nation were shotted with the reply to +Hayne. But the only important and permanent measure with which the name +of Webster is connected is the Ashburton treaty--an achievement of +diplomacy of little consequence in comparison with those which obtained +from the great powers of Europe the relinquishment of the doctrine of +perpetual allegiance, or with the Alabama treaty of 1871. Mr. Clay's +life was identified with two great policies--the protection of American +industry and the compromise between slavery and freedom in their strife +for control of the Territories. When he died the free-trade tariff of +1844 was the law of the land, and within two years the Missouri +compromise was repealed. Mr Calhoun has left behind him the memory of a +stainless life, great intellectual power and a lost cause. + +To each generation is committed its peculiar task. To these men it was +given to wake the infant republic to a sense of its own great destiny, +and to teach it the laws of its being, by which it must live or bear no +life. To the men of our time the abstract theories, which were only +debated in other days, have come as practical realities, demanding +prompt and final decision on questions where error is fatal. From the +time of Jay's treaty no such problem has presented itself to American +diplomacy as that which the war left as its legacy. The strongest power +on earth, accustomed, in dealing with other nations, to take counsel +only of her pride and her strength, had inflicted on us vast injury, of +which the honor of this country seemed pledged to insist on reparation, +which England conceived hers equally pledged to deny. But in domestic +affairs, the difficulties were even greater. For six of the sixteen +years that followed the death of Lincoln, the President was not in +political accord with either house of Congress. For four others the +house was of different politics from President and Senate. During the +whole time the dominant party had to encounter a zealous and able +opposition, and to submit its measures to a people having apparently the +strongest inducements to go wrong. The rights of capital were to be +determined by the votes of labor, debtors to fix the value of their +payments to their creditors, a people under no constraint but their own +sense of duty to determine whether they would continue to bear the +weight of a vast debt, the policy of dealing with the conquered to be +decided at the close of a long war by the votes of the conquerors, among +whom every other family was in mourning for its dead, finance and +currency with their subtleties, surpassing the subtleties of +metaphysics to be made clear to the apprehension of plain men; business +to be recalled from the dizzy and dangerous heights of speculation to +moderate gains and safe laws; great public ways connecting distant +oceans to be built; commerce to be diverted into unaccustomed channels; +the mouth of the Mississippi to be opened; a great banking system to be +devised and put in operation, such as was never known before, alike +comprehensive and safe, through whose veins and arteries credit, the +life-blood of trade should ebb and flow in the remotest extremities of +the land; four millions of people to be raised from slavery to +citizenship; millions more to be welcomed from foreign lands; a disputed +presidential succession to be settled, after an election contest in +which the country seemed turned into two hostile camps, by a tribunal +for which the founders of the government had made no provision; all this +to be accomplished under the restraints of a written Constitution. + +When this list has been enumerated the eulogy of Garfield the statesman +has been spoken. There is scarcely one of these questions, certainly not +more than one or two, which he did not anticipate, carefully and +thoroughly study for himself before it arose, and to which he did not +contribute an original argument, unsurpassed in persuasive force. +Undoubtedly there were others who had more to do with marshalling the +political forces of the house. But almost from the time he entered it he +was the leader of its best thought. He was ever serious, grave, +addressing himself only to the reason and conscience of his auditors. + +He lived in a State whose people were evenly divided in politics, and on +whose decision, as it swayed alternately from side to side, the fate of +the country often seemed to depend. You will search his speeches in vain +for an appeal to a base motive or an evil passion. Many men who are +called great political leaders are really nothing but great political +followers. They study the currents of a public sentiment which other men +form. They use as instruments opinions which they never espoused till +they became popular. General Garfield always consulted with great care +the temper of the house in the conduct of measures which were under his +charge. But he was remarkably independent in forming his judgments, and +inflexible in adhering to them on all great essential questions. His +great friend and commander, General Thomas, whose stubborn courage saved +the day in the great battle for the possession of Tennessee, was +well-called the "rock of Chickamauga." In the greater battle in 1876 for +the nation's honor, Garfield well deserved to be called the "rock of +Ohio." Everything he did and said manifested the serious, reverent love +of excellent. He had occasion often to seek to win to his opinions +masses of men composed largely of illiterate persons. No man ever heard +from his lips a sneer at scholarship. At the same time, he never made +the scholar's mistake of undervaluing the greatness of the history of +his own country, or the quality of his own people. + +The limits of this discourse do not permit me to enter into the detail +of the variety and extent of his service in debate, in legislation, and +in discussions before the people. I could detain you until midnight were +I to recount from my own memory the great labors of the twelve years +that it was my privilege to share with him in the public service, for +four of which I sat almost by his side. Everybody who had a new thought +brought it to him for hospitable welcome. Did science or scholarship +need anything of the government, Garfield was the man to whom they came. +While charged with the duty of supervising the details of present +legislation he was always foreseeing and preparing for the future. In +the closing years of the war, while chairman of the committee of +military affairs, he was studying finance. Later he had prepared himself +to deal with the defects in the civil service. I do not think the +legislation of the next twenty years will more than reach the ground +which he had already occupied in his advanced thought. + +General Garfield gave evidence of vast powers of oratory on some very +memorable occasions. But he made almost no use of them as a means of +persuading the people to conclusions where great public interests were +at stake. Sincerity, directness, full and perfect understanding of his +subject, clear logic, manly dignity, simple and apt illustration, marked +all his discourse. But on a few great occasions, such as that in New +York, when the people were moved almost to frenzy by the assassination +of Lincoln, or in the storm which moved the great human ocean at the +convention at Chicago, he showed that he could touch with a master's +hands the chords of that mighty instrument-- + + "Such as raised + To height of noblest temper heroes old, + Arming to battle, and instead of rage + Deliberate valor breathed, firm and unmoved + With dread of death to flight or foul retreat; + Nor wanting power to mitigate and suage + With solemn touches, troubled thoughts, and chase + Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain + From mortal or immortal minds." + +When General Garfield took the oath of office as President, he seemed to +those who knew him best, though in his fiftieth year, still in the prime +of a splendid and vigorous youth. He was still growing. We hoped for him +eight years of brilliant administration, and then, in some form or place +of service, an old age like that of Adams, whom, in variety of +equipment, alone of our Presidents he resembled. What was best and +purest and loftiest in the aspiration of America seemed at last to have +laid its hand on the helm. Under its beneficent rule we hoped, as our +country entered on its new career of peace and prosperity, a nobler +liberty, a better friendship, a purer justice, a more lasting +brotherhood. But he was called to a sublimer destiny. He had ascended +along and up the heights of service, of success, of greatness, of glory; +ever raised by the people to higher ranks for gallant and meritorious +conduct on each field, until by their suffrages he stood foremost among +men of the foremost among nations. But in the days of his sickness and +death he became the perpetual witness and example how much greater than +the achievements of legislative halls, or the deeds of the field of +battle, are the household virtues and simple family affections which all +men have within their reach; how much greater than the lessons of the +college or the camp, or the congress, are the lessons learned at +mother's knees. The honors paid to Garfield are the protest of a better +age and a better generation against the vulgar heroisms of the past. Go +through their mausoleums and under their triumphal arches, and see how +the names inscribed there shrink and shrivel compared with that of this +Christian soldier, whose chiefest virtues, after all, are of the +fireside and the family circle, and of the dying bed. Here the hero of +America becomes the hero of humanity. + +We are justified, then, in saying of this man that he has been tried and +tested in every mode by which the quality of a human heart and the +capacity of a human intellect can be disclosed; by adversity, by +prosperity, by poverty, by wealth, by leadership in deliberative +assemblies, and in the perilous edge of battle, by the height of power +and of fame. The essay was to be completed by the certain and visible +approach of death. As he comes out into the sunlight, more and more +clearly does his country behold a greatness and symmetry which she is to +see in their true and full proportions only when he lies in the repose +of death. + + "As sometimes in a dead man's face, + To those that watch it more and more, + A likeness, hardly seen before, + Comes out, to some one of his race, + + So, dearest, now thy brows are cold, + I see thee what thou art, and know + Thy likeness to the wise below, + Thy kindred with the great of old." + +Let us not boast at the funeral of our dead. Such a temper would be +doubly odious in the presence of such expressions of hearty sympathy +from governments of every form. But we should be unfaithful to ourselves +if in asking for this man a place in the world's gallery of illustrious +names we did not declare that we offer him as an example of the +products of Freedom. With steady and even step he walked from the +log-cabin and the canal-path to the school, to the college, to the +battle-field, to the halls of legislation, to the White House, to the +chamber of death. The ear in which the voices of his countrymen, hailing +him at the pinnacle of human glory had scarcely died out, heard the +voice of the dread archangel, and his countenance did not change. Is not +that country worth dying for whose peasantry are of such a strain? Is +not the Constitution worth standing by under whose forms Freedom calls +such men to her high places? Is not the Union worth saving which gives +all of us the property of countrymen in such a fame? + + +IV. + +HON. JAMES G. BLAINE'S EULOGY. + +MR. PRESIDENT: For the second time in this generation the great +departments of the Government of the United States are assembled in the +Hall of Representatives to do honor to the memory of a murdered +President. Lincoln fell at the close of a mighty struggle in which the +passions of men had been deeply stirred. The tragical termination of his +great life added but another to the lengthened succession of horrors +which had marked so many lintels with the blood of the first born. +Garfield was slain in a day of peace, when brother had been reconciled +to brother, and when anger and hate had been banished from the land. +"Whoever shall hereafter draw the portrait of murder, if he will show it +as it has been exhibited where such example was last to have been looked +for, let him not give it the grim visage of Moloch, the brow knitted by +revenge, the face black with settled hate. Let him draw, rather, a +decorous, smooth-faced, bloodless demon; not so much an example of +human nature in its depravity and in its paroxysms of crime, as an +infernal being, a fiend in the ordinary display and development of his +character." + + * * * * * + +From the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth till the uprising against +Charles First, about twenty thousand emigrants came from Old England to +New England. As they came in pursuit of intellectual freedom and +ecclesiastical independence rather than for worldly honor and profit, +the emigration naturally ceased when the contest for religious liberty +began in earnest at home. The man who struck his most effective blow for +freedom of conscience by sailing for the colonies in 1620 would have +been accounted a deserter to leave after 1640. The opportunity had then +come on the soil of England for that great contest which established the +authority of Parliament, gave religious freedom to the people, sent +Charles to the block, and committed to the hands of Oliver Cromwell the +Supreme Executive authority of England. The English emigration was never +renewed, and from these twenty thousand men with a small emigration from +Scotland and from France are descended the vast numbers who have New +England blood in their veins. + +In 1685 the revocation of the edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. scattered to +other countries four hundred thousand Protestants, who were among the +most intelligent and enterprising of French subjects--merchants of +capital, skilled manufacturers and handicraftsmen, superior at the time +to all others in Europe. A considerable number of these Huguenot French +came to America, a few landed in New England and became honorably +prominent in its history. Their names have in large part become +anglicized, or have disappeared, but their blood is traceable in many of +the most reputable families, and their fame is perpetuated in honorable +memorials and useful institutions. + +From these two sources, the English-Puritan and the French-Huguenot, +came the late President--his father, Abram Garfield, being descended +from the one, and his mother, Eliza Ballou, from the other. + +It was good stock on both sides--none better, none braver, none truer. +There was in it an inheritance of courage, of manliness, of imperishable +love of liberty, of undying adherence to principle. Garfield was proud +of his blood, and, with as much satisfaction as if he were a British +nobleman reading his stately ancestral record in Burke's Peerage, he +spoke of himself as ninth in descent from those who would not endure the +oppression of the Stuarts, and seventh in descent from the brave French +Protestants who refused to submit to tyranny even from the Grand +Monarque. + +General Garfield delighted to dwell on these traits, and, during his +only visit to England, he busied himself in discovering every trace of +his forefathers in parish registries and on ancient army rolls. Sitting +with a friend in the gallery of the House of Commons one night after a +long day's labor in this field of research, he said with evident elation +that in every war in which for three centuries patriots of English blood +had struck sturdy blows for constitutional government and human liberty, +his family had been represented. They were at Marston Moor, at Naseby, +and at Preston, they were at Bunker Hill, at Saratoga and at Monmouth, +and in his own person had battled for the same great cause in the war +which preserved the Union of the States. + +Losing his father before he was two years old, the early life of +Garfield was one of privation, but its poverty has been made +indelicately and unjustly prominent. Thousands of readers have imagined +him as the ragged, starving child, whose reality too often greets the +eye in the squalid sections of our large cities. General Garfield's +infancy and youth had none of their destitution, none of their pitiful +features appealing to the tender heart and to the open hand of charity. +He was a poor boy in the same sense in which Henry Clay was a poor boy; +in which Andrew Jackson was a poor boy; in which Daniel Webster was a +poor boy: in the sense in which a large majority of the eminent men of +America in all generations, have been poor boys. Before a great +multitude of men, in a public speech, Mr Webster bore this testimony; + +"It did not happen to me to be born in a log cabin, but my elder +brothers and sisters were born in a log cabin raised amid the snowdrifts +of New Hampshire, at a period so early that when the smoke rose first +from its rude chimney and curled over the frozen hills there was no +similar evidence of a white man's habitation between it and the +settlements on the rivers of Canada. Its remains still exist. I make to +it an annual visit. I carry my children to it to teach them the +hardships endured by the generations which have gone before them. I love +to dwell on the tender recollections, the kindred ties, the early +affections, and the touching narratives and incidents which mingle with +all I know of this primitive family abode." + +With the requisite change of scene, the same words would aptly portray +the early days of Garfield. The poverty of the frontier, where all are +engaged in a common struggle, and where a common sympathy and hearty +co-operation lighten the burdens of each, is a very different poverty; +different in kind, different in influence and effect, from that +conscious and humiliating indigence which is every day forced to +contrast itself with neighboring wealth, on which it feels a sense of +grinding dependence. The poverty of the frontier is indeed no poverty. +It is but the beginning of wealth, and has the boundless possibilities +of the future always opening before it. No man ever grew up in the +agricultural regions of the West, where a house-raising, or even a +corn-husking, is matter of common interest and helpfulness, with any +other feeling than that of broad-minded, generous independence. This +honorable independence marked the youth of Garfield, as it marks the +youth of millions of the best blood and brain now training for the +future citizenship and future government of the republic. Garfield was +born heir to land, to the title of free-holder, which has been the +patent and passport of self-respect with the Anglo Saxon race ever since +Hengist and Horsa landed on the shores of England. His adventure on the +canal--an alternative between that and the deck of a Lake Erie +schooner--was a farmer boy's device for earning money, just as the New +England lad begins a possibly greater career by sailing before the mast +on a coasting vessel or on a merchantman bound to the farther India or +to the China Seas. + +No manly man feels anything of shame in looking back to early struggles +with adverse circumstances, and no man feels a worthier pride than when +he has conquered the obstacles to his progress. But no one of noble +mould desires to be looked upon as having occupied a menial position, +as having been repressed by a feeling of inferiority, or as having +suffered the evils of poverty until relief was found at the hand of +charity. General Garfield's youth presented no hardships which family +love and family energy did not overcome, subjected him to no privations +which he did not cheerfully accept, and left no memories save those +which were recalled with delight, and transmitted with profit and with +pride. + +Garfield's early opportunities for securing an education were extremely +limited, and yet were sufficient to develop in him an intense desire to +learn. He could read at three years of age, and each winter he had the +advantage of the district school. He read all the books to be found +within the circle of his acquaintance; some of them he got by heart. +While yet in childhood he was a constant student of the Bible, and +became familiar with its literature. The dignity and earnestness of his +speech in his maturer life gave evidence of this early training. At +eighteen years of age he was able to teach school, and thenceforward his +ambition was to obtain a college education. To this end he bent all his +efforts, working in the harvest field, at the carpenter's bench, and, in +the winter season, teaching the common schools of the neighborhood. +While thus laboriously occupied he found time to prosecute his studies, +and was so successful that at twenty-two years of age he was able to +enter the junior class at Williams College, then under the presidency of +the venerable and honored Mark Hopkins, who, in the fullness of his +powers, survives the eminent pupil to whom he was of inestimable +service. + +The history of Garfield's life to this period, presents no novel +features. He had undoubtedly shown perseverance, self-reliance, +self-sacrifice, and ambition, qualities, which, be it said for the honor +of our country, are everywhere to be found among the young men of +America. But from his graduation at Williams onward, to the hour of his +tragical death, Garfield's career was eminent and exceptional. Slowly +working through his educational period, receiving his diploma when +twenty-four years of age, he seemed as one bound to spring into +conspicuous and brilliant success. Within six years he was successively +president of a college, State Senator of Ohio, major-general of the army +of the United States, and Representative elect to the National Congress. +A combination of honors so varied, so elevated, within a period so brief +and to a man so young, is without precedent or parallel in the history +of the country. + +Garfield's army life was begun with no other military knowledge than +such as he had hastily gained from books in the few months preceding his +march to the field. Stepping from civil life to the head of a regiment, +the first order he received when ready to cross the Ohio was to assume +command of a brigade, and to operate as an independent force in Eastern +Kentucky. His immediate duty was to check the advance of Humphrey +Marshall, who was marching down the Big Sandy with the intention of +occupying, in connection with other confederate forces, the entire +territory of Kentucky, and of precipitating the State into secession. +This was at the close of the year 1861. Seldom, if ever, has a young +college professor been thrown into a more embarrassing and discouraging +position. He knew just enough of military science, as he expressed it +himself, to measure the extent of his ignorance, and with a handful of +men he was marching, in rough winter weather, into a strange country, +among a hostile population, to confront a largely superior force under +the command of a distinguished graduate of West Point, who had seen +active and important service in two preceding wars. + +The result of the campaign is matter of history. The skill, the +endurance, the extraordinary energy shown by Garfield, the courage he +imparted to his men, raw and untried as himself, the measures he adopted +to increase his force and to create in the enemy's mind exaggerated +estimates of his numbers, bore perfect fruit in the routing of Marshall, +the capture of his camp, the dispersion of his force, and the +emancipation of an important territory from the control of the +rebellion. Coming at the close of a long series of disasters to the +Union arms, Garfield's victory had an unusual and extraneous importance, +and in the popular judgment elevated the young commander to the rank of +a military hero. With less than two thousand men in his entire command, +with a mobilized force of only eleven hundred, without cannon, he had +met an army of five thousand and defeated them--driving Marshall's +forces successively from two strongholds of their own selection, +fortified with abundant artillery. Major-General Buell, commanding the +Department of the Ohio, an experienced and able soldier of the regular +army, published an order of thanks and congratulation on the brilliant +result of the Big Sandy campaign, which would have turned the head of a +less cool and sensible man than Garfield. Buell declared that his +services had called into action the highest qualities of a soldier, and +President Lincoln supplemented these words of praise by the more +substantial reward of a brigadier-general's commission, to bear date +from the day of his decisive victory over Marshall. + +The subsequent military career of Garfield fully sustained its brilliant +beginning. With his new commission he was assigned to the command of a +brigade in the Army of the Ohio, and took part in the second and +decisive day's fight in the great battle of Shiloh. The remainder of the +year 1862 was not especially eventful to Garfield, as it was not to the +armies with which he was serving. His practical sense was called into +exercise in completing the task assigned him by General Buell, of +reconstructing bridges and reestablishing lines of railway communication +for the army. His occupation in this useful but not brilliant field was +varied by service on courts-martial of importance, in which department +of duty he won a valuable reputation attracting the notice and securing +the approval of the able and eminent Judge Advocate General of the Army. +That of itself was warrant to honorable fame; for among the great men +who in those trying days gave themselves, with entire devotion, to the +service of their country, one who brought to that service the ripest +learning, the most fervid eloquence, the most varied attainments, who +labored with modesty and shunned applause, who, in the day of triumph, +sat reserved and silent and grateful--as Francis Deak in the hour of +Hungary's deliverance--was Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, who, in his +honorable retirement, enjoys the respect and veneration of all who love +the Union of the States. + +Early in 1863 Garfield was assigned to the highly important and +responsible post of chief of staff to General Rosecrans, then at the +head of the Army of the Cumberland. Perhaps in a great military +campaign no subordinate officer requires sounder judgment and quicker +knowledge of men than the chief of staff to the commanding general. An +indiscreet man in such a position can sow more discord, breed more +jealousy, and disseminate more strife, than any other officer in the +entire organization. When General Garfield assumed his new duties, he +found various troubles already well developed and seriously effecting +the value and efficiency of the Army of the Cumberland. The energy, the +impartiality, and the tact with which he sought to allay these +dissensions, and to discharge the duties of his new and trying position, +will always remain one of the most striking proofs of his great +versatility. His military duties closed on the memorable field of +Chickamauga, a field which, however disastrous to the Union arms, gave +to him the occasion of winning imperishable laurels. The very rare +distinction was accorded him of a great promotion for his bravery on a +field that was lost. President Lincoln appointed him a major-general in +the army of the United States for gallant and meritorious conduct in the +battle of Chickamauga. + +The Army of the Cumberland was reorganized under the command of General +Thomas, who promptly offered Garfield one of its divisions. He was +extremely desirous to accept the position, but was embarrassed by the +fact that he had, a year before, been elected to Congress, and the time +when he must take his seat was drawing near. He preferred to remain in +the military service, and had within his own breast the largest +confidence of success in the wider field which his new rank opened to +him. Balancing the argument on the one side and the other, anxious to +determine what was for the best, desirous above all things to do his +patriotic duty, he was decisively influenced by the advice of President +Lincoln and Secretary Stanton, both of whom assured him that he could, +at that time, be of especial value in the House of Representatives. He +resigned his commission of major-general on the fifth day of December, +1863, and took his seat in the House of Representatives on the seventh. +He had served two years and four months in the army, and had just +completed his thirty-second year. + +The Thirty-eighth Congress is preeminently entitled in history to the +designation of the War Congress. It was elected while the war was +flagrant, and every member was chosen upon the issues involved in the +continuance of the struggle. The Thirty seventh Congress had, indeed, +legislated to a large extent on war measures, but it was chosen before +any one believed that secession of the States would be actually +attempted. The magnitude of the work which fell upon its successor was +unprecedented, both in respect to the vast sums of money raised for the +support of the army and navy, and of the new and extraordinary powers of +legislation which it was forced to exercise. Only twenty-four States +were represented, and one hundred and eighty-two members were upon its +roll. Among these were many distinguished party leaders on both sides, +veterans in the public service, with established reputations for +ability, and with that skill which comes only from parliamentary +experience. Into this assemblage of men Garfield entered without special +preparation, and it might almost be said unexpectedly. The question of +taking command of a division of troops under General Thomas or taking +his seat in Congress, was kept open till the last moment, so late, +indeed, that the resignation of his military commission and his +appearance in the House were almost contemporaneous. He wore the uniform +of a major-general of the United States army on Saturday, and on Monday +in civilian's dress he answered to the roll-call as a Representative in +Congress from the State of Ohio. + +He was especially fortunate in the constituency which elected him. +Descended almost entirely from New England stock, the men of the +Ashtabula district were intensely radical on all questions relating to +human rights. Well-educated, thrifty, thoroughly intelligent in affairs, +acutely discerning of character, not quick to bestow confidence, and +slow to withdraw it, they were at once the most helpful and most +exacting of supporters. Their tenacious trust in men in whom they have +once confided, is illustrated by the unparalleled fact that Elisha +Whittlesey, Joshua R. Giddings and James A. Garfield represented the +district for fifty-four years. + +There is no test of a man's ability in any department of public life +more severe than service in the House of Representatives; there is no +place where so little deference is paid to reputation previously +acquired, or to eminence won outside; no place where so little +consideration is shown for the feelings or the failures of beginners. +What a man gains in the House, he gains by sheer force of his own +character, and if he loses and falls back he must expect no mercy, and +will receive no sympathy. It is a field in which the survival of the +strongest is the recognized rule, and where no pretense can deceive and +no glamour can mislead. The real man is discovered, his worth is +impartially weighed, his rank is irreversibly decreed. + +With possibly a single exception, Garfield was the youngest member in +the House when he entered, and was but seven years from his college +graduation. But he had not been in his seat sixty days before his +ability was recognized and his place conceded. He stepped to the front +with the confidence of one who belonged there. The House was crowded +with strong men of both parties; nineteen of them have since been +transferred to the Senate, and many of them have served with distinction +in the gubernatorial chairs of their respective States, and on foreign +missions of great consequence; but among them all none grew so rapidly, +none so firmly as Garfield. As is said by Trevelyan of his parliamentary +hero, Garfield succeeded "because all the world in concert could not +have kept him in the background, and because when once in the front he +played his part with a prompt intrepidity and a commanding ease that +were but the outward symptoms of the immense reserves of energy, on +which it was his power to draw." Indeed the apparently reserved force +which Garfield possessed, was one of his great characteristics. He never +did so well but that it seemed he could easily have done better. He +never expended so much strength but that he seemed to be holding +additional power to call. This is one of the happiest and rarest +distinctions of an effective debater, and often counts for as much in +persuading an assembly as the eloquent and elaborate argument. + +The great measure of Garfield's fame was filled by his service in the +House of Representatives. His military life, illustrated by honorable +performance, and rich in promise, was, as he himself felt, prematurely +terminated, and necessarily incomplete. Speculation as to what he might +have done in a field where the great prizes are so few, cannot be +profitable. It is sufficient to say that as a soldier he did his duty +bravely; he did it intelligently; he won an enviable fame, and he +retired from the service without blot or breath against him. As a +lawyer, though admirably equipped for the profession, he can scarcely be +said to have entered on its practice. The few efforts he made at the bar +were distinguished by the same high order of talent which he exhibited +on every field where he was put to the test, and if a man may be +accepted as a competent judge of his own capacity and adaptations, the +law was the profession to which Garfield should have devoted himself. +But fate ordained otherwise, and his reputation in history will rest +largely upon his service in the House of Representatives. That service +was exceptionally long. He was nine times consecutively chosen to the +House, an honor enjoyed by not more than six other Representatives of +the more than five thousand who have been elected from the organization +of the government until this hour. + +As a parliamentary orator, as a debater on an issue squarely joined, +where the position had been chosen and the ground laid out, Garfield +must be assigned a very high rank. More, perhaps, than any man with +whom he was associated in public life, he gave careful and systematic +study to public questions, and he came to every discussion in which he +took part, with elaborate and complete preparation. He was a steady and +indefatigable worker. Those who imagine that talent or genius can supply +the place or achieve the results of labor, can find no encouragement in +Garfield's life. In preliminary work he was apt, rapid, and skillful. He +possessed in a high degree the power of readily absorbing ideas and +facts, and, like Dr. Johnson, had the art of getting from a book all +that was of value in it, by a reading apparently so quick and cursory +that it seemed like a mere glance at the table of contents. He was a +preeminently fair and candid man in debate, took no petty advantages, +stooped to no unworthy methods, avoided personal allusions, rarely +appealed to prejudice, did not seek to inflame passion. He had a quicker +eye for the strong point of his adversary than for his weak point, and +on his own side he so marshaled his weighty arguments as to make his +hearers forget any possible lack in the complete strength of his +position. He had a habit of stating his opponent's side with such +amplitude of fairness and such liberality of concession that his +followers often complained that he was giving his case away. But never +in his prolonged participation in the proceedings of the House did he +give his case away or fail, in the judgment of competent and impartial +listeners, to gain the mastery. + +These characteristics, which marked Garfield as a great debater, did +not, however, make him a great parliamentary leader. A parliamentary +leader, as that term is understood wherever free representative +government exists, is necessarily and very strictly the organ of his +party. An ardent American defined the instinctive warmth of patriotism +when he offered the toast, "Our country, always right, but right or +wrong, our country." The parliamentary leader who has a body of +followers that will do and dare and die for the cause, is one who +believes his party always right, but right or wrong, is for his party. +No more important or exacting duty devolves upon him than the selection +of the field and the time for contest. He must know not merely how to +strike, but where to strike and when to strike. He often skillfully +avoids the strength of his opponent's position and scatters confusion in +his ranks by attacking an exposed point when really the righteousness of +the cause and the strength of logical intrenchment are against him. He +conquers often both against the right and the heavy battalions; as when +young Charles Fox, in the days of his toryism, carried the House of +Commons against justice, against its immemorial rights, against his own +convictions, if, indeed, at that period Fox had convictions, and, in +the interest of a corrupt administration, in obedience to a tyrannical +sovereign, drove Wilkes from the seat to which the electors of Middlesex +had chosen him, and installed Luttrell, in defiance, not merely of law +but of public decency. For an achievement of that kind Garfield was +disqualified--disqualified by the texture of his mind, by the honesty of +his heart, by his conscience, and by every instinct and aspiration of +his nature. + +The three most destinguished parliamentary leaders hitherto developed in +this country are Mr. Clay, Mr. Douglass, and Mr. Thaddeus Stevens. Each +was a man of consummate ability, of great earnestness, of intense +personality, differing widely, each from the others, and yet with a +signal trait in common--the power to command. In the give and take of +daily discussion, in the art of controling and consolidating reluctant +and refractory followers; in the skill to overcome all forms of +opposition, and to meet, with competency and courage the varying phases +of unlooked-for assault or unsuspected defection, it would be difficult +to rank with these a fourth name in all our Congressional history. But +of those Mr. Clay was the greatest. It would, perhaps, be impossible to +find in the parliamentary annals of the world a parallel to Mr. Clay, in +1841, when, at sixty-four years of age, he took the control of the Whig +party from the President who had received their suffrages, against the +power of Webster in the Cabinet, against the eloquence of Choate in the +Senate, against the Herculean efforts of Caleb Cushing and Henry A. Wise +in the House. In unshared leadership, in the pride and plentitude of +power, he hurled against John Tyler with deepest scorn the mass of that +conquering column which had swept over the land in 1840, and drove his +administration to seek shelter behind the lines of his political foes. +Mr. Douglas achieved a victory scarcely less wonderful, when, in 1854, +against the secret desires of a strong administration, against the wise +counsel of the older chiefs, against the conservative instincts and even +the moral sense of the country, he forced a reluctant Congress into a +repeal of the Missouri compromise. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens in his contests +from 1865 to 1868, actually advanced his parliamentary leadership into +Congress, tied the hands of the President, and governed the country by +its own will, leaving only perfunctory duties to be discharged by the +Executive. With two hundred millions of patronage in his hands at the +opening of the contest, aided by the active force of Seward in the +Cabinet and the moral power of Chase on the Bench, Andrew Johnson could +not command the support of one-third in either House against the +parliamentary uprising of which Thaddeus Stevens was the animating +spirit and the unquestioned leader. + +From these three great men Garfield differed radically; differed in the +quality of his mind, in temperament, in the form and phase of ambition. +He could not do what they did, but he could do what they could not, and +in the breadth of his Congressional work he left that which will longer +exert a potential influence among men, and which, measured by the severe +test of posthumous criticism, will secure a more enduring and more +enviable fame. + +Those unfamiliar with Garfield's industry, and ignorant of the details +of his work, may, in some degree, measure them by the annals of +Congress. No one of the generation of public men to which he belonged +has contributed so much that will be valuable for future reference. His +speeches are numerous, many of them brilliant, all of them well studied, +carefully phrased, and exhaustive of the subject under consideration. +Collected from the scattered pages of ninety royal octavo volumes of +_Congressional Record_, they would present an invaluable compendium of +the political history of the most important era through which the +national government has ever passed. When the history of this period +shall be impartially written, when war legislation, measures of +reconstruction, protection of human rights, amendments to the +Constitution, maintenance of public credit, steps toward specie +resumption, true theories of revenue may be reviewed, unsurrounded by +prejudice and disconnected from partisanism, the speeches of Garfield +will be estimated at their true value, and will be found to comprise a +vast magazine of fact and argument, of clear analysis and sound +conclusion. Indeed, if no other authority were accessible, his speeches +in the House of Representatives from December, 1863, to June, 1880, +would give a well-connected history and complete defence of the +important legislation of the seventeen eventful years that constitute +his parliamentary life. Far beyond that, his speeches would be found to +forecast many great measures yet to be completed--measures which he knew +were beyond the public opinion of the hour, but which he confidently +believed would secure popular approval within the period of his own +lifetime, and by the aid of his own efforts. + +Differing, as Garfield does, from the brilliant parliamentary leaders, +it is not easy to find his counterpart anywhere in the record of +American public life. He, perhaps, more nearly resembles Mr. Seward in +his supreme faith in the all-conquering power of a principle. He had the +love of learning, and the patient industry of investigation to which +John Quincy Adams owes his prominence and his Presidency. He had some of +those ponderous elements of mind which distinguished Mr. Webster, and +which, indeed, in all our public life, have left the great +Massachusetts senator without an intellectual peer. + +In English parliamentary history, as in our own, the leaders in the +House of Commons present points of essential difference from Garfield. +But some of his methods recall the best features in the strong, +independent course of Sir Robert Peel, and striking resemblances are +discernible in that most promising of modern conservatives, who died two +early for his country and his fame, the Lord George Bentick. He had all +of Burke's love for the sublime and the beautiful, with, possibly, +something of his superabundance; and in his faith and his magnanimity, +in his power of statement, in his subtle analysis, in his faultless +logic, in his love of literature, in his wealth and world of +illustration, one is reminded of that great English statesman of to-day, +who, confronted with obstacles that would daunt any but the dauntless, +reviled by those whom he would relieve as bitterly as by those whose +supposed rights he is forced to invade, still labors with serene courage +for the amelioration of Ireland, and for the honor of the English name. + +Garfield's nomination to the Presidency, while not predicted or +anticipated, was not a surprise to the country. His prominence in +Congress, his solid qualities, his wide reputation, strengthened by his +then recent election as Senator from Ohio, kept him in the public eye as +a man occupying the very highest rank among those entitled to be called +statesmen. It was not mere chance that brought him this high honor. "We +must," says Mr. Emerson, "reckon success a constitutional trait. If Eric +is in robust health and has slept well and is at the top of his +condition, and thirty years old at his departure from Greenland, he will +steer west, and his ships will reach Newfoundland. But take Eric out and +put in a stronger and bolder man, and the ships will sail six hundred, +one thousand, fifteen hundred miles farther, and reach Labrador and New +England. There is no chance in results." + +As a candidate, Garfield steadily grew in popular favor. He was met with +a storm of detraction at the very hour of his nomination, and it +continued, with increasing volume and momentum, until the close of his +victorious campaign: + + "No might nor greatness in mortality + Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny + The whitest virtue strikes. What King so strong + Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue." + +Under it all he was calm and strong, and confident; never lost his +self-possession, did no unwise act, spoke no hasty or ill-considered +word. Indeed, nothing in his whole life is more remarkable or more +creditable than his bearing through those five full months of +vituperation--a prolonged agony of trial to a sensitive man, a constant +and cruel draught upon the powers of moral endurance. The great mass of +these unjust imputations passed unnoticed, and with the general debris +of the campaign fell into oblivion. But, in a few instances, the iron +entered his soul, and he died with the injury unforgotten, if not +unforgiven. + +One aspect of Garfield's candidacy was unprecedented. Never before in +the history of partisan contests in this country had a successful +presidential candidate spoken freely on passing events and current +issues. To attempt anything of the kind seemed novel, rash, and even +desperate. The older class of voters recalled the unfortunate Alabama +letter, in which Mr. Clay was supposed to have signed his political +death warrant. They remembered, also, the hot-tempered effusion by which +General Scott lost a large share of his popularity before his +nomination, and the unfortunate speeches which rapidly consumed the +remainder. The younger voters had seen Mr. Greeley, in a series of +vigorous and original addresses, preparing the pathway for his own +defeat. Unmindful of these warnings, unheeding the advice of friends, +Garfield spoke to large crowds as he journeyed to and from New York in +August, to a great multitude in that city, to delegations and +deputations of every kind that called at Mentor during the summer and +autumn. With innumerable critics, watchful and eager to catch a phrase +that might be turned into odium or ridicule, or a sentence that might be +distorted to his own or his party's injury, Garfield did not trip or +halt in any one of his seventy speeches. This seems all the more +remarkable when it is remembered that he did not write what he said, and +yet spoke with such logical consecutiveness of thought and such +admirable precision of phrase as to defy the accident of misreport and +the malignity of misrepresentation. + +In the beginning of his presidential life, Garfield's experience did not +yield him pleasure or satisfaction. The duties that engross so large a +portion of the President's time were distasteful to him, and were +unfavorably contrasted with his legislative work. "I have been dealing +all these years with ideas," he impatiently exclaimed one day, "and here +I am dealing only with persons. I have been heretofore treating of the +fundamental principles of government, and here I am considering all day +whether A or B shall be appointed to this or that office." He was +earnestly seeking some practical way of correcting the evils arising +from the distribution of overgrown and unwieldy patronage--evils always +appreciated and often discussed by him, but whose magnitude had been +more deeply impressed upon his mind since his accession to the +Presidency. Had he lived, a comprehensive improvement in the mode of +appointment and in the tenure of office, would have been proposed by +him, and, with the aid of Congress, no doubt perfected. + +But, while many of the executive duties were not grateful to him, he was +assiduous and conscientious in their discharge. From the very outset he +exhibited administrative talent of a high order. He grasped the helm of +office with the hand of a master. In this respect, indeed, he constantly +surprised many who were most intimately associated with him in the +government, and especially those who had feared that he might be lacking +in the executive faculty. His disposition of business was orderly and +rapid. His power of analysis, and his skill in classification, enabled +him to dispatch a vast mass of detail with singular promptness and ease. +His cabinet meetings were admirably conducted. His clear presentation of +official subjects, his well-considered suggestion of topics on which +discussion was invited, his quick decision when all had been heard, +combined to show a thoroughness of mental training, as rare as his +natural ability and his facile adaptation to a new and enlarged field of +labor. + +With perfect comprehension of all the inheritances of the war, with a +cool calculation of the obstacles in his way, impelled always by a +generous enthusiasm, Garfield conceived that much might be done by his +administration toward restoring harmony between the different sections +of the Union. He was anxious to go South and speak to the people. As +early as April he had ineffectually endeavored to arrange for a trip to +Nashville, whither he had been cordially invited, and he was again +disappointed a few weeks later to find that he could not go to South +Carolina to attend the centennial celebration of the victory of the +Cowpens. + +But for the autumn he definitely counted on being present at three +memorable assemblies in the South--the celebration at Yorktown, the +opening of the Cotton Exposition at Atlanta, and the meeting of the Army +of the Cumberland at Chattanooga. He was already turning over in his +mind his address for each occasion, and the three taken together, he +said to a friend, gave him the exact scope and verge which he needed. At +Yorktown he would have before him the associations of a hundred years +that bound the South and the North in the sacred memory of a common +danger and a common victory. At Atlanta he would present the material +interests and the industrial development which appealed to the thrift +and independence of every household, and which should unite the two +sections by the instinct of self-interest and self-defence. At +Chattanooga he would revive memories of the war only to show that, after +all its disaster and all its suffering, the country was stronger and +greater, the Union rendered indissoluble, and the future, through the +agony and blood of one generation, made brighter and better for all. + +Garfield's ambition for the success of his administration was high. With +strong caution and conservatism in his nature, he was in no danger of +attempting rash experiments, or of resorting to the empiricism of +statesmanship. But he believed that renewed and closer attention should +be given to questions affecting the material interests and commercial +prospects of fifty millions of people. He believed that our continental +relations, extensive and undeveloped as they are, involved +responsibility, and could be cultivated into profitable friendship or be +abandoned to harmful indifference or lasting enmity. He believed, with +equal confidence, that an essential forerunner to a new era of national +progress must be a feeling of contentment in every section of the Union, +and a generous belief that the benefits and burdens of government would +be common to all. Himself a conspicuous illustration of what ability and +ambition may do under Republican institutions, he loved his country with +a passion of patriotic devotion, and every waking thought was given to +her advancement. He was an American in all his aspirations, and he +looked to the destiny and influence of the United States with the +philosophic composure of Jefferson and the demonstrative confidence of +John Adams. + +The political events which disturbed the President's serenity, for many +weeks before that fateful day in July, form an important chapter in his +career, and, in his own judgment, involved questions of principle and of +right which are vitally essential to the constitutional administration +of the federal government. It would be out of place here and now to +speak the language of controversy; but the events referred to, however +they may continue to be a source of contention with others, have become, +so far as Garfield is concerned, as much a matter of history as his +heroism at Chickamauga, or his illustrious service in the House. Detail +is not needful, and personal antagonism shall not be rekindled by any +word uttered to-day. The motives of those opposing him are not to be +here adversely interpreted nor their course harshly characterized. But +of the dead President this is to be said, and said because his own +speech is forever silenced and he can be no more heard except through +the fidelity and the love of surviving friends. From the beginning to +the end of the controversy he so much deplored, the President was never +for one moment actuated by any motive of gain to himself or of loss to +others. Least of all men did he harbor revenge; rarely did he even show +resentment, and malice was not in his nature. He was congenially +employed only in the exchange of good offices and the doing of kindly +deeds. + +There was not an hour, from the beginning of the trouble till the fatal +shot entered his body, when the President would not gladly, for the sake +of restoring harmony, have retraced any step he had taken, if such +retracing had merely involved consequences personal to himself. + +The pride of consistency, or any supposed sense of humiliation that +might result from surrendering his position, had not a feather's weight +with him. No man was ever less subject to such influences from within or +from without. But, after most anxious deliberation, and the coolest +survey of all the circumstances, he solemnly believed that the true +prerogatives of the executive were involved in the issue which had been +raised, and that he would be unfaithful to his supreme obligation if he +failed to maintain, in all their vigor, the constitutional rights and +dignities of his great office. He believed this in all the convictions +of conscience, when in sound and vigorous health, and he believed it in +his suffering and prostration in the last conscious thought which his +wearied mind bestowed on the transitory struggles of life. + +More than this need not be said. Less than this could not be said. +Justice to the dead, the highest obligation that devolves upon the +living, demands the declaration that, in all the bearings of the +subject, actual or possible, the President was content in his mind, +justified in his conscience, immovable in his conclusions. + +The religious element in Garfield's character was deep and earnest. In +his early youth he espoused the faith of the Disciples, a sect of that +great Baptist communion, which, in different ecclesiastical +establishments, is so numerous and so influential throughout all parts +of the United States. But the broadening tendency of his mind and his +active spirit of inquiry were early apparent, and carried him beyond the +dogmas of sect and the restraint of association. In selecting a college +in which to continue his education, he rejected Bethany, though presided +over by Alexander Campbell, the great preacher of his church. His +reasons were characteristic; first, that Bethany leaned too heavily +toward slavery; and, second, that being himself a Disciple and the son +of Disciple parents, he had little acquaintance with people of other +beliefs, and he thought it would make him more liberal, quoting his own +words, both in his religious and general views, to go into a new circle +and be under new influences. + +The liberal tendency which he anticipated, as the result of wider +culture, was fully realized. He was emancipated from mere sectarian +belief, and with eager interest pushed his investigations in the +direction of modern progressive thought. He followed with quickening +step in the paths of exploration and speculation so fearlessly trodden +by Darwin, by Huxley, by Tyndall, and by other living scientists of the +radical and advanced type. His own church binding its disciples by no +formulated creed, but accepting the Old and New Testaments as the word +of God, with unbiased liberty of private interpretation, favored, if it +did not stimulate, the spirit of investigation. Its members profess with +sincerity, and profess only, to be of one mind and one faith with those +who immediately followed the Master, and who were first called +Christians at Antioch. + +But however high Garfield reasoned of "fixed fate, free will, +foreknowledge absolute," he was never separated from the Church of the +Disciples in his affections and in his associations. For him it held the +ark of the covenant. To him it was the gate of heaven. The world of +religious belief is full of solecisms and contradictions. A philosophic +observer declares that men by the thousand will die in defence of a +creed whose doctrines they do not comprehend, and whose tenets they +habitually violate. It is equally true that men by the thousands will +cling to church organizations with instinctive and undying fidelity, +when their belief in maturer years is radically different from that +which inspired them as neophytes. + +But after this range of speculation, and this latitude of doubt, +Garfield came back always with freshness and delight to the simpler +instincts of religious faith, which, earliest implanted, longest +survive. Not many weeks before his assassination, walking on the banks +of the Potomac with a friend, and conversing on those topics of personal +religion, concerning which noble natures have an unconquerable reserve, +he said that he found the Lord's prayer and the simple petitions learned +in infancy, infinitely restful to him, not merely in their stated +repetition, but in their casual and frequent recall as he went about the +daily duties of life. Certain texts of scriptures had a very strong hold +on his memory and his heart. He heard, while in Edinburgh some years +ago, an eminent Scotch preacher, who prefaced his sermon with reading +the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, which book had been the +subject of careful study with Garfield during all his religious life. He +was greatly impressed by the elocution of the preacher, and declared +that it had imparted a new and deeper meaning to the majestic utterances +of St. Paul. He referred often in after years to that memorable service, +and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon the radiant promise and the +assured hope with which the great apostle of the Gentiles was +"persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, +nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor +depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the +love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." + +The crowning characteristic of General Garfield's religious opinions, +as, indeed, of all his opinions, was his liberality. In all things he +had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities which he possessed himself--sincerity of conviction and +frankness of expression. With him the inquiry was not so much what a man +believes, but does he believe it? The lines of his friendship and his +confidence encircled men of every creed, and men of no creed, and to the +end of his life, on his ever-lengthening list of friends, were to be +found the names of a pious Catholic priest and of an honest-minded and +generous hearted Free-Thinker. + +On the morning of Saturday, July 2, the President was a contented and +happy man--not in an ordinary degree, but joyfully, almost boyishly, +happy. On his way to the railroad station, to which he drove slowly, in +conscious enjoyment of the beautiful morning, with an unwonted sense of +leisure and a keen anticipation of pleasure, his talk was all in a +grateful and gratulatory vein. He felt that after four months of trial +his administration was strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in +popular favor and destined to grow stronger; that grave difficulties +confronting him at his inauguration had been safely passed; that trouble +lay behind him and not before him; that he was soon to meet the wife +whom he loved, now recovering from an illness which had but lately +disquieted and at times almost unnerved him; that he was going to his +Alma Mater to renew the most cherished associations of his young +manhood, and to exchange greetings with those whose deepening interest +had followed every step of his upward progress from the day he entered +upon his college course until he had attained the loftiest elevation in +the gift of his countrymen. + +Surely if happiness can ever come from the honors or triumphs of this +world, on that quiet July morning, James A. Garfield may well have been +a happy man. No foreboding of evil haunted him; no slightest premonition +of danger clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon him in an instant. +One moment he stood erect, strong, confident in the years stretching +peacefully out before him. The next he lay wounded, bleeding, helpless, +doomed to weary weeks of torture, to silence, and the grave. + +Great in life, he was surpassingly great in death. For no cause, in the +very frenzy of wantonness and wickedness, by the red hand of murder, he +was thrust from the full tide of this world's interest, from its hopes, +its aspirations, its victories, into the visible presence of death--and +he did not quail. Not alone for the one short moment in which, stunned +and dazed, he could give up life, hardly aware of its relinquishment, +but through days of deadly languor, through weeks of agony that were not +less agony because silently borne, with clear sight and calm courage, he +looked into his open grave. What blight and ruin met his anguished eyes, +whose lips may tell--what brilliant, broken plans, what baffled, high +ambitions, what sundering of strong, warm, manhood's friendships, what +bitter rending of sweet household ties! Behind him, a proud expectant +nation, a great host of sustaining friends, a cherished and happy +mother, wearing the full, rich honors of her early toil and tears; the +wife of his youth, whose whole life lay in his; the little boys not yet +emerged from childhood's day of frolic; the fair, young daughter; the +sturdy sons just springing into closest companionship, claiming every +day, and every day rewarding, a father's love and care; and in his heart +the eager, rejoicing power to meet all demand. Before him, desolation +and great darkness! and his soul was not shaken. His countrymen were +thrilled with instant, profound, and universal sympathy. Masterful in +his moral weakness, he became the centre of a nation's love, enshrined +in the prayers of a world. But all the love and all the sympathy could +not share with him his suffering. He trod the wine-press alone. With +unfaltering front he faced death; with unfailing tenderness he took +leave of life. Above the demoniac hiss of the assassin's bullet he heard +the voice of God. With simple resignation he bowed to the divine decree. + +As the end drew near his early craving for the sea returned. The stately +mansion of power had been to him the wearisome hospital of pain, and he +begged to be taken from its prison walls, from its oppressive, stifling +air, from its homelessness and its hopelessness. Gently, silently, the +love of a great people bore the pale sufferer to the longed-for healing +of the sea, to live or die, as God should will, within sight of its +heaving billows, within sound of its manifold voices. With wan, fevered +face tenderly lifted to the cooling breeze, he looked out wistfully upon +the ocean's changing wonders; on its far sails, whitening in the morning +light; on its restless waves, rolling shoreward, to break and die +beneath the noonday sun; on the red clouds of evening, arching low to +the horizon; on the serene and shining pathway of the stars. Let us +think that his dying eyes read a mystic meaning, which only the rapt +and parting soul may know. Let us believe that, in the silence of the +receding world, he heard the great waves breaking on a further shore, +and felt already upon his wasted brow the breath of the eternal +morning. + + +IV. + +A THRENODY ON GARFIELD. + +BY MRS. ELLEN KEY BLUNT. + + How beautiful it was to die as he has died, + Taking a calm around him by the force + Of his great soul, commanding peace from strife, + And changing all the discord into rest,-- + A heavenly music heard as life departs! + + How wonderful it was that the accursed hate + Which smote him brought forth only loyal love; + Like to some holy bell that being struck + Resounds with wondrous sweetness, sounding on + Through all the spaces to eternity. + + How noble was his dauntless fortitude + Which, as he lay expiring, day by day, + Made him almost control his destiny + And look upon his torture with a smile. + + As his life wasted, in great patience, wonderingly + His watchers watched him. They were not alone + Of his own people, but his watchers were the world, + From far-off shores and seas with pitiful + Sad yearnings towards him as his star went down. + + Nine times ten million souls in his own tongue + Prayed to the Almighty for his single life; + But he had risen too near to heaven in his great flight + To stoop again to earth, and so God took him, + Like a star folded in more perfect light. + + And he is dead, and multitudes have come + To his dead presence, and, with solemn care, + Moving in silence to the measured strain + He loved, in mournful sweet monotony + Repeated as they bore him step by step + Through harvest-fields of ripening trodden grain, + They laid him reverently, gently down + Where all the sheaves of earth are garnered at the last. + + Upon his pulseless form are richly piled + Wreaths, garlands, of the late yet lavish bloom + Of the perfected summer, with the exquisite thrill + Of life so fresh upon their shining leaves + Banners are furled around him, and the flag + We love droops mourning o'er the mourning land. + + And from afar beyond our land and lakes, + From the great world that watched him wonderingly + Come kind farewells and tender sympathies. + Pity has told her tale in every tongue + And kings have claimed him comrade, hand in hand. + + Fame has recorded him, + Love has rewarded him, + Mother, wife, children and people wept over him. + England accounted him + Kindred by blood. + All that are great and good + Have as his mourners stood + While he lay, day by day, passing away. + + A Queen sends comforting words of cheer, + And flowers to fade on his bloody bier. + God save the Queen when her last hour is near! + + The North was his by birth, + The South is his by death! + He conquered by suffering grandly borne + Our long-cherished strifes; they are gone, and now + Standing together we look on his pale dead face, + To whom we had given, the elected, a power more great + Than any king's. Together we revere + The majesty with which he laid it down + At God's command. Together we shall love + His memory, and each other for his sake, + And for the heart so high that it "could hate no man." + + God rest him! He has rested him! + Nothing can "hurt" him more, + "Nothing can touch him further." + + More than a king he lies + With the strong blaze of the world's homage + Full on his closed eyes. + + American, born in the forest, + The great lake for him sighs, + And England, crowned and sceptered, + Loves him as he dies. + + He fought in the deathly valley + From morn till the set of sun, + Till eighty days had run. + Then he folded his arms + And his day was done. + + Oh, the bloom is off of the prairie, + The butterfly's change is begun, + The pine cone flowers eternal, + The eagle has soared to the sun! + + * * * * * + +JUDGE BURNHAM'S DAUGHTERS. By "Pansy." + +(Mrs G. R. Alden), Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50. The multitude of +readers of Mrs. Alden's stories will remember _Ruth Erskine's Crosses_, +and will be glad to meet its principal character once more in her new +character of wife and mother, ripened by experience and strengthened by +trial. Her marriage will be remembered, and the radiant prospects of the +future which attended it. Her husband was kindness itself, but he cared +little for religious matters, and could not sympathize with what seemed +to him the very ridiculous and puritanical ideas of his wife regarding +many things. Still he always gave way to her. The great trouble of her +new life, however, was the disposition evinced by her two step-daughters +to resist her authority and cause her pain by their recklessness and +disobedience. Her husband, Judge Burnham, was wealthy, and occupied a +high social position. He was exceedingly proud of his family and +sensitive as to his reputation. He was strongly opposed to Ruth's being +actively connected with religious or temperance movements, and this fact +sometimes brought them dangerously near serious misunderstanding. The +pressure was constant, and made many unhappy hours for her, especially +when questions of right and propriety arose between her and her +step-daughters and an appeal was made to the father. Suddenly a blow +fell upon the house. The younger daughter fled from home to marry a +gambler and forger, and was disowned by her father and forbidden the +house. A few months later the other daughter fell a victim to quick +consumption, but in her later days turned to the mother whom she had +disliked and disobeyed, and finally died in her arms. The story with its +later incidents is a sad one, but its darkness is lighted by the +surprise which awaits the reader at the close. It is written in Mrs. +Alden's usual fascinating style and like all her books, is transfixed +with a purpose. + + +OLD CONCORD: HER HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. Ill. By Margaret Sidney. Boston, +D. Lothrop Co. Price $3.00. Of all the books of the year there is not +one which carries within it such an aroma of peculiar delight as this +series of sketches and descriptions of the highways and byways of that +most picturesque of towns, Old Concord. Concord is like no other place +in New England. There may be other places as beautiful in their way, +there are others, perhaps, of more importance in the Commonwealth and we +know there are hundreds of places where there is more active life to the +square foot, but with all these admissions Concord still remains a place +of special charm, the result and consequence of more causes than we care +to analyze. Its picturesqueness and a certain quaintness of the village +has always been noticed by visitors, no matter from what part of the +globe they may have come. Added to this is the flavor of Revolutionary +history, and the atmosphere created by the daily lives and presence for +years of three or four of the giants in American literature. Here lived +Hawthorne and Emerson, and Thoreau, and the Alcotts, father and +daughter, and the work that they did here has made it a literary Mecca +for all time. + +These sketches have all the accuracy of photographs, together with that +charm of color and life which a photograph never possesses. The author +is a resident of Concord, and a dweller in one of its historic mansions, +and is thoroughly acquainted with every nook and corner of the town as +well as with every legend which belongs to them. The task which she +assumes of guiding readers to the places made famous by pen and sword is +a labor of love. She tells us how the pilgrimage should be undertaken, +and what should be seen. We visit with her the ancient landmarks which +belong to past generations, and the more modern ones which have even +more interest to the multitude. + + +THE STORY OF OHIO. By Alexander Black. Being the second volume of the +new series, the "Story of the States," edited by Elbridge S. Brooks. One +volume, 8vo, fully illustrated. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.50 + +The fact that Ohio has just passed her hundredth birthday, and that she +will throughout the year be engaged in various interesting forms of +civic celebration, renders singularly opportune the appearance of this +compact and picturesque narrative in which the reader will find a +complete picture of Buckeye progress, a picture etched rather than +painted, for the book is not of formidable length, and the author has +been compelled to adopt a crisp and nimble style to tell his story in +due space. The term "story" is an elastic, and perhaps not always an +accurately descriptive one. In this instance the author has given it a +simple and effective definition by making it stand for a direct, natural +and often dramatic account of Ohio's romantic origin and extraordinary +development. While a preference for the picturesque phases of the story +is shown even in the treatment of the most practical elements of State +character, there is an obvious selection of those pictorial traits which +have in themselves a special significance, and which, taken in the +group, present the essential characteristics of the commonwealth. Indeed +the narrative affords an excellent opportunity for discovering the +immense individuality of Ohio in the great family of States. The great +diversity of character among the States, diversities engendered by +geographical as well as by ancestral conditions, is, perhaps not very +generally recognized. The promising series of which this volume forms +the second issue cannot fail, if each author continues to work with care +and sincerity, to broaden our knowledge of all the elements that go to +form our character as a nation, and to deepen that sense of fraternal +sympathy, the cultivation of which has become a point of national +pride. + + +SOME SUCCESSFUL WOMEN. By Sarah K. Bolton. With Portraits. Boston. D. +Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. Mrs. Sarah K. Bolton is the author of several +interesting books which have given her a wide reputation and this new +volume from her pen will be warmly welcomed. It consists of twelve brief +biographies of American women who have in various walks and professions +earned success so marked as to make their names familiar to every +household in the country, and who have done much to inspire others of +their sex to follow in their footsteps. Among them are Marion Harland +(Mrs. Terhune), Mrs. G. R. Allen (Pansy), Clara Barton, the +philanthropist, Alice Freeman, the former president of Wellesley +College, Rachel Bodley, dean of the Woman's Medical College, +Philadelphia, Frances E. Willard, whose labors in behalf of temperance +have given her a place among the foremost of American women. Mrs. +Candace Wheeler and her daughter Dora who have done so much to develop +the love for decorative art in this country and to create opportunities +for its practical application, with others who have gained equally +distinguished places in other departments of art, literature and +industry. The portraits add greatly to the interest of the sketches. + + +THE LOST EARL. By J. T. Trowbridge. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$2.00. This volume will be warmly welcomed by the admirers of Mr. +Trowbridge--and they are legion. Although Mr. Trowbridge is better known +as a successful novelist and writer of juvenile stories he is one of the +truest of our American poets and it is to be regretted that he has not +oftener turned his attention to verse. His themes, though not ambitious, +are always high and his poems are marked by feeling, naturalness and +exquisite finish. _The Lost Earl_ has never before been printed in book +form. It is the story of the revolt of a strong soul against +conventional society life and the casting aside of rank for social +freedom. + + +THE SECRETS AT ROSELADIES. By Mary Hartwell Catherwood. Boston, D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.00. This charming story of the life on the +Wabash, which originally appeared as a serial in WIDE AWAKE, will be +read by boys and girls with equal pleasure, for the action of the story +is pretty well divided between the two. The boys will be immensely +entertained with the adventures of the four young treasure-seekers, +particularly with that which ends in their capture by the crazy +half-breed Shawnee, who proposes to cut off their thumbs to bury in the +excavation they have made in the burial mound. The girls' secret, which +is of a very different character, is just as amusing in its way. Mrs. +Catherwood has a wonderful fund of humor, and a talent for description +which many a better known author might envy. The character of old Mr. +Roseladies is capitally drawn, and the account of his journey to the +depot after Aunt Jane's trunk is really mirth provoking. Cousin Sarah +and "Sister" and little Nonie are all charming and the reader will close +the book with regret that there is not more of it. + + +BROWNIES AND BOGLES. By Louise Imogen Guiney. Ill. Boston, D. Lothrop +Co. Price $1.00. This little volume might be fitly styled a fairy +handbook, as in it the author describes every kind of the "little +people" that is found in traditions or literature in all the countries +of the world. There are the brownies and waterkelpies of Scotland, the +troll and necken of Sweden, the German kobalds, the English fairies, +pixies and elves, the Norwegian and Danish dwarfs and bjorgfalls, the +Irish leprechauns, and a score of others, some of whom are mischievous, +some malicious, some house-helpers, and some who are always waiting to +do a good turn to those they like. The author mingles her descriptions +with anecdotes illustrative of the different qualities and dispositions +of the various fairy folk described. + + +STORY OF THE AMERICAN SAILOR. By E. S. Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop +Co. Price $2.50. Although several volumes have been written descriptive +of the rise and development of the American navy, this is the first and +only work of which we have knowledge that takes wide ground, and deals +with the American sailor. In its preparation Mr. Brooks has not been +actuated by a desire to merely make a readable book for boys, he has +given it the attention which the subject demands as a part of the +history of the country. + +It would be a difficult matter to get at the first American sailor, or +to even guess when he existed but that our continent was once well +populated, and that its prehistoric inhabitants sailed the lakes and +seas as well as trod the land, is a matter of certainty. Later when +America became known to Europeans, the new comers found Indians well +provided with excellent canoes, built of bark or fashioned from logs, +but they were "near shore" sailors. The author quotes one instance where +a deep sea voyage was undertaken by them in the early days of the +English settlers. Certain Carolina Indians he says, wearied of the white +man's sinful ways in trade, thought themselves able to deal direct with +the consumers across the "Big Sea Water." So they built several large +canoes and loading these with furs and tobacco paddled straight out to +sea bound for England. But their ignorance of navigation speedily got +the best of their valor. They were never heard of more. + +The early white navigators of our waters can hardly be considered +American sailors. The new found continent was to them of value only for +what could be brought away from them in treasure or in merchantable +produce, and it was only when an actual and permanent colonization began +that a race of native-born sailors was developed on the Atlantic +coasts. + + +NED HARWOOD'S VISIT TO JERUSALEM. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price +$1.25. This is a story, instructively told of a young boy who made a +visit to Jerusalem, and other places in the Holy Land, and saw many of +the places made interesting in the Biblical narrative. The author's +personal knowledge of the localities visited enables her to give vivid +and accurate descriptions of them. The book is very handsomely bound in +colored cover from original designs. + + +LONGFELLOW REMEMBRANCE BOOK. By Samuel Longfellow. Introduction by E. S. +Brooks. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. Price $1.25. It needs no special +memorial to perpetuate the memory of Longfellow and yet this little +volume has an interest and a mission which are sufficient reasons for +its existence. Its narrative testifies to the love and admiration which +the whole English-speaking people felt for that sweetest of poets and +most admirable of men, and it touches upon those qualities which, apart +from his song, endeared him to every one that knew him. "Old and young," +says Mr. Brooks in his brief introduction, "rich and poor, found in him +inspiration, counsel, sympathy and help, and his words touched more +closely the great, beating human heart than did those of even greater +and diviner poets." With the exception of the introduction, Whittier's +poem called out by the death of Longfellow,--"The Poet and the +Children"--"An International Episode" and Miss Guiney's "Longfellow in +Westminster Abbey"--the contents of the book are from the pen of the +Rev. Samuel Longfellow. In loving detail he writes of the childhood and +boyhood of his brother, his later years, his love for children and of +his life at his charming home at Cambridge. A closing chapter from +another hand describes the unveiling of the poet's bust in Westminster +Abbey, March 1, 1884. The volume is beautifully illustrated. + + +A STRANGE COMPANY. By Charles Frederick Holder. Illustrated. Boston. D. +Lothrop Company. Price $1.25. No American naturalist of late years has +written more comprehensively or entertainingly than Dr. Holder. The +books and magazine articles from his pen would make a small library and +an exceedingly valuable one. For seven years he was assistant in the +American Museum of Natural History in New York and later was connected +with the New York Aquarium, in whose interests he made extensive +journeys for rare specimens. In the present volume, which is prepared +for young readers, he describes some of the more remarkable specimens of +animal life and their peculiarities. Many of the facts he cites will be +new to older readers such, for instance, as that of fishes climbing +trees and traveling considerable distances overland from water to water, +of birds that fly under water the same as in the air, of four footed +animals with bills and of birds with teeth. In a chapter devoted to the +speech of animals we are told how some of the noises made by insects are +produced undoubtedly for purposes of communication and how birds, fishes +and animals convey intelligence one to another. In another chapter the +sports and games of animals are dealt with. The author says, "I doubt if +an animal can be found which does not in some way or at some time show a +desire for what we term amusement. The Malayan sun bear is remarkable +for its fun loving natur. The common black bear is almost equally +playful and in some of its rough and tumble games in a tree top are some +of the most interesting performances I have ever witnessed. Even crabs +have a sense of humor and go through certain performance, presumably +games. In Australia there are birds that build playhouses, aside from +their nests, in the form of an arbor sometimes two or three feet long, +which they decorate with bright objects." + + +A YOUNG PRINCE OF COMMERCE. By Selden R. Hopkins. Boston. D. Lothrop +Company. Price $1.25. We do not know of a better book to put into the +hands of boys for the purpose of teaching them the fundamental +principles of business than this little volume, which Mr. Hopkins has so +ingeniously prepared. Most boys grow into young men without the +slightest knowledge of business matters excepting mere buying and +selling. The very things that should have been taught them in school at +the same time with grammar and geography they know nothing about, and +while their heads may be stocked with the rules of syntax and the names +and boundaries of all the countries in the world, they may be helpless +as babies in the transaction of any business that requires the use of +forms or legal methods. It is one of the senseless peculiarities of our +school system that it excludes certain subjects of study that are +absolutely necessary and gives place to others that are practically +useless. It is on that account that we strongly commend this little work +as a supplementary reader in schools. In its pages Mr. Hopkins tells an +interesting story and sandwiches in between its incidents just the +information to which we have reference. The boy who reads it has +obtained, when he has finished it, a clear understanding of the +principles of trade. He knows the character of mortgages, notes, drafts, +stocks and bonds, the theory of banking, discount, exchange and +collateral, he learns all about the mysteries of Wall Street and how the +brokerage business is conducted; in fine, he gets an excellent +understanding of the way business is carried on in general. All this +knowledge comes in incidentally, and in connection with the story. The +book is very handsomely printed and bound. + + +MARY THE MOTHER. Compiled by Rose Porter. Ill. Boston. D. Lothrop Co. +Price $3.00. The purpose of this beautiful volume is to give an outline +story of Mary the Mother Maid, as told in the Holy Book, and by +historical and legendary art, and in poetry. The theme, says the +compiler in her preface, "though it lies within prescribed limits, is +wide enough to embrace a broad field of thought, for it deals with all +the most beautiful and precious productions of human genius and human +skill as manifested by art which the Middle Ages and the Renaissance +have bequeathed to us, and in them we can trace, present in shape before +us, or suggested through inevitable associations, one prevailing idea. +It is that of an impersonation in the feminine character of beneficence, +purity and power, clothed in the visible form of Mary, the Mother of our +Lord." + +The story is told in the purest devotional spirit. The curious legends +which have been handed down or created by the religious writers of the +Middle Ages are put into consecutive order, and illustrated by +reproductions of pictures by the old masters, and of those by two or +three modern painters. Deger's famous picture of "The Annunciation" +serves as the frontispiece. Then follows in order Ittenbach's "St. Mary +the Virgin," Titian's "Presentation," the "Annunciation," by Murillo, +"The Salutation," by Albertinelli, "St. John and the Virgin," by Dobson; +"The Assumption," by Titian, "Mater Dolorosa," by Guido Reni, "Mater +Dolorosa," by Carlo Dolce, and "The Madonna Addolorata," by +Sassaferrato. These are exquisitely reproduced, and are printed, as well +as the text, on heavy, hot-pressed paper. The volume is bound in cloth, +with a cover of special design. + + +THE ART OF LIVING. From the Writings of Samuel Smiles. With Introduction +by the venerable Dr. Peabody of Harvard University and Biographical +Sketch by the editor Carrie Adelaide Cooke. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. +Price $1.00. + +Samuel Smiles is the Benjamin Franklin of England. His sayings have a +similar terseness, aptness and force, they are directed to practical +ends, like Franklin's, they have the advantage of being nearer our time +and therefore more directly related to subjects upon which practical +wisdom is of practical use. + +Success in life is his subject all through The Art of Living, and he +confesses on the very first page that "happiness consists in the +enjoyment of little pleasures scattered along the common path of life, +which in the eager search for some great and exciting joy we are apt to +overlook. It finds delight in the performance of common duties +faithfully and honorably fulfilled." + +Let the reader go back to that quotation again and consider how contrary +it is to the spirit that underlies the businesses that are nowadays +tempting men to sudden fortune, torturing with disappointments nearly +all who yield, and burdening the successful beyond their endurance, +shortening lives and making them weary and most of them empty. + +Is it worth while to join the mad rush for the lottery, or to take the +old road to slow success? + +This book of the chosen thoughts of a rare philosopher leads to +contentment as well as wisdom, for, when we choose the less brilliant +course because we are sure it is the best one, we have the most complete +and lasting repose from anxiety. + + +TILTING AT WINDMILLS. A Story of the Blue Grass Country. By Emma M. +Connelly. Boston. D. Lothrop Company. 12mo, $1.50. + +Not since the days of "A Fool's Errand" has so strong and so +characteristic a "border novel" been brought to the attention of the +public as is now presented by Miss Connelly in this book which she so +aptly terms "Tilting at Windmills". Indeed, it is questionable whether +Judge Tourgee's famous book touched so deftly and yet so practically the +real phases of the reconstruction period and the interminable +antagonisms of race and section. + +The self sufficient Boston man, a capital fellow at heart, but tinged +with the traditions and environments of his Puritan ancestry and +conditions, coming into his strange heritage in Kentucky at the close of +the civil war, seeks to change by instant manipulation all the equally +strong and deep-rooted traditions and environments of Blue Grass +society. + +His ruthless conscience will allow of no compromise, and the people whom +he seeks to proselyte alike misunderstand his motives and spurn his +proffered assistance. + +Presumed errors are materialized and partial evils are magnified. +Allerton tilts at windmills and with the customary Quixotic results. He +is, seemingly, unhorsed in every encounter. + +Miss Connelly's work in this, her first novel, will make readers anxious +to hear from her again and it will certainly create, both in her own and +other States, a strong desire to see her next forthcoming work announced +by the same publishers in one of their new series--her "Story of the +State of Kentucky." + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Public Services of James +A. Garfield, by Emma Elizabeth Brown + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES--JAMES A. GARFIELD *** + +***** This file should be named 34217.txt or 34217.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/1/34217/ + +Produced by Curtis Weyant, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34217.zip b/34217.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a08aaba --- /dev/null +++ b/34217.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ecbd64 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #34217 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34217) |
