.Oass E Hook A BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD Late President of the United States, BY BENSON J. LOSSING, LL.D., AFTHOB OF "PICTORIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE BKVOLOTION ;" " PICTORIAL FIELD BOOX OF THE WAB OF 1812;" "riCTOBIAL FIELD BOOK OF THE CIVIL WiB IN AMEBIC.*.; " "iLLUSTBATED HIHTOBY OF THE UNITED STATES;" " ODB COUNTBY ;" "MOUNT VEBNON, THE HOME OF WASHINGTON ;" "EMINENT AMEBICAN8;" ETC., ETC. PORTRAIT ON STEEL, FORTY-EIGHT FULL-PAGE ENGRAVINGS. NEW YORK: HENRY S. GOODSPEED & CO., CHICAGO, ILL. CINCINNATI, O. COPYRIGHT, J882, BY A. E. GOODSPEED. i" THE Uonng ifitiwis of (Pur (foimtrj), THIS UOSRAPBT Of I GREAT EXEMPLAR I OB I IIKIK IMITATION IS A.FFBI IM'NVTELY DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFA.OE The task of producing a full delineation of the life and intellec- tual achievements of Jami - A. < I aki n.i.n must be Left for some competent person in the future, furnished with the ample materials in possession of the family of the lute Chief Magistrate of the Re- public. President Garfield's career was so conspicuously marked by in- cessant activities of every kind, and his intellectual labors were so prodigious, that it will require volumes to adequately illustrate his character and his life work. Tin: evident desire of the public mind for some memorial of him which might give a conception of what he was and what he did, seemed to warrant the prepara- tion of this volume to meet the popular demand. In that prepara- tion the best available material has been used, and care taken in sifting it. so as to separate truth from error. B. J. L. The Ridge, December, 1881. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Gakfield and Ballou* Families. Opportunities for American citizens. — Thoughts on the rela- tions of generations. — Character of Garfield. — His pedi- gree.— The Garfields in England.— The Garfields in America. — Solomon Garfield in New York". — His son Abraham. — The Ballou family in America. — In New Hampshire. —Eliza Ballou, mother of President Garfield. — She becomes a playmate of Abraham Garfield. — The Ballous go to Ohio. — The Western Reserve. — Abraham Garfield and Eliza Ballou wedded.— A homo in the Wil- derness.— State Canal in Ohio. — Abraham Garfield Set- tles in Cuyahoga county. — Birth of James A. Garfield.. . 17 CHAPTER II. Early Life and Aspirations. The Cottage in the Wilderness. — Death of President Garfield's father.— His widow and children. — The widow's Resolu- tion concerning her Family.— Her independence of Spirit. Heroic work and Suffering. — Her helpful Son Thomas. — School-house on their land. — James Garfield in School. — His restless Spirit. —His growth of mind and body. — Indebtedness to his brother Thomas. — Unselfish labors of ■ Thomas. — James a carpenter. — Extent of his Education, Reading and home instructions. — The "Disciples of Christ."— Their tenuis.— The Garfields become "Disci pies." — Mrs. Garfield's cheerfulness and energy. — The Constitution and Guerricre, — James at fifteen. — At a [viij <■ viu CONTENTS. " Saltery " near Cleveland. — A hay-maker aod wood- chopper. — Anxious to "go to sea" on the Lake. — His disillosion 33 CHAPTER III. A Critical Period of Life. Becomes a Canal-driver. — His experience on a Canal. — His moral honesty. — Determines to leave the canal. — Severe illness. — His mother draws him to the pat Its of learning. — Proposition to go to an Academy. — Enters Geauga Seminary. — A letter to its Trustees. — His personal appear- auce there. — Mrs. Stiles's kindness aud unconscious prophecy. — Lucrctia Rudolph. — James Garfield a district 6chool teacher. — Joins the church of "The Disciples." — His hunger for more Education. — The Western Reserve Eclectic Institute at Hiram. — Miss Booth and her influ- ence on young Garfield's diameter. — His Studies. — His Eulogy on Miss Booth 53 CHAPTER IV. Garfield at Williams College. A born orator. — Father Bentley and Garfield. — Sketch of Garfield at the Eclectic Institute at Hiram. — Lucretia Rudolph at Hiram. — Garfield's choice of a college. —His situation at College. — History of Williams Col- lege.— Betrothal of James Garfield and Miss Rudolph. — Attractions at Williams College. — Garfield's life at Col- lege. — His financial arrangements. — He edits the College Magazine and his contributions thereto. — A Poem by Young Garfield. — Becomes a teacher of writing. — His temptation at Troy. — His graduation and college charac- ter. — Imitation of Tennyson.— His first political position. Thilologian Society. — Garfield and Don Quixote. — His filial affection. — Estimate of his character by Presi- dent Chadbourne 75 CHAPTER V. Garfield at Hiram College.— Beginning of Political Life. ^arfiehl a Trofessor at Hiram. — Description of Hiram. — Pres- ent of Hiram College. His influence there.— President J CONTENTS. \x Hinsdale and Garfield.— Garfield's letter of advice to Hins- dale. — J. L. Darsie's account of Garfield at Hiram College. — Lucretia Rudolph.— Her family. — Marriage of Garfield and Miss Rudolph. — Their love of classical studies. — Garfield's connection with Hiram College. — He preaches. — Studies Law, Lectures, and his interest in the German people. — Garfield sympathizes with the Republican Party. — The Ostend Manifesto. — Personal Liberty Laws. — Garfield a vigorous " Stump Speaker."— A member of the State Senate of Ohio. — On a mission to Louisville. — Beginning of the Rebellion in South Carolina. —Symptoms of the Great Insurrection. — South Carolina Ordinance of Seces- sion. — Proceedings in Charleston, South Carolina 96 CHAPTER VI. Beginning of the Civil War. Momentous interests at stake. — Garfield's oration at Ravenna, on the dignity and privileges of American citizenship. — Garfield watches the approaching storm.— 'The people look to the Government for strength. — They discover its weakness.— President Buchanan and his Attorney-Gen- eral. — Advice of the latter. — Weakness of the arguments of the conspirators and their friends. — State sovereignty. — Garfield advocates measures of precaution. — His ideas of coercion as protested against. — His anxiety caused by the Secession movements expressed in a letter to Hins- dale. — Its prophetic character. — General Dix and bis famous order. — Its salutary effect. — Garfield's estimate of the character of Lincoln. — His reflections on the aspect of the times. — President Lincoln's Inaugural Address. — Garfield's readiness for public life. — Declines a tempting offer. — Peace Convention at Washington. — Attitude of Virginia. — Result of the Convention. — A Virginia agitator in Charleston. — The attack on Fort Sumter. — The Presi- dent's call for troops. — Responses of disloyal Governors to the call. — An extraordinary session of Congress called. — The seizure of the national capital. — The prime object of the conspirators. — Alexander Stephens urges the capture of Washington. The cry of "On to Washington" by the Southern press and politicians. — Jefferson Davis's protest poetically illustrated 121 x A - " CONTEXTS. CHAPTER VII. State of the Nation in the Spring op 1861. England and other European governments give aid aud comfort to the Insurgents. — ,; Shop and Freedom," from Punch. — Disloyal utterances.— Mayor Wood suggests the secession of New Fork city. — A characteristic article in De Bow's iew. Philadelphia's Resolutions. — State supremacy advocated by many Northern newspapers. — The "Ameri- can Society for the promotion of Union." — Action of Loyal States.— Attitude of New Jersey. — Disloyal Reso- lutions adopted in Philadelphia. — The -people of Penn- sylvania loyal. —Action of Ohio. — Action of Indiana — Action of Michigan. — Action of Illinois and Wisconsin. —Action of Iowa and Minnesota. — Action of Maryland. — Actiou of Deleware. — Kentucky's neutrality. — Garfield in the presence of the public danger 152 CHAPTER VIII. Ajtfaibs in Kentucky.— Garfield's First Military Campaign. (.iartitKl in the Ohio State Senate- -Ohio Volunteers. — Gar- field sent to Illinois for arms. — Recruits a Company. — Commissioned Colonel of the Forty-Second Regiment. — Bis interview with General Buell. — Commands a brigade in eastern Kentucky. — Civil and Military affairs in Ken- tucky. — Garfield pursues and defeats Marshall at Middle Creek. — Garfield's trusty courier. — Clears eastern Ken- tucky of Rebels. — Address to his Soldiers. — Thanked by Buell. — Made Brigadier-General. — Procures supplies. — Expedition to Pound Gap 177 CHAPTER IX. Battlb of Bhtloh. — Bragg Driven from Tennessee. '. irliiM joins Bucll's army.— The Battle of Shiloh. — id in that battle. — Garfield and a fugitive Returns home sick.-— Ordered to Washington. — f Inquiry. —Becomes General Rosecrans' Chief of Staff. Hi- services in the Army of the Cumber- land. Hii remarkable Report. — Advance of the Army into Georgia.— Bragg abandons Chattanooga 203 CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER X. Battle op Chickamauga. Hostile forces preparing for battle. — Battle of Chickamauga. — Details of the battle. — Garfield's services in the battle. — At the headquarters of Thomas. — Victory for the Confederates on the field. — Troops engaged in the battle. — Losses. — Garfield's aid to Thomas. — Commis- sioned a Major-General. — Garfield and Copperheads. — Elected to Congress. — Leaves the Army. — Rosecrans on Garfield 233 CHAPTER XI. Garfield in Congress. — The Peace Party. Garfield's constituents. — Joshua R. Giddings in Congress. — Garfield's colleague from Ohio. — Garfield and President Lincoln. — Peace Party Leaders. — General Scott's famous letter. — Professor Morse's plan for Reconciliation. — Lead- ers of the Peace Party and Lord Lyons. — The Demo- cratic Convention at Chicago and the Confederates, — Garfield on the Peace Party Leaders. — Verdict of the People '■, 258 CHAPTER XII. Garfield's First Engagements in Debates in Congress. Garfield's power felt at an important period.— An effective debater.— Speeches during the first session. — Speech on Soldiers' bounties. — His first motion in Congress. — His first debate. — Speech on Confiscation 283 CHAPTER XUI. Garfield's Career in the Thirty-Eighth Congress,— His Independence. Combats the heresy of "State Supremacy." — Camden and Am boy Railroad. — On Governor Parker's Proclamation. — Scathing rebuke of a colleague. — His readiness on occasions. — Anniversary of Lincoln's death. — Lincoln's desire for more troops. — Garfield's remarks on a bill for that purpose. — Garfield true to his convictions. — His independence. — Scene in a nominating Convention. — Garfield's re-election to Congress 311 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. Assassination of President Lincoln. — End of Civil War. List of Garfield's speeches in Congress. — Speech on the Abolition of Slavery by Constitutional Amendments, — On Negro Suffrage. — President Liucolu in Richmond. — Surrender of Lee at Appommattox. — Rejoicings. — Assas- sination of President Lincoln. — Excitement in New York. — General Garfield's Speech on the Event. — Disbanding of the Armies. — The Public Debt. — Reorganization of the Union. — General Garfield's choice of a Committee. — Speech on the Tariff 342 CHAPTER XV. Garfield in the Supreme Court. — On Education and "Honest Monet." Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court. — Garfield and Judge Black. — The case in Court. — Garfield's speech on Education. — President Johnson's for reorganizing the Union. — His warfare upon Congress. — His journey to Chicago and back. — Johnsou impeached. — Garfield and wife go to Europe.— His reception on his return. — Fidelity to his convictions. — How he broke up a Dis- tillery 370 CHAPTER XVI. Garfield's Forebodings. — His Great Speech on the Finances. Garfield Chairman of Committee on Military Affairs. — Letter on various topics. — His dealings with " Political Gen- erals." — His interest and efforts in the Resumption move- ment. — Garfield's famous speech on the Currency 392 CHAPTER XVII. Garfield on the Census.— Finances and Appropriations. Garfield and Thaddeus Stevens. — His position on the subject of the Public Debt. — His oration at Asbury on Decoration day.— Made Chai rm an of the Committee on Banking and Currency.— Labors on the Committee on the Ninth Cen- bufl. - Bpeeco on the Census.— A Bill to strengthen the public credit.— Garfield's speech on the subject.— A bill 00NTENT8. xiii for increase of banking facilities. -Garfield on a Com- mittee concerning Fluctuations in Gold.-Letter to Colonel Rockwell— A summary of Garfield's work in Congress. . 429 CHAPTER XVIII. Garfield on Public Expenditures—The Credit Mobilieb Company. Garfield Chairman of Committee on Appropriations—Speech on Public Expenditures—The Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution— His Speech on the nature of Govern- ments—History of the Credit Mobilier Affair— Charges against Garfield in connection with it— His defense and full acquittal— Garfield and the " Salary Grab. "-Presi- dent Hinsdale's address on Garfield's influence and Pointy a 4g6 CHAPTER XIX. Jefferson Davis and Amnesty— The Democratic Party Arraigned. A Democratic majority in Congress— " Liberal Republicans » Unsuccessful effort to defeat Garfield— The people of the -North assailed— Garfield defends them— Garfield on Jefferson Davis— The peace faction arraigned— Speech of Mr. Laman-^arfield's Reply— Quotes from Speeches by Lamar and Singleton in 1859— His remarks on the course of the Democratic Party concerning Slavery, and m the House of Representatives ; ' 483 CHAPTER XX. Resumption, and the Counting op the Electoral Vote. General Garfield ever an advocate for « Honest Money -His remarks on Resumption— The Presidential election in 1876— Action of Congress on the Subject— Debate on the Electoral Commission— Garfield's Speech on the subject. 502 CHAPTER XXI. Garfield's Latest Services in Congress. General Garfield the Republican leader in the House— Esti- mate of him as a leader— R. B. Hayes President of the United States— His conciliatory policy— Garfield on the xi T CONTENTS. Policy of Pacification.— Messrs. Ewiug and Kelloy on Resumption.— Garfield opposes the " Silver Bill."— His Bpeech before the " Honest Money League." — A solemn farce. — Special Session of Congress. — A threat to block tho wheels of Government. — Riders to Appropriation Bills.— Garfield's indictment of the policy of the majority of the House.— The President's Vetoes. — Garfield's effective Speech on "State Sovereignty." — Close of Gar- field's career in Congress. — Chosen United States Senator. 531 CHAPTER XXII. Republican National Convention, June 2, 1880. ing of the Convention at Chicago. — Preliminary pro- ceedings. — Names of candidates for the Presidency. — Mr. Coukling's resolutions in Convention. — The Platform adopted.— Nominations. — Garfield's Speech on nominating John Sherman for the Presidency. — Other nominations .. 550 CHAPTER XXHI. Garfield Nominated for President of the United States. Ballotings for Candidates for the Presidency. — Lesser Candi- dates giving way. — Many votes for Garfield. — He raises a point of order but is overruled. — Exciting scenes in the Convention. — General Garfield unanimously nominated for President of the United States. — Receives Congratu- lations. — Gratification at the result expressed. — A curious incident. — Informal acceptance of the nomination. — Gar- field's Speech at Hiram College. — His response to a Sere- nade in Washington. — His formal acceptance of the nomi- nation. — 0. A. Arthur nominated for Vice-President. — Llifl formal acceptance 567 CHAPTER XXTV. Garfield's Election and Inauguration. Republican Conference in New York.— Garfield's address to "Tli' Blue" and citizens.— The Campaign.— President of the United States. — T ttulatory visit to him. — Resigns his II. journey to Washington. — Inaug- uration of J- r . field.- Incidents of the Inaugura- tion .- Bii Inaugural Address 596 CONTENTS. xt CHAPTER XXV. President Garfield's Administration. — His Assassination. Great procession after Garfield's Inauguration. — The Inaugu- ration Ball. — Garfield's Cabinet Ministers. — A Struggle for Power in the Senate. — Opposition to nominees of the President. — The President's firmness. — Resignation of Senators from New York. — A struggle for their reappoint- ment. — Their seats filled by others. — Progress of the Administration. — President Garfield shot. — The assassin arrested. — His conduct. — Statement of the affair by a public officer. — Excitement everywhere. — Surgeons in attendance on the wounded President. — Correspondence with the Vice-President. — Interest abroad. — Bulletins. — Mrs. Garfield 618 CHAPTER XXVI. Death op President Garfield. The President lingers eighty days. — Interest in his case mani- fested all over the civilized world. — Prayers everywhere for his recovery. — Queen Victoria's sympathy expressed. — Removal of the President to Long Branch. — A most notable journey. — The Presideut at Long Branch. — Opinions of his medical attendants. — An alarming re- lapse. — The President's sudden death. — Words of con- dolence and sympathy from all the States and Terri- tories, and from Europe. — Vice-President Arthur becomes President. — Official report of an autopsy. — Removal of the President's body to the National Capitol. — Funeral ser- vices at Long Branch. — The journey. — The body laid in state in the Rotunda. — "Wreath laid on the Casket by order of Queen Victoria. — An incident. — Final services there. . 644 CHAPTER XXVII. The Funeral at Cleveland. The remains of the President conveyed from Washington to Cleveland. — Its reception at Cleveland. — It lay in State nearly two days, under a Pavilion. — Description of the Pavilion. — The funeral ceremonies at the Pavilion. — Rev. Isaac Evrett's sermon. — Garfield's favorite hymn. — The funeral car. — Ceremonies at the cemetery 666 xri CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVin. Universal Sympathy. I for the salvation of the life of the wounded President— Expressions of sympathy in every form at bome and abroad.— Unanimity of public Expression con- cerning the character of Garfield. — Interest manifested in England and on the Continent. — Art tributes in Harpers' Weekly. — Borrow expressed on the death of the President. Symbols <>f mourning displayed throughout England on the day of the funeral.— Messages of condolence and of jKithy from Europeans. — Honors awarded in Australia and Chili. — Tokens of mourning in America, especially in York and Brooklyn. — How the prayers were an- l red.— Effect of President Garfield's death 690 CHAPTER XXIX. , and Fatalism and Coincidences 741 V. BOHORED TJT VebSB 752 VI. A Mi.i>ii ai. REVIEW 765 VII. A ( Iubious Rboord 789 VIII Q \ urn id's Notable Words 71)1 IX I r.i\i. ov THE Assassin 811 THE BIOGRAPHY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. CHAPTER I. THE GARFIELD AND BALLOU FAMILIES. Our national history is studded with the names of brilliant men in every department of activity — statesmen, diplomatists, publicists, scientists, theologians, artists, au- thors, in the learned professions, inventors and skilled artisans. The conditions of our society have ever been most favorable to the fullest development of the whole man, morally, mentally and physically. Our climate and our institutions work kindly with the spiritual natures of men. Free to choose life's avocations, with every avenue to knowledge open, broad and free, and with helpful allies all around him, the American citizen must be dull indeed or excessively indolent or improvident if, with a sound mind in a sound body, he is not found on the high road to prosperity and happiness in some degree. J17] THE BIOGRAPHY OF A* a general rule, in this country only vice and unthrift arc the parents of pinching poverty. Honors and emolu- ments, the good will of his fellow men, and the rewards of industrv await the active man in America who labors most earnestly, most wisely, conscientiously, soberly and tently To obtain them. In the race for them the rruly good citizen is quite sure to win. [t has been said that circumstances make men. It may as truly bo said that men mako circumstances. There is a continual action and reaction — a constant impinging among the mural forces which make up the immaterial man; and all things in the moral, intellectual and spiritual world are, a.- in nature, closely related, whether, in the aggregate or individual, refashioning each other by attrition. The late President Garfield touched the springs and hinted at the profound philosophy of human character when, in his admirable eulogy on General George II. Thomas, he said: " In this world all is relative. Character is the result of innumerable influences from without and within, which act concurringLy through life. Who shall estimate the effect of those latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a new-born child ? — forces that may date back centuries and find their origin in the life and thought and of remote ancestors — forces, the germs of which, enveloped in the awful mystery of life, have been trans- mitted silently from generation to generation, and never , ! All-cherishing nature, provident and unforgetting, ra ap all these fragments, that nothing may be lost, that all may ultimately reappear in new combinations. thus the ' heir of all the ages,' the pos- of qualities which only the events of life can unfold." • the private and public career of a man like JAMES A. GARFIELD. 19 James Abram Garfield, whose life, "purified as by fire," is a model of rare exeellence, is a task which ought to be assumed with reverence and thought-fulness, and a prayer- ful desire to be just and true in its performance. To do this I have availed myself of every source of trustworthy information within my reacn. Of all the heroes and sages of our country who have won the just applause of mankind for well-doing — for noble deeds, profound and varied knowledge and shining virtues — no one seems more worthy of love and admira- tion than he whose life-work I now attempt to record. Not even the beloved Washington, embalmed as he is in the hearts of all lovers of human freedom throughout the civilized world, excelled him in the grand qualities of head and heart which make a perfectly rounded and sym- metrical character with scarcely a flaw or blemish. It was only within the space of little more than twenty years that this illustrious citizen appeared conspicuous in our national life. In a comparatively humble and circum- scribed sphere of action, with no burning ambition for public fame, his great spirit was passing through a chrysalis existence preparatory for great achievements on a higher plane of life. As Minerva sprang full-anned from the brain of Jove, the deity of wisdom, to lead mankind to goodness and power, so did this hitherto almost obscure citizen appear before the nation full-panoplied in moral, intellectual and physical strength to battle for the right and humanity in the field and in the forum. General Garfield said : " Moral forces may date back centuries, and find their origin in the life and thought and deeds of remote ancestors." His own life illustrated the truth of this assertion. Let us look at his lineage : i THE BIO OR A PHY OF James A.bram Garfield was ninth in descent from Ed- .•. .u.l Garfield of Chester, England, on the borders of Wales, and who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay, in New and, in 1636. This paternal ancestor settled in Water- town, now a lovely suburb of Boston, which place soon ie the great hive of New England, from whence Bwarmed almost innumerable families who peopled first Connecticut, and then westward, until their descendants ippear in large force in the census tables of the Great Their genealogies, thirty years ago, covered eleven hundred closely-printed octavo pages. Edward Garfield was one of the one hundred and six proprietors of "Watertown, and in the ancient little cem- etery there the remains of five of the late President's family name were buried. These names may yet be deciphered on the moss-grown and mouldering head- - of their graves. These seem to have been all tillers of the soil, and bore their part in the heroic labors and sufferings of those pioneers of American civilization. Their history appears to be summed up, as far as records : the brief inscriptions on the tombstones. Edward Garfield, the ancestor of all, lived until In. was ninety- seven years of age, which is presumptive evidence that te of a -frong physical frame, and led a lif? of tem- pi ranee and placidity. It U nol certain whether the Garfields are from Saxon or from Welsh blood. Edward came from the '"border," but from which side, whether in England or in Wales, is unknown. There appears to have been a large infusion of Teutonic blood in Garfield's veins. According to a tradition in the family, Edward Garfield married a Ger- woman on the long and stormy passage from Eng- James a. Garfield. %i land to America ; and in support of this tradition is the decided German cast of countenance of the family. The late President had a strong love for the German race and literature. England is not really the fatherland of the linglieh-speaking people. Their real ancient home — the old dwelling-place of the Anglo-Saxons before they in- vaded Britain and created the British Empire — was the dark forests of Germany. Of the ancestors of Edward Garfield in " the old country " nothing is known, and almost nothing of his immediate descendants before the middle of the eighteenth century. There is on record in the " Herald's Visitation to Middlesex," England, about the middle of the seven- teenth century (when Edward was in New England), die name of Garfield, and a description of the family arms and crest of the Garfields of Middlesex. One of them was named Abraham, which has kept reappearing in the family in this country, shortened, as in the case of the late President, to Abram. The family have no records of the immediate descend- ants of 2d ward Garfield. It is known that Solomon Garfield, a lineal descendant, married Sarah Stimpson, and went to western Massachusetts, and that his brother Abraham, with John Hoar, was called as a witness, in 1775, by the Province of Massachusetts, to prove that the British troops were the aggressors in the skirmish at Concord Bridge on the 19th of A pril. The investigation concerning that point was very searching, for the Ameri- can actors in that fight were anxious to prove, beyond question, that the British, not they, were tho first law- breakers on that momentous occasion, which opened the war for American independence. Abraham Garfield >P of est THE BIOGRAPHY OF was a competent witness, for he was one of the New England fanners who participated in that skirmish. It is ertain that his brother Solomon was in the fight. John Hoar, above-mentioned, was the great-grandfather of Senator George F. Hoar, whose family are old residents of Concord. Senator Hoar was chairman of the Conven- tion which nominated James A. Garfield for the Presi- dency of the United States. Solomon Garfield was sixth in descent from Edward, and was the great-grandfather of President Garfield. Abraham was his great-grand-uncle. We have uo record of the life of Abraham after he signed his name to the affidavit which was sent to the Continental Congress that the Americans acted on the defensive only in the Concord Of Solomon we have slight traces of his future career. v7hen the war ended he had a growing family, and with thei i he turned his steps westward to the wilds of the State <>f New York, beyond the Hudson river, lit- joined a small settlement, chiefly of New England people, <>n the upper waters of the Susquehanna river, in Worcester, Otsego county, then on the borders of civilization. There he bought a small farm, and culti- I it industriously. He was noted for his physical jth. On" day. while at a country store, the mer- chant, doubting his alleged muscular power, offered him agrindstone, weighing five hundred pounds, if he would it home on his shoulder. Solomon raised it to his shoulder and boro it in triumph to his house, a mile and a half distant, without Btopping to rest. near the close of the last century Solomon's sturdy ' T irried Asenatb Hill, a half-sister of Samuel i II. who, ;1 few v v . .... ,],,. ( .l ( .,.] v f Qtsego JAMES A. GARFIEl.lh county. They were blessed by the birth of a spu in December, 1799, whom they named Abraham, and who became the father of President Garfield. Thomas, like his ancestors, was a tiller of the soil. In 1801 the young husband and father, exposed to a storm and great fatigue, suddenly sickened and died, leaving a widow with a baby less than two years old. That baby was Abraham, the father of President Garfield. This half-orphan boy was taken charge of, with the consent of his mother, by a near friend and neighbor of the Garfields, James Stone, of West Hill, and grew to be a tall, broad-shouldered, sinewy young man, with little school education, but an abundance of mother wit and the indomitable perseverance of the Garfield race. He appears to have inherited a strong brain, which, untram- melled by hard necessity, and allowed extended action, might have made him a man of mark among his fellows. When Abraham Garfield was ten years of age, a small family named Ballon came into the sparse settlement of Worcester. It was composed of a widow and four chil- dren, one (a daughter) about eight years of age. The de- ceased husband was James Ballon, a native of Woonsocket, Rhode Island. His family had been citizens of that com- monwealth for several generations. They were descend- ed from the Huguenots, those brave, sturdy, indomitable and uncompromising French Protestants who, when the fires of persecution again flamed out fiercely after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV. in 1085, left homes and country and sought freedom to worship God as they pleased in English cities, or in the forests of America. They gave to our republic some of its best UJh BlOOMAPSl Ob' I and keenest intellects in the "time that tried men's the fierce Btruggle for independence. The founder of the Ballon family in America was irin Ballon. After the revocation of the famous edict lie fled with his family to Rhode Island, where its fonnder, Roger Williams, had just died. He appears to a Protestant clergyman, and built a church edifice in < luraberland, known as the " Elder Ballou Meet- ing-house." In that little wooden temple, yet standing, he taught the pure religion of Jesns of Nazareth, and the higher christian virtues and moralities. His was a race <>f preach-!-. I <>r generations his descendants preached the same pulpit, and in that modest place of divine ;• -: • BaUon race in America have annual reunions. It is -aid that one <>f Maturin Ballou's descendants, himself a clergyman, had ton r sons who were preachers of righteousness. < Mir of these sons had three boys who be- ministers, and one of these had a son and grandson who were also clergymen. The Ballou's have been distin- guished in oth.-r avocations. More than twenty of them k re in the army of the Revolution ; and Sullivan Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Represen- d in the firet battle of Hull Run, in July, 1861. remarkable of the Ballou. family was !lou, the .•hie!' founderof the Christian sect in known as - dniversalists." Before his birth his ted to the forest-covered region of NTew ' Richmond, in Chester county, just north of the Massachusetts line. He had preached in the °W Mieeti: . bat his conscience would not allow him • pay to,- hisservices in the sanctuary. Like the he believed that a gospel received free JtogrsEi? ajiiiFiELQ. I ff . JAMES i. UAlCflELD. 2.1 from tile Master should be dispensed as freely by those win i W cre able to be almoners of its blessings. Yet ho was so poor that Ilosea,iu learning to write, was compel cd to use birch bark m lien of paper, and a charcoal solution for ink. „ TT , . With Ilosea Ballou's family went into IS cw Hampshire his cousin James Ballon. James's father felled the forest and made a "clearing," for a home. There in due time James grew to manhood, full of an adventurous spirit, and when he was about twenty years of age he married Mehitable Ingalls, from whose paternal ancestor sprang General Burns Ingalls, the able chief-quartermaster during the American Civil War. These were the parents of Eliza Ballon, who became the mother of President Garfield. Eliza Ballon, like nearly all the Ballon race, is of small stature. The Ballous have been called a " French pony hreed," that is, of compact and tough moral, mental and physical fibre; possessed of great nervous energy, com- bined with untiring power of endurance. They have been marked by great conscientiousness and honesty ot purpose, tenacitv of will, and a thorough independence of spirit. Eliza was born in Bichmoud, Chester county Hew Hampshire, on September 21, 1801. There also was born, thirty years before, her distinguished kinsman, Kev, Hosea Ballon. Her early childhood was spent among the beautiful wild scenery of Ballon Dale. Such scenery such communings with nature, in its most beautiful and attractive aspects, is calculated to inspire the soul with devotional emotions, for : « The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave And spread the roof above- them. Ere he framed Til E BI0QHAP21Y OF 'w vault, to gather and roll back t anthems ; in the darkling wood, lence, he knelt down to the Mightiest solemn thanks." mother was a woman of uncommon . faith and fortitude ; and after the death died young, she taught her child a .of faith in God, and trustfulness in the hour of hard misfortune, which was to her in after life. She felt compelled by hard ■ :." shmond and seek a new home in an- had a friend settled in Worcester, bad spoken of its more genial climate soil than the granite hills of New Hamp- r .die went, when Eliza was about eight eated herself ucar the Garfields. Then rious workings of God's providence; tnge but unuttered prophecy of the future, fulfilled in our day. Abraham Garfield and Eliza ere playfellows for Beveral years of their child- A& they advanced into their "teens" their in- uMi.'d a more interesting aspect. The boy of fifteen had become gallant and chivalric ttie maiden. He was growing up like a tall he Wafl like a sweet but vigorous ■ beauty and fragrance to the world A lender passion was budding. bed this tender bud. Eli/a Bal- . : ... /. grown to young manhood, had ■ -• in the second war for Independence, with General Harrison in Ohio. that then far-off and rays- JAMES A. O AIRFIELD. 27 terious land, where its streams were fringed with giant sycamores, its forests seemed like templed hills and plains, and its maize shot up, like Saul, " head and shoulders " above any he had ever seen. He was enamored of the country. New England people, especially from Con- necticut, were settling on what was yet called the Western Reserve, a tract of between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 acres of fine land reserved by that State when it ceded to the United States, in 1781, its territorial claims by virtue of a royal charter given by Charles the Second. It was no longer a " reserve," for Connecticut had ceded it to Ohio in 1801 ; but the region retained its name, and does so at this da}\ It covers several counties in north-eastern Ohio. The fine city of Cleveland, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, stands on that domain. In 1814 James Ballou persuaded his mother to go to the "New West," as Ohio was then called. With her family she departed, and after traversing the intervening wilderness and clearings for about six weeks, they reached their destination, near Zanesville, in Muskingum county, in central Ohio. Abraham Garfield's heart went with his old playmate, the little Ballou maiden, but the legal bonds of an apprenticeship to James Stone, who had reared him from his infancy, kept his body in Worcester. But " love laughs at locksmiths," and at the aire of eighteen he broke his fetters and sped to Ohio, where, a year later, he married his first love, she being a little more than a year his junior. Young Garfield had powerful muscles and a will to do. He was not long unemployed. The State of Ohio, then lusty in its youth, was building a canal more than three hundred miles in length, to connect Lake Erie with Tin-: BIOOJUPHT oF the Ohio river, extending across the State from north to M.uth. from Cleveland on the lake, to Portsmouth, on the itiful water." That young western State had caught the canal fever from the staid and more aneient commonwealth of New York. Cautious men shook their in doubt, and it took years to bring the State . ituiv np to the point of acquiescence in the project. miction of ite feasibility and even desirability tardy in its growth, until the success of the great Erie Canal settled the question. In January, L817, the first resolution relating to a canal connecting the Ohio river with Lake Erie, was in- troduced into the Legislature. In 1819 the subject was itated. In 1820, on the recommendation of Brown, an act was passed, providing for the ap- pointment of three canal commissioners, who were to employ a competent engineer and assistants, for the pur- pose of surveying the route of the canal. The action of the come J, however, was made to depend on the tancc h' 88 of a proposition on behalf of the , for a donation and sale of the public lands lying . and near the route of the proposed canal. In nee of this restriction, nothing was accom- od for two years. In 1 s, jj the Bubjeot was referred to a committee of Rej oeentatives. This committee recom- mended the employment of an engineer, and submitted and observations to illustrate the iin- ibility of the work. Under this act, New York, an experienced and skillful ike the necessary examina- Finally, after all the routes had been JAMES A. GARFIELD. 31 surveyed, and estimates made of the expense had been laid before the Legislature at several sessions, an act was passed in February, 1S25, " To provide for the internal improvement of the State by navigable canals," and thereupon the State embarked in good earnest in the prosecution of this great work of internal improvement. It was begun in 1825, and when completed it had cost the State nearly $15,000,000. This and other internal improvements opened a wide field for self-help and general usefulness to strong young men — strong in body and mind — like Abraham Garfield. He found immediate employment in the work of making the canal. It was not long before his observed abilities caused his promotion to the position of superintendent of some of the work. Then he became a contractor, and for a time his future prospects were bright, for he began to accumulate money. A sudden rise in prices of ma- terials and labor caused him to lose heavily, and he became bankrupt. Garfield now left the region of central Ohio, and pushed northward towards the lake, and in January, 1830, he halted in the deep forests of Orange, in Cuya- hoga county, not more than five leagues from Mentor, now become so famous. There, on a plot of fifty acres of land which he bought, he built a log cabin with one room and three windows, for a shelter and home for his wife and babies, until he should make a better one. Their nearest neighbor was seven miles distant. In that log cabin James A. Gakfield, the future President of the United States, was born on November 19, 1831. He was the latest born of four children. That life was " the heir to all the ages." In it met the TBS BIOQRAPBY OF stnrdj elements of character of fcheGarfielde and the Bal- Uis life-career justified his own assertion in after • - may date back centuries and liud their origin in the life and thonghl and deeds of remote ancestors the genns of which, enveloped in the awful tery <>f life, have been transmitted silently from generation tu generation, and never perish." JAMES A. GARFIELD. 33 CHAPTER H. EARLY LIFE AND ASPIRATIONS Abraham Garfield's home in the Orange wilderness was a very humble one, but it was ennobled and adorned with love and hope and high resolves. The cabin was only about twenty feet one way and thirty feet the other. The logs were as rough as when the tree fell, neither moss nor bark having been stripped off. Its door was made of rude split plank, and was hung on heavy iron strap-hinges. There were three small windows, and a board floor made smooth with a broad-axe. In the absence of nails or spikes, this floor was kept in its place by timbers laid across each end. The logs of the house were rudely dove-tailed to- gether by an axe wielded by Garfield's skillful hands. The chinks between the logs were filled with wet clay, and so, also, was the wooden chimney that arose at the end of it made tight. It was made comfortable in winter and summer ; and it scarcely had a rival in beauty, spaciousness and convenience in all that region. Such was the birth- place of an American citizen who, when he died fifty years afterwards, was honored with formal mourning by not only his own nation, but by three European courts by order of their respective sovereigns — Queen Victoria, King Leopold of Belgium and King Alfonso of Spain. A severe blow smote the household of Abraham Gar- field in 1833. In the forest that surrounded their clear- ////: BT0GRAPH7 OF i fire broke out, and his garnered wheat was menaced with destruction. With pick and spade and other imple- ments he f ought the fire with tremendous energy nearly a whole -lav. ditching, clearing away leaves and dry brush, and pouring on water. He had done the work of half a i men and gained a victory. The wheat and his cabin ■ d. hut the brave man fell almost in the moment of bis triumph never t<> rise again. < )n entering his cabin at sunset, Garfield's physical well-nigh exhausted by fatigue, and, dread- fully overheated, he soon felt Ids whole frame trembling with a mortal chill. His alarmed wife covered him with blankets, but without seeming effect at first. For nearly forty hours he Buffered greatly, when either a casual r-by or a quack doctor recommended him to have a blister placed on his inflamed throat. Almost instantly the trouble there was increased, and in the course of a few hours he died of suffocation possibly of congestion of the Lungs, lb- w;n then only thirty-three yearsof age ami in full don «.f hisgreal bodily strength. It is related that fore he died he arose, walked to the door, spoke to ttle, and as he returned and seated himself on his bed, just able t.> speak, he commended his little ones to ader care of their mother, and expired. His body laid in a comer of the wheat-field. In th.it lonely wilderness, with neighbors yet few and nt, the stricken young widow was left with four chil- itable, aged eleven year.-, Thomas nine, Mary .and James not two years old. Did she bow in hid. -he dt Listless in despair? Did she lean in on lnr neighbors and friends for support? No. JAMES A. GARB'IELD. 35 That would have been dishonor to the Ballon name ; dis- loyalty to her Garfield alliance. Mrs. Garfield's neighbors were kind, for she had always been kind to them. With the best intentions they made suggestions about her future, for they regarded her case as a desperate one. Bereft of husband, in debt for the land, no strong arm to manage and defend, and four chil- dren dependent for food and raiment on her own unaided exertions, the task seemed too much for her fragile body to endure. Some advised her to place her two elder chil- dren with families where they might earn their own living ; others advised this, others that, all contemplating the aban- donment of the struggle which had been bequeathed her, for failure in the end appeared to them certain. Mrs. Garfield listened patiently and decided promptly. No one but a mother should guide the infant minds of her children. Mehitable and Thomas were helpful and willing, and little Mary could amuse James while the mother toiled. She relied with ever abiding faith on the promises of Heaven to the widow and the fatherless. The law would give her a right to $120 for a year's support, which creditors could not meddle with. She was fragile but healthful, and she resolved to protect her little brood from the storms and privations of the coming winter as best she might. While she leaned for rest upon an ever- kind Providence, she was governed by the homely-taught lesson that Providence helps those who help themselves. Many illustrations have been given of the independent character of this brave little woman. The citation of one or two at this point may suffice. It is related that her hus- band, before his death, had put in seed for an ample crop of wheat the following year. It was all secured in an in- Tin: BIOGRAPHY OF closure, excepting about fifteen lengths, of " lawful fence," iv, one hundred rails. The chestnut logs were all cut and lav in a pile ready for splitting. A few days after the funeral Bhe took Thomas to the pile and asked: •• M\ son, can we split these rails?" •• /'// do my best, mother," said the dutiful boy. They attacked the pile. The maul was so heavy that she could only just lift it to her shoulder, and with the jj-i \iiiLT "t many a Mow, she fell to the ground. But she and bravo little Thomas struggled on, split all the neees- aary rails and built the fence. Her neighbors would have split the rails for her, hut she preferred not to ask or re- eeive fa\ ore unless compelled to. The ensuing winter was long and dreary. Deep sn<»w lay in the forests a long time. At night the little group could bear hungry wolves howling around their snug cabin, and often the screams of the hungry panther were heard on the midnight air. But spring opened early and mild with all its impressions of hopefulness in anxious heart-. 'I 'lie bereaved family were not only poor hut in debt. " < Mit of del.! out of danger," thought the widow She had eighty acres of land. She Bold fifty of it. paid the amount of the mortgage and other debts. With the remaining thirty acres she resolved to omfortable home for herself and her children, if industry and thrift would gain the reward. When spring lerably advanced, the winter stores of the Gar- Held family were running low, and lor weeks the provi- dent widow ate only one meal a day herself, giving the two meal.- to her growing children, thai liny might Feel hungry. Thomas, the Belpful, bired a horse, ploughed their thirty acres, and put in seed, all JAMES A. GARFIELD. 37 with ins own little hands. Finally the harvest came and brought them abundance of food and comfort. From that time onward the gaunt wolf of pinching want never looked into the dour of the Garfield home. The neighborhood soon became more thickly settled. Some families were not more than a mile distant. Mrs. Garfield was an excellent seamstress, and she and Mehita- ble, and even little Mary, sewed for their neighbors, while Thomas toiled in the fields. Finally, when a little older, he hired himself out to work on a farm at twelve dollars a month, and this money he poured into his mother's lap in silver coins, with more satisfaction than fills the heart of a panoplied victor returning with spoil. They raised a few sheep ; spun and wove the woolen cloth for their own simple garments, and in various ways the busy household managed to live comfortably. Mere creature comforts did not satisfy the longings of Mrs. Garfield for the intellectual culture of her children. Before James was four years old he showed an irrepressi- ble desire to obtain knowledge. The school-house was too far away for him to attend, especially in winter. She offered her neighbors a little corner of her farm if they would build a school-house on it. They accepted the gift, and before winter set in the house was built and an awk- ward, tall, " green " young man from New Hampshire, was installed as teacher. The school-house was built of logs, twenty feet square. The benches were split slabs, hewn a little smooth on one side, and supported by rude legs at each end. Into this primitive seminary of learn- ing James A. Garfield was introduced as a student when he was about four years of age. The teacher, though young and awkward, was full of THE BIOGRAPHY OF sufficient knowledge for his humble field of labor. He had a kindly hear! and winning ways that charmed little James. The boy was bright and eager to learn. The teacher "boarded round," as was the custom everywhere in rural districts in those days. He first made his quar- • the Widow ( rarfield's, where he thrived on her corn bread and Blept in the loft with Thomas and James. He took a great fancy to the younger boy, and they were 60on fast friends. The little fellow learned rapidly, for Lis memory seemed never at fault; and at the end of the first term he had won the prize of a New Testament as the best reader in the school. ( >ther teachers came, and James was a favorite with all of them as the "smartest little fellow in the world." Be went to school winters and summers, for his promise o great that Thomas the Helpful determined that he should not work on the farm but '"get learning as fast as he <-«*itl*l.~" Text-books were few then and there. His chief spelling as well as reading-book was Noah Web- . i hoi bo popular that more than a million were sold each year. James's memory was so prodigious that he Learned the book "1)}' heart "before he was eight years of a--<\ James was a restless boy from the beginning. Per- petual motion when awake characterized him. One of the rigid rules of his first school-master, the New Hamp- shire youth, was that hoys and girls must sit still in school. James tried to do it, I'm- he wished to he dutiful, but in his eagerness ami effort to he obedient he neglected his studies. II teacher complained to his mother that he would il -till and did not learn. The mother was grieved, and her evident di appointment troubled the little fellow, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 39 who promised to try to do better. He tried hard, but in vain. Motion and learning, quiet and a block of wood, appeared to be synonymous terms. The Yankee wit of the teacher soon solved the difficulty. He allowed James to move about as much as he pleased, when the boy shot ahead in acquirements which won for him the prize of the New Testament for his excellence in reading, as above mentioned. In a very few days after this change of treatment the teacher was enabled to say to his mother, "James is perpetual motion, but he learns; and not a scholar in the school learns so fast as he." When James carried home the New Testament as a reward for his dil- igence and progress, Widow Garfield's cottage was full of delight. James Garfield's body grew as rapidly as his mind, and at the age of ten years he was able to do much on the little farm. But Thomas would not allow it. In his fatherly, self-sacrificing way he would say : u Mother, James is learning so fast that he must not be taken out of school to work on the land. I'll do the work." In this feeling the whole family acquiesced, and the boy continued to " tread the path of learning," so bright and beautiful, and so attractive to him, with a heart swelling with gratitude toward his good brother. How much of his knowledge and greatness did James Garfield owe to that brother, who was contented to toil unceasingly in comparative obscurity for years, to enable the younger scion to grow lustily, morally, mentally and physically, to make preparations for the career of usefulness and honor which marked his life ! That younger brother ever grate- fully acknowledged the immense value of that early fos- THE BIOGRAPHY OF taring care. While we admire the giant product, let us forget the husbandman who matured the germ — Thou \s G-asfu ld. James, as be grew apace, sought books in every direc- tion with avidity. Few could then be found in the yet Bparsely-settled region of Orange, in Cuyahoga comity, but these he obtained whenever he could borrow them. At length Lindley Murray's " English Reader," the only reading-book used in the common schools in .America fifty . fell in his way and charmed him. He read it and again with ever-increasing delight, and during his whole Life he could quote from it page after page. No •• Reader" has ever excelled Murray's in its salutary in- flnences on the minds and hearts of the young. The Garfield family had been dwelling in the log house which Abraham Garfield built in the wilderness, for . Thomas tilling the land and working for his neigh- ind James going to school and helping his brother nights and mornings with the " chores" and other labors, until the former was twenty-one years of age and the lat- ter was twelve years old. At that time Thomas, a brawny young man, went to Michigan and cleared land for a farmer there. Ee returned in a few months, bringing with him seventy-five dollars of his earnings. Laying this Him before bis mother be said. " Now you shall have a house." Thomas had gradually been getting out timber, preparing the boards and gathering other materials new house. Now a carpenter was hired and they work upon it. James, a stout and active lad, joined in the labor with a hearty good-will, when not in school, and bo expert was he with tools thai the builder said to him, "You are a born carpenter." The boy caught at JAMES A. GARFIELD. 41 the idea. He determined to become a carpenter and, like Thomas, help his mother and sisters. During the next two years James worked at the busi- ness of a carpenter, going to school only occasionally. He became quite an expert mechanic, and in that time worked on four or five barns in the settlement, pouring his scanty wages into his mother's lap. He had then acquired all the rudiments of education, even more than the London Alderman's three R's — " Redin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic." He had mastered Kirkham's Grammar and Morse's " Geo- graphy." He had read " Robinson Crusoe " over and over again ; had read and pondered Josephus's " History of the Jewish Wars" when he was twelve years of age, and at fourteen had mastered Goodrich's " History of the United States." He had then read two or three romances, notably " Jack Halyard " and "Alonzo and Melissa," the former calculated to kindle a boy's passion for the sea, the latter (which was written by a half Quaker resident in Duchess county, N. Y.), to soothe his spirit with senti- mental pictures of the tender emotion of love. Better than all this book knowledge, James Garfield, under the judicious teachings of his mother, became thoroughly imbued with strong religious feelings, and had the germ of a pure faith implanted in his heart so soon as his intellect began to bud and blossom. How general is the rule that " Great men are the sons of great mothers." In this category may be ranked as a bright illustration of the rule, Eliza Garfield and her illustrious son. Religion, " pure and undefined before God and man," was a part of that mother's nature. It was her family inheritance. She and her husband had been con- THE BIOGRAPHY OF verted to the faith of a Christian sect called "Disciples I ■." before James's birth. This sect (the Disciples), of which the late President was a member from his early manhood, was founded by inder Campbell, a kinsman and classmate of Thomas Campbell, the poet They arc more familiarly known, from this circumstance, as " Campbellites." The founder orn in Ireland, in the summer of 17S6, and died in Bethany, West Virginia, in 1866. He was a Presbyterian clergyman, and emigrated to America with other Scotch- Irish Bottlers, in L807. For a while he was pastor of a church in Washington county, Pennsylvania, but he soon separated from the Presbyterians, because of his convic- tion that creeds devised by human agency were unneces- sary, and sometimes hurtful — that the Bible should be the sole creed of Christ'6 church. In 1810, Alexander Campbell and his father organized a new religious society at Brush Run, Pennsylvania. Anew revelation came to him in L812, and he was convinced that immersion was the <>nly valid mode of baptism according to the prescript Scriptures. Then he and his whole congrega- tion, who followed him in the partial development of his . were immersed. They united with a reghhfr Bap- iiation, but continued to protest against all human a bond of union in the churches. This was toe idinarian for the Baptists, and they were excluded ironi fellowship with Baptist churches. In 1S2T they ■i io form themselves into a separate organi/a- -till adhering to the form of immersion, in baptism, 3 sriptural mode. The sect rapidly increased, |>ar- irly in the States of Virginia, Kentucky and Ten- first, hut later in a greater degree in Ohio and JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 45 Indiana, until now they number probably not much less than seven hundred thousand members. In 1840, Mr. Campbell founded Bethany College, a seat of learning of the sect, of which he was President the remainder of his life. The fundamental tenets of the Campbellites, or Dis- ciples of Christ, are few and simple, and their practice in worship is primitive. It has been remarked that " a belief in the New Testament and in the Divine character of Christ and his atonement, and in immersion as a proper mode of baptism, are all there is of the so-called ' Camp- bellite faith.' They protest against imposing, as a con- dition of church membership, any human formula of Divine truth. In practice they are very simple and apostolic. Laymen may preach, and preaching is not re- garded as an isolated and peculiar profession " The following is the simple formulary of their faith : 1. "We call ourselves Christians or Disciples. 2. We believe in God the Father. 3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our only Saviour. W T e regard the divin ity of Christ as the fundamental truth in the Christian system. 4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to its agency in conversion, and as an indweller in the heart of the Christian. 5. We accept both the Old and New Testament Scrip- tures as the inspired word of God. 6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and the future reward of the righteous. 7. We believe that Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. im: BIOGRAPHY <>r -. w . -. ;vr the institution of the Lord's Supper on cw-r\ Lord's Day. To thia table it is our pfactice neither to inrite nor debar. We say it is the Lord's supper for all the I-' rd'fi children. Replead for the union of all God's people on the Bible, and the Bible alone. 10. The Bible is our only (.•reed. 11. We maintain that all the ordinance.- of t lie (iospel should be observed as they were in the days of the A little before James Garfield was born, a man of the Disciples named Bentley, who had established a mill and a store two or three miles from the Garfield home, preached all through that county while he kept his busi- ness moving. He was an uneducated man, but there was something in hi.- plain and primitive manner, and the v of his utterances, that was peculiarly convincing, and it was under the influence of his ministrations that Abraham Garfield and his wife became a member of the Church of the Disciples of Christ. This was the begin- ning of the power of the sect in that portion of the W • •■ rn Reserve. Mrs. Garfield was a diligent studenfcof the Eoly Scrip- tures. A Disciples' meeting-house had been established about three miles from her home, to which she and her children walked every Sabbath, when not too stormy, for . to engage in public worship. She caused her chil- dren also to be . I Bible readers, and with the aid of it* teachings Bhe educated her household in the purest princi- of morality, which made ever) word or deed darkened with the lightest shade of indecency hateful to her and them in a degree not to be described. Yet she JAMES A. GARFIELD. -17 was by no means an austere woman or a prude. There was never seen any of the forbidding aspeets of asceticism in her home. On the contrary, she Mas a woman of uncom- mon cheerfulness of temper ; fond of innocent merriment ; an excellent singer of a great variety of hymns, songs and ballads, and filled her home with music from morning until night. She was fond of singing to her children patriotic songs, such as " Constellation and Chesnyenti" •' Rodgers and Yictory," et cetera. Her favorite patriotic sung was "The Constitution and Guerriere" as follows, which until late in this century was sung at public gatherings: "By the trident of Neptune," brave Hull cried, "let's steer : It jioints out the track of the bullying Guerriere ; Should we meet her, brave boys, ' Seamen's rights' be the cry : AYe fight to defend them, to live free or die." The famed Constitution through the billows now flew, While the spray to the tars was refreshing as dew, To quicken the sense of the insult they felt In the boast of the Guerricre's not being the Belt. Each patriot bosom now throbbed with delight, When, joyful, the cry was, " A sail is in sight!" ''Three cheers!" cried the captain: "my lads, 'tis the foe : British pride shall this day be by Yankees laid low." Behold now the Guerriere, of Britain the boast, Her topsails aback, and each tar to his post ; While Dacres a flag did display from each mast, To show that, as Britons, they'd fight to the last. TBS BIOGRAPBT OF The American stars now alofl were unfuiTd, \\ ripee i" the mizzen-peak: a proof to the world That, bowe'er British pride might bluster or fret, The bud of her glory should not thai Way be set. Now, prim'd with ambition, her guns loaded full, rriere's broadsides roar'd tremendous at Hull; only the hero, ship and crew to annoy, Bui the Hull of our freedom, our rights to destroy. \- t lie brave Constitution her seamen drew nigh, Eacb 1m a it heat with valor, joy glisten'd each eye; While Hull, whose brave bosom with glory did swell, trade — seamen's rights ! now let every shot tell." k as lightning, and fatal as its dreaded power, Destruction ami death on the Guerriere did shower; While the groans <>( the dying were heard in the blast, Tin' word was, " Take aim, boys, away with the mast !" The genius of Britain will long rue the day : Tin' Ouerrier&'s a wreck in the trough of the sea; Q laurels are withered, her boasting is done; Submissive — to leeward she tires her lust gun. Now brilliant the star- of America shine, ie, hom.r ami glory, brave Hull, they are thine ; You have Neptune amazed, caused Britain to weep, While Yankees triumphantly sail o'er the deep. Tie- sea, like the air, by greai Nature's decree, W;<- given in common^ ami .-hall ever be free ; 1 1 i urnpike, where Britain keeps loll, Hull, Jones, ami Decatur will pay for the whole. JAMES .!. QABFIELD. tfl It was under the holy influences of such patriotic, and also devotional sentiments, and of sunny cheerfulness, that the child-life of James Garfield was subjected. There Was a sturdiness, an aggressiveness, and a stern sense of right that made him while a mere lad thoroughly self- asserting, even to pugnacity. When fourteen or tilt ecu years of age he -was a big, strong boy, capable of doing all sorts of "men's work" on a farm, and ever ready to defend his honor and his rights against all aggressors'. He was too good-natured to be quarrelsome, but lie was quick to resent an insult. When other boys lorded it over him he regarded it as an imputation on his social condition ; and no matter what might be the disparity in size or strength, he would instantly attempt (and generally with success), to chastise the offender. He soon earned the reputation of a " fighting boy," which name distressed his mother, yet she could not but approve and admire his manly courage. His battles were never for anything else but a defense of his jjood name. It was at about this age that James, possessed of the bottom elements of an English education, aspired to some position more profitable than barn-building. He came to the conclusion that he was not "a born carpenter." About ten miles from his mother's house, and near Cleve- land, was the establishment of a thriving " black-salter " — a boiler of " black salts " from the ashes of burned logs. He engaged James to assist in building a wood- shed, at the rate of nine dollars a month. Finding him expert at figures, and trustworthy, the man offered him fourteen dollars a month and his board if he would take care of his accounts and " 'tend the saltery." This was a tempting offer. The sum appeared large, and that night THE BIOGRAPHY OF he walked home to consult hie mother. She reluctantly Rave her consent, for she feared there was wickedness lurking in the business somewhere. He performed his duties i" the full satisfaction of his employer, who told him he mighl yei own a saltery himself. James soon found some of the wickedness or tempta- tions his mother feared might be* lurking near Cleveland. It was in the Bhape of books in the black-Baiter's " library," Bucb a- ( laptain Man-vat's novels — stories of the Bea: "The Pirate'sOwn Book," the "Lives of Eminent Criminals," and so on. These inflamed his imagination, and stimulated a natural love tor adventure ton dangerous ■ e. A circumstance that might appear trivial to some minds, soon caused his removal from the tempta- tion.-. Overhearing one day a woman of the Salter's family speak of him as a "servant," his pride was touched. He packed his. scanty wardrobe in a little bundle, and half an hour after the offensive epithet was applied, and in despite of the entreaties of his employer, lie was on his way to his mother's house, where he was receh ed with gladness. James now found employment at haying, and in the Bummer, when lie was nearly sixteen years old, he re- ceived a man'.- full wages— a dollar a day- at that busi- which was the largest pay he ever got at manual labor. When haying was over he went to hi.- uncle Thomas, a1 Newburgh mow included in the city of 1 land), and engaged to chopa hundred cords of wood for twenty-five cents a cord, at which business he earned about half a dollar a day. From the w led height where he was chopping, I '! c Erie, and the vessels gliding JAMES A. GARFIELD. 51 over its bosom. His imagination, fired by the books in the Salter's "library," was now rekindled into a fiercer flame, and he felt an almost irrepressible desire to " go to sea." But for the feeling that to break a contract would be dishonorable, he would have fled from the prosaic wood-chopping- to the docks at Cleveland. He finished the task, received twenty-live dollars, and hastening to his mother placed it in her lap, at the same time telling her how strong was his desire to become a sailor. His mother, who had indulged pleasaut dreams of his becom- ing a scholar, was disappointed and grieved, but perceiv- ing that he was extremely anxious to go, did not oppose him, feeling certain that in some way the event would re- sult in good. He promised her that he would try and procure some other respectable employment, and kept his word. With a small bundle of clothing and a few dollars in his pocket, James Garfield left his mother's door-step and walked to Cleveland, a distance of seventeen miles, where he arrived at twilight. After a night of sound sleep he proceeded to view the city, and fulfil his promise to his mother to look for employment in it. To this unsophisti- cated back-woods boy everything seemed wonderful. Such big houses, such tall steeples, and so many people, he had never seen before. But nobody wanted him. Every place in business quarters appeared to be filled ; and he was advised by a good-natured gentleman, who tested his abilities a little, to go back to Orange and teach school, or plough and hoe for an honest living. Wearied and footsore, young Garfield strolled down to the docks towards evening, where much of the romance of the sea was soon taken out of him. He saw none of TUB BIOGBAPHT OF the "majestic vessels" which Captain Marryat told abont. He went od board of a craft lying there— a dingy, dirty fore-and-aft schooner. He made his way to the cabin, which was BufEocating to him with tobacco smoke, and there he fonnd half a dozen men d rinkin g and carousing. Be inquired of a Bailor on the deck for the captain, and was told hf would soon come out. lie appeared, be- grimed with dirt, intoxicated, and swearing as blas- phemonsly as might any character portrayed in "The E*irate , s Own Book." The lad was dreadfully shocked and disgusted, and his disillusion was almost complete. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 68 CHAPTER III. A CRITICAL PERIOD OF LIFE. Young Garfield was not wholly diverted from his pur- pose to u go to sea 1 ' 1 by the shock he received on board the dingy lake schooner. As he left her he met his cousin, Amos Letcher, captain of the Evening Star, a canal boat. He knew Captain Letcher only by sight. He said to the captain, in substance : " I came here to ship on the lake, but they only swear at me and call me a country greenhorn." Letcher wanted a driver, and young Garfield, regarding the navigation of a canal as an initiatory step toward the navigation of the lake, and ultimately of the ocean, ac- cepted the position of driver under the command of his cousin. lie was not actuated in his efforts to " go to sea " by any wild spirit of adventure, but by a fixed purpose* to make his living on the water. He entered with hope on the duties of his new position. The captain put him in charge of two horses. When the Evening Star was through the lock and ready for her voyage, James Gar- field, always punctual, was ready with his team, and very soon he was off on his first day's experience as a " canal driver." In that business he was engaged about four months, and the experience he then gained was of real service to him in after years, as we shall observe. Mr. Edmund Kirke, who wrote a brief biography of 51 ////: nioanAPiiv op President Garfield, relates some characteristic anecdotes which were communicated to him by Captain Letcher. The following indicates a salient point in Garfield's char- acter . "Ai Eleven Mile Lock we changed teams. Another hand took the tow-path, and Jim, with his team, came on board. After he had taken care of his team Jim came up on deck, and 1 thought 1 would sound him a little on the rudiments of geography, arithmetic and grammar, fur I ua> juM green enough in those days to imagine that I knew it all. You see, I had been teacher for three winters in the backwoods of Steuben county, Indiana. '• ' Jim,'" I said, ' I hear there is some come-out to you, and if you have no objections I would like to make up my own mind in regard to it. As it is a long way to Pancake Lock, this will be a good time; so I should like to ask you a few quesl inns. " ' Proceed,' said Jim, ' but don't ask too hard ones.' I asked him several and he answered them all, and then turned on me, and asked me several that I could not answer, and 1 was like the boy who got into a row and said, ' If you'll let me alone, I'll let you alone.' "'Jim,' 1 said, 'you have too good a head on you to be a wood-chopper or a canal-driver. You go to school one term more, and you will be qualified to teach a com- mon school, and then you can make anything you have a mind to oul of yourself.' '" ' Do you think so, captain ?' And it set him a thinking, I know. '• Everything went off well until about ten o'clock that night. 'I Inn we were approaching the twenty-one locks of Akron, and I sent my how man to make the firs! lock ready, dust as he got there, a bow man from a boat appeared and said, ' Don't turn this lock ; our boat is jusl around the bend, ready to enter.' But my man nd commenced turning the gate. By this tune JAMES A. GARFIELD. both boats were near the lock, with their head-lights shilling as bright as clay, and every man from both was on hand, ready for a field fight. I motioned to my bow man, and asked, ' Were you here first ?" " 'It is hard to tell,' he replied, 'but we will have the lock anyhow.' " ' All right ; just as you say,' I said ; and we laid out for a battle. "Jim had heard what had been said, arid, tapping me on the shoulder, he said, ' See here, captain, does that lock belong to us ?' " ' I really suppose, according to law, it does not ; but we will have it anyhow. ' " ' No,' replied the boy, ' we will not.' " ' And why not ?' I asked, in surprise. " 'Because it does not belong to us.' " I saw that Jim was right, so I cried, ' Boys, let them have the lock.' "At sunrise next morning we had got through all the twenty-one locks, and were on Summit Lake. It was a fine morning. The other driver was cracking his whip over his leader, had got them to a trot, and all seemed to be in good humor. Breakfast was called. George Lee, our steersman, came out and sat down to breakfast, and the first word he spoke was, ' Jim, what is the matter with you ?' "'Nothing,' said Jim; 'I never felt better in my life.' '"But why did you go for giving up the lock last night ?' '"Oh, I thought it wasn't ours.' '"Jim, you are a coward,' he answered; ' you ain't fit for a boatman. You may do to chop wood or milk cows, but a man or a boy isn't fit for a boat who won't fight for his rights.' "Jim didn't make any answer." The boy met with many adventures on the canal, in '////' BIQQRAPH7 OF -.pinr.it" which his life was Bometimes imperilled. It is said that during that service lit- fell into or was thrown into the canal fourteen times. The last time the interpo- sition of Providence in his behalf was'Bo tangible to his mind that the event was a solemn and salutary sermon, which he heeded. He determined not to tempt Provi- dence any more by risking or recklessly throwing away his life in th<' canal service, and he resolved to go home, resume Btudy and endeavor to acquire a thorough educa- tion, and bo make his mother happy and himself more useful, perhaps. He had scarcely formed this resolution when he was seized by a malarial fever, contracted on the canal, and was taken to his home in an almost delirious .-fate. For several months the poor boy was confined to his home by the fever and its resulting weakness. His loving, anxious mother watched over him prayerfully every hour, and nursed him as tenderly as when he was an infant on her bosom. She had observed the development in him of an indomitable will and a perseverance in a line of action which he might have chosen. She had iio|,.-d to rescue him from the thrall of the passion for the sea, and now seemed to he her opportunity. With consummate art, born of true affection for her boy, the widow, in an almost insensible manner to him, laid siege to 1 1 M ■ Btronghold of the tempter. She never • • •! imi -'- arguments or expressions of desires by abso- lute opposition. She did not, as she might have gently done, poinl lo his canal experience, incurred againsl her will and judgment, as the cause of his present illness. She was only the quiet, patient nurse, dropping a wise word now and then, while she was trying to be to him a JAMES A. GARFIELD. 59 wise mentor, leading him to higher and nobler ways. Sometimes, during his convalescence, he would become restless, and express a strong desire to be about again and resume his work on the canal. She would say, in sub- stance, in her sweet way : k ' You are sick yet, my son. If you return to the canal you may soon be brought back as before. I have thought it all over, and it seems to me that you had better go to school this spring a while, and then with a term in the fall you may be able to teach next winter. If you teach winters, and work on the canal or lake summers, you will have employment the year round." The adroit reasoning of his mother, and his desire to please her, combined to win James to the side of her aspirations. It was a tough struggle between will, logic and affection. She called to her aid every possible auxiliary. When he was able to read she laid a contri> bution on the resources of the neighborhood for books for his use — books, the contents of which might prove an antidote to the virus of the works he had encountered in the Salter's library— books that would fill his mind with purer thoughts and nobler aspirations. She formed an alliance in efforts towards this end with a young school- master named Bates (afterwards a distinguished preacher), who taught school in their neighborhood. He visited the sick lad frequently, and when James had acquired sufficient strength Bates assisted him in working out the higher problems of arithmetic. In every way he was a powerful auxiliary of Mrs. Garfield in stimulating the intellectual and moral powers of her son to aspire to nobler performance in life by means of a thorough educa- tion. 77//: BIOGRAPHY "/■ Young Garfield had learned all that a district school could teach when he was seventeen years of age. Mr. Bates had attended the Geauga Seminary, an academy at Chester, in the adjoining county of Geauga, and knew how thorough, though sometimes eccentric, was the teaching there. Mrs. Garfield was anxious to have James secure its advantages. How should he do it? How should he raise the money to pay for his board and tuition? His money earned on the canal was exhausted. " Where there's a will there's away" is a sound maxim. There was here a will and a way was soon opened. When James interposed the plea of poverty and the necessity for him t<> earn more money, his mother said : " James, you are not fit to go back to the canal or the lake now ; you will surely be sick again. Thomas and I have talked the matter all over. We will raise seventeen dollars, which will nearly pay the expenses of your going to Chester to school for some time. "When that is gone we will try and raise more, if necessary."* James had already resolved to please his mother and elevate himself by abandoning the canal and the lake, the saltery, and the perusal of "The Pirate's Own Book" and kindred literature, and devote his time and energies for years, if need be, in the acquirement of not only a "common" but a '-liberal" education. From the well of his own experience he drew these thoughts uttered by him in after life: "It is a great point gained when a young man makes up his mind to devote several years to the accomplishment of a definite work." This point he had now gained, and he was fully eight years reaching the goal he had Bel up, namely, graduation from a repu- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 01 table college with learning sufficient to merit an honorary degree. The prayers of Mrs. Garfield were now answered and her heart was at peace. She persuaded her sister, who was living not far away, to send her two boys to the same academy, that the three might club together in keeping ''bachelors" hall," and subsisting on the supplies which they might carry with them. To quiet his fears for the result of the experiment and to seem to still consult his inclinations, the judicious mother again told him that if he was still determined to go on the lake, he might go to school that year, by the end of which she hoped his health would be fully restored, and then if he went to work haying or carpentering he would make enough by the fall term to go to school again. By that time he might teach a district school, or, if he wanted to, he could sail on the lake in summer, and when it was frozen he might teach school. All this while there was the prophecy of hope in her heart which was fulfilled in after years in wondrous plenitude. In the spring of 1849, when James Garfield was in his eighteenth year, he a: 1 his two cousins, well pro- visioned, walked ten miles to Chester and entered Geauga Seminary. It was an institution founded by the free Will Baptists who had seceded from the general fellow- ship. They rented a room in an old house partly occu- pied by a poor widow, and furnished with a cooking- stove and two beds. The widow cooked and washed for them for a very moderate compensation, for none of them had very extensive wardrobes. Thus prepared they entered the academy as students. Daniel Branch was principal of the academy and his wife was /■///■: BlOQJUPSI chief assistant It was quite spacious in its dimensions for that time and place, and possessed a library of aboul one hundred and fifty volumes. The sight of this library opened to the view of young Garfield a rich mine of in- tellectual wealth. In a letter to the trustees of Geauga Seminary, written in ls<>7. and inclosing a contribution for the purpose of renovating the seminary building, General Garfield wrote of his experience there at that time as follows : " In accordance with your request, I will make a brief statement of my connection with Geauga Seminary. I do this with the more readiness because it is a source of great pleasure to me to recall the persons and scenes connected with the beginnings of my student life. "In the winter of 1848-'9 I was at my mother's house in Orange, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, suffering from a three months' siege of fever and ague, which I had brought from the Ohio canal the preceding summer. Samuel D. . now a distinguished minister of the gospel in Marion, Ohio, was that winter teaching the district school near my mother's. He had attended the seminary at Chester, and urged several of the young men in the neigh- borhood to return there with him i.i the spring. Being yet too ill to return to my plan of becoming a sailor on the lake, 1 resolved to attend school one term and post- pone Bailing until autumn. Accordingly, I joined two other young men. and, with the necessary provisions for boarding ourselves, we reached Chester. March 6, L849, and rented a room in an unpainted frame house nearly west from the seminary and across the street from it. ' bought the second algebra 1 ever saw, and com- menced the Btudy of it there. Studied also natural phil- osophy and grammar. " ■ attended there in the fall of L849, and during the following winter taught my first Bchool. Returned to the JAMES A. OARFIELD. 6:J seminary again in the spring of 1850. I commenced the study of Latin and finished algebra and botany. At the close of the spring term I made my first public speech. It \vas a six minutes' oration at the annual exhibition. .VI v diary shows the anxiety and solicitude through which I passed in its preparation and delivery. " During the summer vacation of 1850 I worked at the carpenter's trade in Chester. Among other things, I helped to build a two-story house on the east side of the road, a little way south of the seminary grounds. At- tended school during the fall term of 1850, and com- menced the study of Greek. Worked mornings, evenings and Saturdays at my trade, and thus paid my way. After the first term at Chester I never received any pecuniary assistance. The cost of living, however, was much less than it now is. In my second term at Chester I had board, lodging and washing for one dollar and six cents per week." Young Garfield's personal appearance at the age of eighteen years is thus described by one who saw him casually, on one occasion, at the house of a friend : "He was rather shabbily but neatly clad. He appeared like a fast-growing lad, for he was then five feet ten inches in height. He was dressed in pantaloons much too short for him, reaching only half-way down the legs of his well-worn cowskin boots. They were made of coarse grey satinet. His waistcoat of serge cloth was much too short for him ; and his coat, of similar material, was worn threadbare, and the sleeves reached only to a point half-way between the elbows and the wrists. His head (which bore an abundance of yellow hair— real 'Saxon locks') was covered by a drab slouched hat without a band ; and his shirt, as it appeared at the neck and sleeves, was spotless white linen, made from flax raised on his mother's little farm, and spun with her own Till: BIOQRAPEY OF hands. His eyea were blue, his complexion ruddy, his bead was expansive, and there was strength and intel- ligence in every feature. He was there on an errand for oother. He stood with his hat off, and his wliole head and facial expression struck me as most remarkable. When lie departed I said to my friend, ' That boy will make a noise in the world.' " In his letter above quoted, General Garfield speaks of his boarding during; his second term at the seminary. !b kvelt with Mrs. Stiles (yet living, I believe), a very kind-hearted woman, whom he always gratefully remem- bered when recalling the struggles of his early years. Bis wardrobe was then very scanty. He had no woolen underclothes nor overcoat, but his young blood, impelled by a powerful heart, coursed freely through his system, and he never suffered from cold. He had only one suit of clothes, of rather coarse materials, at that time, and they were well worn — so much, indeed, that one day, bending his leg suddenly, his trousers were torn several indies across the knee, exposing the bare skin. He pinned ap the rent as well as he could, and expressed to Mrs. Stiles not only his mortification but his anxiety, because he saw no way to remedy the misfortune to his onh pair of trousers. ro to bed,*' said the good Mrs. Stiles, "and let one of the boys bring your trousers down stairs and 1 will darn the rent so that you cannot see where they arc mended. You shouldn't care for such small matters. You will forgel all about them when you come to be dent." This anecdote is related by Mr. Kirke. At the seminary, during his first term, young Garfield met (only at recitations), a modest, retiring, bright and JAMES A. GARFIELD. 05 studious girl, about liis own age, named Lueretia Rudolph. Their casual acquaintance at that time amounted to mutual respect, nothing more. We shall meet her again in more intimate relations with the destiny of the tall, awkward schoolboy at Chester. At the end of his first term at Chester young Garfield felt himself sufficiently advanced to teach a district school. After examination he received a certificate of his fitness ; and after working at haying and carpentering he first be- gan the business of a pedagogue a fortnight before he was eighteen years of age, in the school district next to the one in which he was born. For this service he received twelve dollars a month and was " boarded around." It seemed unfortunate for Garfield that he began his task of schoolmaster so near his own home. In the district where he began he was known as " Jim Garfield." Many of the scholars were big, rude boys, who had taken special pride in bullying the school-teacher. So turbulent had been their behavior the previous winter that the teacher was compelled to leave the school. Young Garfield soon comprehended the situation thoroughly, and nerved him- self for a field fight. For a fortnight there was almost continuous skirmishing. Finally, one of the boys, as if desirous to bring on the impending battle, flatly refused to obey the young schoolmaster. Garfield gave him a sound thrashing. As the culprit was returning sullenly to his seat he caught up a heavy billet of wood and was about to strike the teacher a murderous blow. A cry from the scholars called Garfield's attention to the danger. He threw up his arms and received the blow on one of them, which nearly broke it. With the other arm he seized the culprit, cast him to the floor prone upon his back ; then Till: BIOGRAPHY OF jerking him ap to his feet he threw him again with much violence, pu1 hia knee upon his breast, and seizing liiin by hifl throat pounded him with his fist until he sur- rendered. Then turning to the big sympathizers with the vanquished he said: " Ef there is any scholar here who ex- pecte at any time to make any sort of disturbance, come on now and settle it here." There was not another mutiny in the school afterwards. " It was not ' Jim Garfield' any longer," says the relator of this anecdote (Major Bundy), " but 'Master Garfield.'" It was at about this time that young Garfield united himself by prof ession and baptism with the church of the Disciples of Christ, lie was then a few months past eighteen years of age. Like many young men at that age — the " asses' bridge" of life — he was "wise in his own con- ceit;" W;IS somewhat restive under the restraints of re- ligious discipline, and seemed, at times, wearied with "precept upon precept "that fell from the lips of the preachers. He was often absent from religious meet- ings. At Length a wise old man, possessed of great good sense and straightforward simplicity of character and speech, held meetings in the school -house. His ministra- tion- l'n-.-t aroused the fixed attention of the young school- master, and then touched his heart. The young man soughl an interview with the preacher. " If 1 could be satisfied," he .-aid. "that what yonhave taught to-night is simple truth and would secure happi- s, I would embrace the faith." The oexl evening the preacher spoke in a special man- ner to such doubters. Garfield was convinced, and then and there he publicly acknowledged his conviction.-. He loon became a full member of 1 1 1. ■ church his mother so JAMES A. GARFIELD. 07 much loved and adorned. ILe was baptized in a small tributary of the Chagrin river. A new light illumined his mind and invigorated his heart. " My best life," said young Garfield, " shall henceforth be given to the task of accomplishing the salvation of my fellow-mortals from degradation and unhappiness. I will master learning and so fit myself for the work. With this mighty resolution in his heart, young Gar- field went back to Chester, remained there during the spring and fall, and having completed four terms at the Geauga Seminary, he taught school in the winter of 1850-51, for which service he received sixteen dollars a month and his board. Garfield had now nearly exhausted the studies at the seminary at Chester ; that is, he had studied, besides the ordinary English branches, Latin two terms, and had mastered, to a great extent, the grammar and the rules ; but he had not yet essayed to master any Latin reading- book. He had learned algebra thoroughly, and was well " up " in natural philosophy and botany. Of the latter study he was passionately fond, and had gathered quite an extensive herbarium before he left the Chester Seminary. His hunger for new accmisitions in knowledge continually increased, and he now sought instruction in a higher sem- inary of learning. This he found congenial to his tastes and religious feelings, in the newly established " Western Re- serve Eclectic Institute," at Hiram, Portage county, Ohio. This institute was founded by the Society of the Dis- ciples, and was opened for pupils in the year 1850. Hiram was a township of Western Reserve farmers. " The Cen- tre," says President Hinsdale, " was a cross-roads, with two churches and half a dozen other buildings. The In- THE 8I0QBAPB7 OF Btitute building, a plain bul substantially-built brick Btructure, was put on the top of a windy hill in the mid- dle of a corn-field. One of the cannon that General ddiers dragged to the city of Mexico in 1847, planted od the roof of the new structure, would not have commanded a score of farm-houses. The reasons that controlled the location of the school are not to us mate- rial. Here the school began at the time that Garfield was closing his studies at Chester. It had been in operation two terms when he offered himself for enrollment. Hi- ram furnished a location ; the Board of Trustees, a build- ing and the first teachers ; the surrounding country, students; !»nt the spiritual Hiram made itself. Every- thing was new. Society, traditions, the genius of the school, had to be evolved from the forces of the teachers and pupils, limited by the general and local environment. Let i ne be surprised when I say, such a school as this was the best of all places for young Mv. Garfield. There was freedom, opportunity, a large society of rapidly and eagerly-opening young minds, instructors who were learned enough to instruct him, and abundant scope for ability and force of character, of which he had a supera- bundance." ^ 'Ming Garfield entered the Institute at Hiram in Aii-u-t. L851. He was then nearly nineteen years of tall, an athlete in form and proportions, and ambi- tions to learn everything. He knew himself to be "apt to learn," and was ready to fully test his powers of endur- ance, menial and physical. " 1 was then green and pulpy," he said. He looked with wonder and awe upon who bad climbed the hill of science to points which teemed to him dizzy. "I saw a class of three reciting .JAMES A. GARFIELD. 69 in mathematics — geometry, I think," said Garfield, in an address eulogistic of one of his teachers. ''Iliad never seen a geometry, and, regarding both teacher and class with a feeling of reverential awe for the intellectual height to which they had climbed, I studied their faces so closely that I seem to see them now as distinctly as I saw them then. And it has been my good fortune since that time to claim them all as intimate friends. The teacher was Thomas Munnell, and the members of his class were William B. Hazen, George A. Baker and Almeda A. Booth." Miss Booth was a rare woman. It was Garfield's great good fortune to have her for a fellow-student, teacher, counsellor and friend, at that critical period of his life. His senior in years, of multifarious literary acquisitions, she was a woman whom to know was an unmixed blessing. She was possessed of a genial spirit, subdued by the suffering of bereavement in the death of one to whom she was affianced. She had resolved forever to maintain her " maiden widowhood." Everybody was drawn to her, and she achieved a most remarkable position in the Western Reserve by her unsought influence over intel- lectual persons. The more ambitious and hard-working of the students at Hiram were most powerfully drawn toward Miss Booth. To the profession of teacher she had consecrated her life without reserve, and pursued it with unwearied assiduity. She was the friend of friends to Garfield. There was something so sympathetic in their natures that they seemed at times as one being in mind and jmrpose. Their admiration for each other's mental and moral quali- ties was almost unbounded, 7,i THE BIOGRAPHY OF The acquirements of Miss Booth were superior to any other person in the Eclectic. " In mathematics and the physical sciena -." Baid < rarfield, in an eulogy on her char- acter, •• 1 was far behind her; but we were nearly at the same place in Greek and Latin, each having studied it about three terms. She had made her home at President Hayden's almosl from the first, and I became a member <»t' his family at the beginning of the Winter Term of L752 '53. Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied together and recited in the same classes (fre- quently without other associates) till. we had nearly com- pleted the classical course." In the Winter and Spring terms of 1853, Miss Booth and young G-arfield read Xeflophon's Memorabilia entire, and they and ten other students were so eager in their pur.-uit of knowledge that they hired Professor Dunshee to give them private lessons for a month of the summer vacation. ( iurfield, in his en log)', gives the following accounl of Miss Booth's work in the summer and fall of A.s they worked together, it is also a picture of the hard labor of the young student at the same time: •• Miss Booth read thoroughly, and for the first time, the ' Pastorals ' of Virgil — thai is, the Georgics and Bu- colics entire — and the firs! sis books of Homer's Iliad, accompanied \<\ a thorough drill in the Latin or Greek grammar a! each recitation. I am sure that none of those who recited with her would say -he was behind the fore- u the thoroughness of her work or the elegance of her translai ion. Qg the fall Term of I S. r »:J, -he read one hundred Herodotus, and about the same amount of Livy. During that term also, Profs. Dunshee and Hull, and b and I, met. ai her room, two evening- of each Jdlt8. GJH(FIEL(T). JAMES A. GARFIELD. 7:J week, to make a joint translation of the Book of Romans. Prof. Dunsliee contributed his studies of the German com- mentators, De Wette and Tholuck ; and each of the trans- lators made some special study for each meeting. How nearly we completed the translation I do not remember ; but I do remember that the contributions and criticisms of Miss Booth were remarkable for suggestiveness and sound judgment. Our work was more thorough than rapid, for I find this entry in my diary for December 15, 1853 : ' Translation Society sat three hours at Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the translation of nine verses. ' " During the Winter Term of 1853-54, she continued to read Livy, and also read the whole of ' Demosthenes on the Crown.' The members of the class in Demosthenes were Miss Booth, A. Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. " During the Spring Term of 1854, she read the ' Germania and Agricola ' of Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod." In June, 1876, General Garfield was called upon to pronounce an eulogy on Miss Booth, at Hiram College, the old " Eclectic Institute." It was a most eloquent as it was a heartfelt tribute to the memory of this noble woman, to whose influence he ever attributed so much of his success in life. That eulogy occupies a pamphlet of forty pages. Its dedication is an epitome of her char- acter. It reads : " To the thousands of noble men and women, whose generous ambition was awakened, whose early culture was guided, and whose lives have been made nobler by the thoroughness of her instruction, by the wisdom of her counsel, by the faithfulness of her life, this tribute to the memory of Almeda A. Booth is affectionately dedicated." 74 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Speaking of Miss Booth's judicious labors in the Spring Term of L852, id the preparation of a colloquy for the pub- lic exercises at the end of the school year, in which Gar- field and a fellow-student assisted, and of her abounding suggestive hints, criticisms of parts, training the speakers and putting it on the stage, he remarked: •• Mv admiration of her knowledge and ability was unbounded. And even now, after the glowing picture painted upon my memory in the strong colors of youthful enthusiasm ha£ ! een shaded down by the colder and more sombre tints which a quarter of a century has added, I still regard her work on that occasion as possessing great merit.*' He said, on another occasion: "I never met the man whose mind I feared to grapple with ; but this woman could lead where I found it hard to follow." She undoubtedly had more influence in forming his intel- lectual character than any one he ever met, excepting President Hopkins, of "Williams College. She died in JAMES A. GARFIELD. 75 CHAPTER IV. GARFIELD AT WILLIAMS COLLEGE. Soon after young Garfield joined the Society of the Disciples he began to speak occasionally at their social re- ligious gatherings. These meetings were opened with prayer by an elder of the church, who would call upon different persons to speak. Garfield's readiness of utter- ance on every occasion was early observed. He was fre- quently called upon to speak, and it came to be under- stood that his voice, always welcome, would certainly be heard at these gatherings. He was evidently a "born orator." At that time there was a fervent, much-loved preacher among the Disciples, Father Bentley, pastor of their church at Hiram. He early became attached to young Garfield, and, perceiving his readiness in speaking, not only invited him to give utterance to his thoughts at oc- casional meetings of the Disciples, but to lead in the pub- lic worship on Sundays when the pastor might be absent. These services Garfield performed during his whole stay at Hiram, and it was generally supposed that he intended to become a regular preacher among the Disciples. Mr. Kirke relates the following anecdote, which indicates the estimate in which Father Bentley held young Garfield : * It was at an evening meeting of his church, and the young man was with him on the platform, waiting to take his accustomed part in the evening's exercises, when a : ,-, THE BIOGRAPHY OF political associate entered and took bim away. The good pastordid no1 at Brsi notice the young man's withdrawal, I, ui when he did, and when Garfield was half way down the aisle, he called to him and requested him not to go; then, quickly checking himself, lie said to the congrega- tion. "Never mind, let him go; that boy will yet be President of the CTnitcd States;" a remark frequently ap- plied to •• smart boys." Garfield accomplished a prodigious amount of hard work in those -lays. Major Bundy, in his excellent bio- graphical Bketch of him, says : "He began at Hiram in the fall of 1851, with but twenty-four weeks of Latin and twelve weeks of Greek. • for two winters in the district school. After the first term he taught constantly from three to six, and later, the whole six classes, so that he conld only stndy nights and mornings. In June, 1854 — less than three yean after he went to Hiram — he not only had fitted him- self to enter college, but had completed two years of the college :i\ed up' about §350. If there is any precedent for h achievements I never saw or heard of it. •• It is impossible to overestimate the forming charac- ter of the studies thus athletically pursued, at such a period of Garfield's life, with such singular enthusiasm and in such inspiring and elevating and refining compan- ionship. Such a combination of circumstances, influences and associations was far more valuable to the formation of the tastes, tendencies, aspirations, sentiments and prin- ciples of the future soldier and statesman than the most iU8 universities Of the world could have supplied. Mind and heart were simultaneously quickened and do- velopod. The whole man was made more manly bj Bub- JAMES A. GARFIELJZ 77 mitting to the influence and instruction of a noble woman." Allusion is made in the last sentence to Miss Booth, the senior of Garfield by nine years. Another " noble woman " was there as a student, who exercised great influence in the mind, heart and whole character of young Garfield at that time, and of his whole future life. It was the modest, retiring, ever-studious, ever-sweet-tempered and gentle Lucretia Rudolph, whom he first met and admired at Geauga Seminary. We shall meet her again. Garfield had now prepared himself by literary acquisi- tions to enter the junior class of any college. He had been a close student at Hiram during a period of three years. By alternating hand work with study, as we have seen, he had saved half enough money to carry him through a two years' collegiate course. How he should provide the remainder of the money was an important question. It was satisfactorily solved in the future, as we shall observe. Another important question was also to be settled im- mediately and definitely. It was what college should he go to. It would seem that naturally he would choose Bethany College, in Virginia, established by the learned Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Sect of Dis- ciples of Christ. But he finally, after mature considera- tion, chose Williams College, situated at Williamstown, Massachusetts, in a most picturesque region of country. Why he made this choice let the following extract from a letter written by him reveal. It may be found in White- law Reid's " Ohio in the War " : " 'There are three reasons why I have decided tioi bo > THE BIOGRAPHY OF go to Bethany : 1st. The course of study is not so exten- sive or thorough as m Eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward Blavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance with people of other views ; and haying always lived in the West, 1 think it will make me mure liberal, both in my religious and general views and senti- ments, to go into a new circle, where I shall be under new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go to some New England college. I therefore 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 sen- tence, " If you come here we shall be glad to do what we can for you." Other tilings being so nearly equal, this sentence, which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand, has settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next week.'" • Commenting upon this decision Mr. Reid says : " Some points in this letter of a young man about to start away from home to college will strike the reader as remarkable. Nothing could show more mature judgment about the matter in hand than the wise anxiety to get out from the Disciples' influence, and see something of other mm and other opinions. It was notable that one trained to lock upon Alexander Campbell as the master intellect of the churches of the day, should revolt against studying in his college because it leaned too strongly toward slav- ery. And in the final turning of the decision upon the little friendly commonplace thai closed one of the letters, we catch ;i glimpse of the warm, sympathetic nature of man, which much ami wide experience of the world in after years has never hardened. JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 79 . "So, in the fall of 1854, the pupil of the Geauga Seminary and of the Hiram Institute applied for admission at the venerable doors of Williams College. He knew no graduate of the college, and no student attending it ; and of the President he only knew that he had published a volume of lectures which he liked, and that he had said a kindly word to him when ho spoke of coming. " The Western carpenter and village school-teacher received many a shock in the new sphere in which he now entered. On every hand he was made to feel the social superiority of his fellow-students. Their ways were free from the little awkward habits of the untrained labor- ing youth. Their speech was free from the uncouth phrases of the provincial circles in which he had moved. Their toilets made the handiwork of his village tailor look sadly shabby. Their free-handed expenditures contrasted strikingly with his enforced parsimony. To some tough- fibred hearts these would have been only petty annoy- ances ; to the warm, social, generous mind of young Gar- field they seem, from more than one indication of his college life that we can gather, to have been a source of positive anguish. But he bore bravely up, maintained the advance standing in the junior class to which he had been admitted on his arrival, and at the end of his two years' course bore off the metaphysical honor of his class, reck- oned at Williams among the highest within the gift of the institution to her graduating members." Williams College, the alma mater of President Gar- field, owes its origin to a bequest made by Colonel Eph- raim Williams, who fell in battle with the French and Indians, near Lake George, in 1755. Before going to the held he made his will, in which, after certain provisions, he directed "that the remainder of his lands should be sold at the discretion of his executors, within five years after an established peace, and that the interest of THE BIOGRAPHY OF the moneys arising from the sale, and also the interests of his aot< - and bonds, Blionld be applied to the support of a Kjhool in a township west of Fort Massachusetts, pro- vide! thai Baid township fall within the limits of Massa- chusetts, after running the line between Massachusetts and NTew York (then in dispute), and provided the said township, when incorporated, be called WilKamstown." Under the provisions of this will a free school was established in 1 7 s ."., thirty years after the bequest was made. By an act of incorporation nine trustees were ap- pointed. A lottery was authorized by the Legislature for the purpose of raising funds for erecting a school building. The town and the inhabitants individually raised a sufficient sum to erect a brick building, in 1790, and the free school was opened in 1791, with Rev. Ebe- nezer Fitch as principal. This institution was incorpo- rated as a college in 1793, with the title of Williams's Hall. The property vested in the free school was trans- ferred to this corporation, and Mr. Fitch entered upon his duties as its first President in October, 1793. From that time thecollege increased in size and usefulness, until now it holds a high rank among the literary institutions of the republic. The attractive Lucretia Rudolph, whose family had settled near Hiram to enjoy the educational advantages of the Eclectic Institute, was a student in this institution while Garfield was there. She became his pupil. She recited Latin and Greek to him, as well as geometry and other studies. They read together, and were in perfect sympathy in aspirations after knowledge. Tiny became genial companions. The bud of mutual respect, which appeared at Chester^ expanded into profound jami:s i. GARFIELb. 81 esteem and friendship at Hiram. This ripened into love, and just before young Garfield departed for Williams College, they were betrothed, with the understanding that their nuptials should be postponed until his pecuniary condition would insure safety in taking such an important Step. "With the plighted love of this young girl, thee freshly spoken, and buoyant with hope, Garth!, i reached Williamstown in June, 1854. The natural scenery in the region of the college gave the new junior infinite delight. He had never seen a mountain before he entered the State of New "i ork on his journey to "Williamstown ; only the monotonous undulating country of the "Western Reserve was familiar to his eye. The spurs of the Green Mountains environed his new home, and spread out into the famous " Berk- shire Hills/' "With the greatest enthusiasm he climbed old " Grey lock " again and again, and thoroughly ex- plored every glen and valley in the neighborhood during the long summer vacation which succeeded his successful examination for entrance into the junior class. The college library, containing more than ten thou- sand volumes, was at once a wonder and delight to him. He divided his time between study in its cloisters and in the light and life of nature without, during that vacation. He had read only a few r extracts from the writings of Shakespeare ; now he perused them from title page to colophon with such diligence and intensity of interest, that he could ever afterwards recite whole pages of their con- tents. He encountered works on English history and gov- ernment, its poetry and its jurisprudence, with equal zest. He read serious works intemperately for several months and incurred the penalty of mental dyspepsia. Then he 82 THE BIO&RAPHY OF adopted a Balutary course of treatment in the reading of abonl one work of fiction a month and recovered his intel- lectual health. Garfield was intensely interested in every phase of college life. He entered with zeal into the operations of Its literary societies, and became President of the Philo- logian Society. During his first year at Williams, he completed his classical studies, and became so proficient in German that he could read Goethe and Schiller readily and speak the language quite fluently. During the winter vacation of 1854-'55, Garfield. taught writing to a class in North Pownall, Vermont, and at the end of the college year, in June, 1855, he returned to Ohio, to visit his mother, then residing with her daughter at Solon. Cuyahoga county. Now came up the question of procuring funds to pay the expenses of another year at college. Two plans presented themselves: one to borrow enough for the purpose, the other to set to work as a teacher and earn the money, and so interrupt the course of his college life and postpone Ins graduation. He chose a third plan and was successful. lie insured his life for eight hundred dollar.-, his brother Thomas undertaking to furnish the fund- in installments. Thomas was unable to do so, when Doctor Robinson, of Hiram, agreed to advance the money and look the insurance policy as security, "l oung Garfield said to him, "If I live I'll pay you; if I die you will not lose anything." Full of hope and enthusiasm, Garfield returned to Williamstown in time for the opening of the Fall term. In 1855. lie was one of the editors of the " "Williams JAlffla A. GARFIELD. 83 Quarterly," a college magazine of high character, of which he said, in the opening number of the year: " It proposes a kind of intellectual tournament where Ave may hurl the lance and wield the sword, and thus pre- pare for the conflicts of life. It shall he our aim to keep the lists still open and the arena clear, that the knights of the quill may learn to hurl the lance and wield the sword of thought, and thus he ready for sterner duties. We shall also endeavor to decorate the arena with all the flowers that our own gardens afford, and thus render the place more pleasant and inviting. We should remember, however, that it is no honor or profit merely to appear in the arena, but the wreath is for those who contend" Young Garfield's contributions to the " Quarterly " were numerous, varied in character, and always marked by vigorous thought and perspicuity and lucidity of expression. They were sometimes in verse, but more often in prose. In the latter they consisted of essays, literary reviews, philosophical disquisitions and miscel- laneous topics. I give below extracts from three of his papers published in the " Quarterly," two of prose and the other of poetry, as illustrative of his style of writing at that early period of his life. Writing on the subject of " The Province of History, he said : " For every village, state and nation there is an aggre- gate of native talent which God has given, and by which, together with his Providence, he leads that nation on, and thus leads the world. In the light of these truths we affirm that no man can understand the history of any nation, or of the world, who does not recognize in it the power of God, and behold His stately goings forth as He walks among the nations. It is His hand that is moving the vast superstructure of human history, and, though ^4 mi: H/otth'M'iiY or bul one of the windows were unfurnished, like that of the Arabian palace, yet all the powers of earth could never complete il without the aid of the Divine Archi- tect. "To employ another figure — the world's history is a divine poena, of which the history of every nation is a canto, and of every man a word. Its strains have been pealin down the centuries, and, though there have mingled the discord of roaring cannon and dying men, vet 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 record of every orphan's sigh, of eyery widow's prayer, of every noble deed, of every honest heart-throb for the right, is swelling that gentle strain : and when, at last, the great end is attained --when the lost image of God is restored to the human soul ; when the church anthem can be pealed forth with- out a discordant note, then will angels join in the chorus and all the sons of God shout for joy." lie remarked, as preparatory to these observations, that there were two points which the historian should have before him : " First — The valuation of facts to each other and the whole bod} of history ; and •• Second— The tendency of the whole toward some given end.*' The following is from a review of the life and writings of the gifted young German poet, Karl Theodore Korner, author of a volume of beautiful martial lyrics entitled "The Lyre and Sword," and who fell in battle near nberg.in 1813, when he was only twenty years of age, fighting against Napoleon the Great: JAMES A. GARFIELD. 87 '• The greater part of our modern literature beuio evi- dent marks of the haste which characterizes all the move- ments of the age ; but, in reading the older authors, we are impressed with the idea that they enjoyed the most comfortable leisure. Many books we can read in a railroad car, and feel a harmony between the rushiug of the train and the haste of the author ; but to enjoy the older authors we need the quiet of a winter evening — an easy chair before a cheerful fire, and all the equanimity of spirits one can command. " Then the genial good nature, the rich fullness, the persuasive eloquence of those old masters will fall upon us like the warm, glad sunshine, and afford those hours of calm contemplation in which the spirit may expand with generous growth, and gain deep and comprehensive views. The pages of friendly old Goldsmith come to us like a golden autumn day, when every object which meets the eye bears all the impress oi the completed year, and the beauties of an autumnal forest." The following is an illustration of young Garfield's poetic genius, copied from the pages of the " Quarterly," and entitled MEMORY. "'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 sunlir mountain-tops are bathed In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, 4 88 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, Arc clustered joys serene of other days ; Dpon its gently slbping hillsides bend The weeping willows o'er the sacred dust Of dear departed ones; and yet in that land, Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore, They that were sleeping rise from out the dust Of death's lung, 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 r , cast their 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 ; their shadows fall Upon the flowery meads and sunny slopes, Soft as the shadows of an 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 mom ; And wandering thence, along the rolling years. 1 • 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 thai a phantom dances o'er the gulf, And beckon- toward the verge. Again the path la o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall ; I thus in lighl and -hade, sunshine and gloom, Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along." JAMES A. GARFIELD. $9 Garfield's second winter vacation was enjoyed at Poes- tenkill, (a Dutch name for " Foaming Creek") a little post- village of about throe hundred inhabitants, at that time, and situated a few miles from Troy, New York. He was attracted thither by the Rev. Mr. Streeter, a Dis- ciples preacher from Ohio, who presided over a congre- gation in Poestenkill. There, as in North Pownall in Vermont, the year before, Garfield organized a writing class of about twenty young men and young women, and preached occasionally in the meeting-house of his friend. He visited Troy frequently and became acquainted with the members of the board of education and many of the teachers in the public schools in that city. One day he was surprised by receiving an invitation from the school authorities in Troy, to take a position immediately in the public schools in that city, at a salary far greater than any he had dreamed of receiving in Ohio. It would enable him to pay his debts, marry Lucretia Eudolph speedily and give him the advantage of a comfortable residence in an Eastern city. The tempta- tion was certainly great, but it did not move him from his fixed purpose. Yet he carefully considered the matter. To the gentleman who made the proposition, he said while walking on a hill in the northern suburbs of Troy, called Mount Olympus : " You are not Satan, and I am not Jesus ; but we are upon the mountain, and you have tempted me power- fully. I think I must say Get thee behind me. I am poor, and the salary would soon pay my debts, and place me in a position of independence. But there are two objections : I would not accomplish my resolution to complete a college course, and should be crippled intel- 90 THE BIOGRAPHY OF factually for life. Then, my roots are all fixed in Ohio, where people know me and I know them, and this trans- planting might not succeed as -well in the long run as to go hack home and work for smaller pay." Garfield was graduated at Williams College in June, 185G, when between twenty-four and twenty -five years of age. He carried away from it the highest attainable honor, that of a character unstained in the least degree, and the love and confidence of the President, the faculty and his class. He was uniformly a victor in all the in- tellectual encounters to .which he was subjected. Those who knew him best at that time, have ever been loudest in his praise because of his manliness, sweetness and equanimity of temper, gentleness, truthfulness and un- swerving loyalty to every principle of honor. Among Garfield's warmest friends at "Williams were President Mark Hopkins and Professor P. A. Chad- bourne, the latter afterwards President of the institution. They were ever ready at all times to not only speak a good word for him, but to express their admiration for his ex- alted intellectual and moral character. " He was not sent to college," remarked President Hopkins, in a letter written in 1880, " but came. . . . He not only came, but made sacrifices to come. His work was from a vital force, and so was without fret or worry." ( larfield was represented by his tutors and companions at Williams as one <>f the most industrious, methodical and per- sistent of students. Sis physical powers were perfect. lie made it his first business to master the studies of the class- poom. He was broad in his scholarship, exceedingly at- tached to books, hut was never regarded as a recluse or a JAMES A. GARFIELD. 91 bibliomaniac. He was fond of athletic sports but did not frequently indulge in them ; but, passionately fond of the works of nature in all their multifarious forms, he tra- versed all the beautiful and romantic region around Wil- liamstown, and made himself familiar with every locality. Young Garfield had a quick eye and appreciation for anything ludicrous. On one occasion he celebrated in verse a trick of the Freshmen played on the Sophomores. It was a clever parody on Tennyson's " Charge of the Light Brigade," and was published in the " Quarterly," as follows : " Bottles to right of them, Bottles to left of them, Bottles in front of them, Fizzled and sundered, Ent'ring with shout and yell, Boldly they drank and well, They caught the Tartar then; Oh, what a perfect sell ! Sold — the half hundred. Grinned all the dentals bare, Swung all their caps in air, Uncorking bottles there, Watching the Freshmen while Every one wondered ; Plunged in tobacco smoke, With many a desperate stroke, Dozens of bottles broke, Then they came back, but not, But not the half hundred" Another feature in Garfield's course of study at Wil- liams was evenness, a trait of his character in all his life career. He seemed to have no preference for any one 02 THE BIOGRAPHY OF study. His intellectual capacity and sound common sense was applicable to any subject, and lie naturally, by his superior maturity, had a readier and tinner grasp of the higher studies than most of his classmates. Because of this excellence he was appointed to deliver the metaphysi- cal oration at his graduation, then one of the highest honors of the class. The subject of his oration was '• Matter and Spirit," and attracted great attention. He performed the duty well, and bore off the prize. His labor was always uniform, never spasmodic, and no pre- tensions to genius appeared. His was essentially a " sound mind in a sound body." It was during his last term at Williams that Garfield made his first political speech which attracted attention. In the debates of the Philologian Society he had fre- quently discussed the various exciting questions of the day — the Kansas-Nebraska question ; the dangers to be apprehended from the influx of foreigners and the domi- nation of the Eoman Catholic Church ; the Personal Lib- erty bills and their constitutionality ; the desirability of an elective judiciary ; the troubles in and treatment of Kansas, et cetera. In all these eager debates he invari- ably took sides with the oppressed and weaker party. Garfield was opposed to the " Native American Party," or "Know-Nothing Party," because of its narrowness. He had not taken sides as a voter, though nearly four years pasl his majority, with either the Democratic or the Whig party, for lie regarded them as equally corrupt and untrustworthy, because of their taint with the sin of pro- slavery tendencies; but when the Republican party — a new party — arose, evidently in real earnest in its oppo- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 93 sition to the slave power, he gladly joined its ranks, with his mind free from bias as to the old party leaders. His first political speech, above alluded to, was delivered before a large meeting gathered in one of the class-rooms of the college in support of the nomination of John C. Fremont for the Presidency of the United States. It was a college ratification meeting. Garfield had turned his attention somewhat to politics before, of which there is an illustration in a poem entitled " Sam," published in volume III. of the " Quarterly.'' It was delivered on the occasion of the Adelphic Union Exhibition, in 1855, in which he satirized the Know- Nothing Party. In the convention at Chicago, in 1880, at which Garfield was nominated for the Presidency, were two members who were his fellow-members of the Philo- logian Society of Williams — W. S. B. Hopkins, of Wor- cester, Massachusetts, and General Ferris Jacobs, of Delhi, New York. The genuine and abiding affection for Garfield dis- played by every member of the class of 1856 was most remarkable. Each of the survivors has some pleasant reminiscence of his cheery nature, his rich social qualities, the perfect soundness of his intellectual and moral charac- ter and his unostentatious piety. One relates that during his junior year he was engaged in a public debate be- tween representatives of two literary societies. The speaker who preceded him on the opposite side produced an elaborate illustration from Don Quixote. Garfield, in reply, raised a laugh against his opponent try comparing him to the knight attacking the windmill. " Or rather," said Garfield, " it would be more appro- 94 TIIE BIOGRAPHY OF priate to say that the gentleman resembles the windmill attacking the knight." At the supper following the debate Garfield was rallied on bis extensive acquaintance with the classics. He laughingly replied that he never read " Don Quixote," and had heard only an allusion to the mad knight's assault upon the flying arms of the innocent mill. Another says, " We used to have an annual holiday palled ' Mountain Day.' At the close of one, a Fourth of July evening, on the summit of old Greylock, seven miles from the college, there was a goodly gathering of students about their camp-fire, when Garfield, the recognized leader, taking a copy of the Xew Testament from his pocket, said, ' Boys, I am accustomed to read a chapter with my absent mother every night; shall I read aloud?' All assenting, he read to us the chapter his mother in Ohio was then reading, and called on a classmate to pray." President Chadbourne of Williams College said, during the Presidential campaign in 1880 : " The college life of General 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 eulo- gizing him. It was a noble college life. There are no stories to l»e told o] Genera] Garfield as a college student. On the contrary, everything about him was high and noble and manlj ; the man in college gave promise of what the man is to-day. Ami so, when some charges were made against him some years ago, I wrote to General Garfield, and have paid in speeches since that time, that when a young man goes through a college course without exhibit- ing a mean or dishonest trait, and then goes out and lives so as to impress upon other men the idea that he has been JAMES A. GARFIELD. 95 true at all times and in all places, it will take a great deal of proof to convince me that that man has forsaken the path he trod so long. And I have seen nothing to shake my confidence in General Garfield from the day he entered college until to-day, as he stands up before the people as a candidate for President of the United States." 05 THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER V. GARFIELD AT HIRAM COLLEGE — BEGINNING OF POLITICAL LIFE. ( >.v graduating at Williams College in the summer of 1856, Mr. Garfield was chosen Professor of Ancient Languages in Hiram Eclectic Institute, or, as it was soon called, Hiram College. The institution was poor and the pay small, but he devoted his best energies in building it up. Very soon it felt the influence of his presence and his wonderful activity. Hiram remained the same lonely, dull, little country village f;hree miles from a railroad station, but the college, from its seat on a hill, overlooked fully twenty miles of a dairy country southward. The village had grown a little, and now contained fifty or sixty houses. These were clustered around a village green in New England style, in the centre of which stood the red brick college edifice. Garfield put his whole soul into the college work and infused new life into the institution. His labors were conspicuous in all directions. He taught his classes thoroughly and delivered scientific lectures ("learning his science as he wenl along"), from which he gained con- siderable pecuniary reward. Besides other duties, he tonally preached for the Disciple.-; around Hiram. 90 delivered political speeches; and, while teaching, lecturing, preaching and Bpeech-making, he was studying JAMES A. GARFIELD. 97 as hard as ever. lie continued and completed his law- studies, begun while at Williams, and was admitted to the bar of Cuyahoga county in 1860. The next year (1857) Mr. Garfield, then twenty six years of age, was appointed President of H.rarn College. With this enlargement of his sphere of duty and respon- sibility his activities increased. He taught Latin and Greek, the higher mathematics, history, philosophy, Eng- lish literature, English rhetoric, criticism, and occasionally one of the natural sciences. Many young men and women were then preparing in Hiram College for admission into higher institutions of learning, going up to the junior and sometimes senior year in their preparation. Those wishing to pursue se- lected studies were allowed to do so. Mr. Garfield, though enthusiastic in particular lines of study, seemed to be competent to teach almost any branch of collegiate learning. His intellectual power was soon felt all over the Western .Reserve. Its salutary influence was acknowl- edged everywhere, and the young President of Hiram College was looked up to by multitudes as a mentor. Under Garfield's administration the attendance at Hiram College was soon doubled, the standard of scholar- ship was raised, the faculty were strengthened and enthu- siasm was visible in every department. He was an in- spiration to every man and woman in the college. Mass Booth was there still and an ever-helpful companion for him in his labors. His counsel and encouragement was freely given in the institution and out of it. With a true missionary spirit he continually sought new subjects for solicitude. He might see a rough boy, with unpromising exterior, but if he had a superior mind Garfield seemed to 98 THE BIOGRAPHY OF discover it by intuition, and would encourage him and his parents to make efforts to obtain an education. To this disinterested watchfulness and ready help of Mr. Garfield many men of distinction in the various depart- ments oi human activity to-day freely accord the secret of their success. One of these is President Burke A. Hinsdale, a successor of Garfield in the headship of Hiram College, who, as a pupil there in 1S56, won the warm friendship of the great teacher. President Hinsdale wrote to a friend : "My real acquaintance with Garfield did not begin until the fall of 1856, when he returned from Williams' College. He then found me out, drew near to me, and entered into all my troubles and difficulties pertaining to questions of the future. In a greater or less degree this was true of his relations to his pupils generally. There are hundreds of these men and women scattered over the world to-day who cannot find language strong enough to express their feelings in contemplating Garfield as their old instructor, adviser, and friend. " Since L856 my relations with him have been as close and confidential as they could be with any man, and much closer and more confidential than they have been with any other man. I do not say that it would be possible for me to know anybody better than I know him, and I know that be po all the greal elements of character in an extraordinary degree. His interest in humanity has al- been as broad as humanity itself, while his lively in- terest in young men and women, especially if they were straggling in narrow circumstances to obtain an education, is a characteristic known as widely over the world as the footsteps of Hiram boys and girls have wandered. "The help thai he furnished hundreds in the way of suggestions, teaching, encouragement, inspiration, and stimulus, was most valuable. I have repeatedly Baid that, 6* b 5 M O hi o fin o L JAMES A. GARFIELD. 101 as respects myself, I am more indebted to him for all that I am, and for what I have done in the intellectual field, than to any other man that ever lived. His power over students was not so much that of a drill-master or disci- plinarian as that of one who was able to inspire and ener- gize young people by his own intellectual and moral force." President Hinsdale had left Hiram College in the Fall of 1856 in great distress of mind, caused by mis- givings concerning the future of his life. He was past nineteen years of age, and was in straitened circum- stances. He obtained the position of teacher of a district school, with the hope of imitating Garfield, who was much interested in him, in efforts to obtain a thorough education. In his distress of mind he wrote to this friend, then Professor at Hiram, on the subject of his anxiety. The reply, which gave him great relief, is one that might be read and pondered by all young men in like circumstances with benefit. In the course of a lecture delivered at the college on the day after Garfield's nomi- nation for the presidency of the United States, President Hinsdale read the letter. It is as follows : — "Hiram, January 15, 1857. " My dear Brother Burke : — I was made very glad a few days since by the receipt of your letter. It was a very acceptable New Year's present, and I take pleasure in responding. You have given a vivid picture of a com- munity in which intelligence and morality have been neg- lected, and I am glad you are disseminating the light. " Certainly, men must have some knowledge in order to do right. God first said ' Let there be light.' After- wards he said, 'It is very good.' lam glad to hear of your success in teaching, but I approach with much more concern the consideration of the question you have pro- 102 THE BIOGRAPHY OF posed. Brother mine, it is not a question to be discussed in the spirit of debate, but to be thought over and prayed over as a question ' out of which are the issues of life.' You will agree with me that every one must decide and direct his own course in life, and the only service friends can afford is to give us the data from which we must draw our own conclusions and decide our course. " Allow me, then, to sit beside you and look over the field of life and see what are its aspects. I am not one of those who advise every one to undertake the work of a liberal education ; indeed, I believe that in two-thirds of the cases, such advice would be unwise. The great body of the people will be, and ought to be, intelligent farmers and mechanics, and in many respects these pass the most independent and happy lives. But God has endowed some of His children with desires and capabilities for a more extended field of labor and influence, and so every life should be shaped according to ' what the man hath.' "Now, in reference to yourself. / know you have capabilities for occupying positions of high and important trust in the scenes of active life ; and I am sure you will not call it flattery in me, nor egotism in yourself, to say so. Tell me, Burke, do you not feel a spirit stirring within you that longs to know, to do and to dare, to hold converge 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 maybe 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 round your heart till you obey their mandate. They are the voice of that na- ture which God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you and your fellow- men. "Now, all this might be true, and yet it might be your duty not to follow that course. If your duty to your father or your mother demands that you take another, I shall rejoice to see you taking that other course. The JAMES A. GARFIELD. 103 path of duty is where we all ought to walk, be that where it may. But I sincerely hope you will not, without an earnest struggle, give up a course of liberal study. Sup- pose you could not begin your study again till after your majority? It will not be too late then, but you will gain in many respects ; you Avill have more maturity of mind to appreciate whatever you may study. You may say you will be too old to begin the course, but how could you spend the earlier days of life ? We should not measure life by the days and moments that we pass on earth. " ' The life is measured by the soul's advance; The enlargement of its powers; the expanded field Wherein it ranges, till it burns and glows With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' " It need be no discouragement that you are obliged to hew your own way, and pay your own charges. You can go to school two terms every year, and pay your own way. I know this, for I did so, when teachers' wages were much lower than they are now. It is a great truth, that * where (i -a jfj n w ill there is a way.' It may be that by and by your lather could assist you. It may be that even now he could let you commence on your resources, so that you could begin immediately. Of this you know, and I do not. I need not tell you how glad I should be to assist you in your work ; but if you cannot come to Hiram while I am here, I shall still hope to hear that you are de- termined to go on as soon as the time will permit. Will you not write me your thoughts on this whole subject, and tell me your prospects ? We are having a very good time in the school this winter. Give my love to Kolden and Louisa, and believe me always your friend and brother, "J. A. Garfield. «p. S.— Miss Booth and Mr. Ehodes send their love to you. Henry James was here, and made me a good visit a few days ago. He is doing well. He and I have talked 101 THE BIOGRAPHY OF of going to see you this winter. I fear Ave cannot do it. Eow far is it from here ? Burke, was it prophetic that my last word to you ended on the picture of the Capitol of Congress ? * " J. A. G." One of Garfielcl's pupils at Hiram College was the Rev. J. L. Darsie, now of Danbury, Connecticut, who also acted as janitor for a while. He has put on record the following testimony concerning some of his recollections of Garfield's personal appearance and conduct at Hiram at that time : — "I attended the Western Reserve Institute when Gar- field was Principal, and I recall vividly his method of teaching. 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 college. "He was full of animal spirits, and used to run out on the green almosl every day and play cricket with his scholars. He was a tall, strong man, but dreadfully awk- ward. Every now and then he would get a hit, and he muffed his ball and lost his hat as a regular thing. He left-handed, too, and that made him seem all the clumsier. lint he was most powerful and very quick, and it was easj for us to understand how it was that he had acquired the reputation of whipping all the other mule- drivers on the canal, and of making himself the hero of that thoroughfare when he followed its tow-path ten years earlier. " No mat in- how old the pupils were, Garfield always Presidenl iim .hi. ■ explained this last sentence as referring to pie little delineation of the Capitol al Washington, on a cornerof the Congress note paper on which the letter was written. The last words of hi- letter came exactly across the picture of the Capitol. This seeming prophecy was not fulfilled until several years afterwards, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 1Q5 called us by our first names, and kept himself on the most familiar terms with all. He played with us freely, and we treated him out of the class-room just about as we did oue another. Yet he was a most strict disciplinarian, and enforced the rules like a martinet. He combined an affectionate and confiding manner with respect for order in a most successful way. If he wanted to speak to a pupil, either for reproof or approbation, he would gener- ally manage to get oue 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 ad- vancement. When I was janitor, he used sometimes to stop me and ask my opinion about this and that, as if seriously advising with me. I can see now that my opin- ion could not have been of any value, and that he proba- bly asked me partly to increase my self-respect, and partly to show me that he felt an interest in me. I certainly was his friend all the firmer for it. "I remember once asking him what was the best way to pursue a certain study, and he said, ' Use several text- books. Get the views of different authors as you advance. In that way you can plough 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 down-stairs?' Henry expressed his opinion, and the question went around the class, hardly any 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. " A friend of mine was walking with him through Cleveland one day, when Garfield stopped and darted 106 THE BIOGRAPHY OF down a cellar-way, asking his companion to follow, and briefly pausing to explain himself. The sign ' Saws and Files' was over the door, and in the depths was heard a regular clicking sound. ' I think this fellow is cutting files,' said he, 'and 1 have never seen a file cut.' Down thev went, and, sure enough, there was a man recutting an old file, and they stayed ten minutes and found out all al>' tut the process. Garfield would never go by anything without understanding it. " Mr. Garfield was very fond of lecturing to the school. He spoke two or three times a week, on all manner of topics, generally scientific, though sometimes literary or historical. He spoke with great freedom, never writing out what he had to say, and I now think that his lectures were a rapid compilation of his current reading, and that he threw it into this form partly for the purpose of im- pressing it on his own mind. " His facility of speech was learned when he was a pupil at Hiram. The societies had a rule that every student should take his stand on t lie platform and speak for five minutes on any topic suggested at the moment by the audi. nee. It was a very trying ordeal. Garfield broke down badly the first two times he tried to speak, but per- sisted, and was at last, when he went to Williams, one of the best of the five-minute speakers. When he returned as Principal, his readiness was striking and remarkable." When he became President of Hiram College, Gar- field felt that the conditions of his betrothal to Lucretia Rudolph were nearly fulfilled, and their marriage was not much longer deferred. When he started for Williams College she led Hiram f<>r Cleveland to engage in teaching in the public Bchools of that city, and there to wait fur her lover \<> become sufficiently established in life t" render their nuptials a prudent measure. Lucretia was the daughter of an eastern farmer of JAMES A. GARFIELD. 107 German descent, named Zcbulon Rudolph, who had settled in Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Her mother was Arabella Mason, a descendant of an old Connecticut family, but a native of Hartford, Windsor county, Ver- mont. They were thrifty people, appreciated the advan- tages of education, and gave Lucretia every opportunity in their power to acquire knowledge, which the region afforded. She and young Garfield were married on November 11, 1858, by the Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, President of the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio. A neat little cottage was bought by him in front of the college at Hiram, and there their most happy wedded life was begun in a very humble way. They had very few of this world's goods, but were very rich in love, mutual tastes, energy, love of knowledge and perfect accord in sentiment upon all questions of life. The lives of Mr. Garfield and his wife exhibit a con- tinuous and most remarkable growth. They kept up their classical studies for years ; and even to the time of his elevation to the Presidency of the United States they often resumed, before their domestic hearth, the studies, of their earlier years. One evening, a few years ago, after a day of toil with her children (for she was a model mother) she expressed a wish that she might revive her knowledge of Latin suf- ficient to teach it to her two boys. The next day her husband gave her a copy of Caesar's Commentaries and told her he would hear her recite a page that evening. It was done fairly, and from that time she continued to instruct her children, and carried her two boys through the Latin in a manner to fit the eldest for college. He is now (1881) 108 THE BIOGRAPHY OF a Freshman in Williams College, from which his father graduated twenty-five years ago. Mr. Garfield held the position of Principal of the West irii Reserve Eclectic Institute or President of Hiram College (which are convertible terms), until he entered the Union army as a volunteer in 1861, to battle for the defence of the life of the Republic. Hoping that he might return, the board of trustees kept him nominally at the head of the institution two years longer, when that hope faded. In 1864 and 1865, his name appears in the catalogue of the college as trustee and as advisory prin- cipal and lecturer. His last service as instructor in Hiram College was given in an admirable series of ten lectures, on " Social Science," delivered before the pupils in the Spring of 1871. Who shall estimate the value or measure the far- reaching influence of the life of Mr. Garfield as a teacher of the young, especially during his presidency of the college at Hiram from 1857 to 1861 ? But it must not be sup- I" i8ed that his field of activity was bounded bj T the college curriculum, the college walls or the college campus. " With all the rest," says President Hinsdale, "he was a preacher. As the Disciples were a new body, originating in a revolt from the old theological and ecclesiastical Btandards, they gave more room to personal force and inspiration than the older and more conventional churches. Presumably, he never intended to devote himself to the mini-try. Certainly lie did not after returning from college. He never bad any other ordination from his brethren than their general approval and encouragement. "From L856 to 1863 hie pulpit ministrations were in JAMES A. 0ARF1KI !>. 109 large request. Recalling his sermons at the distance of twenty years, I should say they were stronger in the ethical than in the theological and ecclesiastical elements. What is more, in 1858 he entered his name in a Cleveland law firm, as a student at law, but he carried on his studies by himself at Hiram. Then he lectured, with great acceptance, before popular audiences, on scientific, literary, educational, and moral topics. He was in great request as an instructor and lecturer at teachers' institutes. "He became greatly interested in geology, and ex- pounded the facts and principles of that science before numerous audiences. "In the winter of 1859-60, he was drawn into a public debate with a Mr. Denton, an anti-Christian and spiritualistic lecturer and debater. The subject was the development theory. That was before Mr. Darwin gave the evolution doctrine its new shaping, and the point of the discussion was the merits of development as it was left by Lamarck and the author of the 'Yestiges of Creation.' All this time he was pushing his general studies in all directions. In college he had become interested in the German literature. He now became more interested than ever in Germany and German topics. If it be true, as tradition asserts, that one of his ancestors was a German woman, the principle of heredity may explain his admiration of the German patience, thoroughness, and profundity. One of his old maxims, to be construed rhetorically, of course, is, that ' hard work is the only genius'; a maxim that well describes the Ger- man mental habit. One of his lectures on Germany, I well remember, sent one pupil post-haste to the library no THE BIOGRAPHY OF in search of Motley's ' Dutch Republic,' a work just from Harpers' press, that he had mentioned in his discourse."* Mr. Garfield had taken very little interest and no prominent part in political affairs before 1856, his first political speech having been made, as we have observed, while a student at Williams, at a college meeting, to ratify the nomination of John C. Fremont for the Pre- sidency of the United States. Already had begun the heavy skirmishing before the great battle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces in the Union. The Kansas question involved in the fierce struggle at that period of the early settlement of that territory, was the absorbing topic of the time. The discussion of that scheme so powerfully stirred the conscience of the Republic that men of all parties in politics and religion, moved by the powerful sentiment of opposition to the farther extension of slavery in the ter- ritories, had formed, as we have already observed, a new political party which they had named Republican. Gar- field's sympathies being in accordance with the avowed purposes of that party he attached himself to it. Through his wonderful prescience he clearly foresaw that the im- pending conflict between freedom and slavery for the possession of the Republic was at hand. The narratives of the cruel operations of the Fugitive Slave Law had stirred his young blood, and he gladly enlisted for the fighl under the banner of justice and righteousness. The Domination in the Fall of 1856 of James Buchanan, one of the authors of the " Ostend Manifes- to," or "Circular," aroused the strong opposition of ' II tory of Garfield's Life, by B. A Hinsdale, A. ML, President of Hiram College, New York : 1). Appletoo & Co., lbSO. JAMES A. GARFIELD. Ill Mr. Garfield, and he made several stirring political speeches in the Western Reserve. That " Manifesto" was so immoral in its doctrines, so unjust in its declarations, and so manifestly anti-American in its general tone and purpose that honest, patriotic hearts were stirred with indignation. Its plea was that of the mailed hand — " Might makes Right." It recommended the purchase of Cuba from Spain if possible, if not, the acquisition of it by force. " If Spain," said the authors of that disgraceful letter [James Buchanan, American Minister at London ; John Y. Mason, Ambassador at Paris; and Pierre Soule, Ambas- sador at Madrid], " actuated by a stubborn pride and a false sense of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States . . . then by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the power ! " This intended burglary by a great nation was a part of a grand scheme (the execution of which was attempted later) for the extension of the area of slave territory in the United States. Keen minds like Garfield's pene- trated the plot, and it was this perception which drew him from the quiet retreat at Hiram into the arena of fierce conflict with the party which had passively adopted the doctrines of the " Circular " by failing to rebuke their utterance. His political speeches in the Western Reserve at that time drew universal attention to him thronghout that region. Personal Liberty laws, enacted by several States of the Union, were the topics of wide and vehement discus- sion. It had been plainly seen that, under the unjust provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law, free negroes might, 112 THE BIOGRAPHY OF by the perjury of kidnappers, and the denial of the com- mon right to defence allowed to the vilest criminal, be carried into hopeless slavery, beyond the reach of pity, mercy or law. This perception of the danger of possible wrong caused the Legislatures of several free-labor States to pass laws for the protection of free colored citizens within their borders, made so by the circumstance of birth or of existing laws. The States which thus boldly raised the shield of pro- tection for the oppressed were Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont. .Massachusetts, Connecticut, Khode Island, New York and Michigan. Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, California and Oregon made no laws on the subject. The yoice of Garfield was heard eloquently proclaiming the righteousness of these laws, and urging, the Legislature of his own State to enact a stringent Personal Liberty bill. The politicians were too timid. These laws exasperated the politicians of the slave-labor States who controlled public opinion, and they were used by them as a pre' ext for kindling the names of civil war. And yet it is worthy of note in this connection that the statute-books of < very Slave-labor StaU in the Union con- tained, at thai time, Pergonal Liberty Acts, all of them as much in opposition to the letter a ml spirit of the Fugi- S7a '•- Law of L850 as any act passed l>y the Legisla- tures of Free-labor States. Some of them had penalties more severe. All of them provided ior the use of law by the alleged .-lave; most of them gave him a trial by jury; and those of North Carolina and Texas punished the stealer and seller of a free negro with death. The Bpirit and objeel of all were expressed in the preamble to the law in Georgia, as follows : or 8 I o hi 8 $ I Q) 32 Rl ft? &. 8) i JAMBS .1. GAUFIELD. 115 " Whereas free per SODS of color arc liable to lie taken and held fraudulently and illegally in a state of ,-laven l>\ wicked white mem and to be secretly removed whenever in elTort may he made to redress their grievances, so thai due inquiry may not he had into the circumstances of the detention of the same, and their right of freedom," 1 etcetera, " Be it enacted," &c. Taking part in the political campaigns of 1857 and 185S, Garfield became widely known as a most vigorous "stump" orator; and in 1859 the Anti-Slavery party of Portage and Summit counties elected him to a scat in the Senate of the State of Ohio, by a large majority. Young as he was (twenty-eight) he immediately took a position as a leader in that body, generally well informed on eveiy subject brought before it, effective in debate and always eloquent and forcible in speech. He did not resign the Presidency of Hiram College, because liis associates were anxious that he should not sever his connection with it, and agreed to take upon themselves his duties during the few weeks he might be compelled to attend a session of the Legislature at Columbus. Garfield served as State Senator in 1860-61. In that body he, J. D. Cox and Mr. Munroe were called the " Kadical Triumvirate," and yet his views and sympathies were very broad. While he was firm in support of his con- victions upon any subject, his feelings and language were usually conciliatory. On the completion of the Louisville and Nashville Railway, in 1860, the Governors and Legis- latures of Kentucky and Tennessee met at Louisville to celebrate the event. The Ohio Legislature passed a reso- lution inviting these legislators to extend their visit to Columbus, at the expense of the State of Ohio. Garfield 116 THE BI0QRAPH7 OF was the mover of the resolution, believing such a visit would promote good feeling, then much disturbed by " coming events which cast their shadows before." I It* waa sent to l/ouisville as chairman of the committee of invitation. \\\> speech at a banquet there in response to the toast " ( >hio " was much admired. It might be termed a •• Union-saving speech. " It gave no offense. A single paragraph will give an idea of its tone: " Brethren, we have too long heard of the North and the South. Their angry words have too long vexed the hearts of our fellow-citizens. But there is a third voice to be heard ere long. I hope and believe the day is not far distant when the great West shall speak, and that voice shall he heard from sea to sea. In that voice shall be heard no terms of doubt or uncertainty ; no note of disunion shall be heard in that utterance." Nor was this a mere bit of rhetoric. The orator meant it all. But, while he allowed no man to surpass him in devotion to the union of sentiment and feeling, he also knew how to contend for the Union, the Constitution and the laws. The mntterings of the distant thunder of revolution reverberating in the South, became louder and louder; the heaving- of the pent-up volcano of passion and vio- lence below the Potomac became more and more distinct ; and the portentous gusts which preceded the coming tem- pesl of war and discord, the gathering clouds of which hung menacingly over a large portion of the Republic, became more frequenl and energetic as the year 1800 wore away. Nowhere in the broad 1 nion was the voice of menace more truculenl or tones more insulting toward the national government and the people of the Free-Labor States than JAMBS I. GARFIELD. 117 in South Carolina, especially after the election in Novem- ber, 1800, decided that Mr. Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Presidential Chair, was actually chosen. It had been agreed that revolutionary movements should begin in that State immediately after the election of Mr. Lincoln should be made known. Accordingly, when the telegraph had flashed the intelligence of that event all over the land on the morning of November 7, and the tidings were greeted with joy by a large proportion of the inhabitants of the Republic, because of the auspicious event, the enthusiasm of the rebellious spirits in South Carolina was equally exultant, because a pretext for an armed resistance to the authority of the national government was secured. That morning the United States District Court had assembled in Charleston, over which one of the leaders of rebellion, Judge A. G. Magrath, presided. The Grand Jurj', according to instructions, declined to make any presentments. They said that the action of the ballot-box on the previous day had destroyed all hopes of a perma- nent confederacy of the " Sovereign States," and that the public mind was constrained to " rise above the consider- ation of details in the administration of law and justice, up to the vast and solemn issues that have been forced upon us — issues which involve the existence of the Government of which this court is the organ." They therefore declined to act. This solemn judicial farce was perfected by the formal resignation of Judge Magrath. With ludicrous gravity, he said to the jurors : — " For the last time I have, as Judge of the United States, administered the laws of the United States within the limits of South Carolina. So far as I am concerned the Temple of Justice raised lis THE BIOGRAPHY Off under the Constitution of the United States, is now closed. " There was intense excitement at Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, on the morning after the election. Governor Gist was the recipient of many messages by telegraph : — ''The Governor and Council are in session," said one from Raleigh, North Carolina. " The people are very much excited. North Carolina is ready to secede." " Large numbers of Bell men " [friends of John Bell, of Tennessee, who had also been a candidate for the Presidency], said another, from Montgomery, Alabama, " headed by T. II. Watts, have declared for secession since the announcement of Lincoln's election. The State will undoubtedly secede." " The hour for action has come," said a message from Milledgeville, Georgia. "This State is ready to assert her rights and independence. The leading men are eager for the business." "There is a great deal of excitement here," said a dispatch from Washington City; "several extreme South- ern men, in office, have donned the Palmetto cockade, and declared themselves ready to march South." " If your State secedes," said another, from Rich- mond, Virginia, "we will send you troops of volunteers to aid you." "Placards are posted about the city,' 1 said a message from New Orleans, "calling a convention of those favor- able to the organization of a corps of Minute-men. The I Governor is all right." " Be firm," said a second dispatch from Washington; "a large quantity Of arms will be shipped South from the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 119 arsenal here, to-morrow. The President is perplexed. His feelings are with the South, but he is afraid to assist them openly." " The bark James Gray, owned by Cushing's Boston line, lying at our wharves," said a message from Charles- ton, " has hoisted the Palmetto flag, and fired a salute of fifteen guns, under direction of her owner. The Minute- men throng the streets with Palmetto cockades in their hats. There is great rejoicing here." Stimulated by these indications of sympathy, the South Carolina Legislature took bold and vigorous action. They authorized the assembling of a convention for the pur- pose of passing an ordinance of secession. It was called for the 17th of December. They met at Columbia on that day, but in consequence of the prevalence of the small-pox there, they adjourned to Charleston, where, on the 20th (December, 1860), the convention passed an or- dinance of secession, in the following words : " We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the ordi- nance adopted by us in convention, on the twenty- third day of may, ln the year of our lord one thou- sand seven hundred and eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United States was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of the State, ratifying Amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and the Union now subsisting between south carolina and oi'her States, under the name of the United States of Amer- ica, IS HEREBY DISSOLVED." When the passage of the Ordinance of Secession was L20 Till-: BlOORAPnT OF announced by placards in the Btreets of Charleston early in the afternoon, all business was suspended ; groups of citizens were seen on every Bide exchanging congratula- tions; women displayed "secession bonnets;" the church bells rang out merry peals; some young men gathered around the tomb of John ('. Calhoun in St. Philip's church-yard and took a solemn oath to devote their "lives, their fortunes and their sacred honors," to the cause of South Carolina independence, and an enthusiastic poet wrote, before he slept that night, enrapt by a vision of the " minions of the Federal Government" escaping from the wrath of the " Sovereign State " of South Carolina: " See ! see ! they quail and cry ! The dogs of Rapine fly, Struck by the terror of her mien, her glance of lightning fire ! And the mongrel, hurrying pack In whimpering fear fall back, With the sting of baffled haired hot, and the rage of false desire. glorious Mother Land ! In thy presence, stern and grand, Unnumbered fading hopes rebloom, and faltering hearts grow brave, And a consentaneous shout To the answering heavens rings out — ■ < Ml' with the livery of disgrace, the baldric of the Slave!'" JAMES A. UAUFIKLD. 121 CHAPTER VI. BEGINNING OF THE CIVIL WAR. "While the madmen of South Carolina were urging the nation toward the horrible vortex' of civil war, and were avowedly intent on accomplishing the destruction of the Republic for the purpose of building upon its ruins an empire, the corner-stone of which should be the system of human slavery, patriotic men all over the Union stood amazed in doubt and perplexity, but none the less de- termined to endeavor to avert the impending evil and save their country from dissolution. There were a few great souls who comprehended the philosophy of the mad movement from its inception and regarded it with calmness as the beginning of a brighter epoch in our national life. Their prescience penetrated the depths of the crisis, and perceived that it was no superficial outbreak of passion, but the logical sequence of long past events. They stood calmly by watching the portents of the times, ready, if need be, to bare their bosoms to the tempest which they clearly saw approach- ing. Their voices were heard, not in passionate harangues or angry debates, but in calling the attention of their countrymen to the momentous interests at stake and trying to urge them to " reason together" and do right. Among these few wise citizens was James A. Gar- field. He thoroughly comprehended the situation of THE BIOGRAPHY OF our political affairs in 1SG0. He had watched, with deep anxiety yet with calm faith, the course of events, especially since the insane movements of Southern politicians in the Democratic National Convention at Charleston in May, when they declared their intention to break up the Union if their desires should not Be gratified. In a remarkable oration delivered by Mr. Garfield on July 4, I860, at Ravenna, Ohio, he endeavored to impress upon his countrymen the blessings of our free institutions and the dignity of American citizenship. He said: •• We have seen that our Republic differs in its origin from all the monarchies of the world. "We may also see that it differs widely from all other republics of ancient or modern' times. These all centred round a conquering hero or a powerful city — ours round a principle. In the brightest days of the Grecian Republic, its strength and glory rested upon the life and fortunes of Pericles. In the old Dutch Republic of Holland and the later estab- lishments of modern Germany, freedom was of the city and not of the people. The burghers were the only free- men, and they constituted an aristocracy more haughty and imperious than the hereditary peers of England. The peasants of the rural districts, the toiling thousands, were hardly known to the government, except that they bore many of .its heavy burdens. But here, cities are not tyrannies, and freedom in her best estate is found in the green Gelds of t Ho country, among the hardy tillers of the soil. Heroes did not make our liberties, they but re- flected and illustrated them. Individuals may wear for a time the glory of our institutions, but they carry it not with them to Hie grave. kike rain-drops from heaven, they pass through the circle of the shining bow and add to its lustre, but when they have sunk in the earth again, the proud arch still .-pans the sky and shines gloriously on. Governments, in general, look upon man only as a JAMES A. AH FIELD. 128 citizen, a fraction of the state. God looks upon him as an individual man, with capacities, duties and a destinj of his own ; and just in proportion as a government rec- ognizes the individual and shields him in the exercises of his rights, in that proportion is it Godlike and glorious. The village church and the village school have become our groat civilizing and elevating guardians, and we men- tion with honest pride the fact that more than half of all the revenue of our State Government is annually ex- pended in the education of our youth. And yet there are other States in the Union which, in this respect, wear still brighter laurels than Ohio. To all these means of culture is added that powerful incentive to personal am- bition which springs from the genius of our Government. The pathway to honorable distinction lies open to all. No post of honor so high but the poorest boy may hope to reach it. "It is the pride of every American that many cher- ished names, at whose mention our hearts beat with a quicker bound, were worn by the sons of poverty, who conquered obscurity and became fixed stars in our firma- nient. None appreciate this more fully than our adopt- ed citizens, who have felt the crushing hand of power in other lands. It cannot but destroy the high hopes of a noble nature to know that, though the blood that visits his heart leaps as free and ruby red as that which courses the veins of king or lord, and though in God's sight he is every whit their peer, yet the strong crust of centuries is above him, the shadow of power gloomily enshrouds him, and all the high places of distinction and trust are forever barred against him. " And here we are brought to that question of deepest interest to the patriot's heart — our nation's future. Shall it be perpetual ? Shall the expanding circle of its benefi- cent influence extend, widening onward to the farthest shore of time ? Shall its sun rise higher and yet higher, and shine with ever-brightening lustre ? Or, has it passed the zenith of its glory, and left us to sit in the length- ui Tin: BIOGRAPHY OF ening Bhadows of its coming uighl ? Shall power from beyond the sea snatch the proud banner from us ? Shall civil dissension or intestine Btrife rend the fair fabric of ili, In inn ? The rulers of the Old World have long and impatiently looked to see fulfilled the prophecy of its downfall. Such philosophers as Coleridge, Allhon and Afacauley have, severally, sel forth (he reasons for this prophec) — the chief of which is, that the element of insta- bility in our Government will sooner or later bring upon it certain destruction. This is truly a grave charge. But whether instability is an element of destruction or of safety, depends wholly upon the sources whence that in- stability springs. "'The granite hills are not so changeless and abiding as the restless sea. Quiet is no certain pledge of perma- nence and safety. Trees may nourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while silently the trickling raindrops are filling the deep cavern behind its rock] 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 de- ceitful 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, lint there is an understratum of deep, calm, sea. which the breath of the wildest tempesl can never reach. There is deep down in the hearts of the American people, a Btrong 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 nove- uii'iii and interchange of position among the members of society, which brings one drop up to glist( n for a time on resl of the highest wave, and then give place to an- other, while it goes down to mingle again with the mil- lions below ; such instability is the surest pledge of per- manence. On such instability the eternal fixedness of the universe is based, bach planet, in its circling orbit, re- form to the goal. of its departure, and on the balance of JAMES .1. d Mir I FA A). 125 these wildly-rolling spheres God has planted the broad base of His mighty works. So the hope of our national perpetuity rests upon that perfeot 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 in- dividual liberty." As the storm-clouds in the Southern horizon thickened, and the lightnings of unholy wrath began to play, Mr. Garfield watched with a more iutense interest the aspect of public affairs. When South Carolina had cast the gauntlet of defiance at the feet of the National Govern- ment by its Ordinance of Secession ; when a little later the politicians of that State organized rebellion and inaugurated Civil War by firing on the Star of the West as she entered Charleston harbor with supplies for the garrison of Fort Sumter, he perceived that the great argument was closed and that a verdict must be rendered by the arbitrament of the sword. In this hour of dire peril to the government, the peo- ple looked anxiously to the national authorities for relief and assurance. Instead of strength the Government at Washington exhibited deplorable weakness. The annual message of President Buchanan was full of evidences of faint-heartedness and indecision on points where courage and positive convictions, acted upon, should have been apparent in its treatment of the great topic then tilling all hearts and minds, and bore painful indications that it> author was involved in some perilous dilemma into which he had fallen, and was anxiously seeking a way of escape. 12(5 THE BIOGRAPHY OF After condemning the action of Northern legislatures for the passage of Personal Liberty Bills, he said: "How easy it would be for the American people, to settle the slavery quest inn forever, and to restore peace and harmony for this distracted country. They, and they alone, can do it. All that is necessary to accomplish the t, and all for which the Slave States have ever con- tended, is, to be let alone, and permitted to manage their domestic institutions, in their own way. As Sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God and the world for the slavery existing among them. For this the people of the North are not more responsible, and have no more right to interfere, than with similar institu- tions in Russia or Brazil. Upon their good sense and patriotic forbearance I confess I greatly rely." Saving informed the conspirators that they had many grievances, and that under certain contingencies the peo- ple of the Slave-Labor States might be justified in re- bellion, the President proceeded to consider the right of -inn and the relative powers of onr National Gov- ernment : a topic to which the attention of the nation was then most anxiously turned. What will the Presidenl do in the event of open rebellion? was the momentous question. In the preparation of this part of his message, the lent had evidently turned for advice to his A.ttorney- General, Jeremiah S. Black. That advice was given in liberal measure, on November 20, in no less than three thousand words. Assuming tha.1 Slates, as State-, might rebel, the At- irgumenl gave much "aid and comfort " to the conspirators. After speaking of occasions when JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 129 the President, as commander-in-chief of all the military forces of the Republic, might properly use them in .-up- port of the laws of the land, he supposed the case of a State in which all the National officers, including judges, district attorneys, and marshals, affected by the delirium of rebellious fever, should resign their places — a part of the programme of revolution in South Carolina al- ready adopted, and which was carried out a month later. What, then, should be done I It was clearly the duty of the President to till the offices with other men. "But," he said, " we can easily conceive how it might become altogether impossible." Indeed, this contingency had been contemplated by the conspirators, and provided for by prospective vigilance committees. " Then," he con- tinued, " there would be no courts to issue judicial process, and no ministerial officers to execute it." What then ? Why, the State has virtually disappeared as a part of the Republic ; and the power of the Supreme Government being only auxiliary to State life and force, National troops would certainly " be out of place, and their use wholly illegal. If they are sent to aid the courts and marshals, there must he courts and marshals to be aided. Without the exercise of those functions which belong ex- clusively to the civil service, the laws cannot be executed in any event, no matter what may be the physical strength which the Government has at its command. Under such circumstances, to send a military force into any State, with orders to act against the people, would be simply making war upon them." The Attorney-General limited the exercise of the pow- ers of the Executive, in the matter in question, to a simple protection of the public property. If he could 180 THE BIOGRAPHY OF not collect the revenue on accounl of insurrection, he had in. warrant for the use of military force. Congress might vote him the power, yet he doubted the ability of that body to find constitutional permission to do so. It seemed to him that an attempt to force the people of a State into submission to the laws of the Republic, and to desist from attempts to destroy it, would be making war upon them, by which they would be converted into alien ene- mies, and " would be compelled to act accordingly." If Congress should sanction such an attempt to uphold the authority of the National Government, the Attorney- General wished to know whether all of the States would "not be absolved from their Federal obligations? Is any portion of the people," he asked, "bound to contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like this?" In this " opinion," the Attorney-General virtually counselled the President to suffer this glorious concrete Republic to become disintegrated by the fires of faction or the blows of actual rebellion, rather than use force, legitimately at his service, for the preservation of its in- tegrity. The vital weakness in the arguments of the conspira- tor.-, and of those who adopted their peculiar political views, appear.- at all times in the erroneous assumption, a- premises, that States, as such, hail seceded, and that the National Government, if it should take action against rebellious movements, must of necessity war against a "Sovereign State" — no 6uch State, excepting Texas, ever having been endowed with sovereign power. The unde- niable tart opposed to this argument was, that no State, as such, had seceded, or could Becede; that the secession >i' certain States had been declared only by certain polir JAMF.s A. GARFIELD. 181 ticians in those States, who were usurpers of the rights and sovereignty which belonged only to the people; that only certain persons in certain States were in rebellion, and that the Government could only act against those certain persons in certain States as individuals collectively rebellious, like a mob in a city. Therefore, there could be no such thing as the "coercion of a State." That which the conspirators and the politicians so adroitly and effectively exhibited as " coercion " Mas an unsubstantial phantom, created by the subtle alchemy of sophistry, for an ignoble purpose — an invention of disloyal metaphysi- cians in the Slave-Labor States, bearing, to undisciplined and unreasoning minds, the semblance of truth and reality. This bugbear of "coercion of a State " was continually exhibited before the people of the North by the political sympathizers with the Southern Secessionists. It was flaunted at public meetings, in State Legislatures, and oc- casionally in a pulpit. Garfield, having a clear conception of the nature of our Government, the absolute supremacy of the National Government under the Constitution, and the impossibility of the actual secession of a State, or its separation from the Union, except by the violence of revolutionary force, met this plea in the Ohio State Senate with his usual ability. He was foremost in advocating measures of pre- caution worthy of a great State. On January 24, 1801, he made a powerful speech in the Senate in support of a Militia Bill, for raising and equipping six thousand militia, in which he met the usual protest against " coer- cion " with this sententious utterance : [8 2 THE BIOGRAPHY OF •• [f by coercion it is meant that the Federal Govern- ment shall declare and wage war against a State, then 1 have yet to see any man, Democral or Republican, who is aiat. But, if by the term it is meant that the ,! (Jovernraenl shall enforce the laws, by whomso- ever violated, shall proteel the property and Hag of the Onion, shall punish traitors to the Constitution, be they un ra< n or ten thousand, then 1 am a coercionist. Every member of the Senate, by his vote on the eighth resolu- tion, is a coercionist. Nine-tenths of the people of Ohio lercionists. Every man is a coercionist or a traitor."' As the tide of insurrection, rebellion and revolution rose higher and higher in the southern regions of the Re- pnbliCj and conventions of politicians in State after State adopted ordinances of secession (Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana in January, and Texas in February), and finally formed a confederation which they called the "Confederate Statesof America," at Mont- py, Alabama, Garfield's whole being became deeply interested in the great question of the hour. To Presi- dent Binsdale he wrote from Columbus, about the middle of January, L861 : •• My hearl and thoughts are full almost every moment with the terrible reality of our country*.- condition. We have learned bo long to look upon the convulsions of European States as things wholly impossible here, that ill,, people are Blow in coming to the belief that there may be any breaking up of our institutions; but stem, awful certain tj ie fastening \\\»<\\ 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 disso- lution is utterly impossible. Indeed. 1 Bannol say that I would wish it possible. 'I'" make the concessions de- manded by the South would be hypocritical and sinful ; JAMES A. GAIU-'IELU. 1.;;; they would neither be obeyed nor respected. I am in- clined 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. "All that is left us as a State, or say, as a company of Northern States, is to arm and prepare to defend ourselves and the Federal Government. 1 believe the doom of slav- ery is drawing near. Let war come, and the slaves will get the vague notion that it is waged for them, and a magazine will be lighted whose explosion will shake the whole fabric of slavery. Even if all this happen, I cannot yet abandon the belief that one government will rule this continent, and its people be one people. " Meantime, what will be the influence of the times on individuals ? Your question is very interesting and sug- gestive. The doubt that hangs over the whole issue bears touching also. It may be the duty of our young men to join the army, or they may be drafted without their own consent. If neither of these things happen, there will be a period when old men and young will be electrified by the spirit of the times, and one result will be to make every individuality more marked and their opinions more decisive. I believe the times will be even more favorable than calm ones for the formation of strong and forcible characters. " Just at this time (have you observed the fact ?) we have no man who has power to ride upon the storm and direct it. The hour has come, but not the man. The crisis Avill make many such. But I do not love to specu- late on so painful a theme. ... I am chosen to re- spond to a toast on the Union at the State Printers' Fes- tival here next Thursday evening. It is a sad and diffi- cult theme at this time." The prophecies of this remarkable letter — remarkable considering the time and circumstances under which it was written — was speedily fulfilled. The "man" iv- i:;i THE DI0QRAPH7 OF ferred to in the last paragraph boob appeared In the per- son of ( reneral John A. Dix, who had been called to fill the position of Secretary of the Treasury in Buchanan's Cabinet, when his disloyal ministers — notably Floyd and Thompson— had fled from Washington to their respective States to assist in promoting the great insurrection. Dix was a stanch patriot, and always fearless in the discharge of his duty, whatever it might be. Secretary Dix had sent William Hemphill Jones as special agent of the Treasury Department, to secure from seizure the revenue cutters Lewis Cass at Mobile, and Robert McClelland at New Orleans. He found the Cass in possession of tin- authorities of Alabama. He hastened to New Orleans, and in a note to Captain J. G. Bresh- wood, of the McClelland, inclosing one from Secretary Dix, he directed that officer to proceed immediately with his vessel to New York. Breshwood instantly replied: — " Your letter, with one of the L9th of January from the Honorable Secretary of the Treasury, I have duly re- ceived, and in reply refuse to obey the order." Jones immediately communicated the fact of this refusal to the Secretary by telegraph, and informed him that Collector Hatch sustained the action of the rebel. Dix instantly telegraphed back. January 2\K L861, say- ing : — "Tell Lieutenant Caldwell to arrest Captain Bresh- wood, assume command of the cutter, and obey the order through you. [f Captain Breshwood, after arrest, under- take- to interfere with the command of the cutter, tell Lieutenant Caldwell to consider him as a mutineer, and treat him accordingly. Tfanyon, nft< mj>ts to haid down ih- American fiag y shoot- him on ifu spot" JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 186 General Dix's order soon went over the land by tele- graph and newspapers; and its last sentence thrilled every loyal heart with a hope that the hour of hesitation and temporizing, on the part of the Administration, had forever passed by. It had the ring of true loyalty and patriotism ; and the words, " If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot," went from lip to lip like electric fire, and became a proverb in every true American's thoughts. It was heard with dismay by the more timid insurgents, while its promises gave joy to the lover of his country. Meanwhile, the great Southern insurrection was spread- ing, and promising to speedily attain to the dignity of rebellion and civil war. Mr. Buchanan's term of office was drawing to a close, to the great relief of the loyal people of the country, and Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, the choice of the Republicans for the high office of Pre- sident of the United States, proceeded to the seat of government to assume the duties of that exalted station, to which the most solemn and important resj)onsibilities were attached at that time. His journey from his home in Springfield, Illinois, by the way of New York, was a continuous ovation. Mr. Garfield wrote as follows to his friend Hinsdale, from Columbus, on February 16 : — " Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. The rush of people to see him at every point on the route is astonish- ing. 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, 13G THE BIOGRAPHY OF and he has a peculiar power of impressing you that he is frank, dimi and thoroughly honest. His remarkable good M-ii-i. Bimple 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. "Ihave never brought my mind to consent to the dissolution peaceably. 1 know it may be asked, Is it not better to dissolve before war than after ? But I ask, Is it not better to light before dissolution than after ? If the North and South cannot live in the Union without war, how can they live and expand as dissevered nations with- out it ? -May it not be an economy of bloodshed to tell the South that disunion is war, and that the United States Government will protect its property and execute its laws at all hazards ? " I confess the great weight of the thought in your letter of the Plymouth and Jamestown ideas, and their vital and utter antagonism. This conflict may yet break the ease by the lustiness of its growth and strength, but the history of other nations gives me hope. Every t-nmenl has periods when its strength and unity are tested. England has passed through the Wars of the and tin- days of Cromwell. A monarchy is more easily overthrown than a republic, because its sovereignty ■ ic nt rated, and a single blow, if it be powerful enough, will crush it. •• Burke, this is really a great time to live in, if any of Q8 can only catch the cue of it. 1 am glad you write on these subjects, and you must blame yourself for having made me inflict on you the longest letter 1 have written to an;, one ill more than a year." Mr. I. inc., In reached Washington in safety (though barely escaping assassination by Secessionists in Baltimore), through 'he vigilance and assistance of his friends, He JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 137 was inaugurated on March 4, 1'861, in the presence of a vast multitude of bis fellow-citizens. To them by bis voice, and to the country through the press, in his address on that day, he foreshadowed the policy he intended to pursue in the presence of the mighty crisis in the history of his country. After clearly showing that in the very nature of the National Constitution — the supreme law of the land — the Secession of a State by lawful means was an impossibility, and that the Union was, by necessity, perpetual, he said : "It follows, from these views, that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union ; that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally void ; and that acts of violence within any State or States, against the authority of the United States, are insurrec- tionary or revolutionary, according to circumstances. I, therefore, consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care, as the Constitution itself ex- pressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part, and I shall perform it, so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but only as the de- clared jmrpose of the Union, that it will constitutionally defend and maintain itself. "In doing this, there need be no bloodshed or vio- lence ; and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the National authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government, and to collect the duties and imposts ; but beyond what may be but neces- sary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using 138 THE BTOQRAPHT OF of force against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States in any interior locality >hall greal and universal as to prevent competent resident citizen.- from holding the Federal offices, there will be no at tempi to force obnoxious strangers among the people for thai object. While the strict legal right may exist in the Government to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly im- practicable withal. I deem it better to forego for the time the uses of such offices." Still upward swelled the tide of insurrection and rebellion, and the loyal people saw that wise and patriotic men were needed in the councils of the nation. They saw. also, that there might be a necessity, very soon, for expert military leaders, for the enemies of the Republic were making great preparations for war. Garfield's career in the State Senate had exhibited snch sound statesmanship and patriotic devotion, that the peo- ple of the Western Reserve desired him to be their repre- sentative in Congress, at this crisis. Much as he was wedded to his literary work at Hiram, he appeared willing to sacrifice his preference on the altar of his country if required. In March, 1861, he was invited to take the post of vice-principal in the Cleveland Institute, at a salary much greater than he was receiving at Hiram. To this invitation be replied : ■• I am very much obliged to you for your kind offer, but von would not want to employ me for a short time, and I feel it my duty to say that sonic of my friends have got the insane notion in their heads that 1 OUghl to go I I .1 know I ain't fit for the position, anil 1 have foil gill against it all 1 could. I know nothing about political wire-pulling, and I have told my friends plainly JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 139 that I would have nothing to do with that kind of busi- ness ; but I am sure that I can be nominated and elected without my resorting to any unlawful means, and I have lately given authority to allow my name to be used. I don't know that anything will come of it ; if there does not, I will gladly accept your offer." A Peace Convention had been held at Washington in February, with the avowed object of maturing a plan for the pacification of the country. The conference had been proposed by the Legislature of Virginia, but the proposi- tion was accompanied by a menace. They "JResolved : That if all efforts to reconcile the unhappy differences between the sections of our country shall prove abortive, then every consideration of honor and interest demands that Virginia shall unite her destinies with her Sister Slave-holding States." Virginia was made to say to the North, substantially, in the words of an epigrammatist of the time : " First — Move not a finger ; 'tis coercion, The signal for our prompt dispersion. "Second — Wait, till /speak my full decision, Be it for Union or division. " Third — If / declare my ultimatum, Accept my terms as I shall state 'em. " Fourth — Then I'll remain, while I'm inclined to ; Seceding when I have a mind to." Twenty-one States — fourteen Free-Labor and seven Slave-Labor — were represented in the convention. Ex- President John Tyler, of Virginia, was chosen chairman of the convention. Discussions were carried on for more [40 THE BfOGRAPBl OF than twenty days. The chief topic was slavery, and the chief object of the majority of the convention appeared to be to recommend amendments to the Constitution on a basis of compromise between the pro-slavery and anti- Blavery men of the cation. Their labors were fruitless of any salutary results. Mr. Garfield opposed the conven- tion on the ground that it would undoubtedly tend to a compromise fatal to the hopes of those who wished the Republic freed from the sin and burden of slavery, lie clearly perceived what was soon apparent to others, that the object of the Virginia Legislature was not jjeace, but to gain time to make preparations for toar. Finally, the impatient South Carolinians, perceiving the hesitation of Virginia to join its fortunes with those of the Southern Confederacy, resolved to bring on acrisis by bombarding Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. Virginians in Charleston urged them to this measure. R ;• A. Pry or, a former member of Congress, in a fiery speech in response to a serenade, after urging the South Carolinians to adhere to their Ordinance of Secession, and assuring them that Virginia would follow them, con- cluded his harangue by exclaiming, with great vehe- mence : •■ I will tell you. gentlemen, what will put her in the Southern < lonfederacy in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock BTEIKEABLOW! The very moment that blood is shed, old Virginia will make common cause with her sis- ters of the South !" This hint was acted upon. Fort Sumter was su!>- jecte.l to a fierce attack from two hundred cannons and mortars planted <>n the shores of Charleston harbor, and was soon evacuated by its little starving garrison. The THE GflllFIELQ CHILQIiEJT. JAMES A. GARFTK1.D. 143 act was highly approved by the Confederate Government at Montgomery, over which Jefferson Davis presided, lie had said, while on his way from his home in Missis- sippi to assume the Presidency : " Whoever opposes us shall smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel." The attack on Fort Sumter fired every loyal heart in the nation with patriotic zeal and firm resolve. Heart throbbed to heart, lip spoke to lip, with a oneness of feel- ing that seemed like adivine inspiration, and the burden of thought was : " Stand by the Flag ! all doubt and treason scorning, Believe, with courage firm and faith sublime, That it will float until the eternal morning Pales, in its glories, all the lights of Time \" The President of the United States immediately issued a proclamation (April 15, 1861), which called forth the militia of the several States of the Republic to the aggre- gate number of seventy-five thousand men. At the same time the Secretary of War issued a telegraphic dispatch to nearly all the governors of all the States, requesting each of them to furnish a specified number of militia to serve for three months.* * The quota for each State was as follows. The figures denote the number of regiments. Maine 1 Virginia 3 New Hampshire 1 North Carolina 2 Vermont 1 Kentucky 4 Massachusetts 2 Arkansas 1 Rhode Island 1 Missouri 4 Connecticut. 1 Ohio 13 New York 17 Indiana 6 New Jersey G Illinois 6 Pennsylvania 1G Michigan . . 1 Delaware 1 Iowa 1 Tennessee 2 Minnesota 1 Maryland 4 Wisconsin 1 ill Till-: BIOGRAPHY OF The President's Proclamation, and the requisition of the Secretary of War, were received with unbounded favor and enthusiam in the Free-Labor States ; while in biz of the eight Slave-Labor States included in the call, they were treated by the authorities with words of scorn ami defiance. The exceptions were Maryland and Dela- ware. In the other States disloyal Governors held the rein- of power. •• I have only to say," replied Governor Letcher, of Virginia, " that the militia of this State will not be fur- nished to the powers at Washington for any such use or purpose as they have in view. Four object is to subju- gate the Southern States, and a requisition made upon me for such an object- -an object, in my judgment, not within the province of the Constitution or the act of 1795 — will not he complied with. You have chosen to inaugurate civil war, and, having done so. we will meet it in a spirit as determined as the Administration has exhibited toward the South." Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, answered: — "Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordi- nary character lead- me to doubt, I have to Bay in reply, thai I regard the levy of troops, made by the Administra- tion for the purpose of subjugating the States of the S«.uth. as in violation of the Constitution, and a usurpa- tion of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North < larolina." Governor Magoffin, <»f Kentucky, replied : — " Your dispatch is received. I say emphatically that Kentucky JAMES I. GARFIELD. i;:, will furnish no troops for the wicked purpose of subdu- ing her sister Southern States." Governor Harris, ot Tennessee, said: — "Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thou- sand, if necessary, for the defense of our rights, or those of our Southern brethren." Governor Rector, of Arkansas, replied: — "In answer to your requisition for troops from Arkansas to subjugate the Southern States, I have to say that none will be fur- nished. The demand is only adding insult to injur}-. The people of this Commonwealth are freemen, not slaves, and will defend to the last extremity, their honor, their lives, and property, against Northern mendacity and usurpa- tion." Governor Jackson, of Missouri, responded : — "There can be, I apprehend, no doubt that these men are intended to make war upon the seceded States. Your requisition, in my judgment, is illegal, unconstitutional, and revolu- tionary in its objects, inhuman and diabolical, and cannot be complied with. Not one man will the State of Missouri furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade." There is such a coincidence of lano-nage and sentiment in the responses of these disloyal Governors that the con- viction M T as pressed upon the Government that the conclave at Montgomery was the common source of their inspiration. The President also called an extraordinary session of the National Congress, to meet on July 4, 1861. In his Message, after reciting the cause for calling them together, he said: "It is now recommended that you give the legal means for making this contest a short and decisive one ; that you place at the control of the government, for the 140 THE BIOGRAPHY OF work, at Least four hundred thousand men and four hundred million dollars The people will save the Government, if the Government itself will do its part only indifEerently well." It was done, and the insurrec- tion assumed the huge proportions of Civil War. The prime object of the conspirators against the life of the Republic, was the seizure of the National Capital, expel the Government, take possession of the National archives and the public Treasury, and inaugurate a new government with the system of human slavery for its corner-stone. To this end all their efforts were bent after the President's call for troops to put down the insurrection. By unlawful means, the Virginia Convention, of which a majority were opposed to secession, adopted an ordinance to that effect on the 10th of April. A few days afterwards Alexander 11. Stephens, Vice-Presi- dent of the Confederacy, journeyed from Montgomery to Richmond, clothed with power to make a treaty for transferring the control of the military forces of Virginia to the authorities of the " Confederate States of Amer- ica." At various points on his journey northward. Stephens had harangued the people, and everywhere he raised the cry of "On to Washington"! " That cry was already resounding throughout the South. •• Nothing is more probable," said the Richmond Enquirer on the 13th of April, "than that President Davis will BOOD march an army through North Carolina and Virginia to Washington," and it called upon Vir- ginians who wished to "join the Southern army," to organize at once. " The iirst fruits of Virginia secession,'' said the Nt W JAMES A. GARFIELD. 147 Orleans Picayune of the 18th, " will bo the removal of Lincoln and his Cabinet, and whatever he can carry away, to the safer neighborhood of Harrisburg or Cincinnati — perhaps to Buffalo or Cleveland." The Vicksburg (Mississippi) Whig of the 20th said :— " Major Ben Mc- Culloch has organized a force of five thousand men to seize the Federal Capital the instant the first blood is spilled." On the evening of the same day, when news of blood- shed in Baltimore was received in Montgomery, bonfires were built in front of the Exchange Hotel, and from its balcony Roger A. Pryor said, in a speech to the multi- tude, that he was " in favor of an immediate march upon Washington." At the departure of the Second Regiment of South Carolina Infantry for Richmond, at about the same time, the Colonel (Kershaw), on taking the flag presented to the regiment, said, as he handed it to the Color-Sergeant (Gordon) : — " To your particular charge is committed this noble gift. Plant it wherever honor calls. If oppor- tunity offers, let it be the first to kiss the breezes of heaven from the dome of the Capitol at Washington." The Richmond Examiner of the 23d (the day on which Stephens arrived in Richmond), said : — " The capture of Washington City is perfectly within the power of Yirginia and Maryland, if Virginia will only make the proper effort by her constituted authorities. . There never was half the unanimity among the people before, nor a tithe of the zeal upon any subject that is now manifested to take Washington, and drive from it every Black Republican who is a dweller there. From the monntain-tops and valleys to the shores of the sea [48 TEE BIOOBAPBT OF there is one wild BhOul of tierce resolve to capture Wash- ington City, at all and every human hazard." On the same day Governor Ellis, of North Carolina, ordered a regimenl of State troops to march for Wash- ington; and the Goldsborough. Tribum of the 24th said, speaking of the grand movement of Virginia and a rumored one in Maryland: — '* It makes good the words of Secretary Walker at Montgomery, in regard to the Federal metropolis. It transfers the lines of battle from the Potomac to the Pennsylvania border." The Ii"l' igh Standard of the same date said : — " Our streets are alive with soldiers " (although North Carolina was a professedly loyal State of the Union), and added, •■ Washington City will be too hot to hold Abraham Lincoln and his Government. North Carolina has said it, and she will do all she can to make good her declaration." The Wilmington (N. G.) Journal said :- -""WhenNorth Carolina regiments go to Washington, and they will go, they will stand side by side with their brethren of the South:' The Wufa/ula (Alabama) Esopress said, on April 25th: — "Our policy at this time should be to seize the old Federal Capital, and take old Lincoln and his Cabinet prisoners of war." The MiUedgevilli (Georgia) Southern Recorder of the 30th, inspired by men like Toombs, Cobb, [verson and other Leaders, said: "The Government of the Con- federate State- musl possess the city of Washington, h is folly to think it can be used any longer as the head- quarters of the Lincoln Government, as no access can be had to it except by passing through Virginia and Mary- land. The District of Columbia cannot remain under JAMES A. &ASFIBIJ). 140 the jurisdiction of the United States Congress without humiliating Southern pride and defeating Southern rights. Both are essential to greatness of character, and both must co-operate in the destiny to be achieved." A correspondent of the Charleston Courie?', writing from Montgomery at about the same time, said :— " The desire for taking Washington, I believe, increases every hour, and all things, to my thinking, seem tending to this consummation. We are in lively hope that, before three months roll by, the Government, Congress, depart- ments and all, will have removed to the present Federal Capital." In the face of this testimony, and in the utterances of the Confederate Secretary of War at the time of the fall of Sumter : " No man can tell where the war this day commenced will end ; but I will prophecy that the flag which now Haunts the breeze here will float over the dome of the old Capitol at Washington before the first of May : Let them try Southern chivalry* and test the extent of Southern resources and it may float eventu- ally over Faneuil Hall, in Boston:" Jefferson Davis, speaking more to Europe than to the Confederacy, said : " We protest solemnly, in the force of mankind, that we desire peace at any sacrifice, save that of honor In independence we seek no conquest, no aggrandizement, no cession of any kind from the States with which we have lately confederated. All we ash is to he let aloru ." A quaint writer (H. IT. Browiiell), in the Hartford (Connecticut) Courant, at that time, made the following amusing commentary on Davis's assertion, "All we ask is to be let alone : " 130 THE BIOGRAPHY OF •• A.s vonce I valked by a dismal swamp, There sol an old Cove in the dark and damp, And at everybody as passed that road A stick or a stone this old Cove throwed ; And yenever he Hung his stick or his stone, Be'd Bel up a song of ' Let me alone.' 'Let me alone, for I loves to shy These bits of things at the passers-by ; Lei me alone, for I've got your tin, lots of other traps snugly in ; Lei me alone — I am rigging a boat To grab votever you've got afloat ; In a veek or so I expects to come And turn you out of your 'ouse and 'ome. I'm a quiet Old Cove,' says he, with a groan, 'All I axes is, Let me alone.' " The writer then foreshadowed the action of the Gov- ernment, as follows : "Just then came along, on the self-same way, Another old Cove, and began for to say : ( Le1 you alone! that's comin 5 it strong! You've ben let alone a darned sight too long! Of all the sarce that ever 1 heerd ! Put down that st ick ! (You may well look skeered.) Let go that stone ! If you ome .-how tight, I'll knock you higher than any kite. Sou musl have a lesson to stop your tricks, And cure you of shying them stones and sticks; And I'll have my hardware hack, and my cash, And knock your scow into 'tarnal smash ; And if ever I catches you round my ranch, I'll Btring you up to the nearest branch. Tin' besl you can do is to go to bed, And keep a decenl tongue in your head ; For I reckon, before you and 1 are done. You'll wi-li \ou had let honest folks alone.' JAMES A. GARFIELD. 151 The Old Cove stopped, and the t'other Old Cove, He sot quite still in his cypress grove, And he looked at his stick revolvin' slow, Vether 'twere safe to shy it or no ; And he grumbled on, in an injured tone, ' All that I ax'd was, Let me alone.'' " 159 THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER VII. STATE OF THE NATION IN THE SPRING OF 1861. The hostile movements and the hostile utterances of the insurgent leaders; the gathering of armed hosts in menacing attitude near the National Capital ; the seizure of national property, such as forts, custom-houses, arsenals, and the mint at New Orleans, with the sanction and Bometimes by the command of State authorities, satisfied the most hopeful that only a mighty struggle on the part of the Government would save the Republic from ruin. Great Britain and other European powers showed a disposition to "give aid and comfort to the enemy" of the CTnion, and even England's noble Queen was induced by her unwise ministers to issue a proclamation which gave the insurgents the character of "belligerents," and so afforded them great moral aid. The prof wsions of England to be the uncompromising opponent of African slavery, and the practice now of England, through its Queen and the Parliament, as the strong upholder of that system by helping the slave- power in itfl effort8 to perpetuate and nationalize the in- stitution of slavery, drew from their own "Punch" the following Kiting epigram, for it was clear that the Blave- power wa- befrie idedbythe British Government, through interested motives connected with trade. It was entitled JAMES A. GARFIELD. 153 Shop and Freedom. " Though with the North we sympathize, It must not be forgotten That with the South we've stronger ties, Which are composed of cotton, Whereof our imports 'mount unto A sum of many figures ; And where would be our calico, Without the toil of niggers ? " The South enslaves those fellow-men Whom Ave love all so dearly ; The North keeps commerce bound again, Which touches us more nearly. Thus a divided duty we Perceive in this hard matter — Free trade, or sable brothers free ? Oh, will we choose the latter !" The disloyal utterances of politicians in the Free-labor States and of the disloyal Press of that section of the Republic then in sympathy with the Secessionists, pre- sented a most grave feature in the aspect of the times, for consideration; for it was clearly perceived that the friends of the Government, whether in the council or in the field, would have a sly, deceptive and venomous serpent in their rear, ever ready to use its poisonous fanes in half concealment, After the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession was adopted, an ex-Governor of Illinois wrote to the future leader of the great Rebellion, saying : "I am, in heart and soul, for the South, as they are right in the principles and possess the Constitution, It the public mind will bear it, the seat of Government, the 154 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Goyernmenl itself, and the Army and Navy, ought to re- inain with the South and the Constitution. I have been promulgating the above sentiment, although it is rather revolutionary. A Provisional Government shouldhe es- tablished at Washington to receive the power of Hie outgoing President, and for the President elect to take the oath of office out of Slave Territory. ... If the Slave -States would unite and form a convention, they might have the :■ to coerce the North into terms to amend the Con- st ii ution so as to protect Slavery more effectually." — Ex- tract of a Letter from John Reynolds, of Belleville, Illi- nois. ti> Jefferson Paris and ex-Governor William Smith, of Virginia, dated December 28, 1860. An ex-President of the United States wrote to the same man : " Without discussing the question of right — of ab- stract power to secede — I have never believed that actual disruption of the Union can occur without blood ; and if, through the madness of Northern Abolitionists, that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own borders) in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom 1 have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitutional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home." Exttact of a Letter from Franklin Pierce to Jefferson Paris, January G, 18G0. At thai time Fernando "Wood was Mayor of the city of New Vlno, northern Indiana, or northern Illinois her masters ; Bhould she make enemies of her Southern friends, and deliver herself up to the tender mercies of Ikt Northern enemies, .-he will sink to rise no more. Bet- ter, a thousand times better, to conic under the dominion of free negroes, of gypsies, than of Yankees, or low Ger- mans, or Canadians. Gypsies and free negroes have many amiable, noble, and generous traits: Yankees, sour-krout Germans, and Canadians none. Senator Wade says, and Seward, too, that the North will absorb Canada. They are half true ; the vile, sensual, animal, brutal, infidel, Buperstitious democracy of Canada and the Yankee States will coalesce ; and Senator Johnson of Tennessee will join them. •• Bui when Canada, and western New York, and New England, and the whole beastly, puritanic, 'sour-krout, 5 o, infidel, Buperstitious, licentious, democratic JAMES A. GAHF1ELU. 159 population of the North become the masters of New York, —what then ? Outside of the city, the State of New York is Yankee and puritanical ; composed of as base, unprin- cipled, superstitious, licentious, and agrarian aiul anarch- ical population as any on earth. Nay, we do not hesitate to say, it is the vilest population on earth. If the city does not secede, and erect a separate republic, this popu- lation, aided by the ignorant, base, brutal, sensual German infidels of the northwest, the stupid democracy of Canada (for Canada will, in some way, coalesce with the North), and the arrogant and tyrannical people of New England will become masters of the destinies of New York. They hate her for her sympathies with the South, and will so legislate as to divert all her western trade to outlets through Chicago, the St. Lawrence, Portland, and Bos- ton. She will then be cut off from her trade North and South. In fine, she must set up for herself or be ruined." —George Fitzhugh in De Bow's Review for February, 1861. At a large political meeting in Philadelphia on Jan- uary 16, 1861, one of the resolutions adopted declared : " We are utterly opposed to any such compulsion as is demanded by a portion of the Republican party ; and the Democratic party of the North will, by all constitutional means, and with its moral and political influence, oppose any such extreme policy, or a fratricidal war thus to be inaugurated." On the 22d of February, a political State Convention was held at Harrisburg, the capital of Penn- sylvania, when the members said, in a resolution : — " We will, by all proper and legitimate means, oppose, dis- countenance, and prevent any attempt on the part oi the Kepublicans in power to make any armed aggressions upon the Southern States, especially so long as laws contraven- ing their rights shall remain unrepealed on the Statute- books of Northern States, and so long as the just demands 160 THE BIOGRAPHY OF of the South shall continue to be unrecognized by the Republican majorities in these States, and unsecured by proper amendatory explanations of the Constitution." Such utterances in the great State of Pennsylvania, and similar ones elsewhere, by the chosen representatives of a powerful party in convention assembled, encouraged the conspirators in a belief that there would be no war made upon them, and for that reason they were defiant everywhere and ou all ocea>ions. Many influential public journals in the Free-labor States advocated the right of secession and the wrong of '"coercion." One of these, more widely read and more frequently quoted in the South as the exponent of public opinion in the North than any other (the New York Herald), had said so early as November 9, 1860, three days after the election of Mr. Lincoln : " For far less than this [the election of Mr. Lincoln] our fathers seceded from Great Britain; and they. left revolution organized in everj State, to act whenever it is demanded by public opinion. The confederation is held together only by public opinion. Each State is organized a- a complete government, holding the purse and wielding the Bword, possessing the right to break the tie of the confederation as a nation might break a treaty, and to re- pel coercion a- a nation might repel invasion.'' This doctrine of State supremacy, the foundation of that of Secession, was advocated by the opposition press all over the North, and abuse of t lie administration and tin- National Government was freely uttered throughout tin- Free-labor States. Anti-slavery meetings M'ere broken up by violence, and at aboul that time an association Mas formed in the city of New York called "The American Society for the Promotion of Onion," of which Professor JAMES A. GAUFIELD. 161 Samuel F. B. Morse was President. It was the powerful coadjutor (nay, progenitor) of the " Peace Faction," or '"Peace Party,"' which opposed the war for the preserva- tion of the Union from the beginning to the end, and cast obstacles in the way of the success of the Govern- ment in suppressing the rebellion. Reiterating the idea put forth a few weeks before by Rev. Dr. S my the, of Charleston, S. C, in denunciation of the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, this society, in its pro- gramme, said : "The popular declaration that all men are created equal, and entitled to liberty, intended to embody the sentiments of our ancestors respecting the doctrine of the Divine right of kings and nobles, and perhaps, also, the more doubtful sentiment of the French school, may be understood to indicate both a sublime truth and a per- nicious error." Again : — " Our attention will not be con- fined to slavery, but this will be, at present, our main topic. Four millions of immortal beings, incapable of self-care, and indisposed to industry and foresight, are providentially committed to the hands of our Southern friends. This stupendous trust they cannot put from them if they would. Emancipation, were it possible, would be rebellion against Providence, and destruction to the colored race." The society favored the slave system, and advocated the dissolution of the Union. They wished to let their "wayward sisters depart in peace." While these indications of the dangerous sentiments cherished by the disloyal politicians of the North and the newspapers in their interest disturbed the more timid loyal people, there were stout hearts in authority every- where in the Free-labor States ready and eager to combat these enemies of their country. Governors and Legis- 162 lUl- BIOGRAPHY OF latures spoke oul in thunder tones ool to be mistaken against the whole Becession movement, and supported their words by corresponding acts. Maine, lying on the extreme eastern border of the Republic, and adjoining the British possessions, had, in L860, a population of over six hundred thousand. Its people watched the rising tide of revolution with inter- est, and were among the first to offer barriers against its destructive overflow. The idea of nationality, so uni- versally a sentiment among intelligent men all over the free-labor States, made such action instinctive; and everywhere assurances of aid were given to the Chief Magistrate of the Republic. Israel Washburne, Jr.. was then Governor of Maine. In his message to the Legislature, on the day of its as- sembling at Augusta, he ably reviewed the history of the Slavery question, and recommenced the repeal of any laws that were unconstitutional. ''Allow no stain," he said, "on the faith and devotion of the State to the Con- stitution and the rights of the States.*' lie declared that, the concessions demanded by the politicians of the Slave- labor States were wholly inadmissible and incompatible with the safety of the Constitution, as the exponent and defender of republican institutions. He stigmatized Be- rn as a crime without the shadow of a right. ''There is no such righl in the Constitution," he said. "Congress cannot grant it : the States cannot concede it, and only by the people of the States, through a change in the Consti- tution, can it he conferred. The laws, then, must be exe- cuted, or this, the be8t, because the freest and most beneficenl Government that the world has ever Been, is destroyed," JAMES .1. QARFIBLD. 108 The Governor pledged the State of Maine to a sup- port of the Union, and he was sustained in this by the Legislature, who, on the lGth, declared l>y a large ma- jority the attachment of the people of that State to Union and loyalty to the Government, and requested the Governor to assure the President of that attachment and loyalty, and " that the entire resources of the State, in men and money," were " pledged to the Administration in defence and support of the Constitution and Union.'' 1 Willing to make concessions for the sake of peace, the State Senate afterward passed a bill (March 11, 1861) re- pealing the Personal Liberty Act. Massachusetts was an early and conspicuous actor in the great drama we are considering. In many aspects, in nature and society, it was totally unlike South Carolina, the cradle of the rebellion. Its people were the most energetic, positive, and ever-active of any State in the Union, and its wealth for each person was greater than any other. It was regarded by the people of the Slave- labor States as the central generator of the Abolition force that threatened the destruction of slavery ; and South Carolina orators and journalists made Massachu- setts the synonym of Puritanism, which they affected to despise, as vulgar in theory and in practice. It must be confessed that much that was done in religion, in politics. and in social life in Massachusetts did not harmonize with the opinions, habits, and feelings of the people of South Carolina. It was evident at the beginning of January, 1861, that the contagion of secession was spreading too rapidly, and was too malignant in its character, "to be arrested either by moral suasion or by compromises and concessions. The time 104 THE BIOGRAPHY OF had arrived for courageous, conscientious, and manly ac- tion. Nathaniel P. Banks, the retiring Governor of Massachusetts, in his valedictory address to the Legisla- ture (January 3, 1S01), took open and unequivocal ground against secession, declaring that the North would never Bubmit to the revolutionary acts of the Southern conspirators. His successor, Governor Andrew, was equally energetic and outspoken. His words constantly grew into action. He saw approaching danger, and dis- patched agents to other New England States, to propose a military combination in support of the Government, first in defending Washington City from seizure by the insurgents within and around it, and afterward in en- forcing the laws. At the same time, all of the volunteer companies of the State, with an aggregate membership of about five thousand, commenced drilling nightly in their armories. Governor Andrew also sent one of his staff to Washington, to consult with General Scott and other officers, civil and military, concerning the dispatch of Massachusetts troops to the Capital, in the event of in- surrectionary movements against it. It was the blood of Massachusetts soldiers that was first poured out in the terrible war for the life of the Republic, that soon com- menced. Rhode Island, the smallest of the States, was full of patriotic zeal. Her large manufacturing interests Mere intimately connected with the States in which insurrec- tions had commenced, yet no considerations of self-interest could allure her people from their love of the OniOD and allegiance to the National Government. Her youthful rnor I William Sprague), anxious for peace and union, i mended, in hi- message to the Legislature of Rhode JAMES A. OA11FIELD. id.-, Island, the repeal of the Personal Liberty Act <>n its Statute-book, " not from fear or cowardice," he said, " Inn from a brave determination, in the face of threats and sneers, to live up to the Constitution and all its guaranties, the better to testify our love for the Union, and the more firmly to exact allegiance to it from all others." That act was repealed at the close of January, 1S61 ; and this measure was regarded as the forerunner of other conces- sions that might bring about reconciliation. But the spirit of the conspirators was then unknown and unsuspected. They had resolved to accept no compromises nor concessions, and they sneered at gener- ous acts like this as the "pusillanimity of cowardly Yankees." 1 It was the first and the last olive branch offered to traitors by Rhode Island. When, some weeks later, they struck a blow with deadly intent, she sent against them a sword in the hands of her Governor and other citizens that performed brave deeds in the cause of our nationality. In the remaining New England States — New Hamp- shire, Yermont and Connecticut — nothing specially note- worthy was done in relation to the secession movements, before the insurgents began actual war by attacking Fort Sumter, in April. But in the great State of New York, the population of which was then nearly four millions, ami whose chief city was the commercial metropolis of the Republic, much was done to attract public attention. The Legislature of that State assembled at the be- ginning of January, 1861. The Governor, E. B. Morgan, was a staunch patriot. On the first day of the session resolutions concerning the state of the country were intro- duced, and referred to a Select Committee of Five, who 1 c,.; THE BIOGRAPHY OF reported a series of resolutions, which were adopted on the 1 ltli. The preamble spoke of "the insurgent State of South Carolina," and its overt acts of war. The firsl resolution then declared that the people of the State of New York were firmly attached to the Republic, and that, impressed with the value of the Onion, they tendered to the President, through their Chief Magistrate, whatever aid in men and money might be required to enable him to enforce the laws. They directed the Governor tosend a copv of these resolutions to the President and to the Governors of all the States. They produced much irrita- tion in the Slave-labor States, and at the same time pro- foundly impressed the people therein with a distrust of the assurance of their politicians that Secession would be peaceful and that there would he no war. While the Legislature of New York was firmly re- solved to support the National Government with arms, if necessary, it was ever willing to try first the power of peaceful measures. It responded to Virginia's proposition for a Peace Congress by appointing live delegates thereto, who were instructed not to take any part in the proceed- ings, unless a majority of the Free-labor States were repre- sented. From that time forth, the people of New York watched the curse of events with intense interest ; and when the National flag was dishonored at Fort Sumter, their patriotism was most conspicuous. The attitude of the authorities of New Jersey was favorable to the insurgents. A majority of the members of the Legislature, with the Governor (Charles S. Olden), were attached to the Democratic party. The Legislature ii,, t at Trenton on January s . and a majority of a Com- JAMBS A. GARFIELD. niittee on National Affairs reported a series of resolutions as " the sense of the people," in favor of making a com- promise with the insurgent slave-holders. The Republi- can members denied that such was "the sense of the peo- ple ; " declared the Avillingness of the people to aid in the execution of all the laws of Congress ; affirmed their ad- hesion to the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, with a qualification ; asserted the nationality of the Government, in opposition to the doctrine of State Supremacy ; de- clared it to be the duty of the National Government to maintain its authority everywhere within the limits of the Republic ; and pledged the faith and power of New Jersey in aid of that Government to any required extent. This pledge the people of that State nobly redeemed. The voice of the great State of Pennsylvania, with its three millions of inhabitants, as expressed in a great meet- ing held in Philadelphia on December 13th, 1860, gave out ;i feeble and uncertain sound. The tone of nearly all the speakers was one of submission to the arrogant demands of the slave power. The resolutions adopted by the meeting proposed the repeal of the Personal Liberty Act of Pennsylvania, and the recognition of the obligations of the people to assist in the full execution of the Fugitive Slave Law ; pointed with "pride and satisfaction to the recent conviction and punishment, in Philadelphia,''' of those who had attempted to rescue an alleged fugitive from bondage ; recommended the passage of a law, providing for the payment of full remuneration to the owner of a slave who might lose him by such rescue ; declared that they recognized slaves as property, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States; and also, "that all n;s Till: BIOGRAPHY OF denunciations of Slavery, as existing in the United States, and of onr fellow-citizens who maintain that institution, and who hold slaves under it, are inconsistent with the spiril of brotherhood and kindness which ought to animate all who live under and profess to support the Constitution of the American Onion." Thepeople of Pennsylvania were more patriotic, broad- minded and jus! than their political leaders; and when the time for action came, they poured out their blood and treasure in profusion in defence of the Republic. Next west of Pennsylvania lay Ohio, with two million three hundred thousand inhabitants. It was first settled chiefly by New Englanders, and was a part of the great Northwestern Territory, which was solemnly consecrated to Free-labor by the Congress of the old Confederation, in 17s7. It was a vast agricultural State, filled with indus- trious and energetic inhabitants, who loved freedom, and revered the National Government as a great blessing in the world. Their Chief Magistrate, at the beginning of the troubles, was William Dcnnison, Jr., who was an opponent of the Slave system, and loyal to the Government and the Constitution. In his message to the Legislature which met at Columbus on the 7th of January, he took a Lofty, patriotic position. He said: " Determined to do no wrong, we will not, contentedly, submit to wrong." Five day- afterward (January 12, 1861), the Legi.-la- tuiv passed a Beries of resolutions in which they denounced ion movements, and promised, for the people of Ohio, their firm support of the National Government, in fortfl to maintain it- jusl authority. Two day8 later, they reaffirmed this resolution, and pledged "the entire power and resources of the State for a strict maintenance JAMES A. GARFIELD. 171 of the Constitution and laws by the General Government, by whomsoever administered." This position the people of Ohio held throughout the war with marvellous stead- fastness, in spite of the wicked machinations of traitors among themselves, who were friends of the conspirators and their cause. Adjoining Ohio on the west, lay Indiana, another great and growing State carved out of the Northwestern Territory, with over one million three hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and real and personal estate valued at about five hundred and thirty million dollars. There was burning in the hearts of the people of that State the most intense loyalty to the Union, but there was no occa- sion for its special revealment until the attack on Fort Sumter, in April, 1S61, when it blazed out terribly for the enemies of the Republic. The sons of its soil were found on every battle-field during the first year and a half of the war, and the people were grandly faithful to the end. North of Ohio and Indiana, on a vast peninsula, whose shores are washed by magnificent inland seas, lies Michigan, with a population then of almost eight hun- dred thousand. Its acting Governor (Moses Wisner) denounced the Secessionists of the South and all their ways, and said, concerning the Personal Liberty Bill of that State and other acts in opposition to the Fugitive Slave Law : " Let them stand ; this is no time for timid and vacillating counsels, while the cry of treason is ring- ing in our ears." The new Governor of Michigan (Austin Blair), who was inaugurated the next day (January 3, 1861), took substantially the same ground. He argued that secession 17-.' 'I1II-: BIOGRAPHY "/•' was disintegration, and that the Republic was a compact Nation, ami not a League of States. lie recommended the Legislature to make the Loyalty and patriotism of the people of Michigan apparent to the country; whereupon, that body passed some resolutions (February 2) pledging to the National Government all the military power and material resources of the State. They expressed an un- willingness to offer compromises and concessions to traitors, and refused to send delegates to the Peace Con- gress, or to repeal the Personal Liberty Acts. The best blood of Michigan flowed freely in the war. and the people nobly sustained the Government in the struggle for the life of the Republic. Illinois, the home of the President elect, and more populous than its neighbor, Indiana, the number of its inhabitants being over one million seven hundred thousand, had a loyal Governor at the beginning of L861, in the person of Richard Yates. The Legislature of the State assembled at Springfield, on the 7th of January. The Governor's message was temperate and patriotic ; and he summed up what he believed to be the sentiment of the people of his State, in the words of General Jackson's toast, thirty years before: — ''Our Federal Union: it musi be preserved." Little was done at that time by the Legislature, excepting the appointment of delegates to the Peace Congress; but afterward the Governor and the people of Illinois performed a glorious part in the won- derful drama. Northward of Illinois, "Wisconsin was spread out be- tween lakes Michigan and Superior and the Mississippi River, with a population of almost eight hundred thousand. Its voters were Republicans by fully twenty JAMES A. GARFIELD. 17: 1 . thousand majority. Its Governor, Alexander W. Randall, was thoroughly loyal. "The signs indicate," he said in his message to the Legislature (January 10, 1861), "that there may arise a contingency in the condition of the Govern- ment, under which it may become necessary to respond to the call of the National Government for men and means to sustain the integrity of the Union, and thwart the designs of men engaged in an organized treason.'" The Legislature was ready to respond to these words by generous action, but no occasion seemed to call for it until after the attack on Fort Sumter. Then the people of "Wisconsin gave men and money without stint to the great cause of American nationality. "Westward of the Mississippi River and stretching northward along its course, from the borders of Missouri, were the young and vigorous States of Iowa and Min- nesota ; and across the continent, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, was California. The hearts of the people of these States beat responsive to Union sentiments whenever uttered. Iowa had nearly seven hundred thousand inhabitants. Its Governor, Samuel J. Ivirk- wood, was thoroughly loyal. When the President called for troops, he said to the Legislature : — " In this emer- gency Iowa must not, and does not, occupy a doubtful position. For the Union our fathers formed, and for the Government they framed so wisely and so well, the people of Iowa are ready to pledge every fighting man in the State and every dollar of her money and credit." That pledge was nobly redeemed. One-tenth of the entire population of the State, or seventy thousand men, went to the field ! The people of Minnesota w T ere equally faithful to the 171 THE BIOGBAPHY OF oldflag. Alexander Ramsey was Governor. The Legis- lature that assembled on the 26th of January passed a scric- of loyal resolutions, declaring the Constitution a,- it w.i> to be Bufljcient for the whole Onion; denouncing secession as revolution : condemning in severest terms the treasonable acts al Charleston, saying, that when one or more States appear in military array against the Govern- ment, ii could discover no other honorable or patriotic resource than to test, by land and sea, " the full strength <>f the Federal authority under our National flag." It gave assurance of an earnest desire for peace with and good-will toward the people of the South; thanked General Scott for his patriotic efforts, and declared that the people of Minnesota would never consent to the obstruction of the free navigation of the Mississippi river, "from its source to its mouth, by any power hostile to the Federal Government." The attitude of the three border (so-called) Slave-labor Si.iies, Delaware. Maryland and Kentucky, after the attack on Sumter, was peculiar. There was a fierce struggle against secession, in Maryland, by the loyal people of the State. Early in L861, Governor Thomas II. Hicks was ;i loyal man, and opposed the secessionists privately and officially. They tried hard, hut in vain, to counteract his influence. The best men of the State, of all parties, frowned upon their work. A Union party was organized, composed of vital elements, and grew in strength and stature everv day. Maryland, and especially Baltimore, became a greal battle-field of opinion between the champions of Right and Wrong. The former triumphed gloriously; and in less than four years from JAMES A. QALiFIELB. 175 that time slavery became utterly extinct in Maryland by the constitutional act of its own authorities. Delaware, lying still farther than Maryland within the embrace of the influence of society in the Free-labor States, had but little to say on the subject of secession, and that little, officially spoken, was in the direction of loyalty. Its Governor (William Burton), several of its State Senators, its Representatives in the National Senate, and many leading politicians were in sympathy with the secessionists, but the people w r ere conservative and loyal. Though a small State, Delaware contributed quite a large number of soldiers for the Union Army. It is a noteworthy fact that it was the only Slave-labor State the soil of which was not moistened with the blood of men slain in battle. The position of the people of Kentucky, at the break- ing out of the Civil "War, was painful. The authorities and some of the leading politicians were disloyal. The Governor (Beriah Magoffin), as we have seen, responded to the President's call for troops in insulting words. He was followed by fierce denunciations of the National Government by its leading journal, which was professed- ly Union in sentiment. This was followed by a great " Union Meeting,' 1 at Louisville. At that meeting it was resolved that Kentucky reserved to herself " the right to choose her own position ; and that, while her natural sympathies are with those who have a common interest in the protection of slavery, she still acknowledges her loyalty and fealty to the Government of the United States, which she will cheerfully render until that Gov- ern/ment hecomes aggressive, tyrannical, and regardk 88 of <>>(/■ rights in slave projicrty." They declared that the 176 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF States were the peers of the National Government, and gave the world to understand thai the latter should not be allowed to u.-e "sanguinary or coercive measures to bring hack the seceded States." They pledged equally to fidelity to the CTnited States ami to Kentucky. This avowal of peculiar neutrality— of conditional adhesion to the Union, paralyzed the strength of the Union senti- ment in Kentucky, and brought upon that State the dreadful woes of Civil War. In the rapidly-drawn sketch in this chapter of the state of tin; Nation in the Spring of 1861, when the great Civil War began, I have endeavored to give the reader a tolerably clear view of the momentous causes which led Garfield, before the close of the Summer, to leave the (juiet halls of an institution of learning, and the more stirring Legislative chaml - of his native State, to plunge into the thickest of the fray on fields of battle In the presence of such conditions, his great soul, com- prehending in all its grandeur the value of his country to himself, his kindred, and mankind, could not do other- wise. JAMES A. GAliFlELD. 171 CHAPTER VIII. AFFAIRS IN KENTUCKY. — GARFIELD^ FIRST MILITARY CAM- PAIGN. Mr. Garfield intended, from the day when Fort Sum- ter was attacked- and the President called for troops to suppress the rising rebellion, to enter the army as soon as his presence there seemed to promise more useful service than in the Ohio Senate. In the latter body he was very active and efficient. He was the recognized leader of the Republican members in the Legislature at Columbus. Garfield was in perfect accord with the most radical public opinion concerning Slavery, and on every occasion he set his face firmly against every attempt to compro- mise with the slave-holders at this crisis. He strenuously opposed a bill to that effect which was presented to the Ohio Senate, and he was one of eight Senators who voted against it, on the 17th of April (1S61). Some days earlier than this a bill had been introduced in the Legislature appropriating one hundred thousand dollars for war purposes. A bill was soon afterward in- troduced for an appropriation of one million dollars for a similar purpose, in response to a message from Goyernor Dennison announcing the President's call for troops. That message concluded as follows : " But as the contest may grow to greater dimensions than is now anticipated, 1 deem it my duty to recommend to the General Assembly of this State to make provision. 178 THE BIOQRAPHY OF proportionate to Its means to assist the National authori- ties in restoring the integrity and strength of the Union, in all its amplitude, as the only means oi' preserving the rights of all the States, and insuring the permanent peace ami prosperitj of the whole country. 1 earnestly recom- mend, also, than an appropriation of not less than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars he immediately made tor the purchase of arms and equipments tor the use of the volunteer militia of the State. 1 need not remind you of the pressing exigency for the prompt organization and arming of the military force of the State." As an evidence of the melting away of party lines under the heat of patriotic excitement, it may he stated that, within twenty-four hours after the receipt of the President's call, that bill was matured, carried through the several readings in the Senate, and passed. This was done under the wise leadership of Senator Garfield. While this hill was halting in the Lower House, the Senate, again led by Garfield, matured and passed a hill defining ami providing punishment for the crime of trea- son against the State of Ohio. Garfield, as chairman of the committee to winch the subject had been referred, made an able report, of which Justice Swayne, of the United States Supreme Court, said : u I should be very willing to put my name to that report." The bill de- clared any resident of the State who gave aid and com- forl to theenemiesof the United States guilty of treason again si the State, to be punished by imprisonment at hard labor in the penitentiary for life. This bill, it was nndersl I at the time, was aimed specially at Yallan- digham, the active enemy of his country all through the war. Wiih the passage of these hills all semblance of party opposition to necessary war measures disappeared JAMBS A GARFIELD. 179 from the proceedings of the Legislature. Mr. Vallandig- ham visited the capital and earnestly remonstrated with the Democrats for giving their sanction to the war ; but the patriotic enthusiasm of the crisis could not be con- trolled by party discipline. Before the adjournment of the Legislature of Ohio, the acting Speaker had resigned to take command in one of the regiments of volunteers starting for Washington. Two leading Senators had been appointed Brigadier- generals, and large numbers of the other members had, in one capacity and another, entered the service. " It was the first of the war legislatures," says Mr. lieid. " It met the first shock ; under the sudden pres- sure matured the first military laws. It labored under difficulties inseparable from so unexpected a plunge into duties so novel. But it may now be safely said that in patriotism, in zeal and ability, it was second to neither of its successors, and that in the exuberance of patriotic sen- timent which wiped out party lines and united all in com- mon efforts to meet the sudden danger, it surpassed them both." Twenty full companies had been offered to the Gov- ernor of Ohio before the bombardment of Fort Sumter had ended. With the call of the President for troops, the excitement throughout the State became intense. Men of every station in life entered the service. The President of Kenyon College took his place in the ranks as a private soldier. Militia officers telegraphed their readiness for orders. Regiment after regiment, mostly- in detailed companies, arrived at Columbus, made up largely from well-known militia organizations from lead- 180 Till. BIOGRAPHY OF ing towns and cities. Bui there were no arms, uniforms, equipments or transportation for them. The calls of the Government at Washington were very importunate. " Send them on instantly," telegraphed the Secretary of War (Mr. Cameron); "we will equip them here." Long before dawn on April 19, L861, greal rail- way trains, filled with an unarmed crowd of militia, moved out of Columbus for Washington, the passengers cheered by hundreds of citizens of both sexes, and sent on their way with fervenl "God bless } - ous." Before they started fresh arrivals had more than tilled their places in Camp Jackson, in the woods near by. Ohio was nearly bare of weapons of war at this junc- ture. Governor Dennison heard that the State of Illinois possessed enough and to spare, and he resolved to apply to Governor Yates for some of them. He sent Senator Garfield to tin; [llinois capital, armed with a proper requisition. lie was successful, and speedily shipped five thousand muskets and rifles to Columbus. Then Mr. Garfield was instructed to lay before Gov- ernor Vatc.-a suggestion a- to the propriety of uniting the Illinois and all other troop.-, in the Mississippi Valley under one Ohio Major-General, who had already been appointed, ami so create a military department in which [llinois, Indiana, Ohio and other troops should be under one head. Ii was done, and so was createdthe Depart- ment of the Ohio, of which Major-General George lb McClellan was the child'. To all of Governor Dennison's effort - at this time for putting Ohio in a condition to en- gage strongly in the impending struggle, Mr. Garfield lent his advice and personal services. I hare -aid it was the intention of Senator Garfield JAMES A. GARFIELD. 181 from the begin ning to enter the military service. On his return from Illinois, he immediately set to work recruit- ing a company, mainly from among the students of Hiram Eclectic Institute. It was speedily filled and promptly offered for service. It constituted the nucleus of the Forty-Second regiment of Ohio Volunteers, of which Senator Garfield was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel by Governor Dennison. He devoted live weeks to the organization and drill of the regiment, and when it was ready .for service, Garfield was promoted to its chief com- mand. His commission of Colonel was dated August 14, 1861. This regiment was organized at Camp Chase, near Columbus. The organization was completed on November 26, and on December 14, orders were received to take the field. The Department of the Ohio was then under the command of General Don Carlos Buell, whose head-quar- ters were at Louisville. The regiment proceeded by railway to Cincinnati, and reached there at nine o'clock, j>. m. It had been ordered to Prestonburg, on the Big Sandy river, Kentucky. At Cincinnati, Garfield, in obedience to orders, sent his regiment by steamboat to Cattlesville, Kentucky, at the mouth of the Big Sandy ; and there took the cars to Louisville to report to General Buell. That interview is thus described by Captain F. H. Mason, in his " History of the Forty-Second Regi- ment : " "On the evening of the 16th, Colonel Garfield reached Louisville and sought General Buell at his headquarters. He found a _cold, silent, austere man. who asked a few direct questions, revealed nothing, and eyed the new- comer with a curious, searching expression, as though 182 THE BIOGRAPHY OF trying to look into the untried Colonel, and divine whether lie would succeed or fail. Taking- a map, General Buell pointed out the position of Marshall's forces in Eastern Kent uck v, marked the location in which the Union troops in thai districl were posted, explained the nature of the country and its supplies, and then dismissed hia visitor with tii" remark : • Ji" you were in command of the sub- department of Eastern Kentucky, what would you do? pome here to-morrow morning at nine o'clock and tell me.' "Colonel Garfield returned to his hotel, procured a map of Kentucky, the last census report, paper, pen and ink, and Bat down to his task. Be studied the roads, re- sources, and population of every county in Eastern Ken- tucky. At daylight he was still at work, but at nine o'clock he was at General Buell's headquarters with a sketch of his plans. Buell read it and made it the basis of his Special Order Xo. 35, Army of the Ohio, December 17, 1861, by which the Eighteenth Brigade, Army of the Ohio, was organized." The forces constituting this brigade were four regi- ments of infantry and several squadrons of cavalry. Buell's order directed the colon* 1 commanding the brigade to proceed to the Valley of the Big Sandy river, which was then invaded by a strong- fore ■ of Confederates led by Humphry Marshall, a graduate of the West Poinl Military Aoademy in 1832; was under General Taylor in the war with .Mexico; was a member of Congress during sessions between L 849 and L859; a commissioner to China, and in L861, made a G-eneral in the- Confederate army. He was unwieldy in person, being very obese. Lei as here take a brief view of civil and military affairs in Kentucky, at this juncture, so as to more clearly JAMES A. GARFIELD. 185 understand the significance of Garfield's first military campaign. He was in command of the brigade. The Loyalists in the Kentucky Legislature foiled the efforts of Governor Magoffin and his political friends to link the fortunes of that State with those of the Southern Confederacy. Their efforts were met by the occupation of the whole Southern portion of the commonwealth by Confederate troops. They formed a line across the State from the mountains to the Mississippi river at Columbus. These were all within the Department commanded by Albert Sidney Johnston, a veteran soldier about sixty years of age, who had deserted his flag. He was a Kentuckian, and his sympathies were with the conspirators against the life of the Republic. Under the shadow of Johnston's protection, and behind the cordon of Confederate troops stretched across the State, the disloyal politicians of Kentucky proceeded to organize an independent government for the common- wealth. They met at Russellville, the capital of Logan county, in the Southern part of the State, on the 29th of October. They drew up a manifesto, in which the griev- ances of Kentucky were recounted, and the' action of its Legislature denounced. They then called upon the people of the State to choose, " in any manner " they might see fit, " delegates to attend a ' Sovereignty convention,' " at Iiussellville, on the 18th of November. At the appointed time, about two hundred men from fifty-one counties, not elected by the people, assembled, and with difficult gravity adopted a " Declaration of Independence," and an " Ordinance of Secession," (November 20), 1861, and then proceeded to organize a " Provisional Government," 18G THE niOGRAPUY OF bv choosing a (Governor, George W. Johnston, a legis- lative council of ten, a treasurer, and an auditor. Bowling Green was selected ae the new capital of the " sovereign " State of Kentucky. Commissioners were appointed to treat with the " Confederate Govern- ment," for the admission of Kentucky into the league; and before the close of December the arrangement was made, and so-called representatives of that great common- wealth were chosen by the k " Legislative Council," Decem- ber 1*!, L861, to seats in the "Congress" at Rich- mond. The people had nothing to do with the matter, and the ridiculous farce did not end here. All through the war, disloyal Kentuckians pretended to represent their noble old State in the supreme council of the con- spirators, where they were chosen only, a great portion of that time, by the few Kentuckians in the military service of Jefferson Davis. While these political events in Kentucky were in prog- ress, military movements in that quarter were assuming very important features. General Johnston concentrated troops at Bowling Green, and General Hardee was called from Southeastern Missouri, to supersede General Bnckner in command there. The force- under General Polk at Columbus were strengthened; and Zollicoffer, having secured the important position of Cumberland Gap, pro- ceeded 1" occupy the rich mineral and agricultural dis- tricts around the upper waters of the Cumberland River. II, issued a proclamation, December L6, to the people of Southeastern Kentucky, declaring, in the set phrases used l,v all the instruments of the conspirators, when about to plant the heel of military despotism upon a community, that he came as their " liberator from the Lincoln despol JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 1«7 ism"audthe ravages of "Northern hordes," who were " attempting tlic subjugation of a sister Southern State/' Meanwhile General Buell had organized a large force at Louisville, with which he was enabled to strengthen various advanced posts, and throw forward, along the line of the railway toward Bowling Green, about forty thou sand men, under General Alexander McD. McCook. As this strong body advanced, the vanguard of the Confeder- ate.-, under General Jlindman (late member of Congress from Arkansas), fell back to the southern bank of the Green River, at Mumfordsville, where that stream was spanned by one of the most costly iron, bridges in the country. This was partially destroyed, in order to impede the march of their pursuers. The latter soon constructed a temporary one and proceeded to attack the Confederates Though greatly outnumbered by the Confederates, and attacked chiefly by cavalry and artillery, the Ideationals re- pulsed their assailants. Seeing reinforcements for the Nationals advancing, the Confederates withdrew to Bowling Green. The Nationals engaged in this affair Were Willich's German Regiment (Thirty-Second Indiana), which formed McCook's vanguard. In the meantime, stirring scenes were in progress in the extreme eastern part of Kentucky, and movements there caused a brief diversion of a part of Buell's army from the business of pushing on in the direction of Ten- nessee, with a view to driving the Confederates across the Cumberland into that State. Humphrey Marshall was in the field in the Valley of the Big Sandy river, with a considerable force, and it was against this body of Con- federates that Colonel Garfield was directed to proceed and drive them out of the State. 188 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Garfield pushed forward (December 31), and by the night of January 7, L862, encamped within three miles of Painteville, in Johnston county. Kentucky, on the main branch of the Big Sandy river that forms the boundary between Virginia and Kentucky. His force consisted of the Forty-Second Ohio and Fourteenth Kentucky regi- ments, and three hundred of the Second Virginia cavalry. [lis errand thither was to drive Marshall out of Kentucky. On the morning of January 8, five companies of the Forty-Second Ohio, under the command of its Lieutenant- "1 Colonel, Lionel A. Sheldon, took possession of the village of Paiutsville. On the evening of the 8th, Colonel Garfield took the Forty-Second and two companies of the Fourteenth Kentucky, and marched against Marshall, who occupied a fortified position about three miles south of Paiutsville. Bis infantry reached the works at nine o'clock in the evening and found them deserted. The Confederates had fled, carrying away or destroying everything valuable. On hearing of the approach of Garfield, Marshall, in alarm, had lied up the river toward Prestonville. At about noon on the 9th, Colonel Garfield, with eleven hundred infantry from the Forty Second. Ohio and other regiments, and about six hundred cavalry, started in pursuii of Marshall, and about nine o'clock in the even- ing the advance was fired upon by Marshall's pickets, on the summit of Abbott's Hill. Garfield took possession of the hill, bivouacked for the night, and the next morning continued the pursuit, overtaking the enemy at the forks of Middle < 'reek, three miles southwest of Prestonburg. Marshall's force consisted of about three thousand live hundred men, infantry and cavalry, with three pieces of JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 189 artillery strongly posted on a hill. Major Pardee, with four hundred men, was sent across Middle Creek to attack Marshall directly in front, and Lieutenant-Colonel Monroe (Twenty-Second Kentucky) was directed to attack on Mar- shall's right Hank. The light at once opened with con- siderable spirit, and Pardee and Monroe became hotly engaged with a force four times as large as their own. They held their ground with great obstinacy and bravery until reinforcements reached the field, when the enemy commenced to fall back. The National forces slept upon their arms, and at early dawn a reconnoissance disclosed the fact, that Marshall had burned his stores and had again fled, leaving a portion of his dead on the field. The National loss in the battle of Middle Creek, or ^ Prestonburg, was two killed and twenty-rive wounded ; that of the Confederates was estimated at sixty killed and about one hundred wounded or made prisoners. The ponderous Marshall was not heard of afterwards as a leader of troops. Garfield, in his report of the battle, said that twenty-seven dead insurgents were found on the field the next morning. The Confederate newspapers at Richmond reported the battle as a success for the insur- gents, in which they lost only nine killed and the same number wounded, while the loss of the Nationals was " from four hundred to five hundred killed, and about the same number wounded ! " Such was the usual character of the reports in the Confederate newspapers, under the eye of the Government at Richmond. With such men- dacity these newspapers made the deceived people believe that in every battle the Confederates won a victory over vastly superior numbers, killing, wounding, and capturing the Nationals by hundreds and thousands. These false 190 THE BIOGRAPHY OF reports were made for the purpose of enticing men into the army, or money from the purses of the people. "The battle of Middle Creek,'' says Captain Mason, " trifling though it may be considered in comparison with later contests, was the first substantial victory won for the Union cause. At Big Bethel, in Missouri, and at various points at which the Union and Confederate forces bad come in contact, the latter had been uniformly vic- torious. The people of the North, giving freely of their men and their substance in response to each successive call of the Government, had long and anxiously watched and waited for a little gleam of victory to show that Northern valor was a match for Southern impetuosity in the held. They had waited in vain since the disaster at Bull Run, during the previous summer, and hope had almost yielded to despair. The story of Garfield's success at Middle (reek came, therefore, like a benediction to the Union cause. Though won at a trilling cost, it was decisive so far as concerned the purposes of that immediate campaign. Marshall's force was driven from Kentucky, and made no further attempt to occupy the Sandy Valley. The im- portant victories at Mill Spring, Forts Donaldson and Eenry, and the repulse at Shiloh, followed. The victory at Mill Creek proved the first wave of a returning tide." Speaking of the engagement after lie had gained more experience in tin- war, Garfield said: "It was a \<-r\ rash and imprudent affair on my part. If 1 had been an officer of more experience, I should not have made the attack. A- it was, having gone into the army with the notion that lighting was our business, I didn't know iny better." The task winch l'.ucll imposed upon Colonel Garfield, an officer without military experience, fresh from the halls of learning and of legislation, and then }u>\ thirty JAME8 J. GARFIELD. 101 years of age, when lie instructed him to drive Marshal] out of Eastern Kentucky, was rast, indeed, considering the area to he swept and the sniallness of the broom put into his hands. The area of his operations was larger than that of Massachusetts ; inhabited by about one hundred thousand poor and ignorant white men and a few thousand negroes. Marshall was acting more as a politician than as a soldier. His scattered but effective operations were part of a general plan to wrest Kentucky from the Union. To Garfield was assigned the formidable task of defeating a project that would have been well-nigh fatal to the Union cause, had it succeeded. To accomplish it he had only four light regiments of infantry and 600 cav- alry — in all about 2500 men — divided by large stretches of mountain country that was harried by guerillas and full of disloyal people. He had to send communications to his scattered forces, to insure a co-operative movement, and then run the risk of being defeated in detail before his troops could be massed ; and, after all that was safely accomplished, he had to attack twice his own force, strongly intrenched in commanding positions.* It was of the first importance for Colonel Garfield to have a trustworthy man to carry despatches between headcpiarters and his scattered forces. The Colonel asked the commander of the Fourteenth Kentucky regiment (Colonel Moore) to name such a man. He recommended John Jordan, a somewhat noted character in that region, a descendant of a Scotchman belonging to a family of men who had died in the defense of some honor or trust. Jordan was also a born actor, a man of unflinching cour- * Bundy's Life of Garfidd, p. 56. 192 THE JiWGliAPJir OF age, of greal expedients and devoted to his country, which embraced the whole Union. He was sent for and soon appeared in Colonel Garfield's tent. The Colonel was at once favorably impressed with his appearance. John was tall and gaunt, of sallow complexion, about thirty years of age. His eyes were grey and keen, his voice a falsetto, pitched on a minor key, and his face was expressive of cunning, faith, courage and simplicity. Garfield sounded him thoroughly, for the fate of the cam- paign might depend upon his fidelity. He trusted Jordan, and was not disappointed. He sent him immediately with a despatch to Colonel Cranor at Paris, Kentucky. It was an order to move his command (the Fortieth Ohio), eight hundred strong, immediately to Prestonburg, and to transmit an order to Lieutenant-Colonel Woolford, at Stamford, to join him with three hundred cavalry. The keen-witted courier rode a hundred miles and returned, having executed his mission faithfully. It was his first scout in the service of Colonel Garfield, but not his last. The stories told of Jordan's adventures, expedients and hair-breadth escapes from perils by land ami water, and prowling guerillas, afford materials for a stirring romance. Having cleared Eastern Kentucky of Marshall's invad- ing forces, which had been plundering and distressing the inhabitants, Garfield moved his command to Piketou, one hundred and twenty miles above the mouth of the Big Sandy river, from which place he sent out little expeditions in every direction, breaking up forming or organized Rebel camps. Before leaving Prestonburg for Piketon, and on the day after the battle of Middle ( 'reek, dressed hi-- little army as follows: JAMES A. &AEFIELD. [98 "Soldiers of the Eighteenth Brigade, — I am proud of you all ! In four weeks you have inarched, some eighty and some a hundred miles', over alinosl iinpasSable roads. One night in four you have slept, often in the storm, with only a wintry 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 mili- tary art. With no experience but the consciousness of your own manhood, you have driven him from his strong- holds, pursued his inglorious flight, and compelled him to meet you in battle. When forced to fight, he sought the shelter of rocks and hills. Ton 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 brave 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 Avon scars of honor on the field. M I have recalled you from the pursuit that you may regain vigor for still greater exertions. Let no one tar- nish his well-earned honor by any act-unworthy an Amer- can 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 effect of this victory on the government and the nation can, at this distance of time, scarcely be esti- mated," says Mr. Kirk. " Disaster had followed disaster, till the nation seemed paralyzed ; but this victory awoke it to life and resolute action. As a singular coincidence, it may be mentioned that on this very day President Lin- coln, in great depression, had sent for General McDowell 104 Til!' BIO&RAP3? >>/■' to confer with aim as to the crisis— the capital beleag- uered, and our armies everywhere idle or defeated ; and at this very hour, when Garfield and his officers met after the battle, this conference took place hot ween 'the Presi- ded and General McDowell. I" quote the account of the interview from an extract from the General's diary, pub- lished hy Mr. Swim on in his ' History of the Army of the Potomac :' •• 'January lOfh, 1802. — At dinner at Arlington, Vir- ginia. Received a note from the Assistant Secretary of War, saving the President wished to see me that evening at eight o'clock, if I could safely leave my post. Soon after I received a note from Quartermaster-General Meigs, marked 'private and confidential,' saying the President wished to see me. "'Repaired to the President's house at eight o'clock P.M. Found the President alone. Was taken into the small room in the north-cast corner. Soon after we were joined by Brigadier-General Franklin, the Secretary of State. Governor Seward, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Assistant Secret ary <n his return with the supplies, Garfield determined to attempt the quieting the fears of the people, who had become greatly alarmed by the precipitate retreat of Marshall. His discomfited troops, themselves impelled in their, flight by terror, had spread the most extravagant stories of the strength and character of the Union forces, and the simplje Inhabitants of the country looked for the immediate infliction of great evils upon them. Colonel Garfield Issued the following address to them : "Citizens o] Sandy Valley: I have come among you to restore the honor of tne Onion, and to bring baefc the old banned* which you once loved, but which, by the machinations of evil men, and by mutual misunderstand- ing, lias been dishonored among you. To those who are In arms against the Federal Government I offer onrj the alternate of battle or unconditional surrender. Bui to v. ho have taken no pan In this war. who are In no way aiding or abi tting the enemies of this Union, even to lie.- • who hold sentiments averse to the Union, but will give no aid or comforl to its enemit — 1 offer the full pro : lection of the Government, both in their persons and property. •• Lei i hose w ho have been seduced away from the love JAMES A. GARFIELD. 199 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 turbu- lence may soon be ended and the days of the Kepublic soon return. "J. A. GrARFIELD, " Colonel Commanding Brigade." The effect of this kindly and assuring address was salutary. The alarmed people issued from their hiding- places and gathered in confidence around the Union camp, regarding the National soldiers rather as friends than enemies. At the middle of March, General Garfield accom- plished a successful expedition against a nest of ma- rauding insurgents at Pound Gap, a wild and irregular opening in the Cumberland Mountains, leading into Vir- ginia from Kentucky, about forty-five miles southwest of Piketon. Marshall had retired to this pass, which was easily made impregnable. It was a position from which armed plunderers might swoop down into Kentucky. He left about five hundred men to guard the gap. They were defended by breastworks and quartered in log huts. ! 200 THE BIOGRAPHY OF No direct attack could have dislodged them. At the time in question the post at Pound Gap was garrisoned by about six hundred Confederate militia, under Major Thompson. Garfield resolved to attempt to gain possession of this stronghold in the mountains. He employed his faithful scout, John Jordan, to gain accurate information con- cerning the strength and position of the garrison, the roads leading directly to and in the rear of the gap, and the best route to take to menace them in front and at the same time reach the rear of their fortifications. This in- formation was soon supplied. Jordan informed Garfield that General Marshall had issued orders for " a grand muster of the rebel militia on the loth of March, in strength sufficient, it was expected, to enter Kentucky and drive the Union forces before them." Garfield determined to forestall this gathering and disperse the guerilla bands. He made a sudden and forced march, with two hundred and twenty of the For- tieth Ohio, under Colonel Cranor, two hundred of the Forty-second, under Major Pardee, one hundred and eighty of the Twenty-second Kentucky, under Major Cook, and one hundred cavalry under Major McLaugh- lin — in all six hundred men. The roads were heavy with deep mod, and it was two days before he reached the foot of the gap. It was night when they halted for rest. Garfield desired to surprise the Confederate camp that night, but no man could ho found who would venture to pilot the expedition up the mountain in the gloom. The troops bivouacked for the night, their leader determining to scale the heights in the morning, guide or no guide. At dawn the snow was falling so thickly that objects JAMES A. GARFIELD. 10\ only a few rods distant were scarcely visible. At nine o'clock Garlield made a feint with cavalry to deceive the Confederates with a belief that he was about to make a direct attack upon them, and to draw them out of their intrenchments. Then he set his infantry in motion. The ascent was long and toilsome, but they reached the sum- mit at last, where they paused for rest, two and a half miles from the Confederate garrison. Soon again in motion, they stealthily moved toward the enemy's post. Garfield led the way in a most fatiguing march of three hours. " We are within half a mile of their position," said Garfield to a subaltern standing near him, as they looked across a hollow in the mountain. " Yonder is their out- side picket ; but the way is clear ; if we press on at the double quick we have them." The little army had been piloted to this spot by a faithful guide, a mountaineer, seventy years of age. The picket had discovered the advancing column, and, firing his gun, he set out at the top of his speed for the in- trenchments. When within sight of the camp, a line was thrown down along the eastern slope of the mountain, and, pressing rapidly forward, was formed along the deep gorge through which the high-road passes. Up to this time the Confederates had been skirmishing with the cavalry in front of their breastworks; but now they gathered on the hill directly opposite the advanced posi- tion of the Union infantry. To try the range, Garfield sent a volley across the gorge, and, as the smoke cleared away, he saw the un- formed line melt like mist into the opposite forest. The enemy's position being now understood, the men of the 202 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Fortieth and Forty-Second Ohio were ordered to the al- ready formed left wing, and then along the line rang the words, "Press forward; scale the hill, and carry it with the bayonet ! " A ringing shout was the only answer, and then the long column swept down the ridge, across the ravine, through the Confederate camp, and up the opposite moun- tain. The enemy fell gradually back among the trees, but when the Union bayonets clambered the hill, they broke and ran in the wildest confusion. The Ohio men followed, firing as they ran, and for a few moments the mountain echoed with the sharp, quick reports of five hundred rifles; but pursuit in the dense forest was impos- sible, and soon the recall was sounded. In a fight of less than twenty minutes the Confeder- ates were utterly routed, and their camp, consisting of sixty log-houses, capable of accommodating twelve hun- dred men, and all their stores, were in the hands of the attacking party. After spending the night in these comfortable quar- ters, General Garfield burnt the camp, and all the stores which he could not carry away, and returned to Piketon without the loss of a man, having marched ever ninety miles in the worst of winter weather, and, with a handful of men, carried an almost impregnable position, defended by superior numbers. Only seven of his men were wounded ; but this well-nigh bloodless victory rid East Kentucky of Confederate rule forever. This was the only independent command ever held by .lames A. < iai-tield ; but l>y it he showed himself possessed of qualities which would, on a wider field, have ranked liini among the great commanders of the Union, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 203 CHAPTER IX. BATTLE OF SHILOH. BRAGG DRIVEN FROM TENNESSEE. On his return to Piketon from Pound Gap, General Garfield received orders to report to General Buell in person, with a greater part of his command, leaving a sufficient force to hold the Big Sandy region. Before the Pound Gap expedition he and General Rosecrans, the latter commanding in Western Virginia, had corresponded on the subject of the destruction of the East Tennessee and Virginia railway, then the only direct line of com- munication between the Gulf States and Richmond. They agreed upon the following plans, and recommended it to the War Department : General Rosecrans was to send a force up New River, in West Virginia, to cut the railroad near Newbern, while General Garfield was to pass through Pound Gap, and cut it at Abingdon, Virginia, and destroy the salt- works at that place. The two great Confederate armies of the East and the West were at that time fully occupied, and the destruction could have been made very complete. But toward the end of March orders were issued creating the Mountain Department for General Fremont ; Rose- crans was relieved, and Garfield was ordered to join General Buell. On his arrival at Louisville, General Garfield found that the Army of the Ohio was moving Southward to 204 THE BIO QUA PET OF join General Grant's forces at Pittsburg Landing, on the Tennessee River, and was already beyond Nashville. At Louisville he received an order to join Buell at Nashville. He pushed on, overtook his commanding General thirty miles below Columbia, and was there assigned to the command of the Twentieth Brigade, then a part of the Sixth Division (commanded by General T. J. "Wood), of the Army of the Ohio. For the purpose of executing a grand scheme for driving armed Confederates out of the Valley of the Mississippi, an effort was made, in the Spring of 1862, to seize Corinth, in Northern Mississippi, situated at the intersection of the Charleston and Memphis, and Mobile and Ohio railways. For the accomplishment of this design a large force had been placed under the command of General U. S. Grant, then fresh from his great victory at Fort Donelson. Grant had taken post at Pittsburg Landing, on the left bank of the Tennessee river, about twenty miles from Corinth, at the beginning of April, and General Buell was ordered to join him there. The possession of Corinth would give the National forces control of the great railway communications between the Mississippi river and the East, and the border Slave-labor States on the Gulf of Mexico. At that time General Beauregard was in command at Corinth. (uncial Sidney Johnston, when pressed by BaelTs Army back into Tennessee, perceiving the evi- dent design of Grant's movement, hastened across the country in a Southwesterly direction and joined the Confederate forces at Corinth with his whole army. To that point also came Confederate troops from beyond the Mississippi ; and at the beginning of April, 1862, they JAMES A. GARFIELD. 205 numbered there about forty-five thousand men. General Johnson, the senior in rank, was in chief command. At this time the greater portion of General Sherman's division was lying just behind Shiloh Meeting-House, not far from Pittsburg Landing, General Prentiss's division was encamped across the direct road to Corinth, and General McClernand's was behind his right. These three divisions formed the advanced line. In the rear of this, between it and the Landing, lay General Hurlbut's division, and that of General Smith under General W. H. L. Wallace. Stuart's brigade of Sherman's division, lay on the Hamburg road, near its crossing of Lick's Creek, on the extreme left. General Lew Wallace's division was at Crump's Landing, a few miles below. Such was the disposition of Grant's army on Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, when it was suddenly attacked, with great fury — really surprised — by the Confederates, who had crept stealthily up from Corinth during a dark and stormy night, and announced their presence by the thunders of their cannons and the screaming of their shells. A desperate battle ensued, which continued all flay. The Confederate leader, General Johnston, was slain by a piece of a bursting shell, and General Beaure- gard, his second in command, became the chief leader. The Confederates, superior in numbers, continually pressed the Nationals back toward the river, and when night fell the day was fairly lost to the Union troops. The Confederates occupied all their camps but one, and the Union army could not fall back any further unless' they plunged into the Tennessee River. Beauregard per- ceived this, and, sure of a great triumph, and ignorant of the near presence of reinforcements for the Nationals, he sent to Richmond the following telegraphic despatch : — 206 THE BIOGRAPHY OF " Battle-field of Shiloh, April 6, 1862 : We have this morning attacked the enemy in a strong position in front of Pittsburg, and after a severe battle of ten hours, thanks to Almighty God, gained a complete victory, driving the enemy from every position. The loss on both sides is heavy, including our commander-in-chief, General Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell gallantly leading his troops into the thickest of the fight." Buell's army had reached Savannah, below Pittsburg Landing, on the day before the battle. Towards evening on Sunday, its vanguard, composed of General Nelson's division, arrived opposite the Landing. All that night Buell's troops were arriving by land and water to rein- force the imperilled National army ; and, at intervals of ten or fifteen minutes, two gun-boats were hurling a heavy shell into the camps of the Confederates, wearying and worrying them with unceasing alarm. By these they were compelled to fall back from their position, from which they intended to spring upon the Nationals during the night, and they lost more than half the ground which they had gained by the falling back of the Unionists on Sunday afternoon. Early the next morning (April 7), in the midst of a drizzling rain, the battle was renewed, and raged fearfully for many hours. To the Ohio troops was given a position on the left of the National forces. Only the divisions of Nelson and Crittenden of Buell's army were well in hand at dawn. As fast as the others came up they went into action, and fought gallantly wherever they were required to meet the foe, driving them here and there. Garfield's brigade first got into action at a little past noon. He reached the front at about one o'clock, and led his troops in a charge soon afterwards. The Ohio troops JAMES A. GARFIELD. 207 had been fighting all the morning, showing the value of the discipline to which Buell had subjected them, for he was an admirable martinet. At no time during the day did the Ohio Army lose its cohesion. At times batteries were lost, but were always retaken, when the line pressed onwards, gaining ground inch by inch. McCook's division had been fighting the Confederate centre, pushing it back, step by step, until it was driven from its position. It was in front of this division that the Confederates, commanded by Beauregard in person, assisted by Bragg, Polk and Breckinridge, made their last decided stand in the woods beyond Sherman's old camp, near ShUoh Meeting-House. Two of General "Wood's brigades (one of them Garfield's) came up just before the Confederate lines gave way. They dashed upon the wav- ering columns in a gallant charge and sealed the doom of the Confederates. This charge, in which Garfield led his troops in the thickest of the fight, relieved the wearied men of the Army of the Ohio, who had borne the brunt of the battle for hours, and changed the fortunes of the day. General Lew Wallace's troops, who had entered the woods, now pressed steadily forward, while " step by step, from tree to tree, position to position," said that officer in a letter to the author of this volume, ' " the rebel lines went back, never stopping again — infantry, horses and artillery — all went back. The firing was grand and terrific. Before us was the Crescent regiment of Xew Orleans ; shelling us on the right was the Washing- ton artillery, of Manassas renown, whose last stand was in front of Colonel Whittlesey's command. To and fro, now in my front, then in Sherman's, rode General Beau- 208 TIIE BIOGRAPHY OF regard, inciting his troops, and fighting for his fading prestige of invincibility. The desperation of the struggle may be easily imagined. While this was in progress, far along the lines to the left the contest was raging with equal obstinacy. As indicated by the sounds, however, the enemy seemed retiring everywhere. Cheer after cheer rang through the woods, and each man felt the day was ours." Heavily pressed, the Confederates gave way, and flying through the National camps of Sunday morning, they burned their own, and with a powerful rear guard, under Breckinridge (ex-Vice-President of the United States), they hurried, in a cold, drizzling rain, which soon changed to hail, with their sick and wounded, in every conceivable conveyance, to the heights of Monterey, that nijrht, far on the road towards Corinth. That retreat must have been a terrible experience for the sick and wounded. An eye-witness of it wrote : " Here was a long line of wagons loaded with wounded, piled in like bags of grain, groaning and cursing, while the mules plunged on in mud and water, belly deep, the water sometimes coming into the wagons. Next came a straggling regimenl of infantry, pressing' on past the train of wagons ; then a stretcher borne upon the shoulders of four men, carrying a wounded officer ; then soldiers stag- gering along, with an arm broken and hanging down, or other fearful wounds which were enough to destroy life. 1 passed long wagonJ;rains, filled with wounded ami dying Boldiers, without even a blanket to shield them from the driving sleel and hail, which fell in stones as large ae partridge -eggs, until it lay on the ground two inches deep*. Some three hundred men died during that awful retreat, and their bodies were thrown out to make room for others, who, although wounded, had struggled JAMES A. GARFIELD. 209 on through the storm, hoping to find shelter, rest, and medical care." One of General Garfield's staff related the following incident, which occurred in camp just after the battle of Shiloh, which showed the effects of his anti-slavery edu- cation and his boldness in asserting his convictions upon the subject of slavery : "One day," says the officer, "I noticed a fugitive slave come rushing into camp with a bloody head, and greatly frightened. He hud only passed my tent a mo- ment when a regular bully of a fellow came riding up, and with a volley of oaths began to ask after his 'nigger.' General Garfield was not present, and he passed on to the division commander. This division commander was a sympathizer with the theory that fugitives should be re- turned to their masters, and that Union soldiers should be made the instruments for returning them. He accord- ingly wrote a mandatory order to General Garfield, in whose command the negro was supposed to be hiding, tell- ing him to hunt out and deliver over the property of the outraged citizen. I stated the case as fully as I could to General Garfield before handing him the order, but did not color my statement in any way. He took the order, and deliberately wrote on it the following indorsement : " ' 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 the search/ " I read the endorsement, and was alarmed. I ex- pected that, if it was returned, the result would be that, the General would be court-martialed. I told him my fears. He simply 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 far 210 THE BIOGRAPHT OF 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.' He would not alter the endorsement, and the order was returned. Noth- ing ever came of the matter further." Beauregard's army had been terribly smitten and de- moralized, and he had sent an imploring cry to Richmond for immediate help. The way seemed wide open for his immediate destruction, and Grant andBuell were eager to enter it, but General Halleck, the commander of both, counseled against pursuit. For about three weeks the combined armies of the Tennessee and Ohio, not far from seventy -five thousand strong, rested among the graves of the loyal and the disloyal (who fought with equal gallantry) on the field of Shiloh, while Beauregard, encouraged by this inaction, was calling to his standard large re-enforce- ments, and was casting up around the important post of Corinth a line of fortifications not less than fifteen miles in extent. Halleck came from St. Louis and joined the National army. He was a dead weight upon its movements. He did not begin regular siege operations before Corinth until the 20th of May. Meanwhile, some military operations were going on in the vicinity. When he was ready to make a grand assault on Corinth on the morning of May 29th, Beauregard was gone, with all his troops, and whatever he could send away. The possession of Corinth was now an easy matter to win. It gave great advantage to the National cause. In all the military operations between Shiloh and Cor- inth, and in the vicinity of the latter, General Garfield's JAMES A. GARFIELD. 213 brigade took ail active part. When Buell turned east- ward, after the fall of Corinth, and sought to prepare for a new aggressive campaign, lie assigned to General Gar- field the duty of rebuilding the bridges and reopening the Charleston and Memphis railway from Corinth to Decatur. Garfield made his headquarters at Hunts ville, Ala- bama, one of the most healthful regions south of the Ten- nessee River, but there was sufficient malaria in the atmos- phere there to reawaken the elements of fever and ague which he had taken into his system during his four months' duty on a canal tow-path in his early youth. He re- turned home on sick leave at the beginning of August. While on his way homeward, General Garfield was overtaken by an order from the Secretary of War (Stan- ton, who had a very high opinion of him not only as a military commander, but as a wise and judicious man) to repair to Cumberland Gap and succeed General George W. Morgan in command there. Garfield was too ill to comply. On reaching home, he was confined to his bed for some time. In obedience to further orders from the Secretary, he reported to him in person at Washington, late in September, when he was assigned, soon afterward, a place as a member of a Court of Inquiry to investigate charges against General McDowell. On the 8th of November General Garfield was ordered to report for duty to General Hunter, to take part in a projected expedition to South Carolina. As the second of these orders superseded the first, so a third soon super- seded the second. On November 25 (1862) he was detailed as a member of the General Court-Martial for the trial of General Fitz-John Porter, and he served during all its 214 THE BIOGRAPHY OF sessions. General Hunter was President of that court, and he became bo deeply impressed with the rare excel- lence of Grarfield's character in every phase, that he greatly desired he might yet be his coadjutor or on duty with him in the South. But that appointment was re- voked early in January, 18G3, and he was ordered (January 14) to join General AW S. Ilosecrans, then in command of the Army of the Cumberland. General Kosecrans had just achieved a splendid victory at Murfreesborough and his army yet occupied that battle- field. When Garfield presented himself at headquarters he was rather coldly received. Ilosecrans had conceived a prejudice against him because of his well-known radical anti-slavery views^ for tHe hero of Murfreesborough was rather pro-slavery in feeling. He regarded Garfield as a mischievous "political preacher," and did not desire such a character on his staff or under his command. A few days of frank intercourse with General Garfield revealed to Ilosecrans the absurdity of his apprehensions. He had kept him at headquarters to study his character, and the more he studied the better he liked him. Ilose- crans soon perceived the prodigiousness of his resources and admired his manliness and frankness ; and he offer- ed him his choice, confirmation as chief of staff, or the command of a brigade. Garfield chose the former, and was Immediately installed " Chief of Staff " in the full meaning of that word in the armies of Europe, and took the place of the accomplished Colonel Gancsche v whose head had been shot ofi while riding by the side of hie < General in the late battle. This appointment gave general satisfaction, not only to tin- Army of the Cumberland, but to all military circles JA3TKR A. GARFIELD. 215 and the country at large. Edmund Kirke has drawn the following picture of General Garfield at the time when he entered upon his duties as Chief of General Kosecrans' Staff: "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, slightly tinged with gray, and a high, broad forehead, rising into a ridge over the eyes, as if it had been thrown up by a plow. There was something singularly engaging in his open, ex- pressive face, and his whole appearance indicated, as the phrase goes, '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." The Army of the Cumberland was compelled by abso- lute necessity to remain at Murfreesborough, until near the close of June, 1863. During that time, Garfield's labors in his new position were prodigious and important, and before he left the service in September following, he wielded more influence over his commander than any other officer in the Army of the Cumberland. Eosecrans afterwards said : " "We were together until the Chattanooga affair. I 216 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF found him to be a competent and efficient officer, an ear- nest and devoted patriot, and a man of the highest honor. His views were large, and he was possessed of a thoroughly comprehensive mind." Early in the spring, General Garfield directed Captain D. . I »<> you think an advance of our army at present likely to prevent additional re-enforcements being sent againsl General Grant by the enemy in our front? ■• I. Do you think an ipnmediate advance of this army advisable? JAMES A. GARFIELD. 219 " 5. Do you think an early advance advisable? " Many of the answers to these questions are not cate- gorical, and cannot bo clearly sot down either as affirmative or negative. Especially in answer to the first question there is much indefiniteness, resulting from the difference of juJ^nent as to how great a detachment could be con- sidered a ' material reduction ' of Bragg's strength. For example : one officer thinks it has been reduced ten thou- sand, but 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 Answer to second question 2 11 Answer to third question 4 10 Answer to fourth question 15 Answer to fifth question 2 " On the fifth question, three give 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 bend- ing 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 effects on our lines of communication, and on politics in the loyal States. "2. We should be compelled to fight the enemy on his own ground, or follow him in a fruitless stern chase ; or if we attempted to outflank him and turn his position, we should expose our line of communication, and run the 220 THE BIOGRAPHY OF 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 ac- cepting 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 Ten- nessee river, where he would be measurely secure, and free to send re-enforcements to Johnston. His forces in Kast Tennessee could seriously harass our left flank, and constantly disturb our communications. " 4. The withdrawal of Burnside's Ninth Army Corps deprive us of an important reserve and flank protection, thus increasing the difficulty of an advance. "5. General Hurlbut has sent the most of his forces away to General Grant, thus leaving "West Tennessee un- covered, 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 a 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 ■ >f 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 in- activity 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 "f <>ur 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, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 221 gathered from all the data 1 have been able to obtain, in- cluding 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 organiza- tions, and at the time of his sending re-enforcements to Johnston, his army had reached its greatest effective strength. It consisted of five divisions of infantry, com- posed of ninety-four regiments and two independent battalions of sharp-shooters ; say ninety-five regiments. By a law of the Confederate Congress, regiments are con- solidated 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 " say 500 " 17,500 Artillery, 26 Batteries, say 100 " 2,600 Total 58,100 " 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 McCown'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 McCown'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 tot THE BIOGRAPHY OV cavalry have been sent from Van Dorn's command to Mis- sissippi, and it is asserted in the Chattanooga Rebel of June 1 1th, 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 — G 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 present 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 -till more improbable, that Bragg would abandon all his rear poets, 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 June 11, and shows that we have in this department, omitting all officers and enlisted men attached to depart- ment, corps, division, and brigade headquarters : — "I. Infantry — One hundred and seventy-three regi- < M battalions sharp-shooters ; four battalions pio- and one regiment engineers and mechanics, with a JAMES A. GARFIELD. 223 total effective strength of seventy thousand nine hundred and eighteen. " 2. Cavalry — Twenty-seven regiments and one un- attached 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 rep- resents eighty-two thousand seven hundred and sixty- seven bayonets and sabres. " This report does not include the Fifth Iowa Cav- alry, 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 Kosecrans.' " There are detached from this force as follows : At Gallatin 969 At Carthage 1,149 At Fort Donelson 1.485 At Clarksville 1,138 At Nashville ~> •'-' « At Franklin 900 At Lavergne 2,117 Total 15,050 " With these posts as (hey are, and leaving two thou- sand 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 throw against Bragg's forty-one thousand six hundred and eighty. " I beg leave, also, to submit the following considera- tions : 884 THE BIOGRAPHY OF " 1. Bragg's army is now weaker than it has been since the battle of Stone River, or is likely to be again for the present, while our army has reached its maximum strength, and we have no right to expect re-enforcements for several months, if at all. "2. Whatever be the result at Vicksburg, the deter- mination of its fate will give large re-enforcements 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 certainty the result of any battle, however great thedisparity in numbers. Such results are in the hand of God. But, viewing 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 male rial of war, and the abandonment of the rich and abundant harvest now nearly ripe in Central Tennes- see, he would lose heavily by desertion. It is well known thai a widespread dissatisfaction exists among his Ken- tueky 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 communications, it would give ufl possession of McMinnville, and enable us to threaten Chattanooga and Easl Tennessee ; and it would ii"i be unreasonable t" expect an early occupation of the former place. "5. Bui the chances are i *e than ever thai a sud- den and rapid movemenl would compel a general engage- g o O o B JAMES A. GARFIELD. 23? ment, 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 ;igainst the enemy at this time of the highest importance to the success of the Government at the polls, and in the enforcement of the Conscription Act. " 7. The Government and the War Department believe that this army ought to move upon the enemy. The army desires 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. We have, in my judgment, wisely delayed a gen- eral 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 these reasons I believe an immediate advance of ail our forces is advisable, and, under the providence of God, will be successful. "Very respectfully, your obedient servant, [Signed] J. A. Gakfield, Brigadier- General, Chief of Staff. " Major-General Roseceans, Commanding Department Cumberland." This report was effective. It satisfied General Rose- crans that he was then competent to make an aggressive movement. It gave him information of which he was ignorant ; and orders were immediately issued for the Army to prepare to move forward. Twelve days after the reception of that report the initial step in the Campaign of Tullahoma was taken. This movement gave umbrage to some of the seven- 228 THE BIOGRAPHY OF teen Generals who had opposed an advance. On the morning when the Army moved, General Thomas L. Crittenden said to the Chief of Staff, " It is understood, Sir, by the general officers of the army, that this move- ment is your work. I wish you to understand that it is a rash and fatal move, for which you will be held responsible." The " rash and fatal move " was the Tullahoma Cam- paign, the complete success of which in the destruction of Bragg's army was prevented only by the delays which had too long postponed the movement, and the terrible season of rains which set in on the very morning of the advance, June 24, 1863. With a week's earlier start, Bragg and his ar,my would never have reached Chattanooga. As it was he was compelled to fly from Tennessee, and forced to give battle in Northern Georgia. "I had the satisfaction," said Garfield to a friend, " of having these Generals acknowledge, at the end of the campaign, that they were wrong and that I was right."- When Rosecrans reached Tullahoma, the old difficul- ties with the War Department were renewed. The General was unfortunate in showing irritability of temper in answering complaints of the War Department; and Gtarfield did his best to allay the ill-feeling which prom- ised to arise. With the general policy of the commanding General, he sympathized. Lndeed, it was his own policy ; and when, on August 5, General Ilalleck telegraphed a peremptory order for ttosecrans to move, Garfield persuaded his General not to reply, but endeavor to obey ion as possible. Rosecrans quietly waited till the dispositions along his extended line were completed ; till Btores were accumulated and the corn had ripened, so JAMES A. GARFIELD. 229 that his horses might be made to " live off the country." He was ready to move on the 15th of August. The army, in separate divisions, moved forward sim- ultaneously toward the Tennessee river in pursuit of Bragg, with the intention of crossing that stream at various points and capturing Chattanooga. From the Sequatchie Valley Crittenden sent two brigades of mounted men under Minty and Wilder, and two of in- fantry under Hazen and Wagner, over Walden's Ridge, to proceed to points on the Tennessee, near and above Chattanooga, to make a feigned attack. General Ilazen was in chief command of these four brigades in the Ten- nessee Valley, and was instructed to watch all the cross- ings of the river for seventy miles above Chattanooga, and to give Bragg the impression that the whole of Rose- crans' army was about to cross near that town. Hazen's command had four batteries of artillery. In the course of four or five days the mountain ranges were crossed, and the Army of the Cumberland, stretch- ing along the line of the Tennessee River for more than a hundred miles of its course, was preparing to cross that stream at different points, for the purpose of closing around Chattanooga, to crush or starve the Confederate army there. Pontoon-boat, raft and trestle bridges were constructed at Shellmound, the mouth of Battle Creek, Bridgeport, Caperton's Ferry, and Bellefonte. So early as the 20th (August, 1863), Hazen reconnoitered Harri- son's, above Chattanooga, and then took post at Poe's cross-roads, fifteen miles from the latter place ; and on the following day, Wilder's cannon thundering from the eminences opposite Chattanooga, and the voice of his shells screaming over the Confederate camp, startled 280 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Bragg with a sense of imminent danger. At the same time Ilazeu was making " show marches," displaying camp fires at different points, and causing the fifteen regiments of his command to appear like the advance of an immense army. This menace was soon followed by information that Thomas and McCook were preparing to cross below, and that the remainder of Crittenden's corps was swarm- ing on the borders of the river, at the foot of Walden's Ridge, below Chattanooga. Having passed the first mountain ranges south of the Tennessee, without opposition, and being informed of the movements of the Confederates from East Tennessee to Chattanooga, Rosecrans determined to advance his right through the Lookout Mountain passes, and with his cav- alry on his extreme right, threaten Bragg's railway com- munications between Dalton and Resaca Bridge, while his left and centre should move through other passes upon the Confederate front. Anticipating this movement, when he discovered that the main National Army was below, Bragg abandoned Chattanooga, passed through the gaps of the Missionaries' Ridge, to the west of Chicka- mauga river, in Georgia, and posted his army along the highway from Lee and Gordon's Mill on that stream, south to the village of Lafayette. The fact of this retreat was revealed to General Crit- tenden, when, on the 9th (September, 1863), with the main body «»f his corps, which had crossed the Tennessee at and above Bridgeport, he made a reconnoissance on Lookout Mountain, and from its lofty summit, near Sum- mcrtown, looked down upon Chattanooga, where no tent or banner of the enemy might be seen, lie at once moved his corps around the point of Lookout Mountain, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 231 to enter and take possession of the deserted village, and on the evening of the following day it encamped at Ross- ville, within five miles of Chattanooga. Thus, without a battle, the chief object of the grand movement of the Army of the Cumberland over the mountains was gained. 382 THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER X. BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. END OF GARFIELD'S MILITARY CAREER. The Army of the Cumberland was now the centre of absorbing interest to the Government and to the loyal people. Bragg's was of like interest to the Confederates, and they spared no effort to give him strength sufficient to drive Rosecrans back toward the Cumberland or cap- ture his army. General Buckner, who was with a force in East Tennessee, was ordered to join Bragg. General Johnston sent him a strong brigade from Mississippi, un- der General Walker, and the thousands of prisoners pa- roled by Grant and Banks at Yicksburg and Port Hud- son, who were' falsely declared by the Confederate au- thorities to be exchanged, and were released from parole, were, in shameful violation of the terms of the surrender and the usages of civilized nations, sent to Bragg to swell his ranks, while every man that it was possible to draw from Georgia and Alabama by a merciless conscription was mustered into the service to guard bridges, depots, etc., so that every veteran might engage in battle. In this way Bragg was rapidly gathering a large force in front of Pigeon Mountain, near Lafayette, Georgia, while Longstreet was making his way up from Atlanta, to swell the volume of the Confederate army to full eighty thou- sand mill. Longstivet, whom Lee had sent into East Ten- nessee, finding General Burnside in his way, had passed JAMES A. GARFIELD. 233 down through the Carolinas, with his corps, to Augusta, Georgia, thence to Atlanta, and then up the railway toward Chattanooga. Deceived by Bragg's movements — uninformed of the fact that Lee had sent troops from Virginia to re-enforce him, impressed with the belief that he was retreating toward Rome, and ambitious of winning renown by cap- turing his foe, or driving him in confusion to the Gulf — Rosecrans, instead of concentrating his forces at Chatta- nooga, and achieving a great as well as an almost blood- less victory, scattered them over an immense space of rough country, to operate on the rear and flank of what he supposed to be a flying adversary. He ordered Crit- tenden to call his four brigades from across the river, near Chattanooga, and leaving one of them there to garrison the town, push on to the East Chickamauga Valley and the railway to Ringgold or Dalton, to intercept the march of Bnckner from East Tennessee, or strike the Confederate rear, as circumstauces might determine. General George H. Thomas, who had just passed through Stevens's and Cooper's gaps of Lookout Moun- tain into McLemore's Cove, was directed to push through Dug Gap of Pigeon Mountain, and fall upon the sup- posed flank of the Confederates at Lafayette. At the same time McCook was to press on farther south, to Broomtown Valley, to turn Bragg's left. These move- ments were promptly made, and revealed the alarming truth to Rosecrans. His cavalry on the right, supported by McCook's corps, descended Lookout Mountain, recon- noitered Broomtown Valley as far as Alpine, and dis- covered that Bragg had not retreated on Rome. Critten- den moved rapidly to Ringgold, where, on pushing 384 TIIE BIO OR APE Y OF Wilder forward to Tunnel Hill, near Buzzard's Roost (where he .skirmished heavily), it was discovered that the Confederates, in strong force, were on his front and men- acing his communications; and when Negley, with his division of Thomas's corps, approached Dug Gap, he found it securely guarded by a force so overwhelming, that when, on the following morning, Baird came to his aid, both together could make no impression, and they fell back to the main body. Rosecrans was at last satisfied that Bragg, instead of fleeing before him, was gathering force at Lafayette, op- posite his centre, to strike a heavy blow at the scattered Army of the Cumberland. He saw, too, that its posi- tion was a perilous one. Its wings, one at Lee and Gordon's Mill, on the Chickamauga, and the other at Alpine, were full forty miles apart, and offered Bragg a rare opportunity to terribly cripple, if not destroy or capture, his foe. But the golden opportunity for the Confederates soon passed. Rosecrans, on perceiving the danger to his army, issued orders for the concentration of his forces in the Chickamauga Valley, in the vicinity of Crawfish Spring, about half way between Chattanooga and Lafayette. Crittenden, alarmed by threatened danger to his com- munications, had already made a rapid flank movement in that direction, from Ringgold, covered by Wilder's brig- ade, which was compelled to skirmish heavily on the way With Confederate cavalry, under Pegram and Armstrong. Thomas crossed the upper end of the Missionaries' Ridge, and moved toward the Spring; and McCook, after much difficulty in moving up and down Lookout Mountain, joined Thomas on the 17th. Granger's reserves were JAMES A. GARFIELD. 235 called up from Bridgeport, and encamped at Kossville ; a division under General Steedman was ordered up from the Nashville and Chattanooga Kailway, and a brigade, led by Colonel D. McCook, came from Columbia. On the night of Friday, the 18th (September, 1863), when it was positively known to Rosecrans that troops from Virginia were joining Bragg, the concentration of his army was completed, excepting the reserves at Koss- ville and cavalry at Blue Bird's Gap of Pigeon Mountain, and at Dougherty's Gap, that separates the latter from Lookout Mountain. The divisions of Wood, Tan Cleve, Palmer, Reynolds, Johnson, Baird, and Brannan, about thirty thousand in number, formed the first line, ranging from Lee and Gordon's Mill northward; and the re- mainder were posted on the right, in reserve. Minty and Wilder, with their mounted men, were on the extreme left, watching the crossings of the roads from Ringgold and Napier Gap, at Reed's and Alexander's bridge. Meanwhile, Bragg had been making dispositions for attacking Rosecrans's left. His scouts, looking down from Pigeon Mountain, had observed the exact position of the Army of the Cumberland, and the Confederate leader had the advantage of knowing the strong and weak points of his foe, while his own position was more than half con- cealed. Bragg concentrated his army on the eastern side of the Chickamauga, and, early on the morning of the 18th, when the advance of Longstreet's corps, under Hood, was coming up, he massed his troops heavily on his right, attacked Minty and Wilder, who fought gal- lantly at the bridges, and pushed the National left back to the Lafayette and Rossville road. Early in the even- ing, Hood, with a division, took post on Bragg's extreme 236 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF right. Bushrod Johnson's Virginians took a firm position on the west side of the ereek, and, before midnight, nearly two-thirds of the Confederates had crossed over, and held all the fords of the Chickamauga, from Lee and Gordon's Mill, far toward the Missionaries' Ridge. Such was the position of the contending armies when the battle of Chickamauga began on the morning of September 19, 1863. Bragg had formed his army into two corps, the right commanded by General (Bishop) Polk, and the left by General Longstreet, Hood taking the place of the latter until the arrival of his chief. Arrangements were made for crossing the Chickamauga at different points simul- taneously, from Lee and Gordon's Mill northward, in heavy force, so as to fall with crushing weight on the National left, while the front should be hard pressed, and the passes of Pigeon Mountain well-guarded by "Wheeler's cavalry, to prevent a flank attack from that direction. But the wise movements of the Nationals, toward the next morning, disconcerted Bragg's well-laid plans, and instead of finding Bosecrans comparatively weak on his left, he found him positively strong. ( reneral Bosecrans changed its position slightly to the rear, and contracted the extended lines of the previous day. Trains were moving northward on all the roads in the rear of Chattanooga, and the wounded were taken from the hospitals, which had become exposed by the concentration of the forces to the left. General Thomas still held the left, with the divisions of Generals Palmer and Johnston attached to his corps, and thrown in the cent i-.'. General Brannan was retired slightly, with his regiments arrayed in echelon. General Van Cleve was james A. Garfield. 237 held in reserve ou the - west side of the first road in the rear of the line. Generals Wood, Davis, and Sheridan followed next, the last being on the extreme left. Gen- eral Lytle occupied an isolated position at Gordon's Mills. By a continuous night-march up the Dry Valley road General Thomas, with his heavy corps, followed by a part of McCook's troops, had reached an assigned position on a southern spur of Missionaries' Ridge, near Kel ley's Farm, on the Rossville and Lafayette road, facing the burnt bridges of Reed and Alexander ; and there, a mile or two to the left of Crittenden's corps, he proposed to strike early on the morning of the 19th (September) without waiting to be struck. General Thomas was informed by Colonel D. McCook, who, with his brigade of reserves, had been holding the front at that point during the night, that a Confederate brigade was on that side of the Chickamauga, apparently alone, and that as he (McCook) had destroyed Reed's bridge behind them, he thought they might easily be cap- tured. Thomas at once ordered General Brannan to advance with two brigades on the road to Reed's bridge, while Baird should throw forward the right of his divi- sion on the road to Alexander's bridge, and in that man- ner attempt to capture the isolated brigade. This brought on a battle. While Thomas's troops were making the prescribed movements, a portion of Palmer's division of Crittenden's corps came up and took post on Baird' s right ; and at about ten o'clock in the morning Croxton's brigade of Brannan's division became sharply engaged with Forrest's cavalry, which was strongly supported by the infantry bri- 233 THE BIOGRAPHY OF gades of Ector and Wilson, from "Walker's column. Back upon these Croxton had driven Forrest, when the latter was stoutly resisted. Then Thomas sent Baird's division to aid Croxton, and after a desperate struggle the Confeder- ates were hurled back with much slaughter. Walker now threw Liddle's division into the fight, making the odds much against the Nationals, when the latter were in turn driven ; and the pursuers, dashing through the lines of three regiments of regulars (Four- teenth, Sixteenth, and Eighteenth United States troops), captured two batteries and over five hundred prisoners. One of the batteries lost was Loomis's, of Michigan, which had done so much service from the beginning: of the war, that the very metal and wood were objects of affection. In the charge of the Confederates all its horses and most of its men were killed or wounded. Its commander, Lieutenant Van Pelt, refused to leave it, and he died by the side of his *guns, fighting a regiment of men with his single saber. At the critical moment when this charge was made, Johnson's division of McCook's corps, and Reynolds's, of Thomas's, came rapidly up, and were immediately thrown into the fight. So also was Palmer's division of Critten- den's corps, which took position on Baird's right. The Nationals now outnumbered and outflanked the Con fed- erates, attacked them furiously, and drove them back in great disordi r \'<>r a mile and a half on their reserves near the creek, and killing General Preston Smith. By this charge the lost battery was recovered, and Uranium and Baird were enabled to re-form their shattered columns. The position of the Confederates on the creek, between the two bridges already mentioned, was SO strong that it IE (PEOPLE I^EJlQlJia THE OFFICIAL BULLET1JI8 £Y EQISOJIS ELECTBIQ LIGHT. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 241 was not deemed prudent to assail it. Then there was a lull in the battle for an hour, during which Brannan and Baird took position on commanding ground between McDaniers house and Reid's bridge, with orders to hold it to the last extremity. It was now about four o'clock in the afternoon. At five o'clock the Confederates renewed the battle, by throwing the divisions of Liddle and Gist in heavy charges upon Reynolds's right, and while Thomas was try- ing to concentrate his forces, they fell with equal fury on Johnson, Baird, and Yan Cleve, producing some con- fusion, and threatening the destruction of that part of the line. Fortunately, Gen. Hazen had been sent back to the Rossville road to take charge of a park of artillery, composed of four batteries, containing twenty guns, which had been left there without guards. These Hazen quickly put into position on a ridge, with such infantry supports as he could hastily collect, and brought them to bear upon the Confederates, at short range, as they dashed into the road in pursuit of the flying Nationals. This caused them to recoil in disorder, and thereby the day was saved on the left. Just at sunset General Cleburne made a charge upon Johnson's front with a division of Hill's corps, and pressed up to the National lines, but secured no positive advantage. There had been some lively artillery work on the National right during the day, and in an attack by three of Bragg's brigades in succession, one of the National batteries (three guns) was for a time in possession of the foe. But the assailants were soon driven back, and the guns were recovered. At three o'clock in the afternoon Hood threw two of his divisions (his own and that of 242 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Bushrdd Jolinson) upon Davis's division of McCook's corps, pushing it back and capturing the Eighth Indiana ;v. Davis fought with great pertinacity until near sunset, when Bradley's brigade, of Sheridan's division, came to his aid. Then a successful counter-charge was made, the foe was driven back, the battery was retaken, and a number of prisoners were captured from the Con- federates. When night fell the battle ceased, with ap- parent advantage to the Nationals. They had lost no ground ; had repulsed the assailants at all points, and made a net gain of three guns. But they were clearly outnumbered. Nearly the whole army had been engaged in the struggles of the day, and no re-enforcements were near. The Confederates had not many fresh reserves; and that night Hindman came up with his division, and Longstreet arrived with two brigades of McLaws's vet- erans from Virginia. Longstreet took command of Bragg's left ; and on the morning of the 20th (Septem- ber, 1863), the Confederates had full seventy thousand men opposed to fifty-five thousand Nationals. Preparations were now made for a renewal of the struggle in the morning, which Rosecrans knew must be severe. After hearing the reports of his corps command- ers, he ordered General Negley, who had come down from the extreme right during the afternoon and fought his way to Van Clove's side, to report to General Thomas early in the morning. McCook was ordered to replace Negley's troops by one of his own divisions, and to close up well on Thomas, bo as to cover the position at the Widow Glenn's house, at which the latter now had his headquarters Crittenden was ordered to hold two of his divisions in reserve, ready to support McCook or JAMES A. GARFIELD, US Thomas, as circumstances might require. These orders were issued at an early hour, and the remainder of the night was spent in needed repose. Bragg had likewise made preparations for a vigorous attack at dawn. Longstreet arrived at eleven o'clock in the evening, and immediately received his instructions as commander of the left, where his own troops were stationed ; and Polk was ordered to assail the Nationals at daylight, and " to take up the attack in succession rapidly to the left. The left wing w T as to await the attack by the right, and take it up promptly when made, and the whole line was then to be pushed vigorously and persistently against the enemy throughout its extent." The battle was to have been opened at daylight by Hill, whose corps was to fall upon the National left. Before that hour Bragg was in the saddle, and he waited with great impatience for the sound of battle when day dawned, for he had heard the noise of axes and the falling of trees during the night, indicating that his adversary was intrenching. But Polk was silent, and when Bragg rode to the right, he found that the right reserve leader had not even prepared for the movement. Bragg now renewed his orders, but another golden oppor- tunity for him was lost. At the hour appointed for the attack, Thomas was comparatively weak, for Negley had not yet joined him, and Rosecrans, riding along his lines at dawn, had found his troops on his left not so concentrated as he wished. This defect was speedily remedied. Under cover of a dense fog that shrouded the whole country, reinforce- ments joined Thomas, until nearly one-half the Army of 244 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF the Cumberland present was under his command, behind breastworks of logs, rails and earth. When the fog lifted, between eight and nine o'clock, September 20, Breckinridge, of Hill's corps, with fresh divisions, was found facing and partly overlapping Thomas's extreme left, held by Baird, and flanking it. Breckinridge instantly advanced, and, fighting desperately, pushed across the Rossville road toward a prescribed position. Other divisions in succession toward Bragg's centre followed this example, the intention being to carry out the original plan of interposing an overwhelming force between Rosecrans and Chattanooga, which Thomas had prevented the previous day. At this moment Beatty's brigade of Negley's division, moving from the National right centre, went into action by the side of Baird, on the extreme left, and checked Breckinridge's advance ; but both he and Baird were outnumbered, and the latter began to lose ground. Several regiments of Johnson's division were pushed forward to his support, and these, with Yandever's brigade of Brannan's division, and a part of Stanley's, of Wood's division, so strength- ened the wavering line, that Breckinridge was thrown back in much disorder, with the loss of Generals Helm and Deshler, killed, his chief of artillery (Major Graves) mortally wounded, and General D. Adams severely so. He rallied his troops on a commanding ridge, with his gnus well posted, and then fought desperately, re-enforced from time to time by the divisions of Walker, Cheatham, Cleburne, and Stewart. Fearfully the battle raged at that point, with varying fortunes for the combatants. The carnage on both sides was frightful, and for awhile it was douhtful with whom the palm of victory JAMES A. GARFIELD. 245 would be left. Thomas had given an order for the massing of cannon on the Missionaries' Ridge, just west of the State Road, as strongly supported by infantry as possible, to command Breckinridge's artillery, and sweep the ground to the left and rear of Baird, but it seems to have been misunderstood, and the work was not done. Yet the attempt to turn the National flank was not accomplished, for Thomas and his veterans stood like a wall in the way, and the assailants had much to do to maintain the battle nearer the centre, where the conflict was, for awhile, equally desperate, bloody and decisive. While the struggle was going on at the left and left centre, the right became involved in disaster. The divisions of Negley and Tan Cleve moved successively, after the battle had begun, to the support of Thomas. Wood was directed to close up to Reynolds on the right centre, and Davis to close on Wood. McCook, commanding on that wing, was ordered to close down on the left with all possible speed. These dangerous movements were now made disastrous by the blunder of an incompetent staff officer, who was sent with orders to Wood. The latter understanding that he was directed to support Reynolds, then hard pressed, pulled out of the line and passed to the rear of Brannan, who was en echelon, slightly in the rear of Reynolds's right. This left a gap, which Longstreet quickly saw, and before Davis, by McCook's order, could till it with three light brigades, he thrust Hood into it. The latter, with Stewart, charged furiously, with Buck- ner supporting him by a simultaneous advance on the National right. Hood's column now struck Davis on the right, and Brannan on the left, and Sheridan in the rear, severing 246 THE BIOGRAPHY OF the army by isolating five brigades, which lost full forty per cent, of their numbers. The whole right wing of the Nationals was so shattered by this charge, that it began crumbling, and was soon seen flying in disorder toward Rossville and Chattanooga, leaving thousands be- hind, killed, wounded, or prisoners. This turbulent and resistless tide carried along with it Rosecrans, Crittenden, McCook, and other commanders, while Sheridan and Davis, who were driven over to the Dry Valley road, rallying their shattered divisions, re-formed them by the way, and, with McCook, halted and changed front at Rossville, with a determination to defend the pass at all hazards against the pursuers. Rosecrans, unable to join Thomas, and believing the whole army would be speedily hurrying pell-mell toward Chattanooga, with exultant vic- tors in their rear, pushed into that place, to make pro- vision for holding it, if possible. Thomas, meanwhile, ignorant of the disaster that had befallen the right, was maintaining his position most gal- lantly, little suspecting, however, that he must soon confront a greater portion of Bragg's army. He had sent Captain Kellogg, at a little past noon, to hasten the march of Sheridan, whose support had been promised, and he had returned with tidings that a large Confederate force was approaching cautiously, with skirmishers thrown out, to the rear of Reynolds's position. Thomas sent General JIaikcr, whose brigade was on a ridge in the direction of this reported advance, to resist them, which he did. In the meantime, General Wood came up, and was directed to post his troops on the left of Brannan, then in the rear of Thomas's line of battle on a slope of the Missionaries' Ridge, a little west of the Rossville road, where Captain JAMES A. GARFIELD. 247 Gaw, by Thomas's order,,, had massed all the artillery he could find in reserve, and brought as many infantry to its support as possible. To that position Thomas now with- drew from his breastworks and concentrated his command. Wood had barely time to dispose his troops on the left of Brannan, before they were furiously attacked, the Confederates keeping up the assault by throwing in fresh troops as fast as those in their front were repulsed. Meanwhile, General Gordon Granger, who, at Rossville, with a reserve force, had heard the roar of guns where Thomas was posted, had moved to his support, without orders, and appeared on his left flank at the head of Steed- man's division of his corps. He was directed to push on and take position on Brannan's right, when Steed man gal- lantly fought his way to the crest of the hill at the ap- pointed place, and then, turning his artillery upon the assailants, drove them down the southern slope' of the ridge with great slaughter. The Confederates soon returned to the attack, with a determination to drive the Nationals from the ridge. They were in overwhelming force, and pressed Thomas in front and on both flanks. Finally, when they were moving along a ridge and in a gorge, to assail his right in flank and rear, Granger formed the brigades of Whit- taker and Mitchell into a charging party, and hurled them against the Confederates, of whom General Hind- man was the commander, in the gorge. They were led by Steedman, who, seizing a regimental flag, headed the charge. Victory followed. In the space of twenty minutes Hindman and his Confederates disappeared, and the Nationals held both ridge and gorge. The latter had lost heavily. Steedman's horse was killed, and he was 248 THE BIOGRAPHY OF badly bruised by a fall, and Whittaker was stunned by a bullet and fell from his horse. There was now a lull of half an hour. It was the deep calm before the bursting of the tempest. A greater por- tion of the Confederate army was swarming around the foot of the ridge, on which stood Thomas with the rem- nant of seven divisions of the Army of the Cumberland. Longstreet was then in immediate command of his own veterans, for Hood had lost a leg during the morning ; and to human vision there seemed no ray of hope for the Nationals. But Thomas stood like a rock, and assault after assault was repulsed, until the sun went down, when, by order of General Rosecrans, sent by General Garfield, his chief of staff (who reached the ridge at four o'clock), he commenced the withdrawal of his troops to Rossville. His ammunition was nearly exhausted. His men had not more than three rounds apiece when Steedman arrived, and furnished them with a small supply. This was con- sumed in the succeeding struggle. General Garfield and a company officer arrived at the headquarters of Thomas, and gave him the first trust- worthy information concerning the disaster to the centre and right of the army. They bore an order from Rose- crans to take command of all the forces, and, with Mc- Cook and Crittenden, to secure a strong position in Ross- ville and assume a threatening attitude. This was done by 'li visions, in succession, Reynolds's leading, and the whole covered by Wood's division. On the way Tur- chin's brigade charged upon a heavy body of Confed- erates, who were seeking to obstruct the movement. They were driven, with a loss of two hundred men, mad« prison JAMES A. GARFIELD. 249 So ended the Battle of Ciiiokamauga. There was no pursuit. The Nationals quietly took position in the Kossville and Dry Yalley gaps of the Missionaries' Ridge on the 20th. On the following morning a reconnoitering force of Confederates on the Ringgold road drove in Minty's cavalry, but did little harm. That evening the whole army withdrew in perfect order to a position as- signed it by Rosecrans, in front of Chattanooga, and, on the following day, Bragg advanced and took possession of Lookout Mountain and the whole of the Missionaries' Ridge. The Confederates won a victory on the field in the Battle of Chickamauga at a fearful cost to both armies, and without any other decisive result. Rosecrans might have held Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain, and the Mis- sionaries' Ridge, with his communications secure, without that fearful cost ; while Bragg, although he had reaped " glory," as the phrase is, on the battle-field, secured none of the harvest of solid victory, such as the capture or dispersion of the army of his adversary. " Rosecrans," said a Confederate historian, " still held the prize of Chat- tanooga, and with it the possession of East Tennessee. Two-thirds of our nitre-beds were in that region, and a large proportion of the coal which supplied our foun- dries. It abounded in the necessaries of life. It was one of the strongest countries in the world, so full of lofty mountains that it had been called, not unaptly, the Switzerland of America. As the possession of Switzer- land opened the door to the invasion of Italy, Germany, and France, so the possession of East Tennessee gave easy access to Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama." 250 THE BIOGRAPHY OF The troops engaged in this struggle were commanded by the following officers: National Troops. — Fourteenth Corps — General Thom- as, four divisions, commanded by Generals Baird, Negley, Brannan, and Reynolds. Twentieth Corps — General McCook, three divisions, commanded by Generals Davis, Johnston, and Sheridan. Twenty-first Corps — Three di- visions, commanded by Generals Wood, Palmer and Van Cleve. Reserved Corps — General Granger, two divisions, commanded by Generals Steedman and Morgan. The division of General R. S. Granger, of this corps, and two brigades of Morgan's division were not present. Cavalry Corps — General Stanley, two divisions, com- manded by Colonel E. M. McCook and General George Crooke. General Stanley being too sick to take the field, General R B. Mitchell commanded the cavalry in the battle of Chickamauga. Confederate Troops. — General J. Longstreet's corps, three divisions, commanded by Generals J. B. Hood, E. M. McLaws, and B. R Johnson. General L. Polk's corps, three divisions, commanded by Generals B. F. Cheatham, T. C. Hindniau, and P. Anderson. General l». 11. Hill's corps, two divisions, commanded by Gener- al- Patrick Cleburne (called the " Stonewall Jackson of the Southwest") and J. C. Breckinridge. General S. B. Buckner's corps, two divisions, commanded by Generals A. P. Stewarl and W. Preston. General W. II. T. Walker's cups, two divisions, commanded by Generals J. 11. Liddcll and S. R. Gist. General J. Wheeler's cavalry corps, two divisions, commanded by Generals S. A. Wharton and W. Martin. General N. B. Forrest's corps, two divisions, commanded by Generals F. Armstrong and J. Pegram. JAMES A. QARFIELT). 251 The National loss was reported at 16,326, of whom 1,687 were killed, 9,384 were wounded, and 5,255 were missing. The total loss of officers was 974. It is proba- ble the entire Union loss was full 19,000. Among the killed were General W. H. Lytle, of Ohio, Colonels Bald- win and Heg, commanding brigades, and Colonels E. A. King, Alexander, and Gilmer. The Confederate loss, ac- cording to a compilation made from the reports of Bragg's commanders, was 20,950, of whom 2,673 were killed, 16,274 were wounded, and 2,003 were missing. Rosecrans reported that he brought off the field 2,003 prisoners, 36 guns, 20 caissons, and 8450 small-arms, and that he lost in prisoners, including 2,500 of his wounded left on the field, 7,500. Bragg claimed to have captured over 8,000 prisoners, including the wounded, 51 guns, and 15,000 small-arms. The Confederates left a large number of the Union dead unburied. It is now agreed by military critics that the Nationals lost the honor and advantage of a great victory for their arms in the Battle of Chickamauga in consequence of a hastily-written order to General Wood, commanding the right wing. General Garfield wrote every order of his chief on that sanguinary battle-field excepting this one, not from dictation usually, but rather from the suggestions of his own judgment, afterward submitting what he had prepared to Rosecrans for approval or change. The fatal order was written by Rosecrans himself. The meaning of the order was correct, but the phraseology was so obscure that the division commander so interpreted it that obedience caused the destruction of the right wing of the arm v. It is probable that to Garfield's quick perceptions and 208 THE BIOGRAPHY OF unflinching bravery was due the salvation of the National army from utter ruin in that battle. When Wood, mis- interpreting the obscure order, opened the g;ip which al- lowed the Confederates to give the blow that broke apart the right and centre of the National line, and swept the commander-in-chief, the chief of staff, and a great mass of demoralized troops in a wild current toward Chattanooga, Garfield felt sure that Thomas, commanding the centre, was holding his own with his usual stubbornness. He implored Rosecrans to let him seek that centre and make that a rallying point from which to prevent utter rout by skillful and persistent lighting. Rosecrans cheerfully gave Garfield permission to go to Thomas. The brave young General, with a few order- lies and a company officer, set out on the perilous journey through tangled woods, over hills, across morasses, and ignorant as to where the Confederate picket lines might be. His brain was full of the latest events of the battle and terming with plans for the remaining work to be done. It has been well said, "His arrival at the head- quarters of Thomas was equal to a reinforcement by a corps." lie gave Thomas incalculable aid by his full knowledge of what had already occurred on the field. Hie intelligent advice and his a^^ressive enthusiasm well supplemented that of tin- brave Thomas, who, because of his impregnability won the name of "The Rock of Chickamauga.' 1 Garfield also won, on the same day, the commission of a Major-General <>!' Volunteers. The National Army tell hack to Chattanooga, where General Garfield performed Important service in its re-organization and preparation for further operations, ami in ihe defen.-e of the post againsf the Confederates. JAMES A. CAUFlF.l.D. 2M Having done this, lie was sent to Washing-ton to attempt to reconcile the differences between liosecrans and the Secretary of War (Stanton). There he first learned that he had been promoted to the rank and pay of a Major- General. General Garfield regarded with supreme repugnance the class of politicians who constituted the " Peace Party" of the radical stamp of Vallandigham, and who secretly gave " aid and comfort to the enemy " called " Copper- heads." In a letter to his friend Hinsdale, written at head-quarters at Murfreesborough on May 26, 1803, he wrote : "Tell all those copperhead students for me that, were I there in charge of the school, I would not only dishon- orably dismiss them from the school, but, if they re- mained in the place and persisted in their cowardly trea- son, I would apply to General Burnside to enforce General Order No. 38 in their cases. . . . " If those young traitors are in earnest they should go to the Southern Confederacy, where they can receive full sympathy. Tell them all that I will furnish them jiasses through our lines, where they can join Vallandigham and their other friends, till such time as they can destroy us and come back home as conquerors of their own people, or can learn wisdom and obedience. "I know this apparently is a small matter, but it is only apparently small. We do not know what the devel- opments of a month may bring forth, and, if such things be permitted at Hiram, they may anywhere. The Rebels catch up all such facts as sweet morsels of comfort, and every such influence lengthens the Avar and adds to the bloodshed." Before Garfield entered the military service, it had been determined among the leading Republicans of the 10 Till: BlOQRAPH) : v.- that he should be their representative in the next Congress. Elis districtwas the Ashtabula, presented by that Btannch anti-slavery champion, J R Giddings. Garfield's military genius was then undeveloped : but bis brilliant qualities as a statesman Ltd ahone forth in the Ohio State Senate. When he proved himself equally brilliant in the military service, it was difficult tor his friends to determine whether he would be most useful in the forum or in the field. tie was nominated for Congress without his knowledge, while in the military service. He accepted the nomination, be- lieving the war would soon be over, and in October, 1802, he was elected by an immense majority. After the battle of Chickamauga, and lie had risen to the rank of Major-General, the question whether he should remain in the service or enter Congress, presented itself for his serious consideration. lie was a poor man, ami the pay of a Major-General was much greater than that of a member of Congress. His Government and the War Department regarded him as one of the most useful men in the army, and a grand held of honorable service lay before him. Bu1 could he justly refuse to till the equally honorable place in the councils of the nation, to which his constituents had called him and he had power to serve theml Besides, would the war continue much lb- yielded hi- preference to a sense of duty, and on December 5, l s ''>o. he reluctantly resigned his com- "ii in the army, and took his -eat in the National ire. It Lb related that General Rosecrans spoke as follows General Garfield, in connection with his taking hip Real in Congress, in discussing his ^nomination JAMES A. GARFIELD. 257 for the office of President of the United States in 1880: " Garfield was a member of my military family during the early part of the war. When he came to my head- quarters, I must confess 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. The more I saw of him the better I liked him, and finally I gave him his choice of a brigade, or to become my Chief of Staff. He chose the latter. His views were large, and he was possessed of a thoroughly comprehen- sive mind. Late in the Summer of 1863 he came to me one day, and said that he had been asked to accept the Kepublican nomination for Congress from the Ashtabula (O.) district, and asked my advice as to whether he ought to accept it, and whether he could do so honorably. J replied that I not only thought he could accept it with honor, hut that I deemed it to be his duty to do so. ' The war is not yet over,' I sdd, ' nor will it be for some time to come. There will be many questions arising in Con- gress which require not alone statesmanlike treatment, but the advice of men having an acquaintance with mili- tary affairs will be needful ; and for that and several other reasons, you would, I believe, do equally as good service to this country in Congress as in the field.' I consider Garfield head and shoulders above any of the men named before the convention, and far superior to any of the poli- tical managers upon the floor." THE BI0Q&AP.H1? OF CHAPTER XI. i.AKFIELD IN CONGRESS. THE PEACE PARTY. Tin; (\>M"ressioiial District which General Garfield represented, comprised the counties of, Ashtabula, Lake, Geauga, Portage and Trumbull. It had a voting popula- tion of about twenty-five thousand, and was known as the Ashtal >ula District. It was probably the most enlightened district of the Union in proportion to its size. It had been settled almost wholly by New England people. They brought with them those grand institutions of the East, the Common School and the Free School, and absolute illiteracy was rare. The inhabitants possessed the best traits of their New England ancestors, with some of the bigotry and narrow- di se of the old Puritans. The antidote to these defects was the Common School. The school-house was seen at almost any cross-road ; and there were few places where intoxicating liquors might be bought. The people were temperate, thrifty, religions in the best sense of the term, Ereedom-loving, and God-loving — in a word, it was a most exemplary community. Before General Garfield was called to represent that district in Congress, the people of that region, and indeed of the whole I'nioii. had been served by a most remark- able man, Joshua Reed Giddings, a native of Athens, Pennsylvania, where he was born in the autumn of 1705. In his infancy his parents went to Canandaigua, X. Y., JAMES A. GARFIELD. 259 and when he was ten years of age they emigrated to Ashtabula county, Ohio. They were among the first settlers on the Western Reserve. At the age of seventeen years Joshua entered the military service in the second war for independence, or the war of 1812. Young Giddings was one of an expedition sent to the peninsula north of Sandusky Bay, where, in two fierce battles with a superior force of Indians, nearly one-fourth of its number were killed or wounded. At the close of his term of enlistment he began school-teaching in a little log school-house, and at the age of twenty-two commenced the study of law. This study he pursued three years, and in 1820 he was admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-five years. Mr. Giddings began his public career in 1826, when he was chosen to represent his Assembly district in the Legislature of Ohio. In 1838, when he was forty-three years of age, he was elected to Congress. He was a free- dom-loving and just man. He was already known as an " abolitionist," or advocate of the abolition of slavery, a term of reproach, at that time, among a majority of the people of the Union. Mr. Giddings was fluent in speech, sincere in his professions and bold in the support of his convictions ; and he at once became a leading champion of the abolition of slavery and the slave-trade in the Dis- trict of Columbia and other territory under the jurisdic- tion of the United States Government. He regarded the upholding of slavery by the Government, in the mere act of permission for its existence on public domain, as a crime against human liberty and humanity, and disgraceful to the nation. The first anti-slavery speech of Mr. Giddings, in Con- M TEA >-il, upon the war int" aluable lives and _ - contended that it was .:\ the ii. W - I named the ( ngaged in the .:xd carried her into , whei - recognized by the British an _it before Congress a ser; - ified th«. n the ground of _ m, and declared that they the Uni (States, and that i by the . national honor. xcitement in and nd their author were de- r the land. The conscience :ie people o: and danger of the 5 it and widespread was the clamor - induced from - hundred and twentv-ti . -elected :.ce of I JAMBS A. QARFIBLD. consecutive years, by continued re-elections, and nil that time he fought valiantly for the right whenever oc- gave him an opportunity. He was an active coadjutor of John Quincy Adams in the Anti-Slavery cause, until that stateman's death. Mr. Gi I lings, though independent of strict party ints. generally acted with the Wl _ -. : r he regarded the Democratic party as hopelessly bound to the service of the slave oligarchy. He gave his hearty supp. : - General Harrison and Henry Clay, but refused, on Anti- Slaverv grounds, to support General Taylor for the Presidency, in - r In that election he acted with the feeble Free Soil party. He took a leading part in oppo- sition to the Compromise measures, which were comprised in the famous " Omnibus Bill" of 1850, especially the infamous Fugitive Slave J.aw, which was avowedly in- tended for the purpose of bringing about a dissolution of the Union. He w - spieuous in the debates on the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1S54, and during the troubles in Kansas. _ularly had Mr. Giddings been returned to Congress by his constituents of the 'Western Reserve, that he came to regard his nomination and re-election as certain, and became careless of his interests. An ambi- tious vonng lawyer named Hutchins, of his dist: Republican t. taking advantage of this carelessness, secured his own nomination and election, in 1858, ana Mr. Giddings was out of Congress the next year. The friends of Giddings never forgave Hutchins. and determined to put him out a - and re-elect their old representative, now sixty-ox years of age. The rnment had meanwhile appointed him Consul-Gen- THE BIOGRAPHY OF era) at Montreal, and he was so well satisfied with his ion and emoluments there, that he declined to undertake another campaign for a seat in the National lature. Mr. Giddings died at Montreal in May, it in Congress was, at that time, tilled by ral Garfield. Such was the veteran champion of human rights and long and deservedly-popular representative of the im- portant Ashtabula district of Ohio, to whom General Gar- field became successor. It was a subjection of the young soldier and statesman to a trying ordeal to follow such a itive, but he was equal to the responsibilities imposed upon him. He entered the Thirty-eighth Con- : m December, L863, and remained in that position, by continual re-elections, until called to fill the highest office in the gift of his countrymen, a period of seventeen General Garfield's colleagues from Ohio in Congress during the 61 on of his service were George H. Pendleton, Alexander Long. Robert C. Schenck, J. F. McEinney, Frank C. De Blond, Chilton A. White, Sam- uel E William Johnson, Warren P. Noble, James M. A y, Wells, Qutchins, William E. Finck, John O'Neill, I Bliss, James II. Morris, Joseph W. White, Ephraim K. Echley, and Rufus P. Spaulding. Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana, was Speaker. When Garfield entered Congress the war was still • 1 seemed no nearer a conclusion than a year . when he became Rosecrans's chief of stall'. Its doubtful. The Peace Party were doing their utmost to make it unsuccessful. They coun- abandonment of tin' war and a peaceable disso- JAMES A. GAB FIELD. 2tJ3 lutiou of the Union. Some of their ideas concerning the preservation of peace and accomplishing a "disjunctive conjunction " of the Union were unique, to say the least. These will be noticed presently. Seeing the danger arising from the machinations of this party, which consisted chiefly of politicians in oppo- sition to the Republican administration ; perceiving that some of the officers of the army were infected with the virus spread by the Peace Party, and the want of firm, thoroughly patriotic, bold, and determined men in mili- tary circles, Garfield regretted having resigned his com- mission in the army. He was almost persuaded to resign his seat in Congress and accept a re-commission as Major- General. When Rosecrans was superseded, General Thomas, Garfield's warm friend and admirer, and then Commander of the Army of the Cumberland, was anxious to have him back in the army, and in a private letter tendered him the command of an Army Corps if he would join him. Garfield, in his hesitation and temporary perplexity, went to President Lincoln for counsel. The President reiterated, in substance, what he had said to the General when he was debating whether he should enter Congress at all. He said : " The Republican majority in Congress is very small, and it is more doubtful whether we can carry the neces- sary war measure ; and, besides, we are greatly lacking in men of military experience in the House to regulate legislation about the army. It is your duty to remain in Congress." This settled the question in Garfield's mind, and he went to work as a National Legislator, Math his usual will, •j 04 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF industry, ability and boldness. lie was placed by Speaker C.lfax on the Committee on Military Affairs, which con- Bisted of Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio. John F. Faiixsworth, of Illinois. George II. Yeaman, of Kentucky. James A. Garfield, of Ohio. Benjamin Loan, of Missouri. Moses F. Odell, of New York. Henry C. Deming, of Connecticut. F. W. Kellogg, of Michigan. Archibald McAllister, of Pennsylvania. The duties of the Committee on Military Affairs, at that juncture, were of the utmost importance, and mem- bership on ii was considered a post of honor, which many eagerly coveted. We have observed, by his letter to President Hinsdale, from Murfreesborough (page 255), with what abhorrence ral Garfield regarded the i: Copperheads," or leaders of the Peace Party. That party, by its machinations, had become as dangerous to the Republic as the armed Con- They had begun their nefarious doings early. in July, 1861, Yallandigham and his disloyal compeers opposed every measure of the adminis- tration for suppressing the insurrection. He proposed the appointment of seven Commissioners, who should accom- pany the I'inies, with authority to receive from Jefferson Davis propositions looking to an armistice, or obedience to the National Government; and from that time to the end of the war he was the persistent enemy of the Re- public. James a. gaufield. 265 Even before the passage of the Ordinance of Seces- sion by the South Carolina politicans, some of the loyal newspapers of the North, dreading war, with thought less haste were disposed to surrender everything to the demands of the slave-holders. The New York Tribune (November 7, 1860), said : " Whenever a considerable portion of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in. We hope never to live in a Kepublic whereof one section is piimed to the remainder by bayonets.'' The mischievous influence of such loose utterances on so grave a subject was apparent afterwards. When, in June, 1865, Alexander H. Stephens applied to Pres- ident Johnson for a pardon, he declared that these words of the Tribune were, among other reasons, the cause of his espousing the fortunes of the rebellion, as it was one of the most influential supporters of the Republican party. It made him believe that the separation and independence of the Slave-labor States would be granted, and that there would be no war. On the day before President Lincoln's inauguration (March 3, 1861), General Winfield Scott, the General-in- Chief of the armies of the Republic, on whose advice and skill the incoming President must rely for the sup- port of the integrity of the nation and the vindication of the laws, wrote to Mr. Seward, the chosen Secretary of State, the following extraordinary letter : " To meet the extraordinary exigencies of the times, it seems to me that I am guilty of no arrogance in limit- THE BIOGRAPHY OF ing tin- Presidents field of selection to one of the four plan- ol procedure subjoined : •■ I. Throw of the old and assume a new designation— the Union Party; adopt the conciliatory measures pro- I by Mr. Crittenden, or the Peace Convention, and, my life upon it, we shall have no new case of secession ; but, on the contrary, an early return of many, if not all the States which have already broken off from the Union. Without some equally benign measure, the remaining Slaveholding States will probably join the Montgomery Confederacy in less than sixty days— when this city | Washington], being included in aforeign country, would require a permanent garrison of at least thirty-five thou- sand troops to protect the Government within it. "II. Collect the duties on foreign goods outside the porta of which this Government has lost the command, or close such ports by act of Congress, and blockade them. "III. Conquer the seceded States by invading armies. No doubt this might be done in two or three years, by a young ami able general — a Wolfe, a Desaix, or a Hoche — with three hundred thousand disciplined men (kept up to that number), estimating a third for garrisons, and the loss of a y«t greater number by skirmishes, sieges, battles, and Southern fevers. The destruction of life and prop- erty <>n the other Bide would be frightful, however perfect the moral discipline of the invaders. The conquest com- !, at that enormous waste of human life to the North and Northwest, with at least two hundred and fifty millions of dollars added thereto, and cut bono? Fifteen desolated Provinces! not to be brought into harmony with their conquerors, to be held for generations by heavy garric in expense quadruple the net duties or taxes which it would be possible to extort from them, followed by a Protector or Emperor. ••IV. Say to the seceded States — Wayward sisters, depart ni />"trr.* * Scon'* Autobiography. JAMES A. GA11FIELD. 209 On the solicitation of John Van Buren, of New York, General Scott gave him the original draft of this letter, as an autographic keepsake of a strictly private nature, sup- posing that he was simply gratifying the wishes of an hon- orable man. His confidence was betrayed, and this private letter to Mr. Seward was read to a large public meeting of the friends of Horatio Seymour, during the canvass of that leader for the office of Governor of New York. The letter was used as an implied censure of the policy of the Administration of Mr. Lincoln. The President of " The American Society for the Promotion of the Union," in a letter to the author of this volume, designed for publication, gave the follow- ing as his plan for securing peace and ultimate re- conciliation between the two sections of the Union : — " The first and most proper mode of adjusting these difficulties is to call a National Convention, in conformity with the provisions of the Constitution ; a Convention of States, to which body should be referred the whole sub- ject of our differences, and then, if but a moiety of the lofty, unselfish, enlarged and kind disposition manifested in that noble Convention of 1787, which framed our Constitution, be the controlling disposition of the new convention, we may hope for some amicable adjustment. If for any reason this mode cannot be carried out, then the second method is one which circumstances may unhap- pily force upon us ; but even this mode, so lamentable in itself considered, and so extreme — so repulsive to an American heart — if judiciously used, may eventuate in a modified and even stronger Union. This is the tempo- rary yielding to the desire of the South for a separate 270 TBS BIOGRAPHY OF Confederacy ; in other words, an assent to negotiations fur a temporary dissolution of the present I nion. ••Mv object in this mode is to secure, in the end, a more permanenl perpetual Union. I well know that this i.- a Btartling proposition, and may seem to involve a par- adox; but look al ii calmly and carefully, and understand what is involved in such an assent. It involves, as a paramount consideration, a total cessation on our part of the irritating process which for thirty years has been in operation against the South. If this system of vituper- ation cannot be quelled because wo have 'freedom of Bpeech;' if we cannot refrain from the use of exasperat- ing and opprobrious language toward our brethren, and from offensive intermeddling with their domestic affairs, then, of course, the plan tails, and BO will all others for a true union. If we cannot tame our tongues, neither unionnor peace with neighbors nor domestic tranquillity in our homes, can be expected." This earnest apostle of Peace then proceeds to notice Borne of the formidable difficulties in the way, such as fixing the boundary-line bel ween the " two confederacies," and the weighty necessity of maintaining, in peaceful relations, a standing military army and an army of custom- house officials. These considerations, he believed (assum- that both parties should never lose their temper), would cause a perception of the necessity for compromise, " whir] i embodies a entiment vital to the existence of any Bociety." There then would be the difficulty of an equi- table distribution of the public property, as well a.- an ment upon the terms of : , treaty "offensive and defensive between the confederacies. Coercion," hesaid, "of one State by another, or of one Federated Union by JAMES A. GARFIELD. 271 another Federated Union, 1 ' was not to be thought of. " The idea is so full of crime and disaster that no man, in his right mind, can entertain it for a moment." Suppos- ing all these matters to be definitely settled to the perfect satisfaction of all parties, the question naturally arose in the mind of the writer, "What is to become of the Flag of the Union ?" He answered : " The Southern section is now [Winter of 1861] agi- tating the question of a device for their distinctive flag. Cannot this question of flags be so settled as to aid in a future Union ? I think it can. If the country can be divided, why not the flag ! The Stars and Stripes is the flag in which we all have a deep and the self-same interest. It is hallowed by the common victories of our several wars. We all have sacred associations clustering around it in common, and, therefore, if we must be two nations, neither nation can lay exclusive claim to it without manifest injustice and offense to the other. Neither will consent to throw it aside altogether for a new and strange device, with no associations of the past to hallow it. " The most obvious solution of the difficulties which spring up in this respect is to divide the old flag, giving half to each. It may be done, and in a manner to have a salutary moral effect upon both parties. Let the blue union be diagonally divided, from left to right or right to left, and the thirteen stripes longitudinally, so as to make six and a half stripes in the upper, and six and a half stripes in the lower portion. Referring to it, as on a map, the upper portion being North, and the lower portion being South, we have the upper diagonal division of the blue field and the upper six and a half stripes for 279 HIE BIOGRAPHY OF the Northern Flag, and the lower diagonal division of the blue field and the lower six and a half stripes for the Southern Flag. The portion of the blue Held in each flaff to contain the stars to the number of States embraced in each confederacy. " The reasons for such division are obvious. It pre- vents all dispute on a claim for the old flag by either confederacy. It is distinctive; for the two cannot be mistaken for each other, either at sea or at a distance on land. Each flag, being a moiety of the old flag, will retain something, at least, of the sacred memories of the basl tor the sober reflection of each confederacy. And then, if a war with some foreign nation, or combination of nations, should unhappily occur (all wars being un- happy), under our treaty of offense and defense, the two separate flags, by natural affinity, would clasp fittingly together, and the glorious old flag of the Union, in its entirety, would again be hoisted, once more embracing all the sister States. Would not this division of the old flag thus have a salutary moral effect inclining to union? Will there not also be felt a sense of shame when either flag is seen by citizens of either confederacy? Will it do1 speak to them of the divisions which have separated members of the same household, and will not the why be forced from their lips, Why is the old flag divided? And uhr tl u . army. Lei ns give libera] bounties to veteran soldiers i may re-enlist, and for raw recruits use the draft." This little speech astonished everybody, especially his political friends. The vote Btood one hundred and twelve "ayes" to two "nays." The latter were those of General Garfield and Mr. Grinnell, of Iowa. It is said that Mr. Chase, then Secretary of the Treasury, meeting' General Garfield a dav <>r two afterwards, said to him: "1 was proud of your vote the other day. You were right. Bui you just started in public lit", and I want you to bear in mind that iris a very risky thing to vote against your whole party. It is a good thing to do sometimes, hut not very often. Do it sparingly and carefully." General Garfield's wisdom was soon vindicated by the decisive arguments of concurring events. General Garfield'i first motion in the House of Rep- res sntatives was made on January I-".. L864, asking unani- mous consent for a resolution authorizing the printing of ten thousand extra copies of the reports of his former chief, Major-General Etosecrans. The next day, for the first time, he took part in the debates in the House. The occasion was a discussion of the subject of the seizure and confiscation of the property of the insurgents. - 5. Cox, his colleague from Ohio, was opposed to the measure; Garfield wa infavorof it. After saying, "We punish men for civil and criminal offenses, great and .-mall, in all the higher and lower court- of the country, by taking their property from them, bo that their children cannot have the benefit of it after the parent's death," he d : JAMES .1. UMiFIELD. 287 "Does not my colleague propose to make an exception in favor of the crime of treason ? Why should not the children of traitors suffer the same kind of loss and incon- venience as the children of thieves and other felons ?" Mr. Cox made brief reply, and asked: " Does my colleague believe that he can constitution- ally take a traitor's property forever, or only during his life?" Referring to the Third Section, Article III., of the Constitution, he said : "All I propose to do in opposing this bill is to stand by the Constitution, and to stand by it all the time, regard- less of consequences." He then asked, after referring to commentators on the Constitution, and the implied construction given it by Law in 1790 : "Would he set aside that Constitution? Or would he, dare he, with his oath upon him, nuw break the Con- stitution by voting for this measure, in order to get abso- lute title to the lands of those in revolt ?" Greneral Garfield replied, calmly : "I would not break the Constitution for any such purpose. I would not break the Constitution at all, un- less it became necessary to overleap its barriers to save the government and tin' Union. But,'' he added, "I do not see that in this bill we do break the Constitution. If the gentleman can show me that it overturns the Constitution 1 will vote against it with him, even though every mem- ber of my party votes against it ; that makes no differ- ence to me." • THE BIOGRAPHY OF In tills Last clan-'' Genera] Garfield gave the key-note eer in C< for seventeen years — gent gh-tninded, independent and just. leral Garfield's first considerable speech in Con- bis " maiden speech " in the .National Legislature, was pronounced on this subject of Confiscation on Jan- nary 28, L864. Henry Winter Davis, of Maryland, Bpoke of it as "the speech of the Session." It was a masterly effort, and cast a copious effulgence upon the whole question, legal and otherwise. It must be remem- bered that Garfield was then only thirty-three years of ml was fresh from the field of war. I give below his .-perch on that occasion, in full, as it was reported in the Congressional Globe, because it introduces the render, at once and forever, to a knowledge of the intellectual power of the man : •• Mr. Speaker, I had not intended to ask the atten- tion of the Eouse, or to occupy its time on this question of confiscation at all, but -nine things have been said touching its military aspects which make it proper forme to trespass upon the patience of the House, even at this late period of the discussion. Feeling that, in some small •'. I represent on this floorthe Arm\ of the Republic, I am the i e emboldened to speak on this subject before I have been surprised that in so length] and able a ■ so little reference has been made to the nun-its of the resolution itself. Y< i\ much of the debate has had one \\ hicb I believe, n ith all deference judgment and maturer experience of other.-, ormane to the subject before the House. In the ■ II. the various theories of the legal and political status of the rebellious States have been ex- amined, whether they exisl any longer as states, whether are in the Union or out of it. It is perhaps necessary JAMES A. GARFIELD. 289 that we take ground upon that question as preliminary to the discussion of the resolution itself. Two theories, dif- fering widely from each other, have been proposed ; but I cannot consider either of them as wholly correct. I cannot agree with the distinguished gentleman from Penn- sylvania [Mr. Stevens], who acknowledges that these States are out of the Union, and now constitute a foreign people ; nor can I, on the other hand, agree with those who believe that the insurgent States are not only in the Union, but have lost none of their rights under the Con- stitution and laws of the Union. " Our situation affords a singular parallel to that of the people of Great Britain in their great revolution of the seventeenth century. From time immemorial it was the fiction of English law that the kingship was immortal, hereditary, and inalienable ; that the king was 'king by the grace of God ;' he could do no wrong, and his throne could never be vacant. But the logic of events brought these questions to a practical test. "James left the throne, threw the great seal of the nation into the Thames, and, fleeing from his own people, took refuge in France. The great statesmen of the king- dom took counsel together on some of the very questions which we are discussing to-day. One said, ' The king has abdicated, and we will put another in his place.' Another said, ' The crown is hereditary, and we must put the heir in his place.' The men of books and black- letter learning answered, 'Nemo est luercs viventis :' 'the king is alive, and can have no heir.' Another said, ' We will appoint a regent, and consider the kingship in abey- ance until the king returns.' The people said, 'We will have a king, but not James.' " Through all this struggle two facts were apparent ; the throne was vacant, and their king was unworthy to fill it ; and they filled it with the man of their choice. We are taught by this that whenever a great people desire to do a thing which ought to be done, they will find the means of doing it. In this Government we have thrown *90 THE BIOGRAPHY OF off the kingly fiction, but there is another which we are following ae slavishly as ever England followed that. Here, corporatione are more than kings. It is the doc- trine of our common law (if avc may be said to have a common law), that corporations have neither souls nor : that they cannot commit crimes; that they cannoi be punished, and that they are immortal. These propositions are being applied to the rebel States. They are corporations of a political character, bodies corporate and politic ; they are immortal, and cannot be touched by the justice of law, or by the power of an outraged Govern- ment. They hover around our borders like malignant, bloody fiends, carrying death in their course ; and yet we ure told they cannot be punished or their ancient rights invaded. The people of the South, under the direction of those phantom States, are moving the powers of earth and hell to destroy this Government. They plead the urder of their States as their shield from punishment, and the State- plead the impunity of soulless corporations. " But the American people will not be deluded by Ihese theories nor waste time in discussing them. They ivill strike through all shams with the sword, and find a practical solution as England did. And what is that practical solution? The Supreme Court of the United States has helped us at this point in one of the prize cases decided March 3, L863. It is there decided in effect : "'That BinceJulj L3, L861, the United States have fuD belligerent rights againsl all persons residing in the dis- trict- declared by the Pres i 1 1 ei 1 1 "s proclamation to bo in rebellion. 9 " ' That the laws of war, whether that war be civil or inter gentes, convert every citizen of the hostile State into a public enemy, and treat him accordingly, whatever may ha\r been hie prc^ ious conduct.' "• That all the rights derived from the laws of war may now. since 1861, be lawfully and constitutionally exercised against all the citizens of the districts in rebellion.' JAMES A. GARFIELD. " They decided there that the same laws of war which apply to hostile foreign States are to bo applied to this rebellion. But in so deciding they do not decide that the rebellions States are therefore a foreign people. 1 do not hold it necessary to admit that they are a foreign people. I do not admit it. I claim, on the contrary, that the obligations of the Constitution still hang over them ; but by their own act of rebellion they have cut themselves off from all their rights and privileges under the Constitu- tion. '• When the Government of the United States declared that we were in a state of war, the rebel States came un- der the laws of war. By their acts of rebellion and war they swept away every vestige of their civil and political rights under the Constitution of the United States. Their obligations still remained ; but the reciprocal rights which usually accompany obligations, they had forfeited. " The question then lies open before us : In a state of war, under the laws of war, is this resolution legal and politic ? I insist, Mr. Speaker, that the question involved in the resolution before this House is whether this Gov- ernment, in its exercise of its rights of a belligerent under the laws of war, cannot punish these rebels and confiscate their estates, both personal and real, for life and forever. That is the only question before us. " Gentlemen have learnedly discussed the constitutional powers of Congress to punish the crime of treason. It matters not how that question is decided ; it has no bear- ing whatever on the resolution before the House. I will only say in passing that the Supreme Court has never de- cided that the clause of the Constitution relating to treason prohibits forfeiture beyond the lifetime of persons at- tainted. No man in this House has brought a decision of the Supreme Court giving the rendering to the Constitu- tion which these gentlemen on the other side of the Chamber have given to it. They can claim no more than thai the question is res non rk [Mr. ;'i:!:xAMi.) Wood] a few days since, in his address to the House, gave us a history of the rebellions which had occurred in this country. 1 wish to call his attention to another rebellion in this Country which he did not notice, and in which the question of confiscation was Eully and \< ty practically discussed. This fact has not. I believe, been brought to the attention of the House. I Tentlemeu forgei thai this Union had its origin in ition, ami that confiscation played a very important :i the war of that Revolution ? It was a civil war, and th colonies were Ear more equally divided in reference to thr question of loyalty and independence than the South now are on the question of to-day. Man_\ of the thirteen colonies had almost equal pai ties for and againsl England in thai struggle. In New York the pai-tie-, were of nearly equal strength. In South Carolina it i- claimed that there were more Royalists than Whigs. Twenty thousand A.merican Tories appeared in the armies againsl us in the revolutionary struggle. Thirty regi- ments of them held their places in the British line. •• ( > i. Eat! i I had to deal with these men, and with their How did the} solve the problem ? 1 have looked into the history, and find it Full of instruction. one ,,f the thirteen colonic,-, with a single excep- tion, confiscated the real and personal property of ever) in arm-. They did it. too. by .lie recOEQ meiidat ion JAMES A. GARFIELD. 293 of Congress. Not only so, but they drove Tory sympa- thizers from the country; they would not permit them to remain upon American soil. Examine the statutes of every colony, except of New Hampshire, which the tide of battle never reached, and you will find confiscation laws of the most thorough and sweeping character. When our commissioners were negotiating the treaty of peace, the last matter of difference and discussion was that of confis- cated property. "The British commissioners urged the restoration of confiscated estates, but Jay and Franklin and their col- leagues defended the right of confiscation with great ability, and refused to sign the treaty at all if that was to be a condition. "While these negotiations were pending the colonies memorialized Congress to guard against any concessions on the point in dispute. On the 17th day of December, 1782, the Legislature passed the following resolution : " ' That the laws of this State confiscating property held under the laws of the former Government (which had been dissolved and made void) by those who have never been admitted into the present social compact, being founded ou legal principles, were strongly dictated by that principle of common justice, demand that, if virtuous citizens, in defense of their natural and constitutional rights, risk their life, liberty and property on their suc- cess, the vicious citizens who side with tyranny and op- pression, or who cloak themselves under the mask of neutrality, should at least hazard their property, and not enjoy the benefits procured by the labors and dangers of those whose destruction they wished. " ' That all demands or requests of the British Court for the restitution of property confiscated by this State, being neither supported by law, equity, or policy, are wholly inadmissible, and that our Delegates in Congress be instructed to move Congress that they may direct their deputies, who shall represent these States in the General Congress for adjusting a peace or truce, neither to agree to any such restitution or submit that the laws made by TEE BIOQBAPET OF any in depend en I State of this Union be subjected to the adjudication of any power or powers on earth.' "This resolution was passed unanimously by the Leg- islature of Virginia. Similar resolutions were passed by other Statu.-, and our commissioners were instructed by Congress to admit noconditions which would compel the ation of confiscated estates. The commissioners compromised al last on the fifth article of the treaty of peace as it now stands recorded, which provides that Con- gress shall recommend to the several colonies to restore con- fiscated property : but it was well understood by both parties that it would not be done. Congress passed the resolution of recommendation as a matter of form ; but no complied, nor was it expected. It was, however, provided, that no further confiscations should be made, and that Tories should be permitted to remain in America twelve months after the treaty. " Mr. Jefferson, when Secretary of State, in 1702, and writingupon that subject, held the following language to the British Government through its minister : and I wish my colleague [Mr. Finck] who last occupied the floor to notice this extract so far as it relates to the rights of belligerents : "'Sir. :;. It cannot be denied that the state of war strictly permit- a nation to seize the property of its ene- miee Found within its own Limits, or taken in war, and in whatever form it exists, whether in action or possession. I is so perspicuously laid down by one of the most ctable writer- on subjects of this kind, that 1 shall age hi- words : " Since it is a condition of war that ene- maj be deprived of all their rights, it is reasonable that everything of an enemy's, found among his enemies, should change its owner, and go to the treasury. l . moreover, usually directed, in all declarations of war, that the goods of enemies, as well th086 found among us a- those taken in war. -hall be confiscated. If we fol- low the mere right of war. even immovable property may be sold, and it- price earned into tin- treasury, as is the cus- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 297 torn with movable property. But in almost all Europe it is only notified that their profits, during the war, shall be received by the treasury ; and, the war being ended, the immovable property itself is restored, by agreement, to the former owner.'' " ' 1. Exile and confiscations. " 'After premising that these are lawful acts of war, I have shown that the fifth article was recommendatory only, its stipulations being, not to restore the confiscations and exiles, but to recommend to the State Legislatures to restore them ; " ' That this word, having but one meaning, estab- lishes the intent of the parties ; and, moreover, that it was particularly explained by the American negotiators, that the Legislatures would be free to comply with the recommendation or not, and probably would not com- ply ; " ' That the British negotiators so understood it ; " ' That the British ministry so understood it ; " 'And the members of both Houses of Parliament, as well those who approved as who disapproved the ar- ticle. " ' I have shown that Congress did recommend earnestly and bona fide ; " ' That the States refused or complied, in a greater or less degree, according to circumstances, but more of them and in a greater degree than was expected.' — Jeffer- son's Works, vol. 3. " And Jefferson concludes the passage by saying that the right to confiscate is undoubted as a war right. He moreover goes on to say the British Government knew they had no right to demand that we should restore con- fiscated property. The members of Parliament admitted in their speeches that the treaty was based upon the knowledge that they had no right to demand the restitu- tion of confiscated estates. "The Tories that fled to England called upon the Crown to support them. A commission was appointed to examine, their claims and provide for their wants. I say it is a significant fact that of the vast number of THE BIOGRAPHY OF Tories, perhaps not a thousand remained in this country after the war. The people would not endure their ace. They were .linen out, and took refuge in all quarters of the globe. Thej colonized New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and were scattered along the borders of Canada. The States would not tolerate the presence of the few who came back under the provisions of the treaty, and refused them the right of voting, or of holding office or property. It was well known that there could be no between our loyal people and them. Their history is a sad record of infamy, obscurity and misery. Some exhibited their vengeful hate long after the war was over. Girty and his associates, who murdered Crawford in the Indian wars of 1791, were Tories of the Revolution. Bowdcs and Panlon, leaders among the Creek Indians, and who Btarted the Florida troubles, which resulted in a long and bloody conflict in the swamps of that State, were Tories. As a class, they Avent out with the brand of Cam upon them, and were not permitted to return. " One State alone relented. South Carolina passed an act of oblivion, restored a large part of the confiscated es- tates, and permitted the Tories to vote and hold office. Her policy has borne its bitter fruit. Her government has hardly been entitled to be called republican. The spirit of monarch} has ruled her councils, and at last plunged our Republic into the most gigantic and bloody of revolutions. " Lei ae take counsel from the wisdom of our fathers. Is it probable thai those men who confiscated all the prop- erty of armed Tories would, a few years later, establish it a- a fundamental doctrine of the Constitution that no confiscation can he made beyond the lifetime of the in- dividual ai tainted ? It is not probable that men who had ju-t done what they stubbornly held to be right should enact a- a part of the supreme law of the land that it Bhould never he dune again. •• I come now to the question more directly before us. Tin- question of land. Mi'. Speaker, i- inseparably con- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 209 •nected with the peculiar institution of the .South. It is well known that the power of slavery rests in large plan- tations; that the planter's capital drives the poor whites to the mountains, where liberty always loves to dwell, and to the swamps and by-places of the South ; but the bulk of all the landed estates is in the hands of the slave- owners who have plotted this great conspiracy. Let me give you an instance of this, one of a thousand that might be given. In the town of Murfreesboro', Rutherford county, Tennessee, a place made sacred and glorious forever by the valor of our Army, there are fourteen thousand four hun- dred and ninety-three acres of land owned by sixteen per- sons, and three of the sixteen men own more than ten thousand of the acres. One of the three owns half of the whole township of Murfreesboro'. And that is only a specimen of what these men of the South are to the lands of the South. Only a few hundred men own the bulk of the land in any Southern State, and these men hold the lands and own the slaves. These men plotted the rebel- lion and thrust it upon us. They have had the political power in their hands, and if you permit them to go back to their lands rhey will have it again. The laws of nature, the laws of society, cannot be overcome by the resolutions of Congress. Grant a general amnesty, let tbese men go back to their lands, and the land-owners will again con- trol the South. They have so long believed themselves born to rule that they will rule the poor man as with a rod of iron. The landless man of the South has learned the lesson of submission so well that when he is con- fronted b} r a landed proprietor he begins to be painfully deferential, he is facile and dependent, and less a man than if he stood on God's acre covered by his own title- deed. " Gentlemen, if we want a lasting peace, if we want to put down this rebellion so that it shall stay forever put down, we must put down its guilty cause ; Ave must put down slavery; we must take away the platform on which slavery stands — the great landed estates of the armed 300 Tin: BIOGSAPHT OF rebels of the South. Strike thai platform from beneath their feet, take thai land away, and divide it into homes for the men who have Baved our country. 1 pul that to this House as a necessity which stares us in the face. What, lei me ask you, will you do with the battle-fields of the South? Who owns them? Who owns the red field i River? Two or three men own it ail. And who ;*!<• these two or three men ? Rebels every one— one of them a man who once sat in this chamber, hut who is now a lender in the ranks of the rebel army. Will you let him come hack and repossess his land? Will you ask i when you go to visit the grave of your dead sou who deeps in the bosom of that sacred held ? It' the principles of the gentlemen on the other side be carried out. there is not one of the great battle-fields of the war (save Gettysburg, which lies yonder on this side of the line) that will not descend to the sons of rebels for all time to come — to men whose fathers found a bail emi- nence by fighting against their country, and who will love their fathers lor affection's sake, and love rebellion for their fathers' sake. God forbid that we should ever visit those -pots made Bacred by the blood of so many thousand brave men. and see our enemies holding the fields and plow mil;- the graves of our brethren, while the sweat of -lave, falls on the sod which ought to be forever sacred i.i everj American citizen. •• The historj of opinion and its changes in the Arim is a \er\ interesting one. When the war broke out, men sprang to arm- from all parties by a common impulse of rous patriotism, which 1 am glad to acknowledge in the p of those in whose hearts that impulse seems to have died. •• I remember to have said to a friend when 1 entered tiie army, ' You hale slavery, bo d<> 1 : hut 1 hate disunion more. Lei us drop the Blavery question, and fighl to sus- tain the Union. When the supremacy of the Government ha- ; . tablished, we will attend to the other ques^ Hon." I .-aid n in good faith. J A MRS A. GARFIELD. 30 I ' ' I said to another, ' You love slavery. Do you love the Union more ? If you do, go with me ; we will let slavery alone, and fight for the Union. When that is saved, we will take up our old quarrel, if there is anything left to quarrel about.' " I started out with that position, taken in good faith, as did thousands of others of all parties, but the army soon found, do what it would, the black phantom met it every- where, m the camp, in the bivouac, on the battle-field, and at all times. It was a ghost that would not be laid — slavery was both the strength and the weakness of the enemy. His strength, for it tilled the fields and fed the legions ; its weakness, for in the hearts of slaves dwelt dim prophecies that their deliverance from bondage would be the outcome of the war. " Mr. Seward says, in an official dispatch to our minis- ter at St. James', Mr. Adams : ' Everywhere the American general receives his most useful and reliable information from the negro, who hails his coming as the harbinger of freedom.' These ill-used men came from the cotton-fields, they swam rivers, they climbed mountains, they came through jungles, in the darkness and storms of the night, to tell us that the enemy was coming here or coming there. They were our true friends in every case. There has hardly been a battle, a march, or any important event of the war where the friend of our cause, the black man, has not been found truthful and helpful, and always de- votedly loyal. The practical truth forced itself upon the mind of every soldier that, behind the rebel army of soldiers, the black army of laborers was feeding and sus- taining the rebellion, and there could be no victory till its main support were taken away. ' You take my house when you do take the prop That doth sustain my house.' " The rebellion falls when you take away its chief prop, slavery and landed estates, 802 THE BIOGRAPHT OF " Gentlemen on the other side, you tell me that this is an abolitiori war. If you please to say so, I grant it. The rapid war-current of events has made the army of the Re- public an abolition army. I can find you in the ranks a thousand men who are in favor of sweeping away slavery to every dozen that are in favor of sustaining it. They have been where they have seen its malevolence, its bale- ful effects upon the country and the Union, and they de- mand that it shall be swept away. I never expected to discuss the demerits of slavery again, for I deem it un- necessary. The fiat has gone forth, and it is dead unless the body-snatchers en the other side of this House shall resurrect it, and give it galvanic life. " Mr. Chaxler : Will the gentleman yield to me ? "Mr. Garfield : I must decline to yield. "Mr. Ghanler : You asked a question of this side of the Eouse, and I merely desired to answer you. '•' .Mr. Gakeield : You may say to me that slavery is a divine institution ; you may prove to your own satisfac- tion from the word of God, perhaps, that slavery is a ben- eficienl institution. 1 will say to you that all this may be entirely satisfactory to your mind, but your beloved friend, slavery, is no mere. This is a world of bereavements and changes, and I announce to you that your friend has de- parted. Hang the drapery of mourning on its bier ! Go in long and solemn procession after its hearse, if you please, and shed your tears of sorrow over its grave, but I have no time to waste in listening to your tearful eulogy ■ in' deceased. '• 1 come now to consider another point in this ques- tion. 1 hold it as a settled truth that the leaders of this rebellion can never live in peace in this Republic. I do ly it in any spiril of vind ictiveness, but as a matter of conviction. Ask the men who have seen them and met them in the darkness of battle and all the rigors of war- fare; they will tell you it can never be. I make, of course, an exception in favor of that sad array of men who have been forced or cajoled by their leaders into the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 803 ranks and subordinate officers of the rebel army. I be- lieve a truce could be struck to-day between the rank and file of the hostile armies. I believe they could meet and shake hands together joyfully over returning peace, re- specting their mutual courage and manhood. But for the wicked men who brought on this rebellion, f or the wicked men who led them into the darkness, such a day can never come. Ask the representatives of Kentucky upon this floor, who know what the rebellion has been in their State, who know the violence and devastation that has swept over it, and they will tell you that all over that State neighbor has been slaughtered by neighbor, feuds fierce as human hate can make them have sprung up, and so long as revenge has an arm to strike they will never cease to strike if such men come back to dwell in their midst. This is true of every State over which the desolating tide of war has swept. If you would not inaugurate an exter- minating warfare, to continue while you and I and our children and children's children live, set it down at once that the leaders of this rebellion must be executed or banished from the Republic. They must follow the fate of the Tories of the Revolution. "I believe, Mr. Speaker, that the Army is a unit on these great questions ; and I must here be permitted to quote from one of nature's noblemen, a man from Vir- ginia, with the pride of the Old Dominion in his blood, but who could not be seduced from his patriotism — one who, amid the storm of war that surged against him at Chickamauga, stood firm as a rock in the sea —George H. Thomas. That man wrote a communication to the Secre- tary of War nearly a year ago, saying, in substance, for I quote from memory, ' I send you the inclosed paper from a subordinate officer ; I indorse its sentiments ; and I will add, that we can never make solid progress against the rebellion until we take more sweeping and severe meas- ures ; we must make these people feel the rigors of war, subsist our Army upon them, and leave their couutry so 804 THE BIOGRAPHY OF that there will be Little in it for them to desire.' Thus Bpoke a man who is very Ear from being what gentlemen upon the other side of the Souse are pleased to call an abo- litionist, or a norl hern Eanat ic ; and in Baying this he spoke the \ oice of i he Army. • •• }lr. Speaker, I am .surprised and amazed beyond are at what I have seen in this House. Having been so long with men who had but one thought upon these . n is passing strange to me to hear men talking of the old issues and discussions of a few years They forget that we live in actions and not in years. They forget that sometimes a nation may live a generation in a single year ; and the experience of the last three years lias been greater than that of centuries of quiet and peace. There are men who do not seem to realize thai we are at war. They do not seem to realize that this is a struggle for existence; a terrible fight of flint with flint, bayonet with bayonet, blood for blood. They still retain some hope that they can smile rebellion into peace. Tiic\ use terms strangely. In these modern days words lost their significance. If a man steals his thousands from the Treasury, he is not a thief; oh, no : he is a ' de- faulter. ' If a man hangs shackles on the limbs of a human being and drives him through life as a slave, it is not man-stealing, it is not even slavery, it is only 'another form of civilization.' We are using words in that strange There are public journals in New 5fork city, 1 am told, that never call this a rebellion — it is only a f civil Lotion,' a 'fraternal strife.' 1 had thought the days mthern brethren ' and ' wayward sisters ' bad gone by, but I find it here in the high noon of its glory. One would suppose from all we hear that war is gentle and graceful exercisi . to be indulged in a quiet and pleasant mantel-. I have lately seen a stanza from the nursery rhyme.- of England, which 1 commend to these gentle- ed patriots who propose to put down the rebellion w ith soft words and paper resolut ions i JAMES I. GAHV^ELp. 305 " * There was an old man who Bald, How Shall I flee from this horrible cow? I will sit on the stile And continue to smile, Which may soften the heart of this cow.' " I tell you, gentlemen, the heart of this great rebel- lion cannot be softened by smiles. You cannot send commissioners down to Richmond, as the gentleman from New York [Mr. Feknando Wood] proposes, to smile away the horrible facts of this war. Not by smiles, but by thundering volleys, must this rebellion be met, and by that means alone. I am reminded of what Macaulay said in regard to the revolution in England. He said : " ' It is because we had a preserving revolution in the seventeenth century that we have not had a destroying revolution in the nineteenth. It is because we had free- dom in the midst of servitude that we have order in the midst of anarchy. For the authority of law, for the se- curity of property, for the peace of our streets, for the happiness of our homes, our gratitude is due, under Him who raises and pulls down nations at His pleasure, to the Long Parliament, to the Convention, and to William of Orange.' "Mr. Speaker, if we want a peace that is not a hollow peace we must follow that example and make thorough work of this war. We must establish freedom in the midst of servitude, and the authority of law in the midst of rebellion. We must fill the thinned ranks of our armies, assure them that a grateful and loving people are behind them, and they will go down against the enemy, bearing with them the majesty and might of a great na- tion. We must follow the march of the Army with a law that Avill sweep away the cause of the whole terrible revo- lution. The war began by proclamation, and it must end by proclamation. We can hold the insurgent States in military subjection half a century if need be, or until they are purged of their dross and poison, and leave them to Till-: MOQRAPBY OF Btaud up clean before the country, to come back with clean hands if they come at all. 1 want to see in all those State- tin- men who have foughl and suffered for the truth tilling those fields on which they pitched their tents. 1 want to see them, like old Kaspar of Blenheim, on the Bummer evenings, with their children upon their knees, and pointing out the spot when- brave men fell and mar- ble commemorates it. Let no breath of treason be whis- 1 want no man there, like one from my own State, who oame before the great struggle in 1 gia and gave us his views of peace. He came as the friend of Vallandigham, the man for whom the gentleman on the other side of the House from my State worked and d.. We were on the eve of the great battle. I said to him, * Yon wish to make Mr. Vallandigham Governor of Ohio. Why?' 'Because, in the first place,' using the language of the gentleman from New York [Mr. l'i:u- NANiHi Wood,] 'you cannot subjugate the South, and we propose to withdraw without trying it any further. In the next place, we do not want anything to do with an abolition war. and will not give one dollar for that pur- Remember, gentlemen, what occurred on the con- scription bill this morning. 'To-morrow/' I continued, ' we 1 1 1 ; i \ be engaged in a death struggle with the rebel army that confronts us, and is daily increasing. Where is the sympathy of your party? Do you want us beaten, or Bragg beaten ?' He answered they had no interesl in fighting, thai thej did not believe in lighting. •• Mr. Noble. A question right here. '• Mr. G \t:t it.i.n. I cannot yield : I have no time. He was the agenl senl by the copperhead Secretary of State to dietribute election blanks to the army of the Cumber- land. " M r. Noble. A single quesl ion. ' M i'. <• '. t;t i ELD. I have no t iuie to spare. • Mr. Noblk. 1 want to ask the gentleman if he knows that Mr. Griffiths has made a queBtion Of veracity with JAMJS8 -!. GABF1ELD. 30? him by a positive denial of the alleged conversation pub- lished in the Cincinnati Enquirer. " Mr. Gakfield. No virtuous denials in the Cincin- nati Enquirer can alter the facts of this conversation, which was heard by a dozen officers. "I asked him further, 'How would it affect your party if we should crush the rebels in this battle, and utterly destroy them ? ' ' We would probably lose votes by it.' ' IIow would it affect your party if we should be beaten ?' 'It would probably help us in votes.' " That, gentlemen, is the kind of support the Army is receiving in what should be the house of its friends. This, gentlemen, is the kind of support these men — some of them — are inclined to give this country and its Army in this terrible struggle. I hasten to make honorable ex- ceptions. I know there are honorable gentlemen on the other side who do not belong to that category, and I am proud to acknowledge them as my friends. But I say that the effect of what the majority of them is doing will tend to pull down the fabric of our Government by aiding their friends over the border to do it. Their friends, I say, for when the Ohio election was about' coming off in the army at Chattanooga there was more anxiety in the rebel camp than in our own. The pickets had talked face to face, and made daily inquiry how the election in Ohio was going. And at midnight of the 13th of October, when the telegraphic news was flashed down to us, and an- nounced to the army that the Union had sixty thousand majority in Ohio, there arose a shout all along the line on that rainy midnight from every tent, which rent the skies with jubilees, and sent despair to the hearrs of those men beyond our lines who were 'waiting and watching across the border.' It told them their colleagues, their sympathizers, their friends, I had almost said their emis- saries, had failed to sustain themselves in turning the tide against our friends in the contest. And from that hour, but not till that hour, the army had felt safe from the enemy behind it. 308 THE .aioaiiAi'iiy Off •• i deprecate these apparently partisan remarks; it Imit > Jin- to make them j but it hurls me more to know they are true. I would nut make them, but that 1 wish to unmask the pretext that we are working along all in a body for the rigorous prosecution of the war and the maintenance of the Government. I cannot easily forget the treatmenl the conscription bill met this morning. Even the few men in the Army who voted for Yallandig- ham wrote on the hack of their tickets 'Draft, draft/ That was the voice of the Army. " I conclude by returning once more to the resolution before us. Let no weak sentiments of misplaced sympathy deter us from inaugurating a measure which will cleanse our nation and make it the fit home of freedom and glo- rious mauhood. Let us not despise the severe Avisdom of our revolutionary fathers, when they served their genera- tion in a similar way. Let the Republic drive from its soil the traitors that have conspired against its life, as Gk>d and His angels drove Satan and his host from heaven. He was n<>t too merciful to be just, and to hurl down in chains and everlasting darkness the ' traitor angel ' who rebelled against him." jd^j. G-J1F_FIEL(2> n the memorable occasion when President Johnson de- termined to observe the first anniversary of Mr. Lincoln's death by closing the Departments. To show his contempt for Congress, with whom he was then quarrelling, John- son did not notify them of his intention. Speaker Colfax heard of it about fifteen minutes before the time of the assembling of Congress. He hastened to Garfield's com- mittee room and said : " I desire you to move that the House shall adjourn as a mark of respect to the memory of our martyred Presi- dent. I give you just fifteen minutes to prepare some suitable remarks." Garfield was left alone, and at the end of the fifteen minutes he was in his seat. "When the last words of the preceding day's proceedings had been read by the clerk, he arose and said: "Mr. Speaker: I move that this House do now ad- journ, and upon that motion I desire to say a few words: ••This day will be Badly memorable so long as this nation .-hall endure, which God grant may he till the 'last ,-vllahlu of recorded time,' when the volume of human history shall be Bealed up and delivered to the omnipo- tent Judge. In all future time, on the recurrence of this day, 1 doubl uol thai the citizens of this Republic will meet in Bolemn ass< mblj to reflect on the life and charac- ter of Abraham Lincoln, and the awful tragic event of April 14th, 1865 — an event unparalleled in the history of nations. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 319 "It is eminently proper that this House should this day place upon its record a memorial of that event. The last five years have been marked by wonderful develop- ments of individual character. Thousands of our people before unknown to fame have taken their places in history crowned with immortal honors. In thousands of humble homes are dwelling heroes and patriots whose names shall never die. But greatest among all these great develop- ments were the character and fame of Abraham Lincoln, whose loss the Nation still deplores. His character is aptly described in the words of England's great laureate, as he traces the step upward of some " ' Divinely gifted man, Whose life in low estate began, And on a simple village green, Who breaks his birth's invidious bars, And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance, And grapples with his evil stars : 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. In the great drama of the Rebellion there were two acts. The first was the war, with its battles, its sieges, victories and defeats, its sufferings and tears. That act was closing one year ago to-night, and just as the cur- tain was rising upon new events, the evil spirit of Rebel- lion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed the hand of the assassin to strike down the chief character in both acts. It was no one man who killed Abraham Lincoln. It was the embodied s.pirit of treason and slavery, in- THE BIOGRAPHY OF spired with fearful ami despairing hate, that struck him down in the moment of the Nation's supremest joy. •• Ah. mi-, there arc 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, thai they can almosf bear the breathings and feel the pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through Buch 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 mar- tyred President to the company of the dead heroes of the Republic, the Nation stood so near the veil that the whis- pers of God were heard by the children of men. "Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people knelt ni 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, ami mi the ruin- 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 had of fchai great man, and obeying the high behests of ( .0,1, let u.- remember •' ' lie has soanded forih his trumpel thai Shall never call retreat ; He I : tli' hearts of men before His judgment seat ; B< Rwift, iuv soul, to answer Him ; be jubilant, my feet, [Tor God is marching on.' " It i> said that he had not read the linos he quoted from Tennyson in fifteen years, and yet he misquoted hut one word. In the early Summer of L864, President Lincoln, inade • dingly anxious by the unpromising aspect of public affairs, took the unusual step of going to the Capitol to con- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 321 fer with the Committee on Military Affairs and the Com- mittee on Ways and Means. He gave ihem information which he dared not tell the public, namely, that the army then numbered seven hundred and fifty thousand men, and that in one hundred days three hundred and eighty thousand men would be discharged by the expiration of their terms of enlistment. Mr. Lincoln declared that unless the places of the three hundred and eighty thousand men could be filled immediately, not only could the war not be prosecuted with any vigor, but that Sherman must be recalled from Georgia and Grant from the Peninsula. Some of the Republican members, anxious to retain their seats in Congress by re-election in the Fall, remon- strated with Mr. Lincoln, reminding him that his own re- election as well as_theirs might be imperilled by adopting measures he had proposed. The bare mention of this selfish consideration filled the patriot's soul with right- eous indignation. Rising from his seat, his tall figure appearing taller than ever, he said : " Gentlemen, it is not necessary that you or I should be re-elected, but it is necessary that I should put down the rebellion. If you will give me this law, I will put it down before my suc- cessor takes his seat." He then left the room. A bill embodying the ideas of the President was soon reported to the House. There was strong opposition to it, and on June 21 (1804), by a vote of one hundred to fifty, the first section was struck out. After further de- bate, General Garfield gave strength to the friends of the measure by moving to strike out the third and fourth sec- tions of the bill, saying : THE BIOGRAPHY OF •• The bill, as my colleague on the committee has said, uted as a whole ; it is a measure that had no value in it, except the last two sections, unless taken as a whole. The heart is cut out of it, and the head cut off, and, with the exception of those two sect ions, I have not only no desire that it should pass, but I believe the man- gled trunk would be a deformity, and would seriously injure the efficiency of the present law. We come before the house to say that the President had informed us, what our own examination of the state of the country also led us to believe, that the government is in want of men, and not of money, to fill the ranks of its army ; that the law we have given to the President and the War Depart- ment has in the main failed to secure the requisite re-en- forcements. "It is no longer a question that we cannot retain the commutation clause of the Enrollment act and at the same time fill up the army so as to supply the waste of battle. " Gentlemen, this Congress must sooner or later meet the issue face to fate, and I believe the time will soon come, if it lias not now come, when we must give up the war o: - give up the commutation. 1 believe the men and the I hat shall finally refuse to strike out the com- mutation clause, but retain it in its full force as it now is, will substantially vote to abandon the war. And lam not ready (■> believe, I will not believe, that the Thirty-eighth I - has come to that conclusion. " When (he officers to whom you have committed the safety of the nation, ask for adequate instruments to carry on th'' war. when they tell you the instruments you have them are not adequate, as the President and the tary of War tell you, as the history of the late draft and the one DOW in progress tells you ; w hen their demands are made and reasons given, if you refuse to grant the aid tiny need, how have you any right to hope either success tot) ? Bui if you will not give the needed help, at !■ i-t preserve intact the law you have already made/' JAMES A. GARFIELD. 325 A few days later, when the measure was again before the House, General Garfield made in its favor one of the strongest speeehes, it is believed, that he ever delivered in Congress. After reviewing the action of the House on the subject in a few words, he said : "' 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 aud the peojole, 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." He then stated the grounds for anxiety and appre- hension, lie gave a condensed and vivid statement of the efforts and sacrifices made by England in the great wars with Napoleon ; next he spoke of the struggles of the Revolutionary fathers in the war for Independence ; he drew a further lesson in courage, thoroughness, and devotion from the very rebels who were striving to de- THE BIOGRAPHY OF stroy the Government. Ee then assorted tho right of the Nation to the money of the citizen, saving: "Coercion accompanies the tax-gatherer at every step." lie also ted her right to the citizen's service: " Every nation under heaven claims the right to order its citizens into the ranks as soldiers." In conclusion he said : •1 ask gentlemen who oppose this repeal, why they desire to make it easy for citizens to escape from military duty ? Is it a great hardship to serve one's country? Is it a disgraceful service ? Will you, by your action here, say to t he soldiers in the field, ' This is a disreputable business ; you have been deceived ; you have been caught in the trap, and we will make no law to put anybody else in it?" Do you thus treat your soldiers in the field? They are proud of their voluntary service, and, if there be one wish of the army paramount to all others, one mes- sage more earnest than all the others which they send back u, it is that you will aid in filling up their battle- thinned ranks by a draft which will compel lukewarm citi- . who prate against the war, to go into the field. They ask that you will not expend large bounties in pay- ing men of third-rate patriotism, while they went with no other bounty than that love of country to which they gave their young lives a free offering, but that you will compel eloventh-hour men to lake their chances in the held beside them. Let US grant their request, and, by a steady and persistent effort, we -hall, in the end, be it near or te, be it in one year or ten, crown the Nation with \ ictofy ami end tiring peace. - ' To Genera] Garfield is chiefly due the credit of con- vincing the majority of the House of the righteousness, risdotn, and the absolute necessity of the measure proposed. The bill was passed, the army was soon re- J A. WES A. GARFIELD. 327 cruited by a draft of live hundred thousand men, and the promised " victory and enduring peace " followed. It was at about this time that General Garfield's honesty of purpose, candor, boldness, self-reliance, and independence of spirit was conspicuously illustrated. lie was then young, of ardent temperament, with his vision constantly fixed upon right, justice, and his country's safety and honor, and seemed never to think of himself when dealing with great public matters. His course on the "bounty," the ''draft" and " commutation " alien- ated from him many of his constituents, and several of the most prominent men of his district joined in address- ing a letter to him, withdrawing their confidence and demanding his resignation. Did General Garfield yield his conscience or his judg- ment to the keeping of others ? Not at all. He replied, in vigorous but courteous language, that he had acted ac- cording to his views of the needs of the country ; that he was sorry his judgment did not agree with theirs ; but that, between their opinion and his own, he was compelled to follow his own ; and that he expected to live long enough to have them all confess that he was right and they were wrong. He did not wait long for that result. He very soon received letters from all of them, express- ing regret because of their censure. Another instance of his courage, candor and hide pendence may be cited. Benjamin Wade and other radi- cal men of Garfield's district became dissatisfied with what they chose to regard as undue tardiness and timidity of President Lincoln in dealing with the rebellion in its first throes of dissolution. They issued a manifesto of censure. It was expected that General Garfield either wrote the THE BIOGRAPHY OF docuineut or was i.o Bympathy with it. When the con- vention met to nominate his successor in Congress, some of the members of it demanded an explanation from him. IK' entered the Convention, and, in a speech of half an hour, which would have dug the political grave of any other man, he gave an explanation, which no one who heard it ever forgot. lit- told the Convention that he had not written the letter, but that he had only one regret, and that was, that there was a necessity for its appearance. lie approved it ; defended the motives and action of its authors ; asserted his right to independence of thought and action, and told the delegates that if they did not want a free agent for their representatives, they had better find another m;m t for he did not care to servo them. He then left the hall, the members sitting for a few minutes in blank amazement. A- Garfield reached the egress from the building, he heard a great noise in the Convention Hall. He sup- posed it to bo the signal of the unanimous rejection of his name as a nominee. Quite the contrary. No sooner had he left the room than a delegate from Ashtabula rose and addressed the Convention in a few words, lie said : " l'»v the eternal! a man who can face a convention in that manner, so hold and defiant, m support of principle and his own convictions and dignity, ought to be nomi- nated by acclamation." Garfield's boldness had, as we have observed, stunned 1 onvention for a moment. The Ashtabula member nominated him. find almost everj member of the Conven- tion, charmed by hifl arguments and lofty sentiments, and JAMES A. GARFIELD. 389 filled with admiration of his courage and independence, voted " aye " when the question of his nomination was put. Governor Todd closed the meeting with the re- mark : "A district that will allow a young fellow liko Garfield to tweak its nose and cuff its ears in that manner deserves to have him saddled on it for life." The news of this action of the nominee and of the Convention soon spread over the "Western Reserve, and was hailed with plaudits. It is said that he met Air. Wade a day or two afterwards — a blunt, independent and brave old man, who had fought many hard battles for the abolition of slavery — who said to him abruptly : "Look here, do you know you did a very bold thing in that Convention the other day ?" "It was my duty, Mr. Wade, to say what I did," said Garfield. "I believed you and Mr. Davis to be in the right, and I could not conscientiously do otherwise." "Bosh!" said the old man, with an expletive a little profane, which the Recording Angel may justly have 'blotted out,' as in Uncle Toby's case. "It was brave, I tell you ; as brave as Caesar. Why, not one fellow in a dozen but would have given Davis and I the go-by. All you had to do was to go in and tetcr a little before the Convention, and they -would have promised in advance to renominate you. But you didn't do it ; devil the bit did you do it. You took the bull by the horns like a man, and told the Convention it was wrong, and I say it was brave in you to do so. "Now, mind you, Garfield, you have got that district, and they won't fool with you any more. The people of Ohio like a bold and honest man, and they have found one in you, and they ain't going to give you up soon. 330 THE BIOQRAPRT OF Just you go ahead ; thoy know you arc worth a dozen Umber-jacks, and they will stick by you. It's a clear case you won't turn for anybody ; yoo had the best chance to turn the other day before thai Convention you will ever have, and you didn't do it — no, you didn't do it. The people hate a trimmer, and I tell you your action at that Convention has given the men and women of your district a now idea of you. As for me," added Mr. "Wade, the tears starting to his eyes, "I won't say how much I am obliged to you for the way you stood by me, but I shall never forget it, never, sir, while I live on this earth.'' Genera] Garfield was re-elected to Congress by nearly twelve thousand majority. He was received with hearty welcomes and congratulations when he entered Congress at the Second Session in December. He was ever busy in duties, ever diligent in investigation, and no subject ever engaged his attention without being so thoroughly analyzed and sifted that he became perfectly master of it. The limited space occupied with this biography precludes the possibility of following General Garfield in all his con- gressional life. It would require a volume to do so. Wo may only touch upon the most salient points in that remarkable career. The Currency Question, next to that of the war, de- manded treatment at the hands of most profound states- manship. It i- an abstruse subject, with really no scien- tific formula as its basis, and little understood by most of those who, through business transactions or study, are supposed t" be most familiar with it. Like the science of medicine, it is subjected to so many and varied conditions that much of Currency wisdom afloat in the world is mere theory, which is often proved to be fallacious when subjected to minute application.-. It must be treated on JAMES A. GARFIELD. 331 the basis of broad goneral principles which cannot be changed, and dealt with in particular oases as circum- stances may require. General Garfield made the Currency the subject of his most earnest and careful study, for he clearly perceived that finance, in all its phases, was a most vital question in tho exigency of war, for the consideration of the patriot and statesman. He appeared to form lucid and wise views of this as well as other subjects, almost as if by intuition ; and his utterances always commanded the attention of members of Congress as well as the spectators in the galleries, in a degree seldom equalled by any other speaker. An illustration of his view on the Currency may be found in the extracts from his speech, on pages 399- 428, inclusive, of this volume. The subject of finance occupied the attention of Con- gress, a large portion of the time during General Garfield's career in Congress. He had entered that body when Mr. Chase was the Secretary of the Treasury. That wise states- man and financier had inaugurated a financial policy somewhat untried before, and very bold to meet the sud- den exigency of war, began with a depleted treasury. He needed prompt legislation, directed by wisdom and patriotism, to enable him to carry out his policy. The views of General Garfield accorded "with his own, and he was ever found the persistent and efficient champion of financial measures for sustaining the government, not only during the administration of Mr. Chase, but of his suc- cessors. As we have seen, there was, from the beginning, a dis- loyal peace party, of which a more radical faction seemed to be lying in wait to use every opportunity to embarrass BM THE BIOGRAPHY OF tKeii government, in its efforts to suppress the great insurrection tad rebellion. No man in or out of Congress watched these half -concealed enemies of the Republic with greater vigilance than General Garfield, or more promptly and completely exposed their machinations, in every form, whether in overt acts, or by the insidious diffusion of the views of political heresy. Concerning the topic of the relation of the States to the National Government, in the discussion of which there was much political heresy expressed, in some form, Garfield's views are regarded as specially sound. They were thoroughly sustained by historical facts. He was ever ready to enunciate his views on any other subject, and as ready to support them by an army of authorities and by uiHiuestioned facts. As these heresies still exist, in a naif-fossilized form, in our national politics, it may be profitable, especially to the young reader of this volume, to give BOme of the views of General Garfield, so clearly expressed in the following selections from his speech delivered in Congress early in the session of 1S66, in which he defined a State. " The, word ' State,' " said General Garfield, " as it has been used by gentlemen in this discussion, has two mean- . bb perfectly distinct as though different words had been used to express them. The confusion arising from applying th.' same word to two different and dissimilar objects, baa had very much to do with the diverse conclu- sions which gentlemen have reached. They have given us the definition of a * State' in the contemplation of public or international law, and have at once applied that definition, and the conclusions based upon it, to the States of the American Union, and the effects of war upon them. Let JAMES A. QARFIELD. 333 us examine the two meanings of the word, and endeavor to keep them distiuct in their application to the questions before ns. " Phillimore, the great English publicist, says : ' For all the purposes of international law, a State (demos, civi- tas, volJc) may be denned to be a people permanently occupying a fixed territory, bound together by common laws, habits, and customs into one body politic, exercising, through the medium of an organized government, inde- pendent sovereignty and control over all persons and things within its boundaries, capable of making war and peace, and of entering into all international relations with the other communities of the globe.' (Phi Hi move's Interna- tional Zaw, vol. i. sec. 65.) " Substantially the same definition may be found in Grotius, book one, chapter one, section fourteen ; in Bur lamaqui, volume two, part one, chapter four, section nine ; and in Vattel, book one, chapter one. The primary point of agreement in all these authorities is that in contempla- tion of international law, a State is absolutely sovereign, acknowledging no superior on earth. In that sense the United States is a State, a sovereign State, just as Great Britain, France and Russia are States. " But what is the meaning of the word State as applied to Ohio or Alabama \ Is either of them a State in the sense of international law? They lack all the leading requisites of such a State. They are only the geogra- phical subdivisions of a State ; and though endowed by the people of the United States with the rights of local self-rrovernment, vet in all their external relations, their sovereignty is completely destroyed, being merged in the 334 THE BIOQliM'UY OF supreme Federal Government. {HaUectfs International Law, Bection 16, page 71.) "Ohio* cannot make war: cannot conclude peace; eannot make a treaty with any foreign government; cannol even make a compact with her sister States ; cannot regulate commerce; cannot coin money; and has no flag. These indispensable attributes of sovereignty the State of Ohio does not possess, nor does any other State of the Union. We call them States for want of a better name. We sail them States, because the original thirteen had been so designated before the Constitution was formed ; but that Constitution destroyed all the sovereignty which those States were ever supposed to possess in reference to externa] affaire. " I submit) Air. Speaker, that the five great publicists, G-rotius, Puffendorf, Bynkershoek, Burlamaqui and Vattel, who have been so often ([noted in this debate, and all of whom wrote iie>re than a quarter of a century, and some nearly two centuries, before our Constitution was formed, can hardly he quoted as good authorities in regard to the nature and legal relationships of the component State- of the American Union. " Even my colleague from the Colnmhus district [Mr. Shellabarger], in his very able discussion of this question, spoke a< though a State of this Union was the same as a State in the sense of international law, with certain quali- idded. I think he must admit that nearly all the leading attributes of BUch a State are taken from it when it becomi the Union. • Several gentlemen, during this debate, have quoted veil-known doctrine of international law, 'that war annul- all existing compacts and treaties between belliger JAMES A. UMlFIRLt). 335 exits;' and they have concluded, therefore, that our war has broken the Federal bond, and dissolved the Union. This would be true if the Rebel States were States in the sense of international law — if .our government were not a sovereign nation, but only a league between sover- eign States. " I oppose to this conclusion the unanswerable propo- sition that this is a nation ; that the Rebel States are not sovereign States, and, therefore, their failure to achieve independence was a failure to break the Federal bond — to dissolve the Union." On another phase of the same subject, — the suprem- acy of the States, — General Gariield was also sound and explicit, and was ever ready with undoubted facts and conclusive reasons to prove the falsity and absurdity of that political heresy which has wrought so much mischief in the past periods of our history. General Garfield touched upon this subject in his comments on the extra- ordinary proclamation of Governor Parker, of New Jersey, in passages quoted on page 312 of this volume. In a speech in January, 1865, in reply to his colleague from Ohio, George II. Pendleton, who had spoken strongly against the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, and in favor of the " constitutional guarantees " of the sys- tem of slavery, and of the supremacy of the States, General Garfield made a few brief but telling remarks on the latter topic. In the course of that speech, Pendleton had spoken of the National Constitution as a "compact of confederation," words -which present the concentrated formula of the doctrine of State sovereignty. In reference to that doctrine, Garfield said : " If I understand the gentleman, he holds that each THE BIOGBAPBY OF State is sovereign ; thai in their sovereign capacity, as the source and the fountain of power, the States, each for itself, ratified the constitution which the, convention had framed. What powers they did not grant, they reserved. They did not grant to the Federal Government the right to control the Bubjecl of slavery. That right still resides in the States severally. I Lence, no amendment of the Consti- tution by three-fourths of the States can legally affect slavery in the remaining fourth. Hence, no amendment by the modes pointed out in the Constitution can reach it. This, I believe, is a succinct and just statement of his argument. The whole question turns upon the sover- eignty of the States. Are they sovereign and independent now j "Were they ever so? I shall endeavor to answer/' General Garfield then went on to show by an appeal to the facts of history, and by incontrovertible argument, that "sovereignty" resides only with the People and not with the States. We may only present a few paragraphs of his speech, as follows : '•On the 21st day of June, 178S, our national sover- eignty was lodged, by the people, in the Constitution of the United States, where it still resides, and for its preser- vation our armies are today in the field. In all these of development, from colonial dependence to full- orbed nationality, the people, not the States, have been omnipotent. They have abolished, established, altered, and amended, ;is suited their sovereign pleasure. They made the Constitution. That great charter tells its own story be t : •••We. the peoph of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure do- inestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, pn - JAMES A. UAKF1EL1). 33« mote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States uf America.' u Not 'we, the sovereign States,' do enter into a league or form a '• compact of c&nfederation? . . In framing and establishing the Constitution, what restrictions were laid upon the people? Absolutely no human power beyond themselves. No barriers confined them but the laws of nature, the laws of God, their love of justice, and their aspirations for liberty. Over that limitless expanse they ranged at will, and out of such materials as their wisdom selected they built the stately fabric of our government, 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. . . . On the justice of the amendment itself no ar- guments are necessary. The reasons crowd in on every side. To enumerate them would be a work of superfluity. To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentlemen on the other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can only account for it on the ground of long-continued familiarity and friendship. I should be glad to hear them say of slavery, their beloved, as did the jealous Moor : •' ' Yet she must die, else she'll betray more men.' 13 040 HIE BIOGRAPHY OF ''Has she not betrayed and slain men enoughs Are they not strewn over a thousand kittle-fields? Is not this Moloch already gorged with the bloody feast? Its best friends know that its final honr is fast approaching. The avonging lp"!- are on its track. Their feet are not now, • •Id, shod with wool, f;.". - slow and stately stepping, but winged like Mercury's, to bear the swift message of vengeance. No human power can avert the final catas- trophe. " 1 didnot intend, Mr. Speaker, ever again to address the House on the subject of slavery. I had hoped we might, without a struggle, at once and forever remove it from the theatre of American politics, and turn our thoughts to those other and larger fields now opening bo- fore ns. But when I saw tho bold and determined efforts put forth in this House yesterday for its preservation,. I eould not resist my inclination to strike one blow, in the hope of hastening ita doom." On tho grand subject of the power of the people. General Garfield was always eloquent in speaking. In a speech delivered at Cleveland in October, 1879, he eaid : " Fellow-citizens, what is the central thought in Amer- ican life 1 What is the germ out of which all our institu- tions were born and have been developed? Let me give it to you in a word. When the Mayflower was about to land her precious freight upon the shore of Plymouth, the Pilgrim Fathers gathered in the cabin of that little ship, "ii a stormy November day, and after praying to Almighty God for the success of their great enterprise, drew up and signed what is known in history, and what rrill be known to the last syllable of recorded time, as JAMBS A. UMibVELD. 341 THE TILGKIM COVENANT. In that covenant is one sentence which I ask you to take home with you to night. It is this : 'We agree before God and each other that the freely-expressed will of the majority shall be the law of all, which we will all obey.' [Applause.] Ah, fellow-citizens, it does honor to the heads and the hearts of a great New England audience here on this Western Reserve to applaud the grand and simple sentiment of the Pilgrim Fathers. They said, ' No stand- ing army shall be needed to make us obey. We will erect here in America a substitute for monarchy, a substitute for despotism, and that substitute shall be the will of the majority as the law of all.' And that germ, planted on the rocky shores of New England, has sprung up, and all the trees of our liberty have grown from it into the beauty and glory of this year of our life.'- [Applause.] 348 THE BIOOHM'UY Of' CHAPTER XIV. L88A88INATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. END OF CIVIL WAK. I have remarked that it would require a volume to record the events of General Garfield's Congressional career. \\\> labors in that body were prodigious. Besides numerous short speeches in the course of discussions of various topics brought to the consideration of Congress, he delivered mere than forty elaborate speeches, of which that number appeared in pamphlet form. These all required great research and a vast store of knowledge. The following is a list, of their titles, with the dates of their delivery : 1. Free Commerce between the States : On the Bill to declare the Raritan and Atlantic Railroad a Legal Struc- ture, March 24 and 31, 1864. '.'. Constitutional Amendment to Abolisb Slavery, Jan- uary L3, L865. 3. Preedmen'8 Bureau : Restoration of the Rebel States February 1, 1866. 4. The Public Debt and specie Payments, March 16, L866. 5. To Establish a National Bureau of Education /June 8, U 6. On the Bill to place the Rebel Stales under Military < 'ontiol, Februarj 8, L867. 7. On Reconstruction, and the Constitutional Power of CongreBB to control the Army, January 17, 1868. 8. <>n the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, Febru- arj 89, l- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 343 9. The Currency, May 15, 1868. 10. Taxation of United States Bunds, in reply to Hons. Fred. A. Pike and B. F. Butler, July 15, 1868. 11. Ninth Census, December 16, 1869. 12. Public Expenditures and the Civil Service, March 14, 1870. 13. The Tariff, April 1, 1870. 14. Currency and the Banks, June 7, 1870. 15. Debate on the Currency Bill, June 15, 1870. 16. The McGarrahan Claim, February 20, 1871. 17. The Right to originate Kevenue Bills, March 3, 1871. 18. Enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment, April 4, 1871. 19. Public Expenditures : their Increase and Dimi- nution, January 23, 1872. 20. National Aid to Education, February 6, 1872. 21. Revenues and Expenditures, March 5, 1874. 22. Currency and the Public Faith, April 8, 1874. 23. Appropriations of the First Session of the Forty- third Congress, June 23, 1874. 24. Cheap Transportation and Railways, June 22, 1874. 25. Amnesty : Reply to Hon. B. H. Hill, January 12, 1876. , 26. Can the Democratic Party be safely intrusted with the Administration of the Government ? August 4, 1876. 27. John Winthrop and Samuel Adams, December 19, 1876. 28. Counting the Electoral Vote, January 25, 1877. 29. Repeal of the Resumption Law, November 16, 1877. 30. The New Scheme of American Finance : a Reply to Hon. W. D. Kelley, March 6, 1878. 31. Carpenter's Painting, "Lincoln and Emancipa- tion, " February 12, 1878. 32. The Policy of Pacification, and the Prosecutions in Louisiana, February 19, 1878. 33. The Army and the Public Peace, May 21, 1878, 344 TUB BIOGRAPHY OF 34. The Tariff, June 4, 1878. 35. Joseph Henry, January 16, 1829. 3G. Relation ol the National Government to Science, February 11, 1879. 37. Sugar Tariff, February 26, 1879. 38. Obedience to the Law the Foremost Duty of Con- gress, March 17, 1880. 39. Pulp and Paper : How News and Public Opinion are manufactured, May 1, 1880. Besides theee speeches, he pronounced some remark- able ones at the extraordinary session of Congress between March 18 and July 1, 1870. The following are their titles : Revolution in Congress; Close of Debate on First Army Bill ; Legislative Appropriation Bill ; Second Army Appropriation Bill; Judicial Appropriation Bill; Judi- cial Appropriation Bill, Nullification ; Defense of Union Soldiers of Seceded States ; Resumption and the Currency ; The New Silver Bill ; The Mississippi River an object of National Care; The Revived Doctrine of State Sover- eignty; Ancient and Modern Panics. On the subject of the abolition of Shivery by Consti- tutional Amendments, he was specially earnest. In the debate on that subject on January 13, 18G5, George H. Pendleton of Ohio (now United States Senator from that State), in a speech of great astuteness, took the ground that .slavery could not be abolished excepting by the consent of each individual State ; that it was one of th' 1 rights under the < lonstitution which could not be interfered with, like that right by which no State can, nnle own consent, over be made to lose its equal representation in the Senate. This right of equal representation is the only thing that •'> constitutional JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 340 amendment cannot change, and Pendleton undertook to bIiow that, in the nature of the case, slavery was such a thing, and could not be touched by any power outside of the State itself; and if in every State except one the amendment should be adopted, in that one it would still continue in forco and operation. In answer to this speech General Garfield said : " Wo shall never know why slavery dies eo hard in this Kepublic and in this Hall till we know why sin has such longevity and Satan is immortal. With marvellous tenacity of existence, it has outlived the expectations of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It has been de- clared here and elsewhere to be in all the several stages of mortality — wounded, moribund, dead. The question was raised by my colleague [Mr. Cox] yesterday, whether it was indeed dead, or only in a troubled sleep. I know of no better illustration of its condition than is found in Sallust's admirable history of the great conspirator, Cat- iline, who, when his final battle was fought and lost, his army broken and scattered, was found far in advance of his own troops, lying among the dead enemies of Rome, yet breathing a little, but exhibiting in his countenance all that ferocity of spirit which had characterized his life. So, sir, this body of plavery lies before us among the dead enemies of the Republic, mortally wounded, impotent in its fiendish wickedness, but with its old ferocity of look, bearing the unmistakable marks of its infernal origin. " We can hardly realize that this is the same people aud these the same Halls, where now scarcely a man can be found who will venture to do more than falter out au apology for slavery, protesting in the sumo breath that he has no love for the dying tyrant. None, I believe, but that man of more than supernal boldness, from the city of New York [Mr. Fernando WoodJ, has ventured, this session, to raise his voice in favor of slavery for its own :;)C. THE BIOGRAPHY OF Bake. He still sees in its features the reflection of beauty and divinity, and only he. ' How art thou fallen from Heaven, Lucifer, eon of the morning ! How art thou cut down to t He ground, which didst weaken the nations!' Many mighty men have been slain by thee ; many proud ones have humbled themselves at thy feet ! All along the coast of our political sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom. How lately did its advocates, with impious boldness, maintain it as G d's own, to be venerated and cherished as divine ! It was another and higher form of civiliza- tion. It was the holy evangel of America dispensing its mercies to a benighted race, and destined to bear count- less blessings to the wilderness of the West. In its mad arrogance it lifted its hand to strike down the fabric of the Union, and since that fatal day it has been a 'fugi- tive and a vagabond upon the earth.' Like the spirit that - cast out, it has, since then, been ' seeking rest and finding none.' "It has sought in all the corners of the Republic to find some hiding-place in which to shelter itself from the death it so richly deserves. " It sought an asylum in the untrodden territories of the West, but with a whip of scorpions indignant freemen drove it thence. I do not believe that a loyal man can now be found who would consent that it should again enter them. It has no hope of harbor there. It found no protection or favor in the hearts or consciences of the freemen of the Bepublic, and has lied for its last hope of safety behind the shield <>f the Constitution. We propose t<> follow it there, and drive it thence as Satan was exiled from heaven. Hut now, in the hour of its mortal agony, in this Hall, it has found a defender. "My gallant oolleagne [Mr. Pendleton], for I re- cognize hiin ;is a gallant and able man. plants himself al the door of his darling, and bids defiance to till assailants. tie has followed slavery in d^ flight, until al lasl it has peached the great temple where liberty is enshrined — the JAMES A. GARFIELD. Ul Constitution of the United States--and there, in that hist retreat, declares that no hand shall strike it. It re- minds me of that celebrated passage in the great Latin poet, in which the serpents of the Ionian sea, when they had destroyed Laocopn and his sons, fled to the heights of the Trojan citadel and coiled their slimy lengths around the feet of the tutelar goddess, and were covered by the orb of her shield. So, under the guidance of my colleague, slavery, gorged with the blood of ten thousand freemen, has climbed to the high citadel of American nationality, and coiled itself securely, as he believes, around the feet of the statue of Justice, and under the shield of the Con- stitution of the United States. We desire to follow it even there, and kill it beside the very altar of liberty. Its blood can never make atonement for the least of its crimes. " But the gentleman has gone farther. He is not content that the snaky sorceress shall be merely tender the protection of the Constitution. In his view, by a strange metamorphosis, slavery becomes an invisible essence, and takes. up its abode in the very grain and fibre of the Con- stitution But he has gone even deeper than the spirit and intent of the Constitution. He has an- nounced a discovery to which 1 am sure no other states- man will lay claim. He lias found a domain where slavery can no mere be reached by human law than the life of Satan by the sword of Michael "Not finding anything in the words and phrases of the Constitution that forbids an amendment abolishing slavery, he goes behind all human enactments, and far away, among the eternal equities, he finds a primal law which overshadows states, nations, and constitutions, as space envelops the universe, and by its solemn sanctions one human being can hold another in perpetual slavery. Surely, human ingenuity has never gone farther to pro- tect a malefactor or defend a crime. I shall make no ar- gument with my colleague on this point, for in that high THE BTOQRAPBT OF court to which he appeals, eternal justice dwells with freedom, ami slavery has never entered." General Garfield was an early, earnest, and most per- sistent advocate of the extension of the elective franchise to the negro race in our Republic. In his oration at Ravenna, Ohio, already mentioned, he made a powerful plea in favor of such a righteous measure. In that oration he uttered the words which a local newspaper used for a motto for a long time afterwards: "Suffrage and Safety, like Liberty and Union, are one and inseparable^ One of General Garfield's most forcible arguments on that occasion was that, unless the ballot was given the negroes, since they would henceforth be counted man for man in making up the basis of representation, and not five for three, as under the old rule of the Constitution, a state of things very like the old English rotten-borough system would exist in the South, and so perpetuate an oligarchy unfriendly to the Government. After the evacuation of Richmond by the Confederate "Government" and troops at the beginning of April, 1865, and the late Confederate capital was in the posses- sion ..[ colored troops under General Weitzel, President Lincoln went to thai city, conveyed up the James River in Admiral Porter's flag-ship, Malvern, and landed. With the crew of \\w Malvern, armed with carbines, the President and the Admiral walk.! to Weitzel's head- quarters, cheered on the waj by the huzzas and erateful ejaculations of a vast concourse of emancipated slave- who had been told that bhe tall man was their Liberator. They crowded around him so thickly in their eagerness to see him. and I his hand, that a file of soldiers Were JAMES A. GARFIELD. 340 needed to clear the way. After riding around the city in an open barouche, the President returned to Grant's head- quarters, at City Point. Two days after this visit, the President went to Rich- mond again, accompanied by his wife, the Vice-President and several Senators, When lie was called upon by several leading Confederates, and was assured by them that if the so-called Virginia Legislature might be allowed to assemble they would work for the restoration of the Union. Anxious to end the war without further blood- shed, consent was given, when that body violated the pledge. Hearing of this perfidy, on his return to Wash- ington, the President revoked the order he had given to General Weitzel in the ease, and the Virginia " Legisla- ture " retired to private life. On the 9th of April the army of General Lee surren- dered to General Grant at Appomatox Court House. The glad tidings were sent over the land by the Secretary of War, together with thanks to General Grant and hia sol- diers. To the victor, the Secretary wrote : "Thanks be to Almighty God for the great victory with which He has this clay crowned you and the gallant armies under your command ! The thanks of this De- partment and of the Government, and of the people of the United States — their reverence and honor have been de- served — will be rendered to you and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of your army, for all time." There was joy throughout the entire Republic, because of the evidences of swift-coming peace. The Secretary of War ordered a salut of two hundred guns at the head- quarters of every army and department. In hamlets. THE BIOGRAPHY OF villages and cities the glad news was greeted by thunder- ing cannons and pealing bells. Relief from a crushing burden had come to the nation. The President had returned to Washington from Richmond on the day of Lee's surrender, where he wo* the recipient of a multitude of congratulations because of the dawn of peace. On the 11th he issued proclamations, one declaring the closing, until further notice, of certain ports in the Southern States, whereof the blockade had been raised by their capture, respectively; and the other, demanding, henceforth, for our vessels in foreign ports, on penalty of retaliation, those privileges and immunities which had hitherto been denied them on the plea of according equal belligerent rights to the Republic aud its internal enemies. On the same evening, Washington ( lity was brilliant with bonfires and illuminations because of the surrender of Lee. The Executive Mansion was tilled with light ; and there, to a vast assemblage of citi- zens, the President spoke earnest words concerning the md the future -the last words with which he ever publicly addressed the people orally. Mr. Lincoln took that occasion to set forth his views concerning the reor- ganization of society in the States wherein rebellion had i, in which he evinced an entire absence of bitter- ness of feeling toward those who had conspired and rebelled; and he remitted to Congress all questions con- nected with the political reorganization of States, and their representation in the National Legislature. On the following day an order was issued from the War Depart- ment, which had been approved by General Grant, putting aii end to all drafting and recruiting for the National army, and the purchase of munitions of war and supplies; JAMES A. GARFIELD. 806 and declaring that the number of general and staff officers would be speedily reduced, and all military restrictions on trade and commerce be removed forthwith. This virtual proclamation of the end of the war went over the land on the anniversary of the evacuation of Fort Sumter (April 14), while General Anderson was replacing the old flag over the ruins of that fortress. Pre- parations for a National thanksgiving were a-making, and the atmosphere of the Republic, so to speak, was radiant with sunlight, when a dark cloud appeared, and suddenly overspread the firmament as with a pall. Before mid- night the electric messengers went over the land with the tidings that the President had been murdered ! The sad story may be briefly told as follows : On the morning of the 14th, General Grant arrived in "Washington. Captain Robert Lincoln, the President's son, was one of his staff officers. They had arrived in time for the latter to breakfast with his father, and give him the narrative of an eye witness, as he was, of the scenes of Lee's surrender. At 11 o'clock the President attended a Cabinet meeting, at which Grant was present. When the meeting adjourned, he made an arrangement with the General to attend Ford's Theater in the evening, ami senl a messenger t" engage a box. When, awhile afterward, Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker of tin- House ,,i' Represent- atives, visited him. he invited thai geiftleman i<> accom- pany Mr-. Lincoln andhimself to the theater, but previous engagements caused Mr. Colfax to decline. General Grant was called to New York that evening. It was publicly announced in the afternoon, that the President and General Grant would be at the theater. The house was crowded. Air. Lincoln and a little party 854 THE BIOGRAPHY OF arrived just after eight o'clock. The President was seated in a high-backed rocking-chair, with Mrs. Lincoln and Miss Harris on his left. The box had been draped with an American flag in honor of the President. The play, " Our American Cousin," was drawing to a close, when, at a little past ten o'clock, John Wilkes Booth, an actor by profession, passed near the box where the Presi- dent and his party were seated, and after presenting a card to Mr. Lincoln's messenger, in the passage way, he stood and looked down upon the orchestra and the audi- ence for a few minutes. Booth then entered the vestibule of the President's box, closed the door and fastened it from the inside with a piece of plank previously provided, so that it might not be opened from the outside. lie then drew a Derringer pistol, and with this in his right hand, and a long two- edged dagger in his left, he entered the inner door of the box directly behind the President, who was leaning a little forward, absorbed in the interest of the drama. Holding the pistol over the back of the chair he shot Mr. Lincoln in the head. The ball entered back of the ear, and passing throng]] the brain, lodged just behind the right eye. The President's head fell slightly forward, and closed; he lived nine hours afterward, but was not conscious. Major Rathbone was Btartled by the report of the pis- tol, and seeing Booth, who was half hidden by the powder- Bmoke thai filled the box, seized him. The murderer tore away from hisgra ped his pistol, and striking with his dagger, made a serious wound on the Major's left arm. The assassin thru rushed to the front of the box, with the gleaming weapon in his hand, and shouted, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 355 " Sic Semper Tyrannic ! " — So may it be always with Tyrants — the motto of the seal of Virginia — and then leaped upon the stage. He was booted and spurred for a night ride. One of his spurs caught in the flag, and he fell. Rising, he turned to the audience and exclaimed, ' The South is avenged!" and then escaped by a back door, where he mounted a horse a boy was holding for him, fled across the Anacosta, and found temporary refuge with some sympathizing friends among the Maryland slave- holders. The President was carried from the theater to the house of Mr. Peterson, on the opposite side of the street, where he died the next morning (April 15, 1865), at twenty-two minutes past seven o'clock. So fell, by the hands of an assassin — an embodiment of the dark spirit of the Conspirators against the Repub- lic — Abraham Lincoln, the best representative of true Democracy in America hitherto known. His death occa- sioned the most profound grief throughout the Republic, Sensible leaders in the Rebellion, now that it was suppress- ed, felt that they had lost their best friend. Sorrow was felt wherever civilization prevailed. The manner of his death sent a thrill of horror everywhere ; the rebound of feeling decreed his apotheosis. On the night of this dreadful tragedy at the National Capital, General Garfield was journeying from Washing- ton to .New York. On the morning of the 15th, he found the city wild with excitement. Extraordinary editions of the newspapers, with large thrilling head-lines, were circu- lated everywhere and caught up by eager citizens. Crowds gathered about the bulletin boards. There was fearful anxiety on every countenance, for the fate of the Govern- 8M IBB BI0GRAPI1T OF mem Beemed to hang on a balance. What was it to be? was the momentous question. The excitement was increased when news came that Secretary Seward was dying, having been assassinated by another murderer on the same night. Placards were posted everywhere calling a meeting of citizens at the Exchange in Wall Street, to give expression to their sentiments. At eleven o'clock, the hour appointed for the assem- bling of the citizens, fully fifty thousand people crowded "Wall Street. Their hearts seemed full of vengeance, and fearful scenes were dreaded. From the balcony of the Exchange vehement addresses were given, short but full of arrows. Very soon a tall, stout young man advanced to the front, waved his hand toward the surging angry multitude in a plea for silence, and lifting his hands to- ward heaven, -aid, in a voice clear and steady, loud and distincl : •• Fellow-citizens : — Clouds and darkness are round abonl Him ! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies ! Justice and judgment are the establish- ment ..f Jli.s throne! .Mercy and truth shall go before HiS face ! Fellow-citizens ! God reigns, and the Gov- ernment at Washington still lives !" •'The effect was tremendous," said an eye and ear- witness. "The crowd stood rivetted to the ground in awe, gazing at the motionless orator, and thinking of God ami of Hi- Providence overthe Government and the Nation. As the boiling wave subsides and settles to the »ea when some strong wind beats it down, so the tumult of the people sank and became still. As the rod draws ricity from the air and conducts it safely to the ground, bo this man had drawn the fury from that frantic JAMES A. GARFIELD. 8W crowd and guided it to more tranquil thoughts than ven- geance. It was as if some divinity had spoken through him. It was a triumph of eloquence, a flash of inspira- tion such as seldom comes to any man, and to not more than one man in a century." A murmur ran through the crowd, " Who is he ?" There were whispers, "If is General Garfield from Ohio!" When this answer was repeated, a shout of applause burst forth from the multitude. He had come to the gathering, and had been recognized by some one and invited to the balcony. It is said that he was asked afterwards to repeat the few words he had spoken, when he answered, "I cannot; I could not have told five minutes afterwards. I only know I drew the lightning from that crowd, and brought it back to reason." These words were recorded by a reporter and were soon flashed over the Union. They inspired thousands with hope and confidence, and were repeated again and again. When President Garfield fell, like President Lincoln, by the hand of an assassin, these hopeful words of his were remembered, and quieted many a fearful heart : " God reigns and the Government at Washington still lives !" The terrible Civil War being over, a serene period of peace was looked for by the nation. But there were wise and sagacious men who perceived that although the war in the field was over, there was yet a fearful contest to be endured in the halls of legislation, in the ad- justment of a multitude of a flairs which the long and fierce struggle of more than four years had unsettled. No man saw with keener foresight than General Garfield the possibilities of the future in the reorgnization and final adjustment of all unsettled interests. On the 1st of May, 1SG5, there were more thai] a 3M THE BIO OH A PHY OF million men on the muster-roll of the National Army. There had been during the war the names of more than two million six hundred thousand men, of whom one million live hundred thousand had been in actual service. The disbanding of this great army was begun on the 1st of June, and, before mid-autumn, about eight hundred thousand had been mustered out of the 6ervico. Then was exhibited the wonderful spectacle for the contemplation of the civilized world, of vast armies of men, surrounded by all the paraphernalia of war, trans- formed in the space of one hundred and fifty days, into a Fast army of citizens, engaged in the blessed pursuits of peace. No argument in favor of free institutions and a republican form of government, so conclusive and potential as this, was ever before presented to the feelings and judgment of the- nations of the earth. The important political problem of the nineteenth century was solved by our Civil War. Our Republic no longer appeared as an experiment, but as a demonstration. The Civil War had laid upon the nation a burden of debt, amounting, in round numbers, to three thousand million dollars (£.'3,000,000,000). Measures were to be devised for the wisest disposition of this debt; plans for securing a revenue adequate to rneel the public expense: methods of taxation for securing the same ends, and the cureful adjustment of tariffs and cognate matters, pre- sented themselves for the consideration of the national legislature. Then, also, came the vastlv important consideration of the reorganization of the States in which Rebellion had lately existed, and the re-establishment of the Union, which demanded immediate attention. In this was in- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 350 volved the consideration of the status of the four million slaves who had been emancipated, and a thousand other things, the product or the consequence of the war, were pressed upon the attention of the representatives of the people everywhere. These matters demanded the ex- ercise of the soundest statesmanship. General Garfield had clearly perceived at the begin- ning of the last session of the Thirty-eighth Congress, as we have observed, that the financial question would domi- nate all others in public interest for a generation to come, and he prepared himself by the most arduous study for grappling it with strength. "VVe have seen how that study had given him clearness of perception concerning finan- cial matters, exhibited in his speech on the Currency. Now, as the time for the assembling of the Thirty-ninth Congress drew nigh, he resolved to enter a more efficient school in pursuit of knowledge of finance and its abstruse philosophy than any he had hitherto availed himself of. When, at the opening of Congress, in December, 1865, the Speaker, Schuyler Colfax, asked General Garfield if he had any request to make about the composition of com- mittees, he was surprised by his answer. " I have only one request to make,'" said Garfield, " and that is that I shall be left off the Committee on Military Affairs, and assigned to the Committee on Ways and Means." "Why," said the Speaker, " the Committee on Mili- tary Affairs is yet one of the most important sections into whicli our House is divided. The reorganization of the army and a hundred other things are to be attended to in the process of settling down upon a firm peace basis. You will have scope enough in the duties of that Coin- 360 THE BIOGRAPIIT OF mittee tot the i xercise of your industry and best Btates- tnanBhip." " That may be," replied Garfield. "But I am looking to the future — the near future of our country, and I per- ceive that Finance, which will enter largely into the con- sideration of all public measures, should now be the special study of statesmen. I wish to fit myself to meet the demands of that future of our country, by patient. practical study — by clinical lectures in an efficient school ; and I conceive the Committee on Ways and Means, which has to deal almost exclusively with finance and kindred topics, is the best congressional school for such a purpose. I wish to enter my name as a pupil." The Speaker agreed with Garfield in his views of the matter. Garfield was dropped from the Committee on Military Affairs, and assigned to a place in the Committee on "Ways and Means, of which Justin S. Morrill was chairman. The Committee was composed of the follow- ing representatives: Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont. Samuel Hooper, of Massachusetts. James Brooks, of New York. James A. Garfield, of Ohio. JonN Wentworth, of Illinois. James K. Moorhead, of Pennsylvania. Ros< "i ( Jonkling, "f New York. Win i wi B. Allen, of fowa. John EIogan, <>t' Missouri. From this period of his public Career may he dated the amazing growth of General Garfield in the perfect quasterv of all functions of detail about currency, taxation. JAMbJ.s A. H AH FIELD. $61 tariff, et cetera, which have marked all his speeches upon these subjects. On tariffs, General Garfield was regarded as always consistent, conservative and sound. In the debate on a bill for the revision <>f the tariff of 18t>l, he took a prom- inent part. His tirst considerable speech on the subject was delivered on July 10, 1866. It was an exponent of the doctrines cherished by him, and to which he always adhered with great persistency as well as consistency. The extract following gives us the key-note : '• I hold that a properly-adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best gauge by which to regulate international trade. Duties should be so high that nur manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign prod- uct, bill not sq high as to enable them to drive uut the foreign article, enjoy ;i monopoly of the trade, and regu- late the priee as they please. This is my doctrine of Pro- tection. If Congress pursues this line steadily, we shall ye; r by year approach more nearly to the basis of Free Trade, because we shall be more nearly able to compete With other nations on equal terms. I am for Protection that leads to ultimate Free Trade. I am for that Free Trade which can only be achieved through a reasonable Protection." In his speech on the tariff on April, 1, 1870, General Garfield gave a brief review of the tariff laws, and his notions concerning tariffs, as follows : "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 mod- ern 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 M2 TUB BIOGRAPHY OF principle of Protection has always been recognized and adopted in some form or anotlier by all nations, and is to- day, to a greater or less extent, the policy of every civil- ized Government. " Protection, in its practical meaning, i.s that provi- dent care for the industry and development of our own eonntry, which will give our own people an equal chance m the pursuit oi* 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 pro- tecting American industry. " Wo are limited in our tariff legislation by two thing-; : first, the demands of the Treasury ; and, second, the wants and demands of American industry. The Treasury we understand, but what is ' American indus- try ? ' I reject that narrow view which considers ' indus- try ' any one particular form of labor. I object to any theory that treats the industries of the country as they were treated in the last census, where we had one sched- ule for ' agriculture, ' and another for ' industry,' as though agriculture were n< t an industry, as though commerce and trade and transportation were not industries. " American industry is labor in any form which gives value to the raw materials or elements of nature, either by extracting them from the earth, the air, or the sea, or by modifying their forms, or transporting them through the channels of trade to the markets of the world, or in any way rendering them better fitted for the use of man. All these are parts of American industry, and deserve the careful and earnest attention of the Legislature of tho nation. Wherever a Bhip ploughs the sea, or a plough furrows the field ; wherever a mine Melds its treasure; Wherever n ship or B railroad tram carries freight to mnr- JAMES A. d.WFlELD. W.\ ket ; wherever the smoke of the furnace rises, or the clang of the loom resounds ; even in the lonely garret where the seamstress plies her busy needle, there is industry. ''There have been few occasions when Congress and the country had more need than now of studying the les- sons taught by the history of past legislation. I thereforo ask the indulgence of the committee for a few moments while I review the history of our tariff legislation. As I read that history the warning is repeated again and again to avoid extremes of legislation on this subject. " The second act of the First Congress was what has been called the ' Hamilton tariff of 1789,' and continued in force, with some additions and modifications, for twenty-fivo years. During that period the average rate of duty on imported goods did not exceed fifteen per cent. " The war of 1812 greatly crippled our commerce, and proved the necessity of a more independent system of homo manufactures. The public debt, which in 1815 reached 8120,000,000, required an unusually large revenue ; and at the meeting of Congress in December. 1815, Mr. Madison recommended an increased duty on imports, not only for the sake of revenue, but also for the protection and maintenance of our manufacturing industry, which had received a powerful impulse during the latter part of the war. lie expressed the belief that our manufacturing industry, 'with a protection not more than is due to tho enterprising citizen whose interests are at stake, would become at an early day not only safe from occasional com- petition from abroad, but a source of domestic wealth and even of external commerce.' "During that session 'the Calhoun tariff of 181G ' was passed, which may be said to mark the beginning of discriminating protection. The bill was sustained by the South, but opposed by New England : it being claimed on the one hand that it would utilize the cotton crop of the South, and on the other that it would injure the com- merce and fisheries of New England. Tho tariff of 1816 \ /'///•: BIOGRAPHY OF years, producing revenue from 20 to 35 per ei Hi. of the importations; the average rate being abont •.'•"' pi r cent. " '1 marked the era of what may be called tariff,' which passed the House by five major- !.\ three. This bill, also, encountered t o] ition from New England, Massachusetts and N"i Hampshire together casting twenty-three votes 1 id <>nh ! I'i'cc for it. ; *ln this tariff 'the American system,' as .Mr. Clay named it, found its first complete embodiment. The duties ranged from 343^ to -11 per rent. When it had been in operation about four years the fri< nds of protection determined to push the rates up to :i .—rill higher figure, and the act of 1828 was passed by a nlos< vote, after an acrimonious debate, with bitter feel- ing and intense excitement on both sides. Almost imme- diately alter its passage the reaction began, and it went itheriug head and force until, in 1832, resistance to the tariff assumed the form of nullification and open rebel- lion, and the whole countrj was brought to the verge of civil war. To avert such a calamity, Henry Clay, the great leader of the protective movement, himself came forward with a bill reducing the rates by a sliding scale, to operate for ten years, until the average of 20 per cent. should be reached! It is true thai other questions were involved in the issue, but the gentleman will find it un- safe to apply the test of liistorj to his assertions. The contest was concerning the tariff, particularly the act of It was that act whuh South Carolina nullified and refused to allov* to bo .executed within her borders. When Claw compromises tariff passed, South Carolina revoked her acts of nullification, and came out of 1 he contest with flying colors. The compromise tariff of Mr. clay pre* vented civil war. It went into operation in 1833 : but the free-traders pushed their victor) so far that in L840 a ^•anion came from the other side, and the) were in turn driven from power, and the tariff of l v C was adopted, LJIYIJTG THE TB_fiGK TO ELgEF_OJV COTTfiGE OJV THE JTIGHT OF SE(PT. 5th. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 867 by which the rate of duty was raised and fixed at an aver- age of 33 per cent. " In 1845, the Free Trade party having again come into power, a heavy reduction of the tariff was made in 1846, and the rate pushed down to an average of twenty- four and one-half per cent. This act continued in force without material change during a period of nine years, when the Democratic party, flushed with success in the Presidential election of 1856, determined to push their free-trade policy to a still greater extreme, and in the tariff act of 1857 they reduced the rate of duty to twenty and one-fourth per cent., a lower rate than it had reached in forty years. This law so crippled the revenue of the Government that in I860 the Treasury was empty, and our credit so poor that the Secretary was paying twelve per cent, interest for loans, which even at that rate he found it difficult to negotiate. As might be expected, there was another reaction in favor of higher rates, and the year 1861 marked a new era in the history of the tariff. In the winter of 1860-61 the rates Avere again raised. From- the 2d of March, 1861, to the present time there have been thirteen separate tariff acts and reso- lutions, all of which have more or less increased the rate of duties, and it now averages about forty-seven and one- half per cent, on dutiable articles and over forty-one per cent, on all our imports, both dutiable and free. '•'That these acts were made necessary by the Avar, few will venture to deny. It is also undeniable that the heavy internal taxes imposed upon manufacturing indus- tries neutralized the effect of protective duties, and made an increase of the tariff necessary as a measure of com- pensating protection. But, as I have already shown, the heaviest burdens of internal taxes have been removed from manufactures, and a demand that some correspond- ing reduction in the tariff rates shall be made is coming up from all quarters of the country. The signs are un- mistakable that a strong reaction is setting in against the 14 Till: mOQRAPHY <>!■' prevailing rates, and he is no! m wise legislator who shuts his eyes to the facts of i he situation. ••Tin' historical review I have given strongly exhibits the fact thai the industry of the country during the last half centurj has been repeatedlj tossed 141 ami down be- tween tw< 3 of policy, and the country has suffered greal 1"--' by each violent change. * ♦ * * * * ••The greal want of industry is a stable policy; and it is a significant comment on the character of our legis- lation that Congress has become a terror to the business men of the country. This very day the great industries of the Nation are standing still, half paralyzed at the un- certainty which hangs over our proceedings here. A dis- tinguished citizen of my own district lias lately written me this significant sentence: 'If the laws of God and nature were ;i~ vacillating and uncertain as the laws of CongresE in regard to the business of its people., the uni- verse would soon fall into chaos.' " I will not indulge in crimination or recrimination. I will take no part in the violent denunciation which we have heard in the progress of this debate. I do not be- lieve, on the one hand, thai the manufacturers are cor- ruptly striving for their own gain as against, the public good : nor. on the other, that the Free Traders have been boughi with British gold, and are wilfully and knowingly the enemies of I heir country. •• I stand now where 1 have always stood since I have been a member of this House. 1 take the liberty of quot- ing, from the Congressional (llolw of lstiti, the following remarks which I then made on the subjeel of the tariff : " 'We have seen that one extreme school of economists would place the price of all manufactured articles in the hands of foreign producers by rendering it impossible for our manufacturers to compete with them ; while the other me school, by making it impossible for the foreigner to sell his competing waree in our market, would give the people no immediate check upon the prices which our JAMES A. OATiEJELT). 869 manufacturers might fix for their products. 1 disagree with both these extremes. I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best guage by which 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. If Congress pursues this line of policy steadily, we shall, year by year, approach more nearly to the basis of free-trade, because we shall be more nearly able to compete with other nations on equal terms. I am for a protection which leads to ultimate free-trade. I am for that free-trade which can only be achieved through a reasonable protection.' "Mr. Chairman, 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 wherever we can justly and safely do so, and accepting neither of the extreme doctrines urged on this floor, en- deavor to establish a stable policy that will commend itself to all patriotic and thoughtful people." 370 TJIK BTOQEAP37 OP CHAPTER XV. ,,Ai:i lll.l' IN I Ml. -I I'l.M Ml COURT. ON EDUCATION AND •' HONES'] MONEY." Buch legislation, he was in hearty accord with Henry Winter Davi6, an aide representative from a Maryland district. This spirit had attracted the attention and commendation of leading members of tlu: Democratic party, notably of Judge Jeremiah Black, who had been A.ttorney-General in Buchanan's cabinet. Judge Black was acting in the Bpring of L866 as attor- ney for the friends of three men. citizens of Indiana — JAMES A. GARFIELD. 371 Milligan, Bowles and Horsey — who had been convicted and sentenced for conspiring against the Goverment in preventing enlistments and encouraging desertions from the army. They had been tried in 1864 while the war was in progress, and had been sentenced to death by a mil- itary commission, sitting in Indianapolis, where no war existed. Mr. Lincoln commuted their sentence to imprison- ment for life, and they were then (1866) in the State prison at Indianapolis. General Garfield had condemned this case in his strong opposition to such proceedings in general, on the floor of Congress. Judge Black had highly commended him at the time, and, remembering his course, now sought his assistance in this case, to test the constitutionality of the act which had inflicted punishment on these men. Their friends had taken out a writ of habeas corpus, and brought them before two judges of the Circuit Court of Indiana, who had disagreed, and certified their disagreement up to the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Black asked Garfield if he was willing to say, in an argument in the Supreme Court, what he had said on the floor of Congress. I give the rest of the story as told by Edmund Kirke, as follows : " Garfield's answer was, ' That depends altogether upon the nature of your case.' Judge Black then gave him briefly the facts of the case and the record of the trial. Garfield read it, and on meeting Judge Black again, said : 'I believe in that doctrine.' The astute old lawyer then said to the young Congressman : " ' Young man, it is a perilous thing for a young Re- publican in Congress to endorse such doctrines, and I don't want you to injure yourself.' "'That consideration,' answered Garfield, 'does noi 372 Till: BTOORAPHI OF weigh with me. I believe in English liberty and English law, but, Judge Black, 1 am not a practitioner in the Su- preme Court, and 1 never tried a case in any court in my life.' •• The Judge answered : ' How Long ago were you ad- mitted to the bar : ' • 'About six years/ said Garfield. "'Thai will do,' said Judge Black. 'You must now be admitted to the Supreme Court, and try this case with me.' "Garfield was admitted, and at once entered upon this important case. "There was a strong array of counsel on both sides. The prisoners were represented by Hon. J. S. Black of Pennsylvania, lion. David Dudley Field, of New York, Eon. J. E. McDonald, of Indiana, who bad been on the bench of that State, and General Garfield ; the Govern- ment by Hon. .lames Speed, Attorney-General, lion. Henry Stanberry, and General B. F. Butler, who was called in because of his military as well as legal knowl- edge '• Garfield sat down to his work after his usual fashion, and soon mastered the subject thoroughly. With the ex- ception of f«>iir or the hours given to sleep, he studied two days and two nights, and then had wrought out the points of bis argument. "On the day before the trial, the counsel for the prisoners met in Washington to determine upon the con- duct of the case, is Boon as they had come together, Judge Black said : "'We will hear first from our youngest member. Gar- field, \\ liai do yon intend to say F ' "These nun wire the foremosl lawyers in the land, and the young lawyer, not ten days admitted, was to show bis hand before them. It required more pluck than to race the fire of Ohickamauga. But he took his points coolly, and Btated succinctly the line of his argument, JAMES A. GARFIELD. 373 When ho was through, they said to him with one accord, 'Don't change one word or one point.' "On the following day the cast' was tried in the Su- preme Court. McDonald opened for the prisoners ; Gar- field followed him ; Black followed him, and David Dud- ley Field closed the argument. And the case was decided in their favor. " Garfield spoke for two hours, and his argument, which was reported in short-hand, was printed in pamph- let form and given a wide circulation. By eminent legal authority it was pronounced conclusive and masterly." In the course of the speech before the Supreme Court General Garfield said : "From this review of the history and character of martial law, I am warranted by the uniform precedents of English law for many centuries, by the uniform practice of our fathers during the Colonial and Revolutionary periods, by the unanimous decisions of our courts, and by the teachings of our statesmen, to conclude : " 1. That the Executive has no authority to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, or to declare or administer mar- tial law ; much less has any military subordinate of the Executive such authority ; but these high functions be- long exclusively to the supreme legislative authority of the nation. " 2. That if, in the presence of great and sudden danger, and under the pressure of overwhelming necessity the Chief Executive should, without legislative warrant, suspend the writ of habeas corpus or declare martial law, he must not look to the courts for justification, but to the Legislature for indemnification. " 3. That no such necessity can be pleaded to justify the trial of a civilian by a military tribunal, when the legally authorized civil courts are open and unobstructed." " It is in your power, Judges, to erect in this citadel THE BIOGRAPHY OF of our Liberties a monument more lasting tlian brass; in- risible indeed to the eye of flesh, but visible to the eye of the Bpirit, as the awful form and figure of justice, crown- ing and adorning the Republic ; rising above the storms of political strife, above the din of hat tie, above the earth- quake shock of rebellion : seen from afar and bailed as protector ly the oppressed of all nations; dispensing equal blessings, and covering with the protecting shield uf law the weakest, the humblest, the meanest, and, un- til declared by solemn law unworthy of protection, the guiltiest of its citizens." " This Bpeech gave him at once a high standing in the Supreme Court, and soon brought him many important The men he had defended were poor and in prison. Garfield had aever seen them, never had any re- lation with them, and was never paid for his services in any other way than by the valuable practice which came bo him in consequence of defending them. He never was without a ease in the Supreme Court afterwards, and had as many as Beven in the course of a twelvemonth.-' In February, L866, the National Association of School Superintendents held its annual meeting in Washington. They drew up a memorial to Congress, asking for the establishment, by its authority, of a National Bureau or Department of Education. The memorial was put into General Garfield's hands for presentation to Congress. He was an educator and a warm and abiding friend of education, and they felt that it could not be entrusted to better care. This memorial was referred to a Belect committee, of which Genera] Garfield was chairman. It reported a " Bill to Establish a National Bureau of Education," and on June s (1866) he made an able speech in support of '!"■ bill. Jt was finally passed ; and tins is die history of JAMB8 .1. GARFIELD. 875 the origin of the important Bureau of Education, so ably presided over by Colonel Eaton. The passage of the measure was almost wholly owing to the influence of Gen- eral Garfield's arguments and exertions. He always warmly defended the Bureau when assailed. General Garfield's voice was always heard in favor of any wise scheme for extending the blessings of Education to the people. In February, IS 72, the House of Repre- sentatives had under consideration a bill to establish an educational fund, and to apply the proceeds of the public lands to the education of the people. General Garfield spoke as follows in favor of the bill : " Mr. Speaker : In the few minutes given me I shall address myself to two questions. The first is, What do we propose by this bill to give to the cause of education ? and the second is, How do we propose to give it ? Is the gift itself wise, and is the mode in which we propose to give it wise ? This arrangement will include all I have to say. " And first, we propose, without any change in the present land policy, to give the net proceeds of the public lands to the cause of education. During the last fifteen years these proceeds have amounted to a little more than thirty-three million dollars, or one per cent, of the entire revenues of the United States for that period. The gift is not great, but yet, in one view of the case, it is princely. To dedicate for the future a fund which is now one per cent, of the revenues of the United States to the cause of education is, to my mind, a great thought, and I am glad to give it my endorsement. " It seems to me that, in this act of giving, we almost copy its prototype in what God himself has done on this great continent of ours. In the centre of its greatest breadth, where otherwise there might be a desert forever, 876 THE BIOGRAPHY OF he has planted a chain of the greatest lakes on the earth, and the exhalations arising from their pure waters every da\ come down in gracious showers, and make that a blooming garden which otherwise might he a desert waste. And from our great wilderness lauds it is proposed that their proceeds, like the dew. shall fall forever, not upon the lands, but upon the minds of the children of the Nation, giving them, for all time to come, all the ing and growth and greatness that education can afford. That thought, I say it again, is a great one, worthy of a great nation : and this country will rememher the man who formulated it, into language, and will rememher the Congress that made it law. "The other point is one of even greater practical value and significance just now than this that I have referred to. It is this : How is this great gift to he distributed ? We propose to give it, Mr. Speaker, through our Ameri- can system of education; and, in giving it, we do not propose to mar in the least degree the harmony and beauty of that system. If we did, I should he compelled to give my voice and vote against (lie measure : and here and now, when we are inaugurating this policy, I desire to state for- myself and, as I believe, for many who sit around me, that we do here solemnly protest that this gift is ii"t to destroy or disturb, but it is rather to he used through and as a part of. and to be wholly subordi- nated to what 1 venture to call our great American system of education. "(»n this question 1 have been compelled heretofore to differ with many friends of education, here and else- where; many who have thought it might be wise for Congress, in certain com ingencies, to take charge of the sys- tem of education in the States. 1 will no! now discuss the constitutional a pects of that question ; hut I desire tosay that all the philosophy of our educational system forbids that we should lake such a course. And. in the few momenta awarded to me. I wish to make an appeal for our system as a whole a y other known to me. JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 377 "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, hut 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 governments. There is the center of responsibility. There is the chief educa- tional power. There can be enforced Luther's great thought of placing on magistrates the duty of educating children. "Luther was the first to perceive that Christian schools were an absolute necessity. In a celebrated paper ad- dressed to the municipal councilors of the empire in 1524, he demanded the establishment of schools in all the vil- lages of Germany. To tolerate ignorance was, in the ■energetic language of the reformer, to make common cause with the devil. The father of a family who aban- doned his children to ignorance was a consummate rascal. Addressing the German authorities, he said : " ' Magistrates, remember that God formally com- mands you to instruct children. This divine command- ment parents have transgressed by indolence, by lack of intelligence, and because of overwork. " 'The duty devolves upon you, magistrates, to call fathers to their duty, and to prevent the return of these evils which we suffer to-day. Give attention to your children. Many parents are like ostriches, content to have laid an egg, but caring for it no longer. " ' Xow, that which constitutes the prosperity of a city is not its treasures, its strong walls, its beautiful mansions, and its brilliant decorations. The real wealth of a city, its safety and its force, is an abundance of citi- zens, instructed, honest, and cultivated. If in our days we rarely meet such citizens, whose fault is it, if not yours, magistrates, who have allowed our youth to grow up like neglected shrubbery in the forest ? " ' Ignorance is more dangerous for a people than the armies of an enemy,' . THE BI0QRAPH7 OF " Aiter quoting this passage from Luther, Laboulaye, in hie eloquent essay entitled "L'Etat.et ses Limites," pages ;.'<>-i and 205, sa] - : " ' Thifl fainiliav and true eloquence was not lost. There is not a Protestant country which has not placed in the fronl rank of its duties the establishment and mainte- nance of popular schools. 5 "The duties enjoined in these great utterances of Luther are recognized to the fullest extent by the Ameri- can ByBtem. But they are recognized as belonging to the authorities of the State, the county, the township, the local communities. There these obligations may be urged with all the strength of their high sanctions. There may be broughl to hear all the patriotism, all the morality, all the philanthropy, all the philosophy of our people; and there it is brought to bear in its noblest and best forms. '■ 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 col- throughoui the United Slates, not always wisely, butalways with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. I say, therefore, that our Local self-government, joined to and co- operating with private enterprise, have made the American system of education what it is. "In further illustration of its merits, I beg leave to allude t" a IV u tacts of great significance. The Govern- ment- of Europe are now beginning to see that our sys- tem ie hotter ami more efficient than thefts. The public mind of England is now, and ha-' been for several years, profoundly moved on the subjeel of education. Several oomm - have lately been sent by the British Gov- ernment t" examine the school systems of other countries and lay before Parliament the results of their investiga- tions^ enable that hody to profit by the experience ins. OJT THE WjiY TO THE 8EJ.8IQE. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 381 " Rev. J. Frazier, one of the assistant commissioners appointed for this purpose, visited this country in 1865, and in the following year made his report to Parliament. While he found much to criticise in our system of educa- tion, he did not withhold his expressions of astonishment at the important part which private enterprise played in our system. In concluding his report, lie speaks • of the United States as ' a nation of which it is no flattery or exaggeration to say that it is, if not the most highly, yet certainly the most generally, educated and intelligent people on the globe.' " But a more valuable report was delivered to Parlia- ment in 1868, by Matthew Arnold, one of the most culti- vated and profound thinkers of England. He was sent by Parliament to examine the schools and universities of the Continent, and, after visiting all the leading states of Europe, and making himself thoroughly familiar with their system of education, he delivered a most searching and able report. In the concluding chapter, he discusses the wants of England on the subject of education. No one who reads that chapter can fail to admire the bold- ness and power with which ho points out the chief obsta- cles to popular education in England. He exhibits the significant fact that, while during the last half century there has been a general transformation in the civil or- ganization of European governments, England, with all her liberty and progress, is shackled with what he calls a civil organization, which is, from the top to the bottom of it, not modern. He says : " ' Transform she must unless she means to come at last to the same sentence as the church of Sardis "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." " 'However, on no part of this immense task of trans- formation have I now to touch, except on that part which relates to education ; but this part, no doubt, is the most important of all, and it is the part whose happy accom- plishment may render that of all the rest, instead of being troubled and difficult, gradual and easy. . . . 382 THE BIOGRAPHY OF "'Obligatory instruction is talked of. But what is the capital difficulty in the way of obligatory instruction, or, indeed, anj national Bystem of instruction in this count r] ': It . hat the moment the working class of this country have this question of instruction really broughi borne t" them, their self-respecl will make them demand, like the working classes on tin Continent, pub- schools which the clergyman, or the squire, or the mill-owner calls •• m\ school !'" '•'Ami what is the capital difficulty in the wa\ of giving them public schools ? It is this, that the public school for the people must rest upon the municipal or- ganization of the country. In France, Get man} , Italy, Switzerland, the public elementary school has, and exists by having, the commune, and ihe municipal government of the commune, as its foundations, and it could not ex- isl without them. But we, in England, have our munic- ipal organization still to gel ; the country districts, with us, have at present only the feudal and ecclesiastical or- ganization of the Middle Ages, or of France before the revolution. . . '• 'The real preliminary to an effective system of pop- ular education is, in fact, to provide the country with an effective municipal organization ; and here, then, is at the outsel an illustration of what I said, that modern societies a civil organization which is modern. ' •• In the early pari of 1870 a report was made to the Minister of Public Instruction 1>\ .Mi-. ('. Hippeau, a man of great learning, and who in the previous year had Been ordered by the French (xovernment to visit the United State- and make a careful Btud} of our system of public education. In summing up his conclusions, at the end of his report, he expresses opinions which are remarkable for their boldness, when we remember the character of the French Government at that time: and his recom- mendations have a most significant application to the principle undi leration. I translate hi- concluding paragraphs : "'What impresses me i Btrongly as the result of JAMES A. GARFIELD. 3«3 this study of public instruction in the United States is the admirable power of private enterprise in a country where the citizens early adopted the habit of foreseeing their own wants for themselves ; of meeting together and aeting in concert; of combining their means of action; of determining the amount of pecuniary contribution which they will impose upon themselves, and of regu- lating its use; and, finally, of choosing administrators who shall render them an account of the resources placed at their disposal, and of the use which they may make of their authority. " 'The marvelous progress made in the United States during the last twenty years would have been impossible if the national life, instead of being manifested on all points of the surface, had been concentrated in a capital, under the pressure of a strongly organized administration, which, holding the people under constant tutelage, wholly relieved them from the care of thinking and acting by themselves and for themselves. " ' Will France enter upon that path of decentralization which will infallibly result in giving a scope, now un- known, to all her vital forces and to the admirable re- sources which she possesses ? In what especially concerns public instruction shall we see her multiplying, as in America, those free associations, those generous donations which will enable us to place public instruction on the broadest foundation, and to revive in our provinces the old universities that will become more flourishing as the citizens shall interest themselves directly in their prog- ress ? " ' To accomplish this .it will also be necessary that Governments, appreciating the wants of their epoch, shall with good grace relinquish a part of the duties now imposed upon them, and aid the people in supporting the rigid regime of liberty, by enlarging the powers of the municipal councils and of the councils of the depart- ments, by favoring associafeions and public meetings, by opening the freest field to the examination and discussion of national interests ; in short, by deserving the eulogy addressed by a man of genius to a great minister of France: " Monseigneur, you have labored ten years to make vourself useless." ' THE BIOGRAPHY OF ■■ I have made those citations to show how strongly the public thought of Europe is moving toward our sys- tem of public education as better and freer than theirs. 1 do not now discuss the broader political question of Stair and municipal government as contrasted with cen- tralized government. I am considering what is the best m of organizing the educational work of a nation, not from the political standpoint alone, but from the standpoint of the school-house itself. This work of pub- lication 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 knowl- edge : and while instructors and books are necessary helps, the fullest and highest success must spring from t he power of self-help. "So the best Bystem of education is that which draws Lief support from the voluntary effort of the com- munity, from the individual efforts of citizen-, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily impose upon themselves. The assistance proposed in this bill is to be given through the channels of this, our American system. The amount proposed is large enough to stimu- late to greater effort and to general emulation the different Stati - ami the local Bchool authorities, but not large enough to carry tin system on. and to weaken all these forces by making the friends of education feel that the work for them without their own effort. Gov- ernment dial! ho <>nl\ a help to them, rather than a com- mander in t he w oris of educat ion. •• In conclusion, I say thai in the pending bill we dis- claim any control over the educational Bystem of the We only require reports of what they do with our bounty; and those reports, brought here ami pub- I for the information of the people, will spread abroad the light and awaken the enthusiasm and emu- lation of our people. Tin.- polioy is in harmony with the act of • ating the Bureau of Education, and whose JAMES A. GARFIELD. 365 fruits have already been so abundant in good results. I hope that the House will set its seal of approval on our American system of education, and will adopt this mode of advancing and strengthening it." General Garfield took a very active part in the labors of Congress for the reorganization of the Union. These labors began at the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress. At about the same time was begun the unseemly warfare of President Johnson against the National Legislature, which he kept up until the end of his administration in March, 1869. Johnson began the execution of a plan which he had formed for the restoration of the Union, in the summer of 1865, which was to restore the States in which rebellion had existed, to their former position in the Union, with- out any provision for securing to the freedman the right to the exercise of his citizenship, which the amendment to the National Constitution, then before Congress, would justly entitle him to. Under his plan the reorganized State Governments would be bound only to respect his freedom. This total disregard of the highest interests of the freedmen, and the fact that the President was making haste to pardon a large number of the most active leaders in the late rebellion, startled the loyal men of the country, and made them doubt the sincerity of his vehement declarations of intention to " punish traitors and to make treason odious."' At the dose of 1865, it was clear to the minds of sa- gacious observers that the President was more friendly to the late enemies of his country than consistency with his professions, or the safety of the Republic, would allow. THE BIOGRAPHY OF It was also perceived, as a consequence of this friendli- ness, that the politicians and newspapers which had worked in the interest of the late rebellion had assumed an insolent and belligerent tone toward Congress and the Loyal people. When Congress assembled in December, the subject of reorganization was among the first business of the session, and by a joint resolution a committee of ■i was appointed to make inquiries and report. This was known by the misnomer, "Reconstruction Com- mittee." This action offended the President, it was an interference of the representatives of the people with hi-' chosen plan of reorganization, and he at once assumed an attitude of hostility to Congress. The warfare which followed, offensive on the part of the President and defensive on the part of Congress, fori lied material for one of the most forbidding chapters in our national history. The President, in a vulgar harangue to the populace, in front of the Presidential mansion on the 22d of January, 1 866, forgetting the dignity of his position, ami the gravity of the questions at issue, denounced byname leading members of Congress, and the Republican party, which had given him their confi- dence, and raised him to his exalted station. That party he imw .le, .-ried, and returned to the bosom of the Democratic party, from which he had emerged under pretenses of loyalty to his government. hater in the year I A.UgUSt and September), the Presi- dent, and a part of his cabinet, with a pretext of honoring the deceased Senator Douglas by being present at the dedication of a monumenl to hi- memory ;it Chicago, made a journey to that city and beyond. At various JAMES A. GARFIELD. 387 places on that journey he harangued the people in language utterly unbecoming the Chief Magistrate of a nation, and attempted to sow the dangerous seeds of sedition, by de- nouncing Congress as " an illegal body," deserving of no respect from the people ; and the majority of its members as traitors, " trying to break up the government." That journey of the President's, so disgraceful in all its features -■-its low, partisan object, its immoral performance, and its pitiful results — forms a dark paragraph in the history of the Republic. Congress having the right, and possessing the power, went forward in the business of its reorganization of the Government, unmindful of the President's impotent oppo- sition, manifested in the pitiful way of vetoing the acts of Congress of every kind (which, were uniformly passed over the veto by a constitutional vote), until he openly defied their power and seemed to be on the point of organizing a revolution, with the aid of the leaders in the late rebellion. Then he was impeached, upon charges of " high crimes and misdemeanors," and escaped the disgrace of deposi- tion only by a single vote. Wise Republicans believed the honor of the nation would be better secured by enduring the absurd Chief Magistrate for a season, than by pun- ishing him. In the debates upon questions arising out of the work of reorganization, General Garfield delivered several important speeches, notably on the Bill to Enlarge the Freedmen's Bureau, early in 1806, and on the Bill to Place the Rebel States under Military Control. In all that unhappy conflict between the Executive and Legis- lative Departments of the Government, Garfield stood 388 THE lilOORAPUY OF resolutely in a position in support of his party and of < longress. At the close of the Thirty-ninth Congress, General Garfield found his usually robust health was considerably impaired by his prodigious and exhaustive labors in Congress, by his professional duties and his never-ceasing studies. He held that the wisest man never rises aftove the sphere of a pupil, and that man's highest aim should be the acquisition of knowledge. Perceiving the neces- sity for recuperation, he determined to gratify a long- cherished desire and make a trip to Europe. In the following summer he and his wife sailed from New York for Liverpool. They were absent four months. According to hie customary habit whenever he had anything important to do, General Garfield laid out a regular plan of travel and pursued it. They landed at Liverpool and went to London, stopping at Chester, near the English home of the Garfields. After remaining in London about a week, and listening to the great reform debate which resulted in giving the ballot to seven hun- dred thousand British subjects, they proceeded to Scot- land, and then, crossing the North Sea. landed at Rotter- dam, in I Iolland. Leaving Holland, Garfield proceeded to Brussels, and then up the Rhine into Switzerland. They soon crossed the Alp- into Italy, visiting Milan and Venice. At Rome tiny remained a week, both being fascinated by its monu- ments, its ruins, its art and its classic associations. From Rome they wenl to Paris, where they spenl another week. Oro ing the Channel, they spenl a few days in London and Liverpool, when they crossed to Ireland, landingat Kingston, Aftei brief trip through Ireland JAMES A. GARFIELD. 389 they returned home. The health of the General was perfectly restored. When General Garfield returned to his home in Ohio, lie found that the Republicans of that State had adopted a pernicious platform of principles, the chief " plank " of which was one looking to the pay- ment of the bonds of the Government in paper currency ; and that they had already fought the Fall campaign on that issue. He instantly and most decidedly condemned that portion of the platform, for he had been from the outset, in Congress and out of it, a consistent and earnest advocate for "Honest Money." ' lie was opposed to " Greenbackism." and Inflation in any form. It was proposed to give the General a public recep- tion before he should return to Congress. Some of his friends, knowing his opinion on the subject of currency, cautioned him not to touch upon the finances in his ex- pected speech on that occasion. " The State is swept," they said, " into the Greenback current, and there is no stemming the torrent ; so say nothing on this subject, for the feeling is too strong to be resisted. An indiscreet word may cost you the renomination for Congress the next term." Again his friends had mistaken his character. He attended the reception, and when called upon to address the assemblage he made a speech that strongly reminded them of his candor and independence displayed in the Convention when called upon to explain his position in regard to the Wade-Davis letter. He spoke most decid- edly in favor of the honest payment of the public debt, and condemned the doctrine the of " Greenbackers " 300 THE BIOGRAPHY OF right in the face of the platform. Be said to the as- sembly : "Much as I value your opinions, I here denounce this theory that has worked its way into tip State as dis- honest, unwise and unpatriotic; and if I were offered a nomination and election for my natural life, from this district, on this platform, 1 should spurn it. If you raise the question <>f renominating me, let it be under- stood you can have my services only on the ground of the honesl payment of this debt and these bonds in coin, ac- cording to the letter and spirit of the contract." Garfield thus "took tin.' hull by the horns," showed his friends that Ids strength lay in his \mshorn locks of righteous principles, and returned to Ids duty at Wash- ington, unconcerned about his personal political future. Again his boldness and independence won for him a victory. He was re-nominated at the next convention. and re-elected by an overwhelming majority. Gi aeral Garfield was ever a consistent, unceasing and unwavering opponent of all "Soft money" delusions, and the linn advocate of specie payments and the strict fulfil- ment of the national obligation.-. The " Greenback craze" soon subsided in his district after his speech at the " Re- ception," and he was ever afterward- supported by his constituents, who regularly re-elected him byoverwhelm- majoriti Genera] Garfield was an earnest and active worker in the temperance cause. The following example of his practical methods used for promoting temperance is related by Mr. II. I. Baker, as given to him by a neighbor of < on. ( iartield. in Painsville, < »hio. JAMES A. &ABFIELD. 391 " It was in 18G5 that the temperance people of Pains- villc were a good deal worked up over a beer-brewery run- ning full blast in their midst. They held meeting after meeting, and discussed all sorts of plans for getting rid of the obnoxious establishment, but all to no purpose, so far as any practical outcome was concerned. " During that time, General Garfield returned home, and attended the next temperance meeting. He was an earnest, enthusiastic temperance man. The old subject of the brewery came up. After listening a few moments, the General rose and said : " ' Gentlemen, it is the easiest thing in the world to dispose of that brewery.' "This announcement took them all by surprise. Sup- press in one hour the nuisance they had so long bothered their heads over ? Do in one hour what they failed to do in six months ? It seemed impossible. But he soon showed them that he meant business. " He went over to the brewery, and in less than an hour he had purchased the whole property and paid cash. He destroyed all the manufactured liquor, and all the ex- clusive brewing machinery. What disposal to make of the property was now the question. It did not lie idle long, however. " The next fall he converted the building and machin- ery into a large cider-mill, and made hundreds of barrels of cider. Not one drop of cider would he sell or give away, for he was too strict a temperance man to think it right to drink even cider ; but every barrel of it he kept till it had become cider vinegar, and then sold it. " The good people of the town were glad to learn that the property proved to be a good investment, and the General made it pay him well. After using the building four or five years he sold it to other parties, and moved upon his farm at Mentor, Lake county, Ohio." 3»2 THE VJuUliAl'lir OF CHAPTER XVI. GARFIELd'8 FOREBODINGS. II [8 (.HEAT SPEECH ON THE FINANCK>. It appeared necessary to wholly reorganize the Stand- ing Committees at the opening of the Fortieth Congress. Genera] Garfield, in \the House and at public gatherings, had stood firm as an advocate of honesty in the pay- ment of tin' public debt. His strenuous opposition to what seemed to be the popular tendency toward an inflation of the paper currency and the payment of Government bonds in "Greenbacks," appeared to render it expedient for him to leave the Committee of Ways and Mian-;, and he was transferred to the Com- mittee on Military Affairs, of which he was made chair- man. It was constituted as follows: Jam i- A. Garfield, of Ohio. William A. Pile, of Missouri. Jokn 11. Kii.iiwi. of New York. 1 1 i mm I ». \V \>m:i i:\, of Indiana. Benjamin R. Poweb, of Pennsylvania. Geenvllle M. Dodge, of Iowa. < h:i i \ II. RATJM, Of Illinois. ISAAC R. 1 1 \\\ kin-, of Tennessee. Ohaeles Sio.Ki w i .-. of New Jersey. ft? ft fcri O JAMES A. GARFIELD. 39/> So early as the beginning of the year (1867), General Garfield very clearly perceived the dangers which beset the country in its efforts to effect national reorganization ; through the currency heresy ; from radical differences of opinion on the subject of tariffs, and especially from the indulgence of prejudices and wild passions which, in many cases, dominated reason and even common sense. In his usual " New Year's Letter " to President Hinsdale he wrote : " I am less satisfied with the present aspect of public affairs than I have been for a long time. I find that many of the points and doctrines, both in general politics and finance, which I believe in and desire to see prevail, are meeting with more opposition than heretofore, and are in imminent danger of being overborne by popular clamor and political passion. "In reference to reconstruction I feel that if the Southern States should adopt the Constitutional Amend- ments within a reasonable time, we are literally bound to admit them to representation ; if they reject it, then I am in favor of striking for impartial suffrage, though I see that such a course is beset with grave dangers. "Now Congress seems determined to rush forward Avithout waiting even for the action of the Southern States, thus giving the South the impression, and our political enemies at home a pretext for saying that we were not in good faith when we offered the Constitutional Amendments " ileally 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 tilings: dare to be a radical and not to be a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibitions around me, is a matter of no small difficulty. "I wish the South would adopt the Constitutional 15 8ad THE BIOQRAPHt op Amendments .soon and in good temper. Perhaps they will. . . . *• Next, thf Supreme Court has decided the case I argued last winter, and the papers are insanely calling for the abolition of the court. "In reference to finance, I believe that the great remedy for our ills is an early return to specie payments, which tan only be effected by the contraction of our paper currency. There is a huge clamor against both and in favor of expansion. "You know my views on the tariff. I am equally as- saulted by the free traders and by the extreme tariff men. There is passion enough in the country to run a steam- engine in every village, and a spirit of proscription which keeps pace with the passion. My own course is chosen and it is quite probable it will throw me out of public life." As Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, General Garfield conducted a searching investigation into all the affairs of the Army, against the doings of which then- was much popular clamor, especially in the South. lie summoned before his committee some of the ablest and most expert officers of the army, whose testimony he carefully analyzed ; and in his report, which was very thorough and exhaustive in its array of facts, the general good conduct of the Army was so fully vindicated that the clamor Mas almost silenced. While Garfield was a Btrenuous advocate of the su- periority of the Civil to the Military Power, he was just BE Btrenuous an advocate of the rights and the exercise of the legitimate functions of the military is special cases where their power was necessary to effect the enforcement of the civil laws. He had no patience with "political generals," who were ready to bow in the performance of JAMMB A. (1AUF1ELD. 397 their duties before " public opinion,'' in the States where- in rebellion had lately prevailed. In a speech which he delivered in the course of the debate on the subject of the reorganization of the Union, in January, 1868, he thus alluded to one of these generals, who was lending his aid to President Johnson, in his obstruction policy : "I will not repeat the long catalogue of obstructions which he [the President] has thrown in the way by virtue of the power conferred upon him in the Reconstruction law of 1867 ; but I will allude to one example where he has found in a major-general of the army a facile instru- ment with which more effectually to obstruct the work of reconstruction. This case is all the more painful because an otherwise meritorious officer, who bears honorable scars earned in battle for the Union, has been made a party to the political madness which has so long marked the conduct of the President. This General was sent into the district of Louisiana and Texas with a law of Congress in his hand, a law that commands him to see that justice is. administered among the people of that country, and that no pretense of civil authority shall deter him from performing his duty ; and yet we find that officer giving lectures in the form of proclamations and orders on what ought to be the relation between the civil and military departments of the Government. We see him issuing a general order in which he declares that the civil should not give way before the military. We hear him declaring that he finds nothing in the laws of Louisiana and Texas to warrant his interference with the civil administration of those States. It is not for him to say which should be first, the civil or the military, in that rebel community. It is not for him to search the defunct laws of Louisiana and Texas for a guide to his conduct. It is for him to obey the laws which he was sent there to execute. It is for him to aid in building up civil governments, ruther than preparing himself to le the Presidential candidate of 89« TEE BIOGRAPHY OT the pfirty which gave him no sympathy when be vras gal- lantlj fighting the battles of the oountry." No part of the business of Congress failed tb receive the attention of General Garfield, but the inipressof his ability, industry and power was manifest on all. On financial matters, particularly, he was an ever vigilant and earnest observer and laborer, and he had much to S . On the L5th of May lie made an elaborate speech a table was prepared, at my request, by Mr. Ed- ward Young, in the office of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue, exhibiting a comparison of wholesale prices at X.w York in December, 1865, and December, 1866. >ws that in ten leading articles of provisions there was an average decline of twenty-two per cent., though I other breadstuffs remained nearly station- ary. On cotton and woolen goods, boots, shoes, and clothing the decline was thirty per cent. On the prod- ucts of manufacture and mining, including coal, cordage, iron, lumber, naval stores, oils, tallow, tin, and wool, the decline was twenty-five per cent. The average decline on all commodities was at least ten per cent. According to the estimates of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue iu his late report, the average decline during 1867 has amounted at least to ten per cent. more. •• During the past two year? Congress has provided by law for reducing internal taxation *1 00,000,000, and the ; a few weeks ago has reduced the tax on manu- factures to the amount of $04,000,000 per annum. The repeal of the cotton tax will make a further reduction of 120,000,000. State and municipal taxation and expendi- tures have also been greatly reduced. The work of re- placing these reserves delayed the shock and distributed its effects, but could not avert the inevitable result. During the past two years, one by one, the various de- part meiits of industry produced a supply equal to the demand. Then followed a glutted market, a fall in prices, and a on of business, by which thousands of laborers were thrown oui of employment. "If be added that the famine in Europe and the drought in many of the agricultural States of the Onion have kepi the price of provisions from falling as other commodities have fallen, we shall have a sufficient JAMES A. GARFIELD. 405 explanation of the stagnation of business and the unusual distress among our people. " This industrial revolution has been governed by laws beyond the reach of Congress. No legislation could have arrested it at any stage of its progress. The most that could possibly be done by Congress was to take advantage of the prosperity it occasioned to raise a revenue for the support of the Government, and to mitigate the severity of its subsecpnent pressure by reducing the vast machinery of war to the lowest scale possible. Manifestly nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that the abundance of currency produced the prosperity of 1863, 1864, and 1865, or that the want of it is the cause of our present stagnation. " In order to reach a satisfactory understanding of the currency question, it is necessary to consider some- what fully the nature and functions of money or any sub- stitute for it. " The theory of money which formed the basis of the 'mercantile system' of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been rejected by all leading financiers and political economists for the last seventy-five years. That theory asserted that money is wealth ; that the great ob- ject of every nation should be to increase its amount of gold and silver ; that this was a direct increase of national wealth. " It is now held as an indisputable truth that money is an instrument of trade and performs but two functions. It is a measure of value and a medium of exchange. " In cases of simple barter, where no money is used, we estimate the relative values of the commodities to be exchanged in dollars and cents, it being our only univer- sal measure of value. " As a medium of exchange, money is to all business transactions what ships are to the transportation of mer- chandise. 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 406 THE BIOGRAPHY OF decrease the value of each aa an instrument of commerce; any decrease below one hundred will correspondingly in- crease the value of each. If the number be doubled, each will earn but half its usual freight, will be worth but ball 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. '• The functions of money as a medium of exchange, though more complicated in their application, are pre- cisely the Bame in principle as the functions of the vessels in the case I have supposed. " If we could ascertain the total value of all the ex- changes effected in this country by means of money in any year, and could ascertain how many dollars' worth of such exchanges can be effected in a year by one dollar in money, we should know how much money the country need- ed for the business transactions of that year. Any decrease below that amount will correspondingly increase the value of each dollar as an instrument of exchange. Any increase above thai amount will correspondingly decrease the value of each dollar. If that amount be doubled, each dollar of the whole mase will perform but half the amount of business it did before; will be worth but half its former value as a medium of exchange. "Recurring to our illustration : if, instead of sailing [gj steam were substituted, a much smaller tonnage would be required ; so, if it were found that 1500,000,4 of paper, each worth seventy cents in gold, sufficient for the business of the country, it is equally evident that 1350,000,000 of gold substituted for the paper would perform precisely the same amount of busi- " It should be remembered also, that any improve- ment in the mode of transacting business, by which tho actual use of money is in part dispensed with, reduces the total amount needed by the country. How niuch has been accomplished in this direction by recent improve* JdOItfTIJfG GREETING- F,Y THE (PRESIDE jfT'S WIFE J1JTG) QjflTJGHXEIl. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 409 ments in banking may be seen in the operations of the clearing-houses in our great cities. " The records of the New York Clearing- House show that from October 11, 1853, the date of its establishment, to October 11, 1867, the exchanges amounted to nearly $180,000,000,000 ; to effect which, less than 18,000,000,000 of money were used, an average of about four per cent. ; that is, exchanges were made to the amount of $100,000- 000 by the payment of $4,000,000 of money. "It is also a settled principle that all deposits in banks, drawn upon by checks and drafts, really serve the purpose of money. " The amount of currency needed in the country de- pends, as we have seen, upon the amount of business transacted by means of money. The amount of business, however, is varied by many causes which are irregular and uncertain in their operation. An Indian war, defi- cient or abundant harvests, an overflow of the cotton lands of the South, a bread famine or war in Europe, and a score of such causes entirely beyond thereach of legislation, may make money deficient this year and abundant next. The needed amount varies also from mouth to month in the same year. More money is required in the autumn, when the vast products of agriculture are being moved to market, than when the great army of laborers are in winter-quarters awaiting the seedtime. " 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 de- ficiency 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 in 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. UO TUB BIOGRAPHY OF '• No! bo, however, with an inconvertible paper cur- rency. Excepting the specie used in payment of cus- toms and the interest on our public debt, we are cut olT from the money currents of the world. Our currency i tnbles lather the waters of an artificial lake, which lie in stagnation or rise to full hanks at the caprice of the gatekeeper. " Cold and diver abhor depreciated paper money, and will not keep company with it. If our currency be more abundant than business demands, not a dollar of it can go abroad ; if deficient, not a dollar of gold will come in to Bupply the laek. There is no Legislature on earth wise enough to adjust such a currency to the wants of the country. " Let us examine more minutely the effect of such a currency upon prices. Suppose that the business trans- actions of the country at the present time require $350,- 000,000 in gold. It is manifest that if there are just $350,000,000 of legal-tender notes, and no other money in the country, each dollar will perform the full functions of a gold dollar, so far as the work of exchange is concerned. Now, business remaining the same, let $350,000,000 more <>( the same kind of notes be pressed into circulation. The whole volume, as thus increased, can do no more than all the business. Each dollar will accomplish just half the work that a dollar did before the increase; but as the nominal dollar is fixed by law, the effect is shown in prices being doubled. It requires two of these dollars bo make the same purchase thai one dollar made before the increase, li would require some time for the business of the country to adjusl itself to the new conditions, and greal derangemenl of values would ensue; but the result would at la-t be reached in all transactions which are con- trolled by tbe law of demand and supply. •• V> mch change of val ties can occur without cost. Some- bod} 1 1 1 * i - 1 pay for il. Who pays in this case ? We have 'hat doubling the currency finally results in reducing the purchasing power of each dollar one half; hence JAMES A. GARFIELD. 411 every man who held a legal-tender note at the time of the increase, and continued to hold it till the full effect of the increase was produced, suffered a loss of fifty per cent, of its value ; in other words, he paid a tax to the amount of half of all the currency in his possession. This new issue, therefore, by depreciating the value of all the cur- rency, cost the holders of the old issue §175,000,000 ; and if the new notes were received at their nominal value at the date of issue, their holders paid a tax of £175,000,000 more. Xo more unequal or unjust mode of taxation could possibly be devised. It would be tolerated only by being so involved in the transactions of business as to be concealed from observation ; but it would be no less real because hidden. "But some one may say: 'This depreciation would fall upon capitalists and rich men, who are able to bear it' "If this were true, it would be no less unjust. But, unfortunately, the capitalist would suffer less than any other class. The new issue would be paid in the first place in large amounts to the creditors of the Government ; it would pass from their hands before the depreciation had taken full effect, and, passing clown step by step through the ranks of middlemen, the dead weight would fall at last upon the laboring classes in the increased price of all the necessaries of life. It is well known that in a general rise of prices wages are among the last to rise. This principle was illustrated in the report of the Special Commissioner of the Revenue for the year 18G6. It is there shown that from the beginning of the war to the end of 1866, the average price of all commodities had risen ninety per cent. Wages, however, had risen but sixty per cent. A day's labor would purchase but two-thirds as many of the necessaries of life as it would before. The wrong is therefore inflicted on the laborer long before his income can be adjusted to his increased expenses. It was in view of this truth that Daniel Webster said, in one of his ablest speeches ; U2 THE BIOGRAPHY OF "'Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring Masses of mankind, none has been more effectual than thai which deludes them with paper money. This is the inosl effectual of inventions to fertilize the rich man's field i-\ in- sweat of the poor man's brow. Ordinary tyranny, oppression, excessive taxation, these bear lightly on the happiness of the mass of the community, compared with a fraudulent currency and the robberies committed by depreciated paper." " The fraud committed and the burdens imposed upon the people, in the case we have supposed, would be less intolerable if all business transactions could be rcalh ad- justed to the new conditions ; but even this is impossible. All debt- would be canceled, all contracts fulfilled by pay- ment in these notes — not at their real value, but for their face. All salaries fixed by law, the pay of every soldier in the army, of every sailor in the navy, and all pensions and bounties, would be reduced to half their former value. In these cases the effect is only injurious. Let it never be forgotten that every depreciation of our currency results in robbing the one hundred and eighty thousand pen- sioners, maimed heroes, crushed and bereaved widows, and homeless orphans, who sit helpless at our feet. "And whd would be benefited by this policy? A pretense of apology might be offered for it. if the Gov- ernment could save what, the people lose. Bui th< tern lacks the supporl of even thai selfish and immoral consideration. The depreciation caused by the over-issue in the case we have supposed, compels the Government to pay jusl thai per cent, more on all the contracts it makes. on all the loan- it negotiates, on all the supplies it pur- chases : and, to crown all, it musl at last redeem all its legal-tender notes in gold coin, dollar for dollar. The advocates of repudiation have no! yel been bold enough t, 000,000 1835, 104,000, i 1850, 131,000,000 L836, 1 lo,tioo,000 1851, 155,000,000 1 19,000,000 1852, 150,000,000 1 1 16,000,000 Is;,::. 140,000,000 135,000,000 1854, 205,000,000 1- lo. 107,000,000 1855, is;, odd, 000 1841, 107,0110,000 1856, 196,000,000 noo. 000 1857, 215,000,000 000.000 1858, 185,000,000 IM 1. 000,000 1859, lit::, ,000 90,000,000 I860, 207,000,000 1846, [05, 1,000 1861, L'O'J. OOO.OOO I- 1 ,. 106,000,000 L862, '-'IS. 000,000 ■ 129,000,1 1863, 529,000,000 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 415 1861, $636,000,000 1865, 948,000,000 1866, 919,000,000 1867, $852,000,000 1868, 767,000,000 " To obtain a full exhibit of the circulating medium of the country for these years, it would be necessary to add to the above the amount of coin in circulation each year. This amount cannot be ascertained with accuracy : but it is the opinion of those best qualified to judge, that there were about two hundred million dollars of gold and silver coin in the United States at the beginning of the rebellion. It is officially known that the amount held by the banks from 1860 to 18G3 inclusive averaged about ninety-seven million dollars. Including bank reserves, the total circulation of coin and paper never exceeded four hundred million dollars before the war. Excluding the bank reserves, the amount was never much above three hundred million dollars. During the twenty-six years preceding the war the average bank circulation was less than one hundred and thirty-nine million dollars. "It is estimated that the amount of coin now in the* "United States is not less than $250,000,000. When it is remembered that there are $106,000,000 of coin in the Treasury, that customs, duties and interest on the public debt are paid in coin alone, and that the currency of the States and Territories of the Pacific coast is wholly metallic, it will be seen that a large sum of gold and sil- ver must be added to the volume of paper currency in order to ascertain the whole amount of our circulation. It cannot be successfully controverted that the gold, sil- ver, and paper used as money in this country at this time, amount to $1,000,000,000. If we subtract from this amount our bank reserves, which amounted on the 1st of January last to $162,500,000, and also the cash in tltc national Treasury, which at that time amounted to $134,000,000, we still have left in active circulation more than $700,000,000. "It rests with those who assert that our presenl 416 THE BIOGRAPHY <>h' amount of currency i£ insufficient to show thai one hun- dred and fifty per cent, more currency is new needed for the business of the country than was needed in 18G0. To escape this difficulty, it has been asserted, by some honor- able members, thai the country never had currency enough: and that credit was substituted before the war to supply the lack of money. It. is a perfect answer to this, thai in many of the States a system of free hanking prevailed ; and such hanks pushed into circulation all the money they could find a market for. •• The table 1 have submitted shows how perfect an index the currency is of the healthy or unhealthy condi- tion of business, and that every great financial crisis, dur- ing the period covered by the table, has been preceded by a greal increase, and followed by a great and sudden de- crease in the volume of paper money. The rise and fall of mercury in the barometer is not more surely indicative of an atmospheric storm, than is a sudden increase or de- crease of currency indicative of financial disaster. With- in the period covered by the table there were four greal financial and commercial crises in this country. They occurred in is:;;, 1841, L854, and 185T. Now observe the change in the volume of paper currency for those years. "On the l.-i da] of January, 1837, the amouni had risen to II L9,< ,000, an increase of nearly fifty percent. in three years. Before the end of that year, the reckless expansion, speculation, and overtrading which caused the increase had resulted in terrible collapse ; and on the 1st of January, L838, the volume was reduced to $] 1.6,000,000. Wild land-', which speculation had raised to fifteen and twenty dollars per acre, fell to one dollar and a half and two dollars, accompanied by a corresponding depn in all branches of business. Immediately after the crisis of L841, the hank circulation decreased twenty-five per e, Hi., and by the end of L842 was reduced to $58,500,000, a decrease of nearly fifty per cent. •• \\ thi beginning of 1853 the amount was $146,000,- 000. Speculation and expansion had swelled it to $205,- JAMES A. GARFTKLD. * | I , 000,000 by the end of that year, and thus introduced the crash of 1854. At the beginning of 1857 the paper money of the country reached its highest point of inflation up to that time. There were nearly $215,000,000, but at the end of that disastrous year the volume had fallen to §135,000,000, a decrease of nearly forty per cent, in less than twelve months. In the great crashes preceding 1837 the same conditions are invariably seen — great expansion, followed by a violent collapse, not only in paper money, but in loans and discounts ; and those manifestations have always been accompanied by a corresponding fluctuation in prices. "In the great crash of 1819, one of the severest this country ever suffered, there was a complete prostration of business. It is recorded in Niles's Register for 1820 that, in that year, an Ohio miller sold four barrels of flour to raise live dollars, the amount of his subscription to that papier. "Wheat was twenty cents per bushel, and corn ten cents. About the same time Mr. Jefferson wrote to Nathaniel Macon : " 'We have now no standard of value. I am asked eighteen dollars for a yard of broadcloth which, when we had dollars, I used to get for eighteen shillings.' "But there is one equality of such a currency more re- markable than all others — its strange power to delude men. The spells and enchantment of legendary witch- craft were hardly so wonderful. Most delusions cannot be repeated ; they lose their power after a full exposure. Not so with irredeemable paper money. From the days of John Law its history has been a repetition of the same story, with only this difference : no nation now resorts to its use except from overwhelming necessity ; but whenever any nation is fairly embarked, it floats on the delusive waves, and, like the lotus-eating companions of Ulysses, wishes to return no more. "Into this very delusion many of our fellow-citizens 418 THE BIOGRAPHY OF and many members of this House have fallen. Hardly a member of either House of the Thirty-seventh or Thirty- eighth Congress spoke on the subject who did not de- plore the necessity of resorting to inconvertible paper money, and protest againsl its continuance a single day beyond the inexorable necessities of the war. The re- marks of Mr. Fessenden, when he reported the first legal- bender bill from the Finance Committee of the Senate, in February, 1862, fully exhibit the sentiment of Congress at that, time. He assured the country that the measure was not to be resorted to as a policy ; that it was what it professed to be, a temporary expedient ; that he agreed with the declaration of t lie Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of t lie House, that it was not contem- plated to issue more than £150,000,000 of legal-tender notes. "This, I repeat, was the almost unanimous sentiment of the Thirty-seventh Congress ; and though subsequent uecessit\ compelled both that and the Thirty-eighth Con- to make new issues of paper, yet the danger was always confessed, and the policy and purpose of speedy resumption were kept steadily in view. So anxious were the members of the Thirty-eighth Congress that the temptation to new issues should not overcome them or their successors, that tiny bound themselves, by a kind of financial temperance pledge, that there never should be a further increase of legal-tender notes. Witness the fol- lowing clause of the loan act of June 30, 18G4 : "'Section 2. . . . Provided, That the total anioiini of bonds and Treasury notes authorized by the fiisi and second sections of this act shall not exceed •400,000,000 in addition to the amounts heretofore issued ; nor shall tic total amounl of United States notes, issued or to be issued, ever exceed 1400,000,000, and such addi- tional Bum, not exceeding $50, 000,000, as may be tempo- rarily required for the redemption of temporary loan.' JAMES A. GARFIELD. 419 "Here is a solemn pledge to the public creditors, a compact with them, that the Government will never issue non-interest-pay ing notes beyond the sum total of $450,- 000,000. When the war ended, the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, adopting the views of its predecessors on this subject, regarded the legal-tender currency as a part of the war machinery, and proceeded to reduce and with- draw it in the same manner in Avhich the army and navy and other accompaniments of the war were reduced. Ninety-five gentlemen who now occupy seats in this hall were members of this House on the 18th of December, 1865, when it was resolved, by a vote of 144 yeas to 6 nays : " 'That this House cordially concurs in the views of the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the necessity of a contraction of the currency, with a view to as early a resumption of specie payments as the business interests of the country will permit ; and we hereby pledge cooper- ative action to this end as speedily as practicable.' " Since the passage of that resolution the currency has been reduced by an amount less than one-sixth of its volume, and what magic wonders have been wrought in the opinions of members of this House and among the financial philosophers of the country ! A score of honorable gen- tlemen have exhausted their eloquence in singing the praises of greenbacks. They insist that, at the very least, Congress should at once set the printing-presses in motion to restore the $70,000,000 of national treasure so ruth- lessly reduced to ashes by the incendiary torch of the Secretary of the Treasury. Another, claiming that this would be a poor and meagre offering to the offended paper god, introduces a bill to print and issue $140,000,000 more. The philosopher of Lewiston, the Democratic Representative of the Ninth District of Illinois [Mr. Ross], thinks that a new issue of $700,000,000 will, for the present, meet the wants of the country. Another, perceiving that the National Bank notes are dividing the 420 Tilt: BIOGRAPHY OF honors with greenbacks, proposes to abolish these offend- ing corporations, and. in Lieu of their notes, issue |300,- 000,000 more in greenbacks, and thus increase the active circulation by over one hundred millions, the amount now held as bank reserves. And finally, the Democratic masses of the Wesl are rallying under the leadership of the coming man, the young statesman of Cincinnati, who proposes to cancel with greenbacks the 81,500,000,000 of five-twenty bunds, and. with his election to the Presi- dency, usher in the full millennial glory of paper money; And this is the same George H. Pendleton who denounced as unconstitutional the law which authorized the first issue of greenbacks, and concluded an elaborate speech against the passage of the bill in 1862 with these words : " ' You send these notes out into the world stamped with irredeemability. You put on them the mark of Cain, and, like Cain, they will go forth to be vagabonds and fugitives on the earth. What, then, will be the con- sequence ? It requires no prophet to tell what will be their history. The currencj will be expanded ; prices will be inflated ; fixed values will depreciate ; incomes will be diminished ; the savings of the poor will vanish ; the hoardings of the widow v\ill melt away ; bonds, niort- . and notes, everything of fixed value, will lose their value : everything of changeable value will be appreciated ; the necessaries of life will rise in value. . . . Con- traction will follow. Private ruin and public bankruptcy, either with or without REPUDIATION, will inevitably fol- low/ ■■ The chief cause of this new-born zeal for paper nioiny is the same as thai which led a member of the Continental Congress to exclaim : " • Do you think, gentlemen, that I will consent to Load my constituents With laves, when we can send to the printer and L r ei a wagon-load of money, one quire of which will pay fur the whole ? ' trl trl I THE BTOG li APR Y <>F 428 " The simple fact in the case is that Congress went resolutely and almost unanimously forward in the policy of gradual resumption of specie payments and a return to bhe old standard of values, until the pressure of falling prices and hard times began to be felt ; and now many are shrinking from the good work they have undertaken, are turning back from the path they so worthily resolved to pursue, and are asking Congress to plunge the nation deeper than ever into the abyss from which it has been struggling so earnestly to escape. Did any reflecting man suppose it possible for the country to return from the high prices, the enormous expansion of business, debt, and speculation occasioned by the war, without much de- pression and temporary distress ? " The wit of man has never devised a method by which the vast commercial and industrial interests of a nation can suffer the change from peace to Avar, and from war back to peace, without hardship and loss. The homely old maxim, ' What goes up must come down,' applies to our situation with peculiar force. The 'coming down ' is inevitable. Congress can only break the fall and mitigate its evils by adjusting the taxation, the ex- penditures, and the currency of the country to the changed conditions of affairs. This it is our duty to do with a firm and steady hand. " Much of this work has already been done. Our national expenditures have been very considerably re- duced, but the work of retrenching expenditures can go, and should go, much further. Very many, perhaps too many, of our national taxes have been removed. But if this Congress shall consent to break down the dikes, and let in on the country a new flood of paper money for the temporary relief of business, we shall see all the evils of our present situation return after a few months with re- doubled force. "It is my clear conviction that the most formidable danger with which the country is now threatened is a large increase in the volume of paper money. 16 484 77/a: BIOQRAPH? OP "Shall we learn nothing from experience ? Shall the warnings of the past be unheeded ? "What other nation has so painfull] Bpelled out, letter by letter and word by word, the terrible meaning of irredeemable paper money, whether known by the name of colonial bills, Continental currency, or notes of dishonored banks? Most of the colonies had suffered untold evils from depreciated paper before the Revolution. Massachusetts issued her first bills of credit in 1690, to meet a war debt, ami, after sixty years of vain and delusive efforts to make worthless paper serve the purposes of money, found her industry perishing under the weight of colony bills equal in nom- inal value to 811, 000,000, which, though made a legal tender and braced up by the severest laws, were worth but twelve per cent, of their face ; and, under the lead of Hutchinson, a far-sighted and courageous statesman, in 1750 resumed specie payment, canceled all her bills, and by law prohibited the circulation of paper money within her borders, and made it a crime punishable by a fine of £100 for any Governor to approve any bill to make it a legal tender. •• For the next quarter of a century Massachusetts en- joyed the blessings of a Bound currency. Rhode Island clung to the delusion man} years longer. More than one hundred pages of Arnold's history of that colony arc de- voted to portraying the distress and confusion resulting from this cause alone. The history of every colony that ! bills is a repetition of the same sad story. " The financial history of the Revolution is too famil- iar to need repetition here, but there art' points in that history of which an American Congress cannot be too often reminded. Nowhere else were all the qualities of irredeemable paper monej so fully exhibited. From the i mission of 12,000,000 in L775, till the last, in 1781, when $360,000,000 had been i-Hied. t here a p| >ea red t be B purpose, perpetually renewed but a I \va_\ s broken, to re- strict the amount and issue 00 more. Each issue was to be the last. But notwithstanding the enormous volume JAMES A. GARFIELD. 425 reluctantly put iu circulation, our fathers seemed to believe that its value could be kept up by legislation. They denounced in resolutions of Congress. the first de- preciation of these bills as the work of enemies ; and in January, 1776, resolved : " ' That if any person shall hereafter be so lost to all virtue and regard for his country as to refuse to receive said bills in payment, &c, lie shall be treated as an en- emy, and precluded from all trade or intercourse with the inhabitants of these colonies.' " But they found before the struggle ended that the inexorable laws of value were above human legislation ; that resolutions cannot nullify the truths of the multipli- cation table. " The bills passed nearly at par until the issues ex- ceeded nine millions. At the end of 1776 they were worth seventy-five per cent, of their nominal value ; at the end of 1777, twenty-five ; at the end of 1778, sixteen ; at the end of 1779, two and a half ; and at the end of 1780 they were worth but one cent on the dollar. Four months later $500 in Continental bills were selling for one dollar in specie. Peletiah Webster, in 1790, said : " ' The fatal error that the credit and currency of Continental money could be kept up and supported by acts of compulsion, entered so deep in the minds of Con- gress and all departments of administration through the States, that no consideration of justice, religion, or pol- icy, or even experience of its utter inefficiency, could eradicate it ; it seemed a kind of obstinate delirium, totally deaf to every argument drawn from justice and right, from its natural tendency and mischief, and from common justice, and even from common sense. . . . This ruinous principle was continued in practice for five successive years, and appeared in all shapes and forms, i. e., legal-tender acts, limitation of prices, in awful and threatening declarations, and in penal laws. . . . Many thousand families of full and easy fortune were ruined by these fatal measures, and lie in ruins to-day 436 Till: BIOGR 'fin OF (1790), withonl the least benefit to the country or to the great and noble cause in which they were then engaged.' ••In summing up the evils of the Continental cur- rency, after .-peaking of the terrible hardships of the war, the destruction of property by the enemy, who at times during its progress held eleven out of the thirteen State capitals, Mr. Webster, who had seen it all, said : " ' Yet these evils were not as great as those which were caused by Continental money and the consequent irregularities of the financial system. We have Buffered from this cause more than from every other cause of calamity ; it has killed more men, pervaded and cor- rupted the choicest interests of our country more, and done more injustice, than even the arms and artifices of our enemies.' " But let it never be forgotten that the fathers of the lit ion saw, at last, the fatal error into which they had fallen, and even in the midst of their great trials i red to the young nation then struggling for its ex- istence its standard of value, its basis for honest and honorable indust ry. "In L781, Robert Morris was appointed Superinten- dent of Finance. He made a return to specie payments the condition of his acceptance ; and, on the £2d of May, I ress declared, 'That the calculation of the expenses of the present .campaign shall be made in solid coin;' and — " • Thai experience having evinced the inefficiency of all attempts to Bupporl the credit of paper monej by compulsory acts, it i- recommended to such States where laws making paper lulls a tender yet exist to repeal the same.' "Thus were the financial interests of the nation rescued from dishonor and ul ter ruin. •• Tie- state of the currency from the close of the war to the establishment of the Government under the Oonsti- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 427 tution was most deplorable. The separate States had been seized with the mania for paper money, and were rivaling each other in the extravagance of their issue and the rigor of their financial laws. One by one they were able, at last, to conquer the evils into which paper money had plunged them. In 1780 James Madison wrote from Richmond, to General Washington, the joyful news that the Virginia Legislature had, by a majority of 81 to 17, voted— " 'Paper money unjust, impolitic, destructive of pub- lic and private confidence, and of that virtue which is the basis of republican government.' "The paper money of Massachusetts was the chief cause of Shays's rebellion. The paper money of Rhode Island kept that State for several years from coming into the Union. "Nearly half a century afterward, Daniel "Webster, reviewing the financial history of the period now under consideration, said : "'From the close of the war to the time of the adop- tion of this Constitution, as I verily believe, the people suffered as much, except in loss of life, from the dis- ordered state of the currency and the prostration of com- merce and business as they suffered during the war.' " With such an experience, it is not wonderful that the framers of our Constitution should have undertaken to protect their descendants from the evils they had them- selves endured. "By reference to the Madison Papers, volume three, pages 1343-'4:6, it will be seen that, in the first draft of the Constitution, there was a clause giving Congress the [lower ' to borrow money and emit bills on the credit of the United States.' "On the 16th of August, 1787, during the final re- vision, Gouverneur Morris moved to strike out the pi 42b THE BIOGRAPHY OF authorizing the emission of bills. Mr. Madison declared that he voted to strike it out so as to ' cut off the pretext for a paper currency, and particularly for making the bills a tender either for public or private debts.' Mr. Ellsworth ' thought this a favorable time to shut and bar the door against paper money. The mischief of the various experiments which had been made was now fresh in the public mind, and had excited the disgust of all the respectable part of America,' Mr. Eead 'thought that the words, if not struck out, would be as alarming as the mark of the Beast in Revelation.' Mr. Langdon had rather reject the whole ' plan than retain the three words "and emit bills." ' " The clause was stricken out by a vote of nini States to two. Twelve days later, Roger Sherman, remarking that ' this is a favorable crisis for crushing paper money,' moved ' to prohibit the States from emitting bills of credit, or making anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts.' This clause was placed in the Constitution by a vote of eight States to two. Thus our fathers supposed they had protected us against the very evil which now afflicts the nation." General Garfield concluded his speech as follows : "For my own part, my course is taken. In view of all the facts of our situation, of all the terrible experiences of the past, both at home and abroad, and of the united testimony of the wisest and bravest statesmen who have lived and labored during the last century, it is my firm conviction that any considerable increase of the volume of our inconvertible paper money will shatter public credit, will paralyze industry, and oppress the poor ; and that the gradual restoration of our ancient standard of value will lead us, by the safest and surest paths, to national prosperity and the steady pursuits of peace." JAMES A. GARFIELD. 429 CHAPTER XVII. GARFIELD ON THE CENSUS, FINANCES AND APPROPRIATIONS. In connection with Garfield's great speech, copious extracts of which are given in the last preceding chapter, the following curious bit of history may be here appro- priately introduced. The report of the debates in the Congressional Globe reveals it. On the twenty-third of July (1868), General Garfield asked permission to make a personal explanation of fifteen minutes. It was granted, and he sent to the clerk's desk to be read some remarks made by Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania a few days before, in which he had asserted that it w T as the original intention to pay the bonds, not in coin " but in " money," and that " rather than go with the Republicans if they held to coin payments, he would vote for the other side, Frank Blair and all." He had de- nounced " coin payment " as a " swindle upon the tax- payers of the country." General Garfield said that at the time these remarks were made by Mr. Stevens, he had expressed his surprise at the utterance, and had referred to the fact that in 1862, in the debate on the bill authorizing the Five-twenty bonds, Mr. Stevens himself had distinctly declared that these bonds were payable in gold, and that such was the unanimous opinion and intention of Congress at that time. Garfield next quoted some remarks made by Mr. 430 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Stevens on the previous day, in which he denounced that gentleman and others as having wholly perverted his meaning in L862, and re-affirmed that he had always con- tended for the payment of the bonds in " money," that is, in paper money. Mr. Stevens had, with much warmth, charged these " pervertors of his meaning" with "vil- lainy," and warned the people against putting faith in the publications of demagogues. Garfield then proceeded to make copious citations from the record to show that it was not only the original intention of Congress to pay the bonds in com, but that Mr. Stevens stated, five distinct times, that the principal of the bonds was payable in gold. When General Gar- field had closed this explanation, Mr. Stevens said that when the proper time came, he would show that there was not "a word of truth in what Mr. Garfield had said." As no answer could be made, the " proper time " never came. Mr. Stevens' " Greenback craze " in the latter years of his life appears to have clouded his memory, per- verted Ids judgment, and involved him in great incon- sistencies. A \'rw days before this passage at arms with Mr. Stevens, General Garfield had made a speech on the taxa- i r ? Here, where fche grim edge of battle joined ; here, where all the bope and Eear and agony of their country red ; here lei them rest, asleep on the uatiou's heart, entombed in the nat ion's love ! ''The view from this spot hears some resemblance to that which greets the eye at Rome. In sight of the Capitolinc Hill, up and across the Tiber, and overlooking the city, is u hill, not rugged nor lofty, but known as the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 433 Vatican Mount. At I ho beginning of the Christian era, an imperial circus stood on its summit. There gladiator slaves died for the sport of Koine, and wild beasts fought with wilder men. In that arena a Galilean fisherman gave up his life, a sacrifice for his faith. No human life was ever so nobly avenged. On that spot was reared the proudest Christian temple ever built by human hands. For its adornment the rich offerings of every clime and kingdom have been contributed. And now, after eighteen centuries, the hearts of two hundred million people turn toward it with reverence when they worship God. As the traveler descends the Apennines, he sees the dome of St. Peter's rising above the desolate Campagna and the dead city, long before the seven hills and ruined palaces appear to his view. The fame of the dead fisherman has outlived the glory of the eternal City. A noble life, crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth. " Seen from the western slope of our Capitol, in direc- tion, distance, and appearance, this spot is not unlike the Vatican Mount, though the river that flows at our feet is larger than a hundred Tibers. Seven years ago, this Avas the home of one who lifted his sword against the life of his country, and who became the great Imperator of the rebellion. The soil beneath our feet was watered by the tears of slaves, in whose hearts the sight of yonder proud Capitol awakened no pride, and inspired no hope. The face of the goddess that crowns it was turned toward the sea, and not toward them. But, thanks be to God, this arena of rebellion and slavery is a scene of violence and crime no longer ! This will be forever the sacred moun- tain of our Capitol. Here is our temple ; its pavement is the sepulchre of heroic hearts ; its dome, the bending heavens ; its altar candles, the watching stars. " Hither our children's children shall come to pay their tribute of grateful homage. For this are we met to-day. By the happy suggestion of a great society, as- semblies like this are gathering at this hour in every State 484 77//; BIOGRAPHY OF in the Union. Thousands of Bold iers are to-day turning aside in the march of life to visil the silent encampments of dead comrades who once fought by their side. "'From many thousand homes, whose light was put out when a soldier fell, there go forth to-day, to join solemn processions, loving kindred and friends, from whose hearts the Bhadovr of grief will never be lifted until the light of the eternal world dawns upon them. " Ami here are children, little children, to whom the war left no father but the Father above. By the most sacred right, theirs is the chief place to-day. They come with garlands to crown their victor fathers. I will delay the coronation no longer." At the opening of the Forty-first Congress Special Session (1869-^71), General Garfield was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency. This appointment was a recognition by the Speaker of his ability, research and wide knowledge of all financial subject-. This had become one of the most important Committees of the House. It was constituted as follows; .1 \mi- A. < . \i;i ii.i.n, of Ohio. John Lynch, of Maine Norm \\ B. .1 1 dd, of Illinois. John < '«>i:i i:.\, of Indiana. Wobthington C. Smith, of Vermont. John B. I'auki b, of Pennsylvania. l-i: \i i. I i. Lash, Of North Carolina. Sami.. S. ( !ox, of .New York, Thomas B. Jones, of Kentucky. 1 [i ib vii" 0. In EtOHABD, of Illinois. General Garfield was also afterwards appointed on the Select Committee on the Ninth Census. Although the J\dl[8. (2>ij\ E(DSOJf. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 437 great burden of putting the work-of the Superintendent of the Census and of his assistant in proper shape was laid upon Garfield, he, at the request of the Speaker, yielded, out of courtesy, to Mr. Stokes, of Tennessee, and took the second place on the Committee, which was com- posed of the following representatives : William B. Stokes, of Tennessee. James A. Gakfield, of Ohio. Nathaniel B. Banks, of Massachusetts. William B. Allison, of Iowa. Addison J. Laflin, of New York. Shelly M. Cullom, of Illinois. Martin M. Wilkinson, of Minnesota. Richard J. IIaldeman, of Pennsylvania. John G. Schumackeb, of New York. General Garfield was also a member of the Committee on Rules, which was composed as follows : James G. Blaine (the Speaker), of Maine. Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts. Thomas W. Ferky, of Michigan. James A. Garfield, of Ohio. James Brooks, of New York. On all these committees General Garfield took the position of a " wheel-horse." His labors were prodigious, and productive of the greatest benefit. On January 19, 1869, he had introduced a resolution, " That a Select Committee of Seven be appointed to inquire and report to the House what legislation is necessary to provide for taking the Ninth Census, as provided by the Constitu- 488 Tin: B10QRAPH7 OF tioii." The resolution was adopted, and Garfield was ap- pointed Chairman of the Committee ; but there had nut beeh time to perform their duties well before the close of the Fortieth < longress, in March. At the first (special) session of the Forty-first Cor gress, held in the Spring of L869, another Select Com- mittee on the Census was appointed. Garfield was its chief worker, bnt political and personal considerations the chairmanship to Mr. Stokes, of Tennessee, as we have seen, with the understanding thai his Ohio colleague. mus to do the work. For this duty, no man was better qualified than he. His economical and financial studies before had led him to a careful examination of statistics. He had studied them as a science, and pushed his inves- tigations into all branches of the subject. He had al.su- lutelv exhausted the literature of statistics in America, and had turned to the lessons to be taught by England, France and Belgium. On tin; 6th of April, 1869, he made an able speech on the subject, in the course of which he gave utterance to the following thoughts on the value of statistics : "This is the age of statistics, Mr. Speaker. The word ( statistics ' itself did nol exist until L749, whence we date the beginning of a new science on which modern legislation iiiu-t be I'.i-o.l, in order to he permanent. The treatise of Aehenwall, the German philosopher who originated the . [aid tlw foundation of man) of the greatesi reforms in modern Legislation. Statistics are State fact-, facts for the consideration of statesmen, Buch as thej maj no! neglect with safety. It has been truly said thai -statistics are history in repose; history is statistics in motion.' If i gled the one. we shall deserve to he neglected b] the other. The legislator without statistic* is like the JAMES A. A I! FIELD. 439 mariner at sea without the compass. Nothing can safely be committed to his guidance. A question of fearful im- portance, the well-being of this Republic, has agitated this House for many weeks. It is this : Are our rich men growing richer, and our poor growing poorer ? And how can this most vital question be settled, except by the most careful and honest examination of the facts ? Who can doubt that the next census will reveal to us more impor- tant truths concerning the situation of our people than any census ever taken by any nation ? By what standard could we measure the value of a complete, perfect record of the condition of the people of this country, and such facts as should exhibit their burdens and their strength ? Who doubts that it would be a document of inestimable value to the legislator and the Nation ? How to achieve it, how to accomplish it, is the great question. "We are near the end of a decade that has been full of earthquakes, and amid the tumult we have lost our reckoning. Wo do not yet comprehend the stupendous changes through which we have passed, nor can we until the whole held is re-surveyed. If a thousand volcanoes had been bursting beneath the ocean, the mariner would need new charts before he could safely sail the seas again. We are soon to set out on our next decade with a thousand new elements thrown in upon us by the war. The way is trackless. Who shall pilot us ? The war repealed a part of our venerable census law. One schedule was devoted to slaves. Thank God ! it is useless now. Old things have passed away, and a multitude of new things arc to be here recorded ; and not only tiie things to be taken, but the manner of taking them, requires a thorough remodeling at our hands. If this Congress does not worthily meet the demands of this great occasion, every member must bear no small share of the odium that justly attaches to men who fail to discharge duties of momentous impor- tance, which once neglected can never be performed." 440 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Garfield's Census Committee labored with great assi- duity through sessions embracing forty days, and he intro- duced a matured bill on the subject and supported it by an able speech on December 16, L869. The bill passed the House but, owing chiefly to the personal antagonism of Senators, it was lost in the Senate. It presented a greatly-improved plan for taking the census, but failing to become a law, the old plan, with slight modifications, was adopted. $ut Garfield's plan formed the basis of that adopted for taking the census in L880. Meanwhile, the conflict on the currency question had become more and more intense. Garfield had introduced into Congress (Dec. 14, 1868) a bill to legalize gold con- tracts, and it became a part of General Schenk's more comprehensive measure embodied in a bill (January 20, 1869 ) entitled " To Strengthen the Public Credit and Relating to Gold Contracts." This bill passed both Houses, but President Johnson gave it a "pocket veto." that is, did not approve it nor return it with his objec- tions. It was re-introduced at the first Session of the Forty-firs! Congress i March 1 •> >, was passed, and was the firs! A<-t approved by President Grant. This, which stood as a bulwark of the public credit for ten years, was as follow- : •• Be it enacted //// the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the I' nihil States of America, in Congress as- sembled, That, in order to remove any doubt as to the purpose of the Government to discharge all just oMi- gations to the public creditors, and to settle conflicting questions and interpretations of the laws l.\ virtue of which such obligations have been contracted, it is hereby provided and declared that the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or its equiva- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 441 lent of all the obligations of the United States not bearing interest, known as United States notes, and of all the interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except in cases where the law authorizing the issue of any such obligation has expressly provided that the same may be paid in lawful money or other currency than gold and silver. But none of said interest-bearing obligations not already due shall be redeemed or paid before maturity, unless at such time United States notes shall be converti- ble into coin at the option of the holder, or unless at such time bonds of the United States bearing a lower rate of interest than the bonds to be redeemed can be sold at par in coin. And the United States also solemnly pledges its faith to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the United States notes in coin." In support of this important bill General Garfield made the following vigorous speech on March 3, 1869 : "Now, sir, I favor the first section of this bill, be- cause it declares plainly what the law is. I affirm again, what I have often declared in this hall, that the law does now require the payment of these bonds in gold. I hope I may without impropriety refer to the fact that during the last session I proved, from the record in this house, and in the presence of the author of the law by which these bonds were authorized, that five distinct times in his speech, which immediately preceded the passage of the law, he declared the five-twenty bonds were payable, principal and interest, in gold, and that every member who spoke on the subject took the same ground. The law was passed with that declaration uncontradicted, and it went into effect stamped with that declaration by both houses of Congress. That speech, made on the eve of the Presidential campaign, was widely circulated through- out the country as a campaign document, and those who held the contrary were repeatedly challenged to refute its statements. I affirm that its correctness was not success- 442 THE BIOGRAPHY OF fully denied. Not only Congress so understand and de- olare, but every Secretary of the Treasury from that day to this has declared that these bonds are payable in gold. The authorized agents of the Government sold them, and the people bought them, with this understanding. "The Government thus bound itself by every obli- gation of honor and good faith, and it was not until one year after the passage of the law thai any man in Con- gress raised even a doubt on the subject. The doubts since raised were raised mainly for electioneering pur- poses, and the question was referred to the people for arbitrament at the late Presidential election. After the fullest debate ever had on any great question of National politics, in a contest in which the two parties fairly and squarely joined issue on the very point, it was solemnly de- cided by the great majority which elected General Grant that repudiators should be repudiated, and that the faith of the Nation should be preserved inviolate. •• We are, therefore, bound by fche pledged faith of the Nation, by the spirit and meaning of the law, and finally by the voice of the people themselves, to resolve all doubts and Bettle the credit of the United States by this explicit declaration of the national will. The action of the House on this bill has already been hailed throughout the world as the dawn of better days for the finances of the Nation, and every Inarkel has shown a wonderful improvement of our credit. \\ e could this day refund our debt on terms more advantageous to the Government by $120,000,000 than we could have done the day before the passage of this bill by the House. Make it a law, and a still greater improvement will result. 1 can in no way better indicate in\ views of the propriety of passing the second section of this Kill than by reminding the House thai I introduced this proposition in a separate bill on the 10th of Febru- ary, L868, and its passage has been inure generally de- manded bj the people and press of the country than any other financial measure before Congress. "The principle involved in this Bection is simply this: JAMES A. GARFIELD. 443 to make it possible for gold to come into this country and to remain here. Gold and silver are lawful money of the United States, and yet the opponents would have us make it unlawful for a citizen to make and enforce contracts which he may hereafter make, to pay gold when he has received gold or its equivalent as the consideration of his contract. The very statement of this doctrine ought to be its sufficient refutation. But the minds of gentlemen are vexed with the fear that this section will be an engine of oppression in the hands of creditors. If any new safe- guards can be devised that are not already in this section I know not what they are. Whenever this law is carried out in its letter and spirit, no injustice can possibly re- sult. The whole power of the law is in the hands of the creditor, and he alone is supposed to be in danger of suffering wrong. " In the moment that remains to me I can do no more than to indicate the grounds on which the justice of this measure rests. It is a great and important step toward specie payments, because it removes the unwise and op- pressive decree which almost expatriates American gold and silver from the country. It will not only allow our own coin to stay at home, but it will permit foreign coin to flow hither from Europe. More than $70,000,000 of our gold are going abroad every year, in excess of what comes to us, and at the same time in eight kingdoms of Europe there are nearly $500,000,000 of idle gold ready to be invested at less than three per cent, interest. In the Bank of England and the Bank of France there has been for more than a year an average of more than *:;<>o,000,000 of bullion, and most of that time the bank rate of interest has been less than two per cent. Who can doubt that much of this gold will find its way here, if it can be invested without committing the fortunes of its owners to the uncertain chances of unconvertible paper .money ? But the passage of this bill will enable citizens to transact their business on a fixed and certain basis. It will give stability and confidence to trade, and pave the ill THE BIOGBAPEY OF \\.i\ for specie payments. The Supreme Court has de- cided thai this ie uow the Law, but let us put it on the Btatute-book as a notice to the people and to prevent un- necessary lil igation." CTnder the lead of General Garfield another important step was soon taken in the direction of sound currency and resumption. There was a general complaint that the currency was insufficient in quantity to meet the demands of business. The Western and Southern men, denounced as unfair the geographical distribution of national banks under the law of 1864, the preponderance being in the older States. They did not consider that much the larger amount of the banking capital of the country was in those States. As no more banks could be organized under the law which limited the total capital to three hundred million dollars, the malcontent,-; clamored for authority for unre- stricted banking. General Garfield clearly saw that if the complaining States had more capital for banking than they were allowed opportunities to employ, it would be just to give them the coveted facilities; if not (as he believed), the cry for more banks would speedily become absurd. Be introduced a bill (which passed) to provide for the re- demption of the three per cent, temporary Loan Certifi- cates and for an increase in National Bank note-. This bill provided thai fifty-four million dollars in national rmtes mighl be issued to banking associations, in addition to the three hundred million dollars already au- thorized, the same to be furnished to " banks organized, or to be organized, in those States and Territories having than their proportion under the existing apportion- ment," It wa al o provided thai the Secretary of the JAMES A. GARFIELD. MB Treasury, under certain circumstances, might withdraw twenty-five million dollars of circulation from certain of the existing hanks, and apportion the same among the States and Territories having less than their fair pro- portion. In support of this bill, General Garfield made a very able speech on June 7, 1870. It was entitled, in the pamphlet form, " Currency and the Banks." In that speech he presented his leading doctrines concerning Money and the Currency, and an elaborate view of his re-distributing scheme. On June IT he made another speech in support of the bill. While this bill was pending the critics, in and out of Congress, were in opposition to each other. They seemed to be at sea on an ocean with which they were not familiar. One party of the opposers declared that the scheme would prove to be, in its operations, a severe con- traction of the currency ; the other party declared that it would result in inflation. Garfield denied the truth of both assertions, declaring that it neither favored contrac- tion or inflation. As he had anticipated, the complaining States had very little, if any, money to put into the bank- ing business. They did not claim the new facilities offered them. The bill was passed on July 12, 1870, but financial matters in the complaining States stood as before. This stubborn fact afforded General Garfield and his " hard money" friends an opportunity to retort when the "soft money" men clamored for more currency, "Why did not the South and West accept what was held out to them by the Act of July 12, 1870 \ To this there could be no answer. In his second speech on that bill he felici- tously met the eulogists of paper currency who extolled its 146 Till- BIOGRAPHI OF virtues on the plea that ir could not be exported like gold, and would not go abroad as gold would, by the following printed remark : "It is reported of an Englishman who was wrecked ou a st range shore that, wandering along the coast, he came to a gallows with a victim hanging upon it. and that he fell down on his knees and thanked (iod that lie ;it last beheld a sign of civilization, lint this is the first time I ever heard a financial philosopher express his gratitude that we have a currency of such bad repute that other nations will not receive it; he is thankful that it is not exportable. We have a great many commodities that are in such a condition that they are not exportable. Moldy Hour, rusty wheat, rancid butter, damaged cotton, addled eggs, and spoiled goods generally are not exportable. Bui it never occurred to me to be thankful for this putrescence. It is related in a quainl German book of humor that the inhabitants of Schildeberg, finding that other towns, with more public spirit than their own. had erected gibbets within their precincts, resolved thai the town of Schildeberg should also have a gallows; and one patriotic member of the town council offered a resolution that the benefits of this gallows should be reserved exclu- sively for the inhabitants of Schildeberg." General Garfield's labors in the Forty-first Congress were greater, perhaps, and his able speeches more numer- ous, than in any other in which he sat. especially during the la ion. lb' had done an immense amount of Committee Bervice, besides engaging constantly in the ordinary business of Congress. One of the most im- portant, difficull and trying of the labors of his Com- mitteeon Banking and Currency was that of investigating rases that led to the unusual ami extraordinary Quo tuatioi Id in the city of New Fork, from the 21sl JAJfUB A. f our territory and increase in the number of our States. He held further that, while the ordinary expendi- tures would tend to increase from year to year after the Nation had reached the bottom of the inclined plane reach- ing downward from the war, 'they ought not to increase by the same per cent, from year to year ; the rate of increase ought gradually to grow less.' He next inquired concern- ing the effect of wars on national expenditures, finding them a disturbing element of enormous power. The whole inquiry involved a most difficult inductive investi- gation." JAMES A. GARFIELD. 457 CHAPTER XVIII. GAKFIELD ON PUBLIC EXPENDITURES. — THE CREDIT MOBIL- IER COMPANY. General Garfield occupied the position of Chair- man of the Committee on Appropriations — a Committee which recommends and supervises all the expenditures of the Government — during four years, or until the Demo- crats came into power in the House in 1875. At that time the annual expense of the Government was about three hundred million dollars. During his services on the Committee on Appropriations, this annual expen- diture was greatly reduced. It reformed the system of estimates and appropriations, provided for closer account- ability on the part of those who spend the public money, and gave a clear knowledge to those who voted for it, of what it was used for. On the 23d of January, 1872, General Garfield made a most remarkable speech on Public Expenditures, their Increase and Diminution. In that speech he forecasted the financial history of the country for years to come, which time has verified. By a philosophical mental process he arrived at the conclusion that the expenditures of a war cannot be brought down to a peace level until a subsequent period twice as long as the war itself. This conclusion was warranted by the history of wars of Eng- land and of our own wars from the beginning of our Gov- ernment. He showed that expenditures rise to their 458 THE BI0GBAPH1 OB' greatest height at the close of war; then begin to fall gradually until they reach the peace level, and then be- gin to rise again and gradually keep pace with the growth and prosperity of the country-. General Garfield said the Civil War was substantially five years long, ending financially in 1866. Applying the rule spoken of, the peace level would he reached in 1S76. In a masterly analysis of tables of expenditures attending and resulting from the war, and the expenses of peace, he demonstrated that there had been a constant increase of the peace expenditures and a constant decrease of those of the war. " There were two processes," says a recent writer,"one of increase and one of diminution ; but the magnitude of the war iiad been so great that the decrease would be faster than the increase resulting from peace. The problem was, when will these two lines meet, and the upward in- cline of peace begin? It requi red great breadth of gen- eralization, and minute attention to details, to reach the result; and that he did it, and came to so correct a con- clusion, is evidence of the remarkable power and grasp of his mind.'' The following extracts from his speech will strikingly illustrate his power in analyzing: "Beginning with L791, the last decade of the eight- eenth centurj showed an annual average of *',],", yO,(i()0. During the first decade of the present century, the aver- as nearly -<>.■" ,000. Or, commencing with 1791, their followed twenty years oi peace, during which the annual average of ordinary expenditures was more than doubled. Then followed four years, from L812 to 1815, inclusive, m which the war with England swelled the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 459 average to $25,500,000. During the five years succeeding that war, the average was $16,500,000; and it was not until 1821 that the new level of peace was reached. Dur- ing the live years from 1820 to 1825, inclusive, the annual average was 811,500,000. From 1825 to 1830 it was $13,- 000,000. From 1830 to 1835 it was $17,000,000. From L835 to 1840, in which period occurred the Seminole war, it was s;jo, 500,000. From 1840 to 1845 it was $27,000,000. From 1845 to 1850, during which period occurred the Mexican war, it was 840,500,000. From 1850 to 1855 it was $47,500,000. From 1855 to June 30, 1861, it was $67,000,000. From June 30, 1861, to June 30, 1866, ft 13, 750, 000 ; and from June 30, 1866, to June 30, 1871, the annual average was $189,000,000. '•'It is interesting to inquire how far we may reason- ably expect to go in the descending scale before we reach the new level of peace. It took England twenty years after Waterloo before she reached such a level. Our own experience has been peculiar in this, that our people have been impatient of debt, and have always determinedly set about the work of reducing it. " Throughout" our history there may be seen a curious uniformity in the movement of the annual expenditures for the years immediately following a war. We have not the data to determine how long it was, after the War of Independence, before the expenditures ceased to decrease, that is, before they reached the point where their natural growth more than balanced the tendency to reduction of war expenditure ; but in the years immediately following all our subsequent wars, the decrease has continued for a period almost exactly twice the length of the war itself. "After the war of 1812-'15, the expenditures con- tinued to decline for eight years, reaching the lowest point in l*^. "After the Seminole war, which ran through three years— 1836, (.837, and 1838— the new level was not reached until 1844, six years after its close. " After the Mexican war, which lasted two years, it 46U THE BIOGRAPHY OF took four years, until 1852, to reach the new level of peace. •• It is, perhaps, unsafe to base our calculations for the future On these analogies ; but the wars already referred to have been of Buch varied character, and their financial effects have been so uniform, as to make it nut unreason- able to expert that a similar result will follow our late war. [f soj the decrease of our ordinary expenditures, exclusive of the principal and interest of the public debt, will continue until L875 or 1 876. •• We eannot exped so rapid a reduction of the public debi and its burden of interest as we have witnessed for the last three years ; but the reduction will doubtless con- tinue, and the burden of interest will constantly decrease. I know it is not safe to attempt to forecast the future; but I venture to express the belief that, if peace continues, the year L876 will witness our ordinary expenditures re- duced to $125,000,000, and the interest on our public deb! to $95,000,000 : making- our total expenditures, ex- clusive of payment on the principal of the public debt, $230,000,000. Judging from our own experience and from that of other nation-, we may not hope thereafter to reach a town- figure. In making this estimate, I have as- sumed thai there will be a considerable reduction of the burdens of taxation, and a revenue not nearly in so great the expenditures as we now collect." [n an article published in the North American Re- view in the Summer of L 879, seven years after this speech, ( 1-eneral < Sarfield said : •• Reviewing the subject in the light of subsequent ex- perience, it will he seen thai the progress of reduction of expenditures from the war level has been very nearly in accordance with these expectations of seven years ago. " The actual expenditures since the war. including in- ■ on the public debt, ae shown by the official record, follows : JAMES A. GARFIELD. 461 1865, . . $1,297,555,224 41 1872, . . $277,517,962 68 1866, . 520,809,416 99 1873, . . 290,345,245 33 1867, . 357,542,675 16 1874, . . 287,133,873 17 1868, . 377,340,284 86 1875, . . 274,623,392 84 1869, . 322,865,277 80 1876, . . 258,459,797 33 1870, . 309,653,560 75 1877, . . 238,660,008 93 1871, . 292,177,188 25 1878, . . 236,964,326 80 " Omitting the iivst of these years, in which the enor- mous payments to the army swelled the aggregate of ex- penses to $1,297,000,000, and, beginning with the first full year after the termination of the war, it will be seen that the expenditures have been reduced, at first very rapidly, and then more slowly, from $520,000,000 in 1866 to about $237,000,000 in 1878. "The estimate quoted above was that in 1876 expendi- tures would be reduced to $230,000,000, including $95,- 000,000 for interest on the public debt. In 1877, one year later than the estimated date, the actual reduction had reached $238,000,000, including $97,000,000 for inter- est on the public debt. [He means the expenditures had been reduced to $238,000,000.] "It is evident that in 1877 we had very nearly reached the limit of possible reduction, for the aggregate expendi- tures of 1878 show a reduction below that of the pre- ceding year of less than $2,000,000 ; and the expendi- tures, actual and estimated, for the current year ending June 30, 1879, are $240,000,000. It thus appears that 1878 was the turning-point from which, under the influ- ence of the elements of normal growth, we may expect a constant, though it ought to be a small, annual increase of expenditures." During the dark days of the Ku-Klux outrages in Southern States, General Garfield bore an important part in the perfecting of measures for the enforcement of the Fourteenth Amendment to the National Constitution. A very stringent bill for that purpose had been introduced, 462 TEE BIOOBATHI OF embodying among other extreme measures proposed, giving authority to the President to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in Southern States if he should deem it necessary. Garfield was in full accord with those who favored the exercise of the full powers of the laws in the enforcement of that Amendment, but he strenuously opposed the harsh and extreme features of the bill, in a speech of great ability, delivered on April 1, 1871. The genera] tenor and spirit of the speech are indicated in the opening sentence After repeating the words of the in- troducer of the bill — " it requires us to enter upon unex- plored territory," he said: "Thai territory, .Mr. Speaker, is the neutral ground of all political philosophy ; the neutral ground for which rival theories have been struggling in all ages. THere arc two ideas so utterly antagonistic that when, in anv nation, either lias gained absolute and complete pos- session of that neutral ground, the ruin of that nation has invariably followed. The one is that, despotism which swallows and absorbs all power in a single central govern- nirii! ; il ther is thai extreme doctrine of legal sover- eignty which makes nationality impossible, and resolves a general government into anarchy and chaos. It makes hut little difference as to the final result which of these idea- drives the other from the field j in either case, ruin follows. "The result exhibited by one was >rv\\ in theAmphie- tyonic and Achaean leagues df ancient Greece, of which Madison, in the twentieth number of ' TTie Federalist,' says : "'The inevitable result of all was imbecility in the government, discord among the provinces, foreign in- fluences and indignities, a precarious existence in peace, and peculiar calamit ies in war.' " THE "T^I^UJTE" gUILQIJsfG QI(fi1>E(X) Iff JtfOUItJIIjNG. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 466 " This is a fitting description of nil nations who have carried the doctrine of local self-government so far as to exclude the doctrine of nationality. They were not nations, but mere leagues, hound together by common consent, ready to fall to pieces at the demand of any re- fractory member. The opposing idea was never better il- lustrated than when Louis XIV. entered the French As- sembly, booted and spurred, and girded with the sword of ancestral kings, and said to the deputies of France, * The State ! I am the State !' "Between these opposite and extreme theories of government, the people have been tossed from century to century; and it has been only when these ideas have been in reasonable equipoise, when this neutral ground has been held in joint occupancy, and usurped by neither, that popular liberty and national life have been possible. How many striking illustrations of this do we see in the history of France ! The despotism of Louis XIV., followed by a reign of terror, wheu liberty had run mad and France was a vast scene of blood and ruin ! We see it again in our day. " Only a few years ago the theory of personal govern- ment had placed in the hands of Napoleon III. absolute and irresponsible power. The communes of France were crushed, and local liberty existed no longer. Then fol- lowed Sedan and the rest. On the first day of last month, when France Avas trying to rebuild her ruined govern- ment, when the Prussian cannon had hardly ceased thundering against the Avails of Paris, a deputy of France rose in the National Assembly and moved, as the first step toward the safety of his country, that a committee of thirty should be chosen, to be called the Committee of Decentralization. But it was too late to save France from the fearful reaction from despotism. The news comes to us, under the sea, that on Saturday last the cry Avas ring- ing through France, ' Death to the priests, and death to the rich !' and the swords of the citizens of that new Re- public are now wet Avith each other's blood." 466 • THE BIOGRAPHY OF It was in this (the Forty-second) Congress, in the Winter of lbT^'TS, that the Credit Mobilier development excited the whole country with alarm, for it seemed to point to the existence of corruption in public life not hitherto suspected. The following is a brief history of that affair : In September, 1864, the Union Pacific Railway made a contract with II. W. Hoxie, for the building by the latter, of one hundred miles of that railway from Omaha, west. Mr. Hoxie assigned this contract to a company, according to a mutual understanding from the first. This company was know i) as the Credit Mobilier of America. They had bought up an old charter that had been granted by the Pennsylvania Legislature to another company, but which had not been used by them. About 1866, Oakes Ames, then a member of Con- gress from the State of Massachusetts, and his brother Oliver Ames (both men of large capital and known in- tegrity), became interested in the Union Pacific Com- pany, and also in the Credit Mobilier Company, as the agent for the contractor of the road. Relying upon these gentlemen, many men of capital were, chiefly through the personal efforts of Oakes Ames, induced to take Btock in the tw mpaniesj Among them were Samuel Hooper and John B. Alley, members of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts, and Mr. Grimes, then a Senator from the State of Iowa. Bui great difficulty was experienced in procuring the required amount of capital. In the Spring of 1S67 the Oredil Mobilier Company, whose capital stock was two million five hundred thousand dollars, voted to add fifty per cent, to this Btock : and to cause it to be readily taken, each subscriber to it was entitled to receive as a uonus an JAMES A. GARFIELD. 467 equal amount of first mortgage bonds of the Union Pacific Company. The old stockholders were entitled to take this increase ; yet the stock of the company was not considered of par value until Oakes Ames completed a contract for building a large section of the road. This contract, executed in August, 1867, contained an agreement by which Mr. Ames was to build six hun- dred and seventy -seven miles of the Union Pacific road, at various prices per mile, amounting, in the aggregate, to $47,000,000. Before the contract was executed, it was understood that * Ames was to transfer it to seven trustees, who were to execute it, and the profits of the contract were to be divided among the stockholders in the Credit Mobilier Company, who should comply with certain conditions. They all did so. The great body of the stockholders in the Union Pacific ratified the con- tract, but not all of them. Because of the enormous price to be paid for the building of this section of the road, the stockholders anti- cipated very large profits from the contract, and early in 1868, the stock of the Credit Mobilier Company was considered by its holders worth three or four times its par value. The stockholders of this company being also stockholders of the Union Pacific Company, there was a mutual pecuniary interest. The Union Pacific railway was largely dependent upon the National (fovernment for aid that might insure its success. Its managers were shrewd business men, and they so directed affairs that all the burdens and risks of the enterprise were laid upon the General Govern- ment, while they secured to themselves all the profits to be derived from the undertaking. Congress endowed the 468 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Railway Company with twenty alternate sections of land per mile, ami loaned it $16,000 a mile for about two hundred miles; thence $32,000 a mile through the Alkali Desert, and $48,000 a mile thence in the E&cky Moun- tains. The company issued stock to the amount of $10,000,000, which was received by the stockholders on their payment of five per cent, of its face. When the Credit Mobilier was formed and Ames's contract was perfected, all the assets of the Union Pacific Company wen- turned over to them in consideration of full paid shares of the new company's stock and its agree- ment to luiild the road. The Government, meanwhile, had allowed its claim for its loan of bonds to become a second mortgage, and permitted the Union Pacific Road to issue first mortgage bonds, which took precedence as a lien upon the road. The Government lien became worthless, as the new mortgage amounted to all the value of the road. The proceeds of this transaction swelled the profits of the Credit Mobilier. which had nothing to pay out excepting for the cost of construction. Some of the dividends of the latter company were paid in Union Pacific Company bonds. By this shrewd management the bonded debts of the railroad exceeded its cost by fully $40,000,000. Oakes Ames was one of the principal managers of this Bcheme. The chief object of the Credit Mobilier emed to be to drain money from the Union Pacific, and consequently from the Government. Ames naturally foresa v that, sooner or later, there musl be inquiries, and that legislation by Congress to protect the interest.- of the Government would be called for. Such legislation would be unfavorable to the Credit Mobilier, and it was to their JAMh's A. UAHFIELD. 1(39 interest, as it was undoubtedly their aim, to prevent such legislation. It seems to have been accordingly determined to in- terest enough members of Congress to prevent the adop- tion of measures for the protection of the National Treasury. Oakes Ames was then in Congress, and he un- dertook to carry out the last-named plan. It was very simple. It was simply to bribe a certain number of the members of Congress. To do this, a certain portion of the Credit Mobilier stock was placed in the hands of Ames as trustee, " to be used by him as he thought best for the interest of the company." With this trust he was in Washington at the opening of Congress in December, 1867. Mr. Ames immediately began operations. He offered a considerable number of members of Congress, both Senators and Representatives, Credit Mobilier stock at par, with interest thereon from the first day of the pre- vious July. He did not urge it upon them ; the only inducement he held out was the assurance that it would be good stock and that he would guarantee at least ten per cent, interest on the investment. When some of them asked Mr. Ames whether becoming stock-holders would embarrass them as members of Congress in their legislation concerning the Union Pacific Railway, he assured them that the company had received from Con- gress all the grants and legislation they wanted, and they should ask for nothing more. A considerable number of members of Congress en- tered into contracts for the stock, some paying the money down, others agreeing with Mr. Ames for him to "carry" it until they should have the money, or it should be met 470 THE B100RAPH7 OF by dividends. The dividends with the accrued interest were more than enough to pay for the stock, and so the value of the investment was perfectly apparent. " One hand washed the other." The motive of Mr. Ames in thus •" placing" the stuck, was stated by an investigating committee afterwards, as follows: "In relation to the purposes and motives of Mr. Aim- in contracting to let members of Congress have Credit Mobilier stuck at par, whieh he and all other owners of it considered worth at least double that sum. the committee, upon the evidence taken by them, and submitted to the House, cannot entertain a doubt. When he said he did not suppose the Union Pacific Company would ask or need further legislation, he stated what he believed to be true, but feared the interests of the road mighl suffer by adverse legislation ; and what he desired to accomplish was to enlist strength and friends in Con- gress who would resisl anv encroachments upon or inter- ference with the rights and privileges already secured, and to that end wished to create in them an interest identical with his own. " This purpose is clearly avowed in Mr. Ames's letters to fctcComb, copied in the evidence, where he says he in- tends to plaee the stock 'where it will do the most good to us;' and again, ' We want mure friends in this Con- .' In his letter to McComb, and- also in his state- ment prepared by counsel, he gives the philosophy of his action, to wit : Thai he has round there is no difficulty in getting men to look after their own property, •• The commit he are also satisfied that Mr. Ames enter* tained a fear that when the true relations between t he Credit. M tbilier Company and the Onion Pacific became generally known, and the mean- by which the greai profits expected to be made wm-e t'ulh understood, there was danger that Congressional investigation and action would be invoked. The members of Congress with whom he dealt were gen- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 471 enerally tlioso who had been friendly and favorable to a Pacific railroad, and Mr. Ames did not fear or expect to find them favorable to movements hostile to it, but he desired to stimulate their activity and watchfulness in opposition to any unfavorable action, by giving them a personal interest in the success of the enterprise, especially so far as it affected the interest of the Credit Mobilier Company." It was- estimated that the profits of the Credit Mobilier were about $30,000,000. They had obtained, as clear profits, the proceeds of the land-grants, donations from communities near the road, and the entire subsidy of Government bonds. The fact is, the managers of the two companies made a bargain with themselves to build the road for a sum equal to about double its cost, and the enormous profit derived came out of the pockets of the tax-payers of the United States. The following para- graph from the Committee's Report reveals the sources of immense profits : "On June 17, 1868, the stockholders of the Credit Mobilier received 60 per cent, in cash, and 40 per cent, in stock of the Union Pacific Railroad ; on the 2d of July, 1868, 80 per cent, first mortgage bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad, and 100 per cent, stock ; July 3, 1868, 75 per cent, stock, and 75 per cent, first mortgage bonds ; September 3, 1868, 100 per cent, stock and 75 per cent, first mortgage bonds ; December 19, 1868, 200 per cent, stock ; while, before this contract was made, the stock- holders had received, on the 26th of April, 1866, a divi- dend of 100 per cent, in stock of the Union Pacific Rail- road ; on the first of April, 1867, fifty per cent, of first mortgage bonds were distributed ; on the- first of July, 1867, one hundred per cent, in stock again." 172 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Oak..- Anns and Henry S. MEcComb, of Delaware (referred to in the Report of the Committee), " fell out," and in the summer of L872, in the midst of the Presi- dential campaign, the quarrel became so hot that it burst into a flame, when McComb made public the facts of the ease, and published a list of the Congressmen with whom Ajnessaid he had "placed" the stock; also naming the number <>!' sharep sold to each. These were: Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States : Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts ; James W. Patterson, Senator from New Hampshire; John A. Logan, Senator from Illinois; James G. Blaine, Member of Congress from Maine, and Speaker of the House of Representatives; W. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania; James A. Garfield, of Ohio ; James Brooks, of New York; John A. Bingham, of Ohio ; Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts ; Glenni W. Schofield, of Pennsylvania, and one or two others, who were not at the time of the exposure mem- bers of Congress. The member.- implicated in Ames's statement indig- nantly denied the charge of having owned or purchased Credit Mobilier Stock, saying it would have been a high crime against morality and decency to be connected, in any way, with that company. The charges against these men produced intense excitement throughoul the country. The denials were generally accepted, as the persons making them had borne a high character for honor, veracity and integrity ; yet partisan orators and news papers bo continually repeated the charges and made the persons implicated BO odious that their denials were more earnestly repeated. Mr. Blaine was al that time Speakerof the Mouse. JAMES .!. <;.\i:rih:i.i>. 473 When Congress assembled in December, 1872, lie asked for, and obtained, the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the charges of Ames and McComb, and to report the result of their investigations. The Committee was appointed, with Mr. Poland, of Vermont, as Chair- man. The investigations were conducted openly. The Committee reported on February 13, 1873. We will not follow its course further, excepting so far as the investi- gation concerns General Garfield, who was charged with participating in the corrupt profits of the Credit Mobilier. The charges against all of them were disproved. General Garfield appeared before the Investigating Committee on January 14, 1873, and made the following statement, under oath : " The first I ever heard of the Credit Mobilier was sometime in 1866 or 1867 — I cannot fix the date — when George Francis Train called on me and said he was organ- izing a company to be known as the Credit Mobilier of America, to be founded on the model of the Credit Mo- bilier of France ; that the object of the company was to purchase lands and build houses along the line of the Pacific Eailroad at points where cities and villages were likely to spring up ; that he had no doubt that money thus invested would double or treble itself in each year ; that subscriptions were limited to $1,000 each, and he wished me to subscribe. "Mr. Train showed me a long list of subscribers, among them Mr. Oakes Ames, to whom he referred me for further information concerning the enterprise. I an- swered that I had not the money to spare, and if I had I would not subscribe without knowing more about the proposed organization. Mr. Train left me, saving he would hold a place open for me, and hoped I would con- clude to subscribe. The same day I asked Mr. Ames THE BlOQllAl'll) OF what he thought of the enterprise. He expressed the opinion that the investmeni would be safe and profitable. '■ I heard nothing further on the subject for a year or . and it was almost forgotten, when sometime, I should say, during the long session of 1868, Mr. Ames spoke of it again, said the company had organized, was doing well, and, he thought, would soon pay large divi- dends. He said that some of the stock was left, or was to be left, in his hands to sell, and I could take the amount which .Mr. Train had offered me, by paying the $1,000 and accrued interest. He said if I was not ahh to pay for it he would hold it for me until I could pay or until some of the dividends were payable. I told him 1 Would consider the matter, but would not agree to take any -lock until I knew, from an examination of the char- ter and the conditions of the subscription, the extent to which I would become pecuniarily liable. He said he was not sure, but thought a stockholder would only be liable for the par value of his stock ; that he had not the stock and papers with him, but would have them after a while. From the case as presented I should probably have taken the stock if I had been satisfied in regard to the extent, of pecuniary liability. •• Thus the matter rested, I think, until the following year. During that interval I understood that there were, dividends due amounting to nearly three times the par \alue of tie' stock. Bui in the meantime I had heard that the company was involved in some controversy with the Pacific Railroad and that Mr. Ames's right to sell the -to, I, was denied. When I next ,-aw Mi-. Ames 1 told him 1 had concluded not to take the stock. There the matter ended, 30 Ear as I was concerned, and I had no further knowledge of the company's operations until the subject began to be discu sed in the newspapers last fall (1872). Nothing was ever said to me by Mr. Train or Mr. Ames tu in, lira!,' ,n- imply that the Cn'dit Mobilier was or could he in any way connected with the legislation of Congress I'm- Hi,- Pacific Railroad or any other purpose. Mr. Ames JAMES A. GARFXBLD. 475 never gave nor offered bo give me any -lock or other rain- able thing as a gift. I once asked and obtained from him, and afterwards repaid to him, a loan of $300 ; that amount is the only valuable thing I ever received from or delivered to him. 1 never owned, received, or agreed to receive any stock of the Credit Mobilier or of the Union Pacific Railroad, nor any dividends or profits arising from either of them." General Garfield was not only fully acquitted of all connection with the Credit Mobilier scheme by the Con- gressional committee, but by Judge Black, his political opponent, in the following letter addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives : •• Philadelphia, February 15, 1873. " My Deak Sir: — From the beginning of the investi- gation concerning Mr. Ames's use of the Credit Mobilier, I believe that General Garfield was free from all guilty connection with that business. This opinion was founded not merely on my confidence in his integrity, but on some special knowledge of his case. I may have told you all about it in conversation, but I desire now to repeat it by way of reminder. "I assert unhesitatingly that, whatever General Gar- field may have done or forborne to do, he acted in pro- found ignorance of the nature and character of the thing which Mr. Ames was proposing to sell. He had not the slightest suspicion that he was to be taken into a ring organized for the purpose of defrauding the public ; nor did he know that the stock was in any manner connected with anything which came, or could come, with the legis- lative jurisdiction of Congress. The case against him lacks the scienter which alone constitutes guilt. " In the winter of 1869-'70, I told General Garfield of the fact that his name was on Ames's list; that Ames charged him with being one of his distributees; explained ■i:<; TEE BIOQRAPHt OF to him tlir character, origin, and objects of the Credit Mobilier; pointed out the connection it had with Congres- sional legislation, and showed him how impossible it was for a member of Congress to hold stock in it without bringing his private interests in conflict with his public duty. That all this was to him a perfectly new revelation I am as sure as I can he of such a fact, or of any fact which is capable of being proved only by moral circum- stances, lie told me, then, the whole story of Train's offer to him and Ames's subsequent solicitation, and his own action in the premises, much as he details it to the committee. I do not undertake to reproduce the conver- sation, but the effect of it all was to convince me thoroughly that when he listened to Ames he was per- fectly unconscious of anything evil. I watched carefully every word that fell from him on this point, and did not regard his narrative of the transaction in other respects with much interest, because in my view everything else was insignificant. I did not care whether lie had made a bargain technically binding or not; his integrity depended upon the question whether he acted with his eyes open. If be had known the true character of the proposition made to him lie would not have endured it, much less em- <\ it. •• Now, couple this with Mr. Ames's admission that he qo explanation whatever of the matter to General Garfield; then relied that not a particle of proof exists to diow that lie learned anything about it previous to his conversation with me, and 1 think you will say that it is altog( ther unjust to put bini on (be list of those who, knowinglj and wilfully, joined the fraudulent association in quest ion. ••.I. s. Black. •' Hon. .'. I •. Iw LINE, *• Speaker of the House of Representatives." General Garfield, pursuant to a notice which he gave in the Bouse on March 3, i s T;'-. published a review of the JAME8 A. GARFIELD. 479 whole matter in a pamphlet in May. He issued twe pamphlets, one entitled "Keviewof the Transactions of the Credit Mobilier Company," and the other " Increase of Salaries/' These were sent out from Washington. The latter was in defense or explanation of his action in Congress on the increase of the salaries of members of rcss and others. lie had always opposed such a measure when proposed, but when it was forced upon one of the great appropriation hills by a decided vote, when the Conference Committee insisted that it should remain, when further resistance was either nugatory or would involve an extraordinary session of Congress, he concluded that it was his duty for the good of his country to acquiesce and vote for the bill, with this (to him) ob- noxious measure. General Garfield's political enemies took advantage of this vote and he was held responsible for the odious " Sal- ary Grab," as it was called. This, with reiterated charges of his corrupt connection with the Credit Mobilier scheme, caused a wave of opposition to him (started in the East) to roll over the Western Eeserve with a fury that threatened to overwhelm him in political ruin. But he never lost faith in the justice and intelligence of the peo- ple of his district. After he had issued his pamphlets, he went home to meet his constituents face to face. Of the effect of the false charges on the character and political standing of General Garfield, and the final result, President Hinsdale, in a public address in 1880, after speaking of the intelligence and virtue of the people of the Western Reserve, said : "The Nineteenth Ohio Congressional District is the eastern part of the Reserve. Probably it has retained the 18 480 THE BIOQRAPnY OF New England blood and traditions in a higher degree of purity than any other part. It early became deeply in- terested in the anti-slavery movement, and this greatly quickened the interest of the people in public affaire. ''Nowhere did the Mobilier and Salary matters make a deeper impression than on this most sensitive and jeal- ous constituency. General Garfield had now represented it in live successive Congresses ; and, although not then BO well known as he is to-day, his name had crossed the continent to the AVest and the ccean to the East. The district felt very proud of him. He was nominated the first time by a small majority. The second time without opposition. His third and fourth nominations were vig- orously contested, but he triumphed so easily and so de- cisively that opposition fled the field and left him in se- cure possession. No representative held his constituency with a firmer hand. His tenure promised to be as long as that of Whittlesey, or even Giddings. " But now all was changed. A Republican convention that met in Warren for some local purpose demanded his resignation. Most men denounced, all regretted, none defended what had been done. All that the staunchest friends of General Garfield presumed to do was to say, ' Wait until you hear the ease ; hear what Garfield has to say before you determine that he is a dishonest man.' "Indulge me again in a personal word. Returning home from Washington after the adjournment, I found myself in the midst of the tempest. Cleveland editors hesitated to publish any statement of the Salary matter that varied from the current version. One of them said to me, 'This vote has taken us in the pit of the stomach.' Perhaps the best illustration that I can give of the inten- sity of feeling is this : Knowing as 1 did the grounds of General Garfield's action, and the spirit in which he had acted, I telt it my ilni\ to say in private conversation, in the newspapers, ami even in the Hiram pulpit: 'General Garfield is not a thief. He has not robbed Hie Treasury. Whether he is right or wrong, I do not argue ; but JAMES A. GARFTET.T). 481 whether right or wrong, he lias acted honestly and with an eye single to the public good.' And some of my neigh- bors said: 'Mr. Hinsdale has a private right to think General Garfield honest if he can ; but let him keep his opinion to himself ; he has no right to injure the college of which he is president, as he will do by bearing public testimony.* Garfield wrote me from Washington, sadly but resolutely : ' The district is lost, and as soon as 1 can close up my affairs here, I am coming home to capture it.' " And he did capture it. He issued his pamphlets, 'Keview of the Transactions of the Credit Mobilier Com- pany' and 'Increase of Salaries,' from Washington, and then came on to Hiram. These pamphlets, with a per- sonal speech in Warren somewhat later, constituted his direct defence. When the next campaign opened he went as usual upon the stump. He rarely referred to the charges against him, and never did unless compelled to do so. He grappled with the questions of the day. He went from county to county, and almost from village to village. His knowledge was so great, his argumentation so logical, his spirit so earnest, and his bearing, both public and private, so manly, that men began to ask, ' Can it be true that Mr. Garfield is such a man as they tell us ?' Preju- dice yielded slowly though surely. " The next campaign it was the same thing over. Garfield had now to be returned himself or leave public life. After a struggle that shook the district, he was re- nominated by a three-fourths vote of the convention. Two years later the resistance was less. By this time he had won back the masses. They had become convinced almost universally of his integrity. Hardly a man can be found in the district who questioned it. Only those who had been very violent in opposition now stood out. These had to be won back one by one. Two years later there was no opposition whatever ; the district had been re- captured. "In 1878 he was re-elected by his old-time majority. Opposition was now no more. Men who had been most THE BIOGRAPHY OF denunciatory now were warmest in his praise ; and it was actually left to the friends who had stood by him through all the Btorm bo snpply such criticism as every public man needs bo keep him in proper tone. When the Senatorship question came np last Fall, the Republicans of the Nine- teenth District had but one objection to his election — un- willingness to lose him as their Representative. And now- thai he is on the way to the chair at Washington, 1 will say that ii" equal population between the two oceans will Him a greater majority bhan this old constituency. "Nor should 1 fail to mark how the victory was won, how the district was recaptured. It was not accomplished by management ; dames A. Garfield is no 'manager.' It was not by flattering the people and appealing to popular passions. General Garfield is no demagogue. It was by the earnest, straightforward exposition of solid political doc- trine : it was by the high bearing of the man ; in a word, it was by the impact of his mental and moral power upon intelligent and honest minds." JAMES A. UA11FIELD. 483 CHAPTER XIX. JEFFERSON DAVIS AND AMNESTY. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ARRAIGNED. In 1874, a Democratic " tidal wave " arose. Indica- tions of it appeared in 1872, when a coalition of dissatis- fied Republicans (calling themselves Liberal Republicans) and the Democrats, in their respective national conven- tions at Cincinnati and Baltimore, nominated Horace Greeley for President of the United States. The wave was checked temporarily ; but in the elections in 1874, it rose so high that it overwhelmed Republican majorities in Congressional districts, and gave to the Democrats a controlling power in the House of Representatives. This privilege they had not enjoyed since 1861. There was a determined effort, in the Fall of 1874, to defeat General Garfield, who was re-nominated for Congress. Nearly three thousand five hundred " Liberal Republicans" voted against him and in favor of their own candidate; but he had a clear majority over the Democratic and Liberal Republican candidates of nearly three thousand. On the assembling of the Forty-fourth Congress (1875-'77), in December, 1875, the Democrats, of course, elected a Speaker, and all the committees were changed, so as to give their control to their partisans. General Garfield was assigned to the Committee of Ways and Means, but placed near the bottom of the list of mem- 484 THE BIOGRAPHY OF bers. He was the second Republican member on that committee. He had no disposition to shirk work for his country, but he could no longer do so us efficiently as before. He had held the laboring oar on committees; now such responsibility was removed, and he felt a free- dom which he had not enjoyed for years. Mr. Garfield labored more as a politician than he had done before. He had confined himself to living questions, and avoided, as much as possible, the discussion of past issues, lie had said, in a speech on the Currency, in 1868 : " I am aware that financial subjects are dull and un- inviting in comparison with those heroic themes which have absorbed the attention of Congress for the last five years. To turn from the consideration of armies and navies, victories and defeats, to the array of figures which exhibits the debt, expenditure, taxation, and industry of the nation, requires no little courage and self-denial ; but to those questions we must come, and to their solution Congress, political parties, and all thoughtful citizens must give their best efforts for many years to come." In accordance with these Ideas, General Garfieldhad worked : but now. when the North was assailed, as it frequently was, with insulting and most ungenerous words, he re-armed himself, and did battle manfully and valiantly for the Union. Earlyin the Firsl Session of the Forty-fourth Con- , there arose a debate on amnesty, and the question whether the arch-COnspirator against the life of the Republic, Jefferson Davis, should be restored to the rights of citizenship, came up. Mr. Blaine opposed Lt,when Benjamin 11. Bill, of < teorgia, assailed him and the whole North with mosl offensive language. Mr. Blaine had JAMES A. GARFIELD. 485 charged Davis with complicity in the atrocities of the prison pens at Andersonville and elsewhere, when Hill, in his reply, denied that any Union soldiers had heen starved and murdered in Southern prisons, and asserted that Confederate soldiers had been cruelly treated in Northern prisons. To these assertions of Hill, which overwhelming testi- mony contradicts, General Garfield replied in a speech of great power on January 12, 1876. He deprecated the course that the debate had taken. Referring to the speakers on the Democratic side he said : " Any one who reads these speeches would not suspect they were de- bating a simple proposition to relieve some citizens of political and legal disabilities incurred during war. For example, had I been a casual reader and not a listener, I should say that the chief proposition yesterday was an ar- raignment of the administration of this Government during the last fifteen years." Concerning the great body of the Southern people, General Garfield spoke with a conciliatory spirit, but insisted that they were wrong and the Nation was right. He was perfectly willing to grant amnesty to the seven hundred and fifty for whom it was asked, save one, Jeffer- son Davis. He said : " I do not object to Jefferson Davis because he was a conspicuous leader. Whatever we may believe theologi- cally, I do not believe in the doctrine of vicarious atone- ment in politics. Jefferson Davis was no more guilty for taking up arms than any other man who went into the rebellion with equal intelligence. ■ But this is the ques- tion : Iu the high court of war did he practice according to its well-known laws — the laws of nations ? Did he, in appealing to war, obey the laws of war ; or did I 48fl THE BIOGBAPET OF violate those Laws, that justice to those who suffered at his hands demands that he be not permitted to come back t<> his old privileges in the Union? That is the whole question; and it is as plain and fair a question for delibera- tion as was ever debated in this House." Then General Garfield asked, "Were these atrocities that have been charged upon the Confederate authorities practised in Southern prisons? x\nd if so, was the Con- federate President responsible?" In answer to both these questions he brought an array of terrible facts in the affirmative. He supported the charge of Davis's com- plicity in the atrocities at Anderson ville with a mass of facts, much of it drawn from Confederate sources, that could leave no doubt upon the mind of any candid man. He as plainly disproved of the charges of cruelty on the part of the Northern custodians of Confederate prisoners. In conclusion he said: " And now, Mr. Speaker, I close as I began. Toward those men who gallantly fought us on the field I cherish the kindest feeling. 1 feel a sincere reverence for the soldierly qualities they displayed on many a well-fought battle-field. I hope the day will come when their swords and ours will be crossed over many a doorway of our children, who will remember the glory of their ancestors with pride. "The high qualities displayed in that conflict now belong to the whole Nation. Let them be consecrated to the Union, and its future peace and glory. I shall hail t hat consecrat ion a- a pledge and symbol of our perpetuity. ••Hui there was a class of men referred to in the h of the gentleman yesterday for whom I have never gained the Christian grace necessary to say the same thing. The gentleman said that, amid the thunder of battle, through its dim smoke, and above its roar, they heard a voice from thj yi n c' 'Brothers, come I I JAMES A. GARFIELD. 487 do not know whether lie meant the same tiling, but I heard that voice behind us. I heard that voice and I re- collect that I sent one of those who uttered it through our lines — a voice owned by Yallandigham. General Scott said, in the early days of the war, ' When this war is over, it will require all the physical and moral power of the Government to restrain the rage and fury of the non- combatants.' It was that non-combatant voice behind us that cried 'Halloo !' to the other side ; that always gave cheer and encouragement to the enemy in our hour of darkness. I have never forgotten and have not yet for- given those Democrats of the North whose hearts were not warmed by the grand inspirations of the Union, but who stood back, finding fault, always crying disaster, re- joicing at our defeat, never glorying in our victory. If these are the voices the gentleman heard, I am sorry he is now united with those who uttered them. " But to those most noble men, Democrats and Ee- publicans, who together fought for the Union, I commend all the lessons of charity that the wisest and most benefi- cent men have taught. "I join you all in every aspiration that you may ex- press to stay in this Union, to heal its wounds, to increase its glory, and to forget the evils and bitterness of the past : but do not, for the sake of the three hundred thousand heroic men who, maimed and bruised, drag out their weary lives, many of them carrying in their hearts horrible memories of what they suffered in the prison-pen — do not ask us to vote to put back into power that man who was the cause of their suffering — that man still un- aneled, unshriven, unforgiven, undefended." At near the close of the long session of the Forty- fourth Congress (1 876), L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi, made a carefully-prepared speech on politics in general. He de- plored the evils of party ; expressed a belief that a ma-, jority of the American people were tired of party bicker- Tin: BIOGBAPUT of that th - " ' "•vernment of oorraptioii ' t the national administration was nipt; the Civil S a a wretched and that the two hundred tho fice-holders and ex- pectant office-holders, prevented th le making re- forms. He averred that the Republican party were incapable of making reforms and inferred that to effect that object which was dear to every true American heart, the 1 1 should again be brought into full power in the National Councils. He -aid. in substance, - You have no reason to distrust the Sonth, for W ten in its in- dust: hiletheE rich and powerful, and that the Southern people united with the Democratic party of the North, because they could find sympathy and protection nowhere else." Mr. Lamar spoke of the peace and security of the colored race in the South, and of their kind and just treat- ment by their late masters. H -ended to influence the pending .. when Mr. Tilden v. Den candidate for - made ; u the - - ■ that no adequate reply could be ma d< : -.it was withheld from the I /,' /. In tl gn he failed. Of this [gnment of the Republican Grari I iken full notes. On August 4th I ;il speech delivered. It is entitli • pamphlet form, "Can I D Safely Trusted with the • ii- f" A few extracts will give illustrations of its scope and power. JAMES .1. OARFIELD. 489 After giving, as the Bcope of Lamar's Bpeech — the Republican parry i.~ oppressing the Sonth; negro suffrage is a grievous evil ; there are serious corruptions in public affairs in the National legislation and administration : the Civil Service especially needs great and radical reform; and therefore the Democratic party ought to be in control of the Government at this time — he proceeded to an examination of the claims of the Democratic and Repub- lican parties to the confidence of the American people. He said : •■ I share all that gentleman's aspirations for peace, for good government at the South ; and I believe I can safely assure him that the great majority of the nation shares the same aspirations. But he will allow me that he has not fully stated the elements of the great problem to be solved by the statesmanship of to-dav. The actual field is much broader than the view he has taken. And before we can agree that the remedy he prop<: ic an adequate one. we must take in the whole field, com- prehend all the conditions of the problem, and then see if his remedy is sufficient. The change he proposes is not like the ordinary change of a ministry in England, when the government is defeated on a tax-bill or some routine measure of legislation. He proposes to turn over the custody and management of the Government to a party which has persistently and with the greatest bitter- ness resisted all the great changes of the last fifteen years ; changes which were the necessary results of a vast revolu- tion — a revolution in national policy, in social and polit- ical ideas — a revolution whose causes were not the work of a day nor a year, but of generations and centuries. The scope and character of that mighty revolution must form the basis of our judgment when we inquire whether such a change as he proposes is safe and wise.' 5 490 THE BIOGRAPHY OF After inquiring whether the gentleman was correct hi hie assertion that the conquered party accepted the results of the war, he said : " Even if they do, I remind the gentlemen that accept Le qoI a very strong word. I go further. I ask him if the Democratic party have adopted the results of the war? 1< it not asking too much of human nature to expect such unparalleled changes to he not only accepted, but, in so Bhort a time, adopted by men of strong and independent opinions ? " The antagonisms which gave rise to the war and grew out of it were not born in a day, nor can they vanish in a night. "It will not do, Mr. Chairman, to speak of the gigan- tic revolution through which we have lately passed as a thing to be adjusted and settled by a change of adminis- tration. It was cyclical, epochal, century-wide, ami to be studied in its broad and grand perspective— a revolu- tion of even wider scope, so far as time is concerned, than the Revolution of 1776. We have been dealing with ele- ments and forces which have been at work on this conti- nent more than two hundred and fifty years. 1 trust I .shall be excused if I take a few moments to trace some of the leading phases of the great struggle." General Garfield then pointed to the introduction of two hostile ideas on our continent, as follows : " In the year 1620 there were planted upon this conti- nent two ideas irreconcilably h 08 tile to each other. Ideas are the great warriors of the world ; and a war thai has no ideas behind it is simply brnlality. The two ideas were landed, one at Plymouth Rock from the J. and the other from a Dutch brig al Jamestown, Virginia. One was the old doctrine of Luther, that private judg- * r7: ■ :1 A ^iOPK' IHM i & 1 tq ^ I JAMfiS A. GARFIELD. 408 ment, 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 for- ever. 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 polit- ical 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." General G-arfield said that for nearly two centuries there was not much conflict between these ideas, until Roundheads and Cavaliers came near enough to measure ideas, wdien the great struggle between Freedom and Slavery began, growing fiercer and fiercer every year. Of the bitterness and determination of the friends of the slave system, he read the following extract from a speech by Mr. Singleton, of Mississippi, in 1859, then, as in 1876, a member of the House : " It matters not what evils come upon us ; it matters not how deep we may have to wade through blood ; we are bound to keep our slaves in their present position . . . . I tell you here to-day that the institution of slavery must be sustained. The South has made up its mind to keep the black race in bondage. If we are not permitted to do this inside of the Union, I tell you that it will be done outside of it. Yes, sir. and we will expand this institution ; we do not intend to be confined within our present limits ; and there are not men enough in all your borders to coerce three million armed men in the South, and prevent their going into the surrounding Ter- ritories . . . . I am one of those who have said, and 494 THE BIOGRAPHY OF here repeat it, if the Black Republican party elect a Presi- dent, 1 am for dissolving the Union." mil Garfield then quoted from a speech of Mr. Lamar at the Bame time ( L859), as follows : "I was upon the floor of the Senate when your great leader, William II. Seward, announced that startling pro- gramme of anti-slavery sentiment ami action. . . . Ami, sir, in his exultation lie exclaimed-- fur I heard him myself— thai he hoped to see the day when there would nut be the footprint of a single slave upon this continent. And when he uttered this atrocious sentiment, his form seemed to dilate, his pale, thin face, furrowed by the lines of thought and evil passions, kindled with malignant tri- umph, and his eye glowed and glared upon Southern Senators as though the fires of hell were burning in his heart;" "This passage," said Garfield, " I mark here as one of the notable signs of the time, that the gulf Which inter- venes between the position then occupied by the gentle- man from Mississippi ami the position he occupies to-day is so deep, so vast, that it indicates a progress worthy of all praise. I congratulate him and the country that in so short a time so great a change has been possible.'' He then .-aid : " Sow 1 ask the gentleman if he is quite sure, as a r of fact, that the Democratic party, its South- ern a- well as its Northern wing, have followed his own illustrious aid worthj example in the vast progress he has made Bince L859 ? He i as that the transforma- tion has been so complete that the Nation can Bafelj trust all the mosi precious fruits of the war in the hands of that party who stood with him in L859. When did it oc- cur? Aid our anxious inquiry, for the Nation ought to r< thai the great change has occurred before it can i\ tni-t i t <- destinies to the Democratic party." JAMES A. GARFIELD. 405 General Garfield pointed to the faet that the records of no Southern Legislature gave any evidence of such a transformation of public sentiment ; but, until a Republican Congress passed the great i; act of recon- struction," in March, 1807, these acts tended to the per- petuation of slavery in a new form. He asked : "And what was that act ? Gentlemen of the South, you are too deeply schooled in philosophy to take an um- brage at what I shall now say, for I am dealing only with history. You must know, and certainly do know, that the great body of the Nation which had carried the war to triumph and success knew that the eleven States that had opposed the Union had plunged their people into crime; a crime set down in the law — a law signed by President Washington — at the very top of the catalogue of crimes : the crime of treason, and all that follows it. You cer- tainly know that, under that law, every man who volun- tarily took up arms against the Union could have been tried, convicted, and hanged as a traitor to his country. "But I call your attention to the fact that the con- quering nation said, in this great work of reconstruction, • We will do nothing for revenge, everything for perma- nent peace;' and you know there never was a trial for treason in this country during the whole of the struggle nor after it ; no man was executed for treason ; no man was tried. There was no expatriation, no exile, no confis- cation after the war. The only revenge which the con- quering Nation gratified was this : In saying to the South, ' You may come back to your full place in the Union when you do these things : join with the other States in putting into the Constitution a provision that the National debt shall never be repudiated; that your .Rebel war debt shall never be paid ; and that all men, Avithout regard to race or color, shall stand equal before the law, not in suffrage, but in civil rights ; that these 496 THE BIOGRAPHY OF guaranties of liberty and public faith shall be lifted jh of political parties, above the legislation _ ■ ition of < ... shall be set m th>- firmament of the Constitution, to shine as lights forever and forever. And under that equal sky, Sjht of that equal sun, all men, of whatever or color, shall stand equal before the law."' • : . < r.trfield then pointed to the significant fact that all the amendments of the Constitution in favor of freedom had been adopted "lie stubborn . of the Northern and Southern Democracy, and of the is the Pn a IS t of the Democracy. " I call you to witness." lie said, "that, with the excep- tion of three or four Democratic Representatives who I for the abolition of slavery, the three great amend- mends — the Thirteenth, the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth — met the determined and united opposition of the Democracy of this country. Each of the amendments I by the gentleman was adopted against the whole 9 And two years after the a of the last amendment, in many of your is, they w be null and void." ring that the .-pirit of that ' ' had not ei.; S id : "It is now time to inquire as to the fitness of this irty to take control of our great Nation and : the next four ; I put the question to the gentleman from M [Mr. :]. What has the Democratic party done to merit Ee tried to show in what rt 1 sk him to .-how in what it ad I bel not misrepre- sent the _: party, that in the last sixteen JAMBS A. GARFIELD. 497 years they have not advanced one great national idea that is not to-day exploded and as dead as Julius Caesar. And if any Democrat here will rise and name a great national doctrine his party has advanced, within that time, that is now alive and believed in, I will yield to hear him. [A pause.] In default of an answer, I will attempt to prove my negative. " What were the great central doctrines of the Demo- cratic party in the Presidential struggle of 18G0 ? The followers of Breckinridge said slavery has a right to go wherever the Constitution goes. Do you believe that to- day ? Is there a man on this continent that holds that doctrine to-day ? Not one. That doctrine is dead and buried. The other wing of the Democracy held that slavery might be established in the Territories if the people wanted it. Does anybody hold that doctrine to- day ? Dead, absolutely dead! " Come down to 1864. Your party, under the lead of Tilden and Vallandigham, declared the experiment of war to save the Union was a failure. Do you believe that doctrine to-day ? That doctrine was shot to death by the guns of Farragut at Mobile, and driven, in a tempest of fire, from the valley of the Shenandoah by Sheridan less than a month after its birth at Chicago. '"'Come down to 1868. You declared the Constitu- tional Amendment revolutionary and void. Does any man on this floor say so to-day? If so, let him rise and declare it. "Do you believe in the doctrine of the Broadhead letter of 1868, that the so-called Constitutional Amend- ments should be disregarded ? Xo ; the gentleman from Mississippi accepts the results of the war ! The Demo- cratic doctrine of 1868 is dead ! " I walk across that Democratic camping-ground as in a graveyard ! Under my feet resound the hollow ei of the dead. There lies Slavery, a black marble column at the head of its grave, on which I read : Died in t In- flames of the Civil War j loved in its life ; lamented in its 498 THE BI0QRAPH7 OF death; followed to its bier by its only mourner, the Dem- ocratic party, but dead! And here is a double grave: Sacred to the memory of Squatter Sovereignty. Died in the campaign of 1860. On the reverse side: Sacred to the memory of the Dred Scott-Breckinridge doctrine. Both dead at the hands of Abraham Lincoln ! And here a monument of brimstone : Sacred to the memory of the Rebellion; the war against it is a failure ; Tilden el Valr landigham fecerunt, a. d. 1864. Dead on the field of battle; shot to death by the million guns of the Republic. The doctrine of Secession; of State Sovereignty. Dead. Expired in the flames of civil war, amidst the blazing rafters of the Confederacy, except that the modern ./Eneas, fleeing out of the flames of that ruin, bears on his back another Anchises of State Sovereignty, and brings it here in the person of the honorable gentleman from the Appomattox district of Virginia [Mr. Tucker]. All else is dead. "Now, gentlemen, are you sad, are you sorry for these deaths ? Are you not glad that secession is dead ? that slavery is dead ? that Squatter Sovereignty is dead ? that the doctrine of the failure of the war is dead ? Then you are glad thai you were out-voted in I860, in 1864, in 1868, and in L872. If you have tears to shed over these losses, shed them in the graveyardj but not in this House of liv- ing men. I know that many a Southern man rejoices thai these issues are i\<->\<\. The gentleman from Missis- sippi has clothed his jo) with eloquence. "Now. gentlemen, come with me for a moment into the camp of the Republican party and review its career. (»ur central doctrine in L860 was that slavery should never extend itself over another fool of American soil. [b thai doctrine dead ? It is folded away like a victorious banner ; its truth is alive for evermore on this continent. In L864 we declared thai we would pul down the Rebel- lion and Secession. And that doetrine lives, and will live when the Becond Centennial has arrived ! Freedom, national, universal, and perpetual — our great Oonstitu- JAMES A. GAIIFIELD. 109 tionul Amendments, are they alive or dead ? Alive, thank the God that shields both liberty and Union. Ami our national credit, saved from the assaults of Pendleton ; Bayed from the assaults of those who struck it later, rising higher and higher at home and abroad ; and only now in doubt lest its chief, its only enemy, the Democracy, should triumph in November. " Mr. Chairman, ought the Republican party to sur- render its truncheon of command to the Democracy ? . . . . I have no disposition, nor would it be just, to shield that party from fair and searching criticism. It has been called to meet questions novel and most difficult. It has made many mistakes. It has stumbled and blun- dered ; has had some bad men in it ; has suffered from the corruptions incident to the period following a great war ; and it has suffered rebuke and partial defeat in con- sequence. But has it been singular and alone in these respects ? With all its faults, I fearlessly challenge gen- tlemen to compare it with any party known to our pol- itics." General Garfield now took a hurried glance at the career of the House of Representatives under Democratic rule, to see what they had done or omitted to do ; what valuable work of general legislation they had accom- plished. He said : " We had hardly been here a month, when, among the first things demanded was that, in disregard of the deep feelings of the Northern people, it was proposed to crown Jefferson Davis with full and free amnesty, notwithstand- ing he had contemptuously declared he never would ask for it ; and this was to be done, or no amnesty was to be granted to any one. And when we objected because he was the author of the unutterable atrocities of Libby and Andersonville prisons, the debate which followed dis- closed the spirit and temper of the dominant party. 50U THE BIOGRAPHY OF " We were hardly in our scuts when the gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Tucker] brought in a bill to repeal a statute of L866, which no Democrat had before that pro- posed to disturb, so far as I know — a statute which pro- vided that no man who voluntarily went into the rebellion against the Union should ever hold a commission in our army or navy. And a Democrat from my own Stale [Mr. Banning], the Chairman of the Committee on Military A hairs, became the champion of that bill; and this llouse id it. " Again, we had passed a law to protect the sanctity and safety of the ballot in national elections, so that the horrors of the Ku-klux and the White-Lines should not run riot at the polls, and among the earliest acts of this House was a clause added to one of the appropriation bills, to repeal the election law ; and to effect that repeal they kept up the struggle lately under the fierce rays of the dog-star. They have been compelled by a Republican Senate to abandon the attempt. "Again, what have they neglected? Early in the session, indeed, in the first days of it, a proposition was made, introduced by the gentleman from Maine [Mr. Blaine], so to amend the Constitution as to remove for- ever from the party politics of the country the vexed and dangerous question of Chinch and State, by preventing the use of the school funds for sectarian purposes. Thai amendment was scut to the Committee on the Judiciary, ep, perhaps to die ; for it is said to have been three times roted dew □ in thai committee. "Again, the Secretary of the Treasury officially in- formed ii- thai hie power was exhausted further to refund the debt; and thai if we would give him the requisite authority he could refund four or five hundred millions more a1 bo favorable a rate as to save the Treasury at leasl one per cent, per annum of the whole amount. The Senate passed the bill more than six months ago, bu< this 1 [ouse baa taken no acl ion upon it. " Our revenues have been threatened wiih a deficit, JAMES A. 0A11FIELJ). .-.01 and our industries have been shaken with alarm by bills reported to the House, but never brought to a vote ; for example, the Tariff Bill, floating lazily upon the stagnant waters of the House, " 'As idle as a painted ship Upon a painted ocean' — a promise to free-traders, a threat of danger to manufac- turers, but with no prospect or purpose of acting upon it. ''And the Government has been crippled by the with- holding of necessary appropriations ; withheld, as 1 do not hesitate to say, for the purpose of making political capital at the coming election, in which the gentleman from Mississippi desires his party to succeed in the name of honesty and reform. His colleague was frank enough to declare that he wanted to reduce the general appropri- ations, so as to have money enough to devote to some scheme for his section, such as the cotton claims and the Southern Pacific Kailroad. •'•' But party necessity has held many waiting schemes and claims in leash. They are anchored in the lobbies and committee-rooms of this House till the election is over. There is the bill to refund the cotton tax to the amount of $60,000,000, waiting to be launched when the election is over. A subsidy of $100,000,000 up-stairs (Pacific Kailroad committee-room) is waiting to come down upon us for the Southern Pacific Kailroad when the election is over. There arc $38,000,000 of private claims, Southern claims, war claims, waiting to burst up from the committee-rooms below stairs when the election is over. "While these things surround us; while the very earth shakes with the tramp of the advancing army of schemers, who are coming ' with the Constitution and an appropriation,' the gentleman from Mississippi thinks that, as a measure of reform, the Democratic party ought at once to be brought back into power." 509 THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XX. EtSBI MPTION, AND THE COUNTING OF r iHE ELECTORAL VOTES. All through his Congressional career, General Garfield had stood the inflexible champion of " honest money," and he was chiefly instrumental in procuring the passage by Congress, of a law providing for the resumption of specie payments on the first of January, 1ST9. It was about the last important act of the Republicans in Congress, before laying down their supremacy in the House of Represen- tatives. The Democrats opposed the measure with all their might; declared it could not be done ; denounced the Government for holding gold and thereby crippling the business of the country ; and charged every failure in business (which had been many during the fearful depres- sion in trade since the beginning of the panic in L8T3) to the Republican policy. That policy, especially that of resumption, was con- demned and ridiculed by the Democrats, but General Garfield, when others were disposed to yield, stood man- fully and bravely by bis principles and his policy concern- ing specie as the <>nly honest money, for lie felt confident that the " sober, second thought" of the people would sustain hifl position. The bill for resumption at the time specified was adopted, and when on the first of January, L879, resumption was actually ami easily effected, he .-poke thus prophetically of its blessings: JAMES A. GARFIELD. 508 "Successful resumption will greatly aid in bringing into the murky sky of our politics what the signal-service people call 'clearing weather.' It puts an end to a score of controversies which have long vexed the jrablic mind, and wrought mischief to business. It ends the angry contention over the difference between the money of the bondholder and the money of the plough-holder. It relieves enterprising Congressmen of the necessity of introducing twenty-five or thirty bills a session to furnish the people with cheap money, to prevent gold-gambling, and to make custom duties payable in greenbacks. It will dismiss to the limbo of things forgotten such Utopian schemes as a currency based iipon the magic circle of interconvertibility of two different forms of irredeemable paper, and the schemes of a currency ' based on the public faith,' and secured by ' all the resources of the nation ' in general, but upon no particular part of them. We shall still hear echoes of the old conflict, such as 'the barbarism and cowardice of gold and silver,' and the virtues of 'fiat money ;' but the theories which gave them birth will linger among us like belated ghosts, and soon find rest in the political grave of dead issues. " When we have fully awakened from these vague dreams, public opinion will resume its old channels, and the wisdom and experience of the fathers of our Constitu- tion will again be acknowledged and followed. "We shall agree, as our fathers did, that the yard- stick must have length, the pound must have weight, and the dollar must have value in itself, and that neither length, nor weight, nor value can be created by the fiat of law. Congress, relieved of the arduous task of regulating and managing all the business of our people, will address itself to the humbler but more important work of preserv- ing the public peace, and managing wisely the revenues and expenditures of the Government. Industry will no longer wait for the Legislature to discover easy roads to sudden wealth, but will begin again to rely upon labor and frugality as the only certain road to riches. Pros- .-,04 TEE BIOGRAPHY OP perity, which has long been waiting, is now ready to come. If we do no! rudely repulse her she will soon re- visit our people^ and will stay until another periodical craze Bliall drive her away." The result of the Presidential election in the Fall of L876, was a subject of passionate controversy. At that election there were, in all, three hundred and sixty-nine electors chosen. There was no dispute jabout one hundred and eighty-four Democratic electors and one hundred and sixty-six Republican electors ; but each party claimed the remaining nineteen. These had been chosen in South Carolina, Florida and Louisiana. Governor Kellogg of Louisiana requested that trust- worthy witnesses of the counting of the votes by the State Returning Board, should be sent from the North. Each party sent Mich a visiting committee, composed of honor- able men. Among the Republicans sent was General Garfield. The committees performed their duties faith- fully, and the result of the count of the Electoral Vote in the three .States above named, and in all the Union, was the giving of one majority for Rutherford 13. Hayes, the Republican candidate for the Presidency, over Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic candidate. The defeated party were not satisfied, and procured the passage of a bill by Congress (January 29, LS77), en- i - An Act to provide for and regulate the Counting of votes for President and Vice-President, and the Dc- cision of Questions arising thereon, for the Term com- mencing March !, L877." It provided for a Commission of Fifteen, composed of five Justices of the Supreme ( 'ourt, five Senators and five Representatives. General Garfield, satisfied with the old methods of counting, opposed the prove t he statement by a dozen or more pungent quota- iVoin the masters of political science in that great ably, in which they declared that it would lie ruin- o the liberty of the people and to tie- permanence of the republic if they did not absolutely exclude the National JAMES .1. QARFlELD. 511 Legislature from any share in the election of the Presi- dent. "They pointed with glowing eloquence to the sad but instructive fate of those brilliant Italian republics that were destroyed because there was no adequate separation of powers, and because their senates overwhelmed and swallowed up the executive power, and, as secret and despotic conclaves, became the destroyers of Italian liberty. "At the close of the great discussion, when the last vote on this subject was taken by our fathers, they were almost unanimous in excluding the National Legislature from any share whatever in the choice of the Chief Ex- ecutive of the nation. They rejected all the plans of the first group, and created a new instrumentality. They adopted the system of electors. When that plan was under discussion they used the utmost precaution to hedge it about by every conceivable protection against the interference or control of Congress. "In the first place, they said the States shall create the electoral colleges. They allowed Congress to have nothing whatever to do with the creation of the colleges, except merely to fix the time when the States should ap- point them. And, in order to exclude Congress by posi- tive prohibition, in the last days of the Convention they provided that no member of either House of Congress should be appointed an elector ; so that not even by the personal influence of any one of its members could the Congress interfere Avith the election of a President. " The creation of a President under our Constitution consists of three distin ^t steps : First, the creation of the electoral colleges; second, the vote of colleges; and, third, the opening and counting of their votes. This is the simple plan of the Constitution. " The creation of the colleges is left absolutely to the States, within the five limitations I had the honor to mention to the House a few days ago. First, it must be a State that appoints electors; second, the State is limited 512 THE BIOGRAPHY OF as to the number of electors they may appoint ; third, electors .-hall not be members of Congress, nor officers of the United States; fourth, the time for appointing elec- tors may be fixed by Congress ; and. fifth, the time when their appointment is announced, which must be before the date for giving their votes, may also be fixed by Con- gress. •• These rive simple limitations, and these alone, were laid npon the State-. Every other act, fact, and thing sible to be done in creating the electoral colleges was absolutely and uncontrollably in the power of the States themselves. Within these limitations, Congress has no more power to touch them in this work than England or France. That is the first step. "The second is still plainer and simpler, namely, the work of the colleges. They were created as an independ- ent and separate power, or set of powers, for the sole pur- pose of electing a President. Tiny were created by the States. Congress has just one thing to do with them, and only one ; it may fix the day when they shall meet. By the art of L792 Congress fixed the day as it still stands i;i the law ; and there the authority of the Congress over the colleges ended. •• There was a later act— of 1S4">— which gave to the States the authority t*. provide by law for filling vacan- cies of electors in these colleges ; and Congress has passed no other law on the subject. ••The States having created them, the time of their aemblage having been fixed by Congress, and their power to till vacancies baving been regulated by State law-, the colleges are a- independent m the exercise of their functions a.- is any departmenl of the Government within its Bphere. Being thus equipped, their powers are strained by a few Bimple limitations laid upon them by the Constitution itself : first, they must vote for a native- born citizen ; second, fora man who ha- been fourteen years ;l ,-,. -i, lent of tin- bnii- d States : third, at least one of the ■m for whom tlu\ \..te must not be a citizen of their . JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 518 own State ; fourth, the mode of voting and certifying their returns is prescribed by the Constitution itself. Within these simple and plain limitations the electoral colleges are absolutely independent of the States and of Congress. " One fact in the history of the Constitutional Con- vention, which I have not seen noticed in any of the re- cent debates, illustrates very clearly how careful our fathers were to preserve these colleges from the interfer- ence of Congress, and to protect their independence by the bulwarks of the Constitution itself. In the draft of the electoral system reported September 4, 1787, it was provided that Congress 'may determine the time of choosing and assembling of the electors and the maimer of certifying and transmitting their votes.' " That was the language of the original draft ; but our fathers had determined that the National Legislature should have nothing to do with the action of the colleges ; and the words that gave Congress the power to prescribe the manner of certifying and transmitting their votes were stricken out. The instrument itself prescribed the mode. Thus Congress was wholly expelled from the colleges. The Constitution swept the ground clear of all intruders, and placed its own imperial guardianship around the independence of the electoral colleges by for- bidding even Congress to enter the sacred circle. No Congressman could enter ; and, except to fix the day of their meeting, Congress could not speak to the electors. " These colleges are none the less sovereign and inde- pendent because they exist only for a day. They meet on the same day in all the States ; they do their work summarily in one day, and dissolve forever. There is no power to interfere, no power to recall them, no power to revise their action. Their work is done ; the record is made up, signed, sealed, and transmitted ; and thus the second great act in the Presidential election is completed. I ought to correct myself ; the second act is the Presi- dential election. The election is finished the hour when 514 THE BIOGRAPHY OF ■ the electoral colleges have cast their votes and sealed up the record. "Still, there is a third Btep in the process; and it is shorter, plainer, simpler than the other two. These sealed certificates of the electoral colleges are forwarded to the President of the Senate, where they rest under the silence of the seals for more than two month?. The Con- stitution assumes that the result of the election is still unknown. But on a day fixed by law, and the only day of all the days of February on which the law commands Congress to be in session, the last act in the plan of elect- ing a President is to be performed. " How plain and simple are the words that describe this third and last step ! Here they are: "'The President tof the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted.' "Here is no ambiguity. Two words dominate and inspire the clause. Tiny are the words open and count. These words are not shrouded in the black-letter mysteries of the law. They are plain words, understood by every man who speaks our mother-tongue, and need no lexicon or commentary. "Consider the grand and simple ceremonial by which the third act is to be completed. On the day fixed by law, the two Houses of Congress are assembled. The President of the Senate, who, bj the Constitution, has been made the custodian of the sealed certificates Erom all the electoral colleges, take.- bis place. The Constitution re- quires a ' person ' and a ' presence.' Thai ' person' is the President of the Senate; and thai 'presence 5 is the f presence* of the two Houses. Then two things are to be done. '1 be certificat< b are to be opened, and the votes are U? be counted. These are not legislative acts, bul clearly and plainly executive acts. I challenge anj man to find anywhere an accepted definition of an executivi acl thai .IAMKS .1. QARFIELD. 515 does not include both these. They cannot be tortured into a meaning that will carry them beyond the boundaries of executive action. And one of these acts the President of the Seriate is peremptorily ordered to perform. The Constitution commands him to 'open all the certificate's. 1 Certificates of what? Certificates of the votes of the electoral colleges. Not any certificates that anybody may choose to send, but certificates of electors appointed by the States. The President of the Senate is presumed to know what are the States in the Union, who are their officers, and, when he opens the certificates, lie learns from the official record who have been appointed electors, and he finds their votes. "The Constitution contemplated the President of the Senate as the Vice-President of the United States, the elect of all the people. And to him is confided the great trust, the custodianship of the only official record of the election of President. What is it to 'open the certifi- cates'? It would be a narrow and inadequate view of that word to say that it means only the breaking of the seals. To open an envelope is not to ' open the certifi- cates.' The certificate is not the paper on which the record is made ; it is the record itself. To open the cer- tificate is not a physical, but an intellectual act. It is to make patent the record ; to publish it. When that is done the election of President and Vice-President is pub- lished. But one thing remains to be done ; and here the language of the Constitution changes from the active to the passive voice, from the personal to the impersonal. To the trusted custodian of the votes succeeds the imper- sonality of arithmetic ; the votes have been made known ; there remains only the command of the Constitution, ' They shall be counted ; ' that is, the numbers shall be added up. "No further act is required. The Constitution itself declares the result : " ' The person having the greatest number of votes 516 THE BIOGRAPHY OF for President Bhall be President, if such number be a ma- jority of the whole number uf electors appointed.' • [f no person has such majority, the House of Repre- sentatives shall immediately choose a President; not the Bouse as organized for Legislation, but a new electoral college is created out of the members of the House, by means of which each State has one vote for President, and only one. ••T<> review the ground over which I have traveled; The several acts thai constitute the election of a Presi- dent may be symbolized by a pyramid consisting of three massive, separate blocks. The first, the creation of tho electoral college by the States, is the broad base. It em- braces the legislative, the judicial, and the executive powers of the States. All the departments of the State Government and all the voters of the State cooperate in shaping and perfecting it. "The action of the electoral colleges forms the second block, perfect in itself, and independent of the others, superimposed with exactness upon the first. • The opening and counting of the votes of the col- leges is the little block that crowns and completes the pyramid. "Such. Mr. Speaker, was the grand and simple plan by which the Trainers of the Constitution empowered all the people, acting under the laws of the several States, to create special and select colleges of independent electon to choose a President, who Bhould be, not the creature of Congress, nor of the States, but the Chief Magistrate of the whole nation, the elect of all the people. •• When the Constitution was completed and sent to the people of the States for ratification, it was subjected to th. • criticism of the ablest men of that genera- tion. Those sections which related to the election of President not only escaped censure, but received the highest commendation. Thi venth number of Federalist. 5 written by Alexander Hamilton, was JAMES A. GARFIELD. 517 devoted to this feature of the instrument, That great writer congratulated the country that the Convention had devised a method that made the President free frum all preexisting bodies, that protected the process of election from all interference by Congress, and from the cabals and intrigues so likely to arise in legislative bodies. " ' The mode of appointment of the Chief Magistrate of the United States is almost the only part of the system of any consequence which has escaped without severe cen- sure, or which has received the slightest mark of approba- tion from its opponents. The most plausible of these who has appeared in print has even deigned to admit that the election of the President is pretty well guarded. I venture somewhat further, and hesitate not to affirm that, if the manner of it be not perfect, is it at least ex- cellent. It unites in an eminent degree all the advantages the union of which was to be wished for. It was desir- able that the sense of the people should operate in the choice of the person to whom so important a trust was to be confided. This end will be answered by committing the right of making it not to any preestablishcd body, but to men chosen by the people forthe special purpose and at the particular juncture. . . . They have not made the appoint- ment of the President to depend on any preexisting bodies of men, who might be tampered with beforehand to pros- titute their votes ; but they have referred it in the first instance to an immediate act of the people of America, to be exerted in the choice of persons for the temporary and sole purpose of making the appointment. And they have excluded from eligibility to this trust all those who from situation might be suspected of too great devotion to the President in office. . . . " ' Another and no less important desideratum was that the Executive should be independent for his continu- ance in office on all but the people themselves. He might otherwise be tempted to sacrifice his duty to hi3 complais- ance for thoso whose favor was necessary to duration of his official consequence. This advantage will also be se- cured by making his reelection to depend on the specicl body of representatives, deputed by the society for the single purpose of making the important choice. — Front, the Sixty-seventh Number of " The Federalist," ' .-.is T1IK BIOGRAPHY OF " The earliest commentator upon the Constitution, St.- Gteorge Tucker of Virginia writing at the beginning of fche present century, made this clause of the Constitution the subject of special eulogy, and pointed to the fact that all the proceedings in relation to the election of a Presi- dent were to be brief, Bummary, and decisive ; that the right of the President to bis office depends upon no one but the people themselves, and that the certificates cf his elect ion were to be publicly opened ' and counted in the presence of the whole National Legislature.' " 'The electors, we perceive, are to assemble on one and the same day, in all the different States, at as many different places, at a very considerable distance from each other, and on that day are simply to give their votes ; they then disperse and return to their respective habita- tions and occupations immediately. No pretext can be had for delay; no opportunity is furnished for intrigue and cabal. The certificates of their votes . . . are to be publicly opened and counted in the presence of the ■whole National Legislature. . . . There is no room for the turbulence of a Campus Martius or a Polish Diet on the one hand, nor for the intrigues of the Sacred Col- lege or a Venetian Senate on the other; unless when it unfortunately happens that two persons, having a major- ity of the whole number of electors in their favor, have likewise an equal number of votes, or -where by any other means the election may devolve upon the House of Rep- tatives. Then, indeed, intrigue and cabal may have their full scope ; then may the existence of the Union be put in extreme hazard. — Tucker's " Blackstone" Appen- dix, jip. 320— '27.' "The authorities I have quoted show that , great as was the satisfaction of the people with the mode of choos- ing a President, there was still an apprehension that trouble would arise from Congress by the only avenue left open for its influence, namely, the contingency in wHich the House might elect, lwery other doorwas shut and barred againsl the interference of Congress or any member of Ooneri QUEEjN VICTOj JAMES A. UARFIELD. 521 CHAPTER XXI. GARFIELD S LATEST SERVICES IN CONGRESS. Before General Garfield's return from Louisiana^ there was an election for Speaker held in the House, to fill the place of Mr. Kerr, who had been removed by death. The Republicans in the House cast their votes for Garfield. The Democrats, having a majority, elected one of their own party for Speaker. It was really only a complimentary vote on the part of the Republicans, for they knew they could not elect a Speaker. Mr. Blaine had now left the House, and gone to the Senate, and General Garfield became the Republican leader in the popular branch of Congress. One who had been familiar with his Congressional career for yean-, wrote of him, during the Sessions of the Forty-fifth Con- gress, as follows : " As a leader in the House he is more cautious and less dashing than Blaine, and his judicial turn of mind makes him too prone to look for two sides of a question for him to be an efficienf partisan. When the issue fairly touches his convictions, however, he becomes thoroughly aroused, and strikes tremendous blows. Blaine's tactics were to continually harass the enemy by sharp-shooting surprises and picket-firing. Garfield waits for an oppor- tunity to deliver a pitched battle, and his generalship is shown to best advantage when the fight is a fair one. and waged on grounds where each party thinks itself strong- est. Then his solid shot of argument are exceedingly effective." 522 THE BIOGRAPHY OF At the opening of the Forty-fifth Congress (1877-70), General Garfield was again the Republican candidate for Speaker, but the Democrats having still a majority in the Eouse, he was, of course, not elected. He was again rned a position on the Committee of "W"ays and Means, of which Mr. Wood was again made chairman ; and he was also one of the Committee on Rules. He was again the Republican leader of the House, and most ably and wisely did he perform the functions of that leadership. Mr. Hayes took his seat as President of the United States (March 4, 1877), after delivering a conciliatory Inaugural Address. His corresponding policy — that of conciliation toward the people of the South — soon met with strenuous opposition from the more radical Repub- licans. These formed a large wing of the Republican party. Many considered that policy ill-advised and dan- gerous. They did not believe that a political millennium had arrived — that the lamb and the lion were ready or willing to " lie dowm together;" and the President was latterly assailed by leaders and portions of the press of his own party. lie was even denounced as a "traitor" and a " renegade ; " but before the closing of his adminis- tratiun. these very men and these newspapers, with a few exceptions, candidly acknowledged that he was right and that they were wrong. At the beginning of his conciliatory policy, President 1 laves had comparatively few defenders. The wise and ju-t Garfield was among them, and used his utmost en- deavors t<> prevent a rupture in the party. A caucus was dreaded, and, chiefly through Garfield's exertions, no caucus was held until Mr. Potter, of New York, made amotion for the appointment of a Committee to inves- JAMBS A. HARFIELT). 528 tigate the title of Mr. Hayes to his seat. This united the Republican party for awhile. They held a caucus, and worked harmoniously in denouncing- the " Potter in Mi- tigation " as revolutionary in its tendency and intent. In a speech in the House on " The Policy of Pacification,'' General Garfield said, after briefly reviewing the policy of President Grant in this direction : " Men who looked upon the duties of the administra- tion as only civil, criticised it savagely because the military element entered into it so largely. Men who looked at the administration from the strong ground of military government, criticised it as too feeble — lacking the force and vigor of military command. But out of these mingled elements, step by step, and year by year, the administration emerged from the entanglements of the situation, working its way up to the level of peace. " Our great military chieftain, Avho brought the war to a successful conclusion, had command as chief execu- tive during eight years of turbulent, difficult, and eventful administration. He saw his administration drawing to a close, and his successor elected — who, studying the ques- tion, came to the conclusion^ that the epoch had arrived, the hour had struck, when it was possible to declare that the semi-military period was ended, and the era of peace methods, of civil processes, should be fully inaugu- rated. With that spirit, and at the beginning of this third era, Rutherford B. Hayes came into the Presidency. I ought to say that, in my judgment, more than any other public man we have known, the present head of the ad- ministration is an optimist. He looks on the best side of things. He is hopeful for the future, and prefers to look upon the bright side rather than upon the dark and sinister side of human nature. His faith is larger than the faith of most of us; and with his faith and hope ho has gone to the very verge of the Constitution in offering both hands of fellowship and all the olive-branches of peace to bring 524 THE BI0GRAPH7 OF back good feeling, and achieve the real pacification to this country." At the Special Session of Congress in the Fall of 1^77. the opposere of Resumptiou made determined efforts i" carry oul their financial policy. General Ewing, of Ohio, Introduced a bill in tin- Bouse, tor the repeal of the Resumption Act. Then began another battle on Finance, in which General (iarfield dealt heavy blows upon the antagonists of the National honor and pros- perity. He delivered, in the House, one of his most effective speeches on the subject, but argument and re- monstrance were futile. The bill passed the House, but failed to receive the concurrence of the Senate. In March following, William D. Kelley, of Penn- sylvania, in a speech in which he used offensive personal* language, attempted to overturn the doctrines of Gar- fieid's speech. The next day, Garfield replied to it, meeting Kelley's theories with stubborn facts, and turning the latter's historical references against that speaker so adroitly that the whole House was tilled with admiration. The mosi telling part of the speech was where he showed, from the record, that, in L865, lvelley had ad- vocated Resumption as a necessity. This thrust was enjoyed by his hearers on both sides, ami set the whole country laughing at the vanquished Pennsylvania^ General Garfield strcnuou.-dy opposed the Silver I'.ills, so called, which were introduced and caused fierce con- during the consideration of therepeal of the Resump- tion Act. Within the circle of nine States around and in- cluding < )hio. ( ieneral ( iartield was theonly political leader on either side who voted against measures for oppressing JAMES A. GARFIELD. 525 the industry of the country with depreciated silver coins, which the "Bland Bill" contemplated. He was not opposed to silver; he was in favor of it. But lie insisted that silver coin should be equal in value with gold coin, so that every dollar should be at par before the law. This result was finally reached by a modification of the original bill, in which it was provided that the coinage of silver should be of a certain standard, and the issue should not exceed a certain sum a month. This limit- ation saved the country from a great evil. The " Honest. Money League of the Northwest," having its headquarters in Chicago, celebrated the Act of Re- sumption at a meeting there on January 2, 1879. Garfield was invited to address them. He accepted the invitation, and made an admirable speech, bristling all over with facts and sound opinions. Soon after this, and nearly two months after Resumption had been most successfully accomplished, General Ewing was the leader in a solemn farce, by an attempt to carry out his favorite measure of repeal of the Resumption Act. The bill was buried beyond a hope of resurrection under a resolution to lay it on the table. Some solemn funeral orations were delivered, while General Garfield enlivened the spirits of the mourners with a jocular speech in which he spoke of the buried bill as a " belated ghost wandering back, k revisiting the glimpses of the moon,' and awak- ing old familiar echoes." The Forty-sixth Congress (1 879-' 81) met in special session on March 18, 1879. The cause of this special ses- sion being called was the fact that at the last session of the Forty-fifth Congress, just closed, two of the twelve grej t appropriation bills had failed to become laws, namely, 526 THE BIOGRAPHY OF the Army Bill and the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Bill, the two requiring an appropriation of about $40,000,000. The cause of this failure was the determination on the part of the Democratic majority in the House, that three measures, distinct and independent, namely : the material modification of the laws respecting the use of the Army; the repeal of the Jurors' Test Oath; and the repeal of the laws regulating the election of members of Congress, should be incorporated in these appropriation bills, as " riders." The Senate, in which there was a small He- publican majority, refused to incorporate these measures, and there was a dead-lock, which was not broken when that Congress expired. Through Senator Beck of Ken- tucky, the Democrats in the House threatened to block the wheels of Government, saying in substance: " Unless these rights are secured to the people in the bill sent to the Senate, they will refuse, under their con- stitutional right, to make appropriations to carry on the Government, if the dominant majority in the Senate in- sists upon the maintenance of those laws and refuses to consent to their repeal." At the special session an Army bill was introduced (March 27, 1879), without the clause respecting the reor- ganization of the army, but containing the following ob- jectionable section : " No military or naval officer, or other person engaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, shall order, bring, keep, or have under his authority or control, any troops or armed men at the place where any general or special election is held in any State, unless it JAMES A. GARFIELD. 527 be necessary to repel the armed enemies of the United States;" and that section 5528 of the Revised Statutes be amended so as to read as follows : "Every officer of the army or navy, or other person in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States, who orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or control, any troopa or armed men at any place where a general or special election is held in any State, unless such force be neces- sary to repel armed enemies of the United States, shall be fined not more than $5,000 and suffer imprisonment at hard labor not less than three months nor more than five years." On the 29th General Garfield made a telling speecli in which was embodied a terrible indictment of the policy of the majority in the House. He said : " I have no hope of being able to convey to the mem- bers of this House my own conviction of the very great gravity and solemnity of the crisis which this decision of the Chair and of the Committee of the "Whole has brought upon this country. I wish I could be proved a false prophet in reference to the result of this action. I wish I could be overwhelmed with the proof that I am utterly mistaken in my views. But no view I have ever taken has entered more deeply and more seriously into my con- victions than this : that this House has to-day resolved to enter upon a revolution against the Constitution and Gov- ernment of the United States. I do not know that that intention exists in the minds of half the Representatives who occupy the other side of this hall. I hope it does not. I am ready to believe it does not exist to any large extent. But I mean to say the consequence of the pro- gramme just adopted, if persisted in, is nothing less than the total subversion of this Government." General Garfield then reviewed the history of tin- struggle in the preceding Congress, and pointed out sev- THE BIOGRAPHY OF eral ways in which <>nr government could be destroyed without armed revolution. He spoke of Public Opinion as the sovereign power, amply able and always willing to guard all the approaches for assailants on the life of the Nation, i [e continued : "Up to this hour our sovereign has never failed us. There has never been such a refusal to exercise those pri- ma r\ functions of sovereignty as either to endanger or to cripple the Government, nor have the majority of the Representatives of that sovereign, in either house of Con- . ever before announced their purpose to use their voluntary powers for its destruction; and now, for the first time in our history, and, I will add, for the first time in two centuries in the history of any English-speaking nation, is it proposed and insisted that these voluntary powers shall be used for the destruction of the Govern- ment. 1 want it distinctly understood that the proposi- tion which I read at the beginning of my remarks, and which is the programme announced to the American peo- ple to-day, is this : that if this House cannot have its own way in certain matters, not connected with appropriations, it will so use, or refrain from using, its voluntary powers, as to destroy the Government." ****** " Our theory of Law is free consent. That is the granite foundation of our whole superstructure. Nothing in the Republic can be law without consent — the free con- sent of the House; the free consent of the Senate; the free consent of the Executive, or, if he refuse' it. the free consent of two-thirds of these bodies. Will any man deny that? Will any man challenge a line of the statement that tree consent is the foundation rock of all our institu- tions ? And mi the programme announced two weeks ago eras that, if the Senate refused to consent to the demand ..f the House, the Government should stop. Ami the propo ition was then, and the programme is now. ihat. ./I ]£E8 I. &ARFIE1 D siltliough there is not a Senate Lu be coerced, there i a third independent branch in the legislative power of the Government whose consent is to be coerced at the peril of the destruction of this Government ; that is, if the Presi- dent, in the discharge of his duty, shall exercise his plain constitutional right to refuse his consent to this proposed legislation, the Congress will so use its voluntary powers as to destroy the Government. This is the proposition which Ave confront ; and we denounce it as revolution. "It makes no difference, Mr. Chairman, what the issue is. If it were the simplest and most inoffensive prop- osition in the world, yet if you demand, as a matter of coercion, that it shall be adopted against the free consent prescribed in the Constitution, every fair-minded man in America is bound to resist you as much as though his own life depended upon his resistance." General Garfield then showed that the laws now pro- posed to be repealed w T ere of Democratic origin, and he denounced this attempt of a political party to carry their party measures by forcing "riders" on appropriation bills a-^ a "New Rebellion," which differed from the old one of 1861 only in this: "The first proposed to shoot, the second to starve the Government to death." He con- tinued : "Now, by a method which the wildest secessionist scorned to adopt, it is proposed to make this new assault upon the life of the Republic. "Gentlemen, we have calmly surveyed this new field of conflict ; we have tried to count the cost of the struggle, as we did that of 1861, before we took up your gage of battle. Though no human foresight could forecast the awful loss of blood and treasure, yet in the name of liberty and union we accepted the issue and fought it out to the end. We made the appeal to our august Bovereign, 530 THE BIOGRAPHY OP to tin' omnipotent public opinion of America, to determine whether the Union should perish at your hands. You know the result. And now, lawfully, in the exercise of of our right as Representatives, we take up the gage you have this day thrown down, and appeal again to our com- mon sovereign to determine whether you shall he permit- ted to destroy the principle of free consent in legislation under the threat of starving the Government to death. " We are ready to pass these bills for the support of the Government at any hour when you will offer them in the ordinary way, by the methods prescribed by the Con- stitution. If you offer those other propositions of legislation as separate measures, we will meet you in the fraternal spirit of fair debate and will discuss their merits. Some of your measures many of us will vote for in separate bills. But you shall not coerce any independent branch of this Government, even by the threat of starvation, to surrender its voluntary powers until the question has been appealed to the sovereign and decided in your favor. On this ground we plant ourselves, and here we will stand to the end." Fifteen or twenty members attempted to answer and demolish the arguments of Garfield, but utterly failed; and in his reply to them on April 4, lie delivered another powerful and equally effective speech. The bill with it- •• riders " was carried of course, but met the veto of the President. During the remainder of the special Session, and through the long regular Session of the Forty-sixth Con- gress (1879-80), General Garfield took a loading part in the debates on the various subjects that wore brought be- fore the Bouse. It wason the 27th of June, L879, that he made the mosl effective of his later speeches in Con- gress. It was after Democratic members had revived the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 581 doctrine of State Sovereignty in its most obnoxious features in debates on the Marshal's Appropriations Bill. The House was in the Committee of the Whole, when General Garfield said : "Mr. Chairman : 'To this favor' it has come at lust. The great fleet that set out on the 18th of March, with all its freightage and armament, is so shattered that now all the valuables it carried are embarked in this little craft, to meet whatever fate the sea and the storm may offer. This little bill contains the residuum of almost everything that has been the subject of controversy at the present session. I will not discuss it in detail, but will speak only of its central feature, and especially of the opinions which the discussion of that feature has brought to the surface during the present session. The majority in this Congress have adopted what I consider very extreme and dangerous opinions on certain important constitu- tional questions. They have not only drifted back to their old attitude on the subject of State sovereignty, but they have pushed that doctrine much further than most of their predecessors ever went before, except during the period immediately preceding the late war. '"' So extreme are some of these utterances, that noth- ing short of actual quotations from the record will do their authors justice. I therefore shall read several ex- tracts from debates at the present session of Congress, and group them in the order of the topics discussed. " Senator Wallace ('Congressional Record,' June 3d, pp. 3 and 5) says : "'The Federal Government has no voters; it can make none, it can constitutionally control none. . When it asserts the power to create and hold " national elections" or to regulate the conduct of the voter on elec- tion day, or to maintain equal suffrage, it tramples under foot the very basis of the Federal system, and seeks to build a consolidated government from a democratic re- 582 TBE BlOORAPHf OF public. This is tin- plain purpose of the men now in con- trol of the Federal Government, and to this end the i, achinge of leading Republicans now are shaped. * & . * * * * * •• ■ There arc no national voters. Voters who vote for national representatives are qualified by State constitu- tions and State laws, and national citizenship is not re- quired of a voter of the State bv any provision of the Federal Constitution nor in practice. ****** " ' If there he such a thing, then, as a "national elec- tion," it wants the first clement of an election— a national roter. The Federal Government', or (if it suits our friends on the other side better) the Nation, has no voters. It cannot create them, it cannot qualify them.' "Representative Clark, of Missouri ('Record,' April 26th, p. 60), says : " ' The United States has no voters.' "Senator Maxey, Texas ('Record,' April 21st, p. 72), -,i\ - : "'It follows as surely as "grass grows and water runs" that, under our ('(institution, the entire control of elections must be under the State whose voters assemble; whose right to vote is not drawn from the Constitution of the United States, but existed and was freely exercised long before its adoption.' " Senator Williams, Kentucky ('Record,' April 25th, p. 8), Bays: "'The Legislatures of the States and the people of theseveral districts are the constituency of Senators and Representatives in Congress. They receive their commis- Bious from the Governor, and when they resiffn (which is vrr\ seldom) thej Bend their resignations to the Governor, and not to the President. They are State officers, and not i ral officers.' JAMES A. GARFIELD. 535 "Senator Whyte ('Record, 5 May 31st, p. 14) Bays : " 'There are no elections of United States officers and no voters of the United States. The voters are voters of the Slates, they arc the people of the States, and their members of the House of Representatives are chosen by the electors of the Status to represent the people of the States, whose agents they are.' " ' Mr. McLaxe : Do I understand him to say that the Government of the United States has the right to keep the peace anywhere within a State ? Do I under- stand him to say that there is any " peace of the United States " at all recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States ? "'Mr. Robeson: Certainly I do. — ("Record," April 4th, p. 14,)' "Mr. McLane ('Record,' April 4th, p. 15) says: " ' I believe that the provision of law which we are about to repeal is unconstitutional ; that is to say, that it is unconstitutional for the United States to "keep the peace " anywhere in the States, either at the polls or else- where ; and if it were constitutional, 1 believe, in com- mon with gentlemen on this side of the House, that it would be highly inexpedient to exercise that power. . . . "'When that law used the phrase "to keep the peace," it could only mean the peace of the States. . . . " ' It is not a possible thing to have a breach of the United States peace at the polls.' "Senator Whyte ('Record,' May 21st, p. 18) says: "'Sovereignty is lodged with the States, where it had its home long before the Constitution was created. The Constitution is the creature of that sovereignty. The Federal Government lias no inherent sovereignty. All its sovereign powers are drawn from the States. " ' The States were in existence long before the Union, and the latter took its birth from their power. ******* "'The State governments are supreme, by inherent 20 586 THE BTOQRAPBT OF power originally conceded to (lioin by the people, as to the control of local legislation and administration. The Federal Government has no part or lot in this vast mass of inherent sovereign power, and its interference there- with is utterly unwarrantable.' " Senator "Wallace (' Record," June 3d, pp. 3 and 4) -ays : " 'Thus we have every branch of the Federal Govern- ment, Bouse, Senate, the Executive and Judiciary De- partments, standing upon the State governments, and all resting finally upon the people of the States, qualified as voters by State Constitutions and State laws.' " Senator Whyte ('Record,' May 21st, p. 15) says : '"No, Mr. President; it was never declared that we were a Nation. * * * * * * " 'In the formation and adoption of the Constitution the States were the factors.' "These are the declarations of seven distinguished members of the present Congress. The doctrines set forth in the above "quotations may be fairly regarded as the doctrines of the Democracy as represented in this ( lapitol. " Let me summarize them : First, there are no Na- tional elections; second, the United States has rto voters j third, tlu' States have the exclusive right to control all elections of members of Congress: fourth, the Senators and Representatives in Congress are State officers, or, as they have been called during die present session, 'ambas- sadors' or 'agents' of the State ; fifth, the United States lias no authority to keep the peace anywhere within a State, and. in fact, has no peace to keep; sixth, the United State- is not a Nation endowed with sovereign power, but is a confederacy of States ; seventh, the States JAMX8 A. GARFIELD. are sovereignties possessing inherent supreme powera ; they sure older than the Union, and as independenl sov- ereignties the State governments created the Onion and determined and limited the powers of the General Gov- ernment. " These declarations embody the sum total of the con- stitutional doctrines which the Democracy has avowed during this extra session of Congress. They form a body of doctrines which I do not hesitate to say are more ex- treme than was ever before held on this subject, except, perhaps, at the very crisis of secession and rebellion. "And they have not been put forth as abstract theo- ries of Government. True to 'the logic of their convic- tions, the majority have sought to put them in practice by affirmative acts of legislation. "Let me enumerate these attempts : First, they have denounced as unconstitutional all attempts of the United States to supervise, regulate, or protect National elec- tions, and have tried to repeal all laws on the National statute-book enacted for that purpose ; second, following the advice given by Calhoun in his political testament to his party, they have tried to repeal all those portions of the venerated Judiciary Act of 1789, the Act of 1833 against nullification, the Act of 1861, and the acts amend- atory thereof, which provide for carrying to the Supreme Court of the United States all controversies that relate to the duties and authority of any officer acting under the Constitution and laws of the United States; third, they have attempted to prevent the President from enforcing the laws of the Union, by refusing necessary supplies, and by forbidding the use of the army to suppress vio- lent resistance to the laws, by which, if they had succeeded, they would have left the citizens and the authorities of the States free to obey or disobey the laws of the Union as they might choose. "This, I believe, Mr. Chairman, is a fair summary both of the principles and the attempted practice to which 538 TEE BTOGHAPHT OF the maj irity of this Elouse has treated the country during the exl ra session. •• Before quitting this topic it is worth while to notice the fact thai the attempl made in one of the bills now pending in this House, to curtail the jurisdiction of the National i 'Cits, is in the direct line of the teachings of John ('. Calhoun. In his 'Discourse on the Constitution and Government of the United States.' published by au- thority of the Legislature of South Carolina in 1851, he sets forth at great length the doctrine that ours is not a National Government, but a confederacy of sovereign States, and then proceeds to point out what he considers the dangerous departures which the Government lias made from his theory of the Constitution. " The first and most dangerous of these departures he declares to be the adoption of the twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789, by which appeals were author- ized from the judgments of the Supreme Courts of the States to the Supreme Court of the United States. He declares that section of the act unconstitutional, because it makes the Supreme Court of a 'sovereign' State subor- dinate to the judicial power of the United States ; and he recommends his followers never to rest until they have re- pealed, not only that section, but also what, he calls the still more dangerous law of L833, which forbids the courts of the States to sit in judgment en the acts of an officer of the United States done in pursuance of National law. The presenl Congress bas won the unenviable distinction of- making the l'n>t attempt, since the death of Calhoun, to revive and put in practice his disorganizing and d^- atructive t beorj of government. •• l-'innl\ believing thai these doctrines and attempted practice of the present Congress arc erroneous and per* uicious. I will state briefly the counter-propositions : ••I affirm: first, thai the Constitution of the Tinted States was n >t created by the governments of the states, but was ordained and established by the only sovereign in Country — the common superior of both the States and JAMES A. GABFIRLD. 589 the Nation — the people themselves; second, that the United. States is a Nation, having a Governmenl whose powers, as defined and limited l>y the Constitution, operate upon all the States in their corporate capacity and upon all the people; third, that by its legislative, ex- ecutive, and judicial authority the Nation is armed with adequate power to enforce all the provisions of the Con- stitution against all opposition of individuals or of States, at all times and all places within the Union. " These are broad propositions ; and I take the few minutes remaining to defend them. The constitutional history of this country, or, rather, the history of sov- ereignty and government in this country, is comprised in four sharply defined epochs : "First. Prior to the 4th day of July, 1776, sov- ereignty, so far as it can he affirmed of this country, was lodged in the crown of Great Britain. Every member of every colony (the colonists were not citizens, but subjects) drew his legal rights from the crown of Great Britain. 'Every acre of land in this country was then held mediately or immediately by grants from that crown,' and ' all the civil authority then existing or exercised here flowed from the. head of the British empire.' "Second. On the 4th day of July, 1??(J, the people of these colonies, asserting their natural inherent right as sovereigns, withdrew the sovereignty from the crown of Great Britain, and reserved it to themselves. In so far as they delegated this National authority at all they dele- gated it to the Continental Congress assembled at Philadelphia. That Congress *by general consent be- came the supreme Government of this country — executive, judicial, and legislative in one. During the whole of its existence it wielded the supreme power of the new Nation. " Third. On the 1st day of March, 1781, the same sovereign power, the people, withdrew the authority fr< m the Continental Congress, and lodged it, so far as they lodged it at all, with the Confederation, which, though a league of States, was declared to be a perpetual Union. 540 IRE BIOGRAPBT OF "Fourth. When at last our fathers found the Con- federation too weak and inefficient for the purposes of a great nation, they abolished it, and lodged the national authority, enlarged and strengthened by new powers, in the Constitution of the United State-, where, in spite of all assaults, it still remains. All these great act- were done by the only sovereign in this Republic, the people theii.- •• That no one may charge that I pervert history to sustain my own theories. I call attention to the fact that not one of the colonies declared itself free and indepen- dent. Neither Virginia nor Massachusetts threw off its allegiance to the British crown as a colony. The great declaration was made not even by all the colonies as colo- nies, but it was made in the name and by authority of 'all the good people of the colonies' as one people. " Let me fortify this position by a great name that will shine for ever in the constellation of our Southern sky — the name of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. He was a leading member of the Constitutional Convention of L787, and also a member of the Convention of South Carolina which ratified the Constitution. In this latter Convention the doctrine of State sovereignty found a few champions ; and their attempt to prevenl the adoption of tie' Constitution, because it established a Bupreme National Government, was rebuked by him in these memorable words. I quote from his Bpeech as re- corded in Elliott's • Debat< - •• -This admirable manifesto, which, for importance of matter and elegance of composition, stands unrivaled, sufficiently confutes the honorable gentleman's doctrine of the individual sovereignty and independence of the several State-. In that declaration the several State- are imt even enumerated, hut after reciting, in nervous lan- •. and with convincing arguments, our right to in- dependence, and the tyranny which compelled nstoas eri it, the declaration is made in the following word- : " We therefore, the rei • of the United states of JAMES A. GARFIELD. 541 America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world fur the rectitude of our in- tentions, do in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and de- clare that these united colonies are, and of right ought U) be, free and independent States." " ' The separate independence and individual sover- eignty of the several States were never thought of by the enlightened band of patriots who framed this declaration. The several States are not even mentioned by name in any part of it, as if it was intended to impress this maxim on America, that our freedom and independence arose from our union, and that without it we could neither be free nor independent. Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this union b) r maintaining that each is separ- ately and individually independent as a species of politi- cal heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses.' ''For a further and equally powerful vindication of the same view, I refer to the ' Commentaries ' of Justice Story, vol. 1, p. 197. " In this same connection, and as a pertinent and effective response to the Democratic doctrines under re- view, I quote from the first Annual Message of Abraham Lincoln, than whom no man of our generation studied the origin of the Union more profoundly. He said : " 'Our States have neither more nor less power than that reserved to them in the Union by the Constitution, no one of them ever having been a State out of the Union. The original ones passed into the Union even before they cast off their British colonial dependence, and the new ones each came into the Union directly from a condition of dependence, excepting Texas. And even Texas, in its temporary independence, was never designated a State The new ones only took the designation of States on com- ing into the Union, while that name was first adopted for the old ones by the Declaration of Independence. Therein the * ; united colonies" were declared to be " free and in- dependent States;" but, even then, the object plainly was not to declare their independence of one an 542 THE BIOGRAPHY OF of the Union, but directly the contrary, as their mutual pledge and their mutual action before, at the time, and aft< rward abundantly show. . . . ••'The States have their status in the Union, and they have do other Legal status. [f they break Erom this, they can only do bo againsl law and by revolution. The Union, ami not themselves separately, procured their in- dependence and their liberty. By conquesl or purchase, the Union gave each of them whatever of independence and liberty it has. The Union is older than any of the States, and in fact it created them as States. Originally some dependent colonies made the Union, and in turn the Union threw oil' their old dependence for them and made them Slates, such as they are. Not one of them ever had a State Constitution independent of the Union. Of course it is not forgotten that all the new Slates framed their Constitutions before they entered the Union ; never- theless dependent upon and preparatory to coming into the Union.' " In further enforcement of the doctrine that the State Governments were not the sovereigns who created this Government, I refer to the great decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Ohisholm v. The State of Georgia, reported in 2 Dallas, a decision replete with the mosl enlightened national spirit, in which the Court stamps with its indignant condemnation the notion that the Stale of Georgia was 'sovereign' in any Bense that made it independent of or superior to the Nation : •• Mr. Justice Wilson said : •• • Aj a judge of this Court I know, and can decide upon the knowledge, that the citizens of Georgia, when they acted upon the large Bcale of the Union as a pan of the ••people of the liiited St at 68," did not surrender the suprem 'sovereign power to thai State; but, as to the purposes of the Union, retained it to themselves. A> to the purposes of the Union, therefore, Georgia is not ;i Bovereigu State " • \\ boever oonsiders in a combined and comprehen- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 543 sive view the general texture of the Constitution will he satisfied that the people of the United States intended to form themselves into a nation for national purposes. They instituted for such purposes a National Govern- ment, complete in all its parts, with powers legislative, executive, and judiciary, and in all those powers extending over the whole nation. Is it congruous that, with regard to such purposes, any man or body of men, any person, natural or artificial, should he permitted to claim success- fully an entire exemption from the jurisdiction of the National Government ?' " Mr. Chairman, the dogma of State sovereignty, which has re-awakened to such vigorous life in this chamber, has borne such bitter fruits and entailed such suffering upon our people that it deserves more particular notice. It should be noticed that the word 'sovereignty' cannot, be fitly applied to any government in this country. It is not found in our Constitution. It is a feudal word, born of the despotism of the Middle Ages, and was unknown even in imperial Rome. A •sovereign' is a person, a prince, who has subjects that owe him allegiance. There is no one paramount sovereign in the United States. There is no person here who holds any title or authority whatever, except the official authority given him by law. Americans are not subjects, but citizens. Our only sov- ereign is the whole people. To talk about the 'inherent sovereignty ' of a corporation — an artificial person — is to talk nonsense; and we ought to reform our habit of speech on that subject. "But what do gentlemen mean when they tell us that a State is sovereign ? What does sovereignty mean in its accepted use, but a political corporation having no superior ? Is a State of this Union such a corporation ? Let us test it by a few examples drawn from the Constitu- tion. No State of this Union can make war or conclude a peace. Without the consent of Congress it cannot raise or support an army or a navy. It cannot make a tret ty with a foreign power, nor enter into any agreement or compact with another State. It cannot levy impo-- Mi THE BIOGRAPHY OF ' duties on imports or exports. It cannot coin money. It cannot regulate commerce. It cannot authorize a single ship to go into commission anywhere on the high seas ; if it should, that ship would be seized as a pirate, or confis- cated by the laws of the United States. A State cannot emit bills of credit. It can enact no law which makes anything hut gold and silver a legal tender. It has no ELag except the Hag of the Union. And there are many other subjects on which the States are forbidden by the Constitution to legislate. " How much inherent sovereignty is left in a corpo- ration which is thus shorn of all these great attributes of sovereignty ? "But this is not all. The Supreme Court of the United States may declare null and void any law or any clause of the Constitution of a State which happens to he in coiitlict with the Constitution and laws of the United States. Again, the States appear as plaintiffs and defend- ants before the Supreme Court of the United States. They may sue each other ; and. until the Eleventh Amend- ment was adopted, a citizen might sue a State. These ' sovereigns ' may all be summoned before their common superior to be judged. And yet they are endowed with supreme inherent sovereignty ! •• A.gain, the government of a State may be absolutely abolished by Congress, in case it is not republican ill form. And finally, to cap the climax of this absurd pre- tension, every right possessed by one of these 'sovereign ' Stai.-. every inherent sovereign right, except the single right In equal representation in the Senate, may he taken away, without its consent, bj the vote of two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states. But, in spite of all these disabilities, we hear them paraded as inde- pendent, sovereign states, the creators of the Union and the dictators of its powers. Eow inherently ' sovereign ' must be thai State west of the Mississippi which the Nation bouglil and paid for with the public money, and permitted to come into the Union a half century after the JAMES A. GARFIELD. 545 Constitution was adopted ! And yet we arc told thai the States are inherently sovereign and created the National Government. " Read a long line of luminous decisions of the Su- preme Court. Take the life of Chief-Justice Marshall, that great judge, who found the Constitution paper and made it a power, who found it a skeleton and clothed it with ilesh and blood. By his wisdom and genius lie made it the potent and beneficent instrument lor the govern- ment of a great nation. Everywhere he repelled the in- sidious and dangerous heresy of the sovereignty of the States in the sense in which it has been used in these de- bates. " Half a century ago this heresy threatened the sta- bility of the Nation. The eloquence of Webster and his compeers and the patriotism and high courage of Andrew Jackson resisted and for a time destroyed its power ; but it continued to live as the evil genius, the incarnate devil, of America; and in 1861 it was the fatal phantom that lured eleven millions of our people into rebellion against their Government. Hundreds of thousands of those who took up arms against the Union stubbornly resisted all inducements to that fatal step until they were summoned by the authority of their States. " The dogma of State sovereignty in alliance with chattel slavery finally made its appeal to that court of last resort where the laws are silent, and where kings and nations appear in arms for judgment. In that awful court of war two questions were tried : Shall slavery live? And is a State so sovereign that it may nullify the laws and dctroy the Union ? Those two questions were tried on the thousand battle-fields of the war ; and if war ever ' legislates,' as a leading Democrat of Ohio once wisely affirmed, then our war legislated finally upon those sub- jects, and determined, beyond all controversy, that slavery should never again live in this Ecpublic, and that there is not sovereignty enough in any State to authorize its people either to detroy the Union or nullify its laws. r,46 THE BIOGRAPHY OF "I am unwilling to believe that any considerable num- ber of Americans will ever again push that doctrine to the same extreme; and yet, in then' summer months of 1879, in the Congress of the reunited Nation, we find the majority drifting fast and far in the wrong direction, by reasserting much of that doctrine which the war ought to have settled for ever. And what is more lamentable, each declarations as those which I read at the outset are finding their echoes in many portions of the country which were lately the theatre of war. JSo one can read the proceedings at certain recent celebrations, without ob- serving the growing determination to assert thai the men who fought against the Union were not engaged in treasonable conspiracy against the Nation, but that they did right to fight for their States, and that, in the long run, the lost cause will be victorious. These indications arc filling the people with anxiety and indignation ; and they are beginning to inquire whether the war has really settled these great questions. " I remind gentlemen on the other side that we have not ounelves revived these issues. We had hoped they were settled beyond recall, and that peace and friendship might be fully restored to our people. " Bui the truth requires me to say that there is one indispensable -round of agreement on which alone we can stand together, and it is this : The war for the Union was right, everlastingly right ; and the war againsl the Union wrong, for ever wrong. However honest and sincere in- dividuals may have been, the secession was Done the less rebellion and treason. We defend the States in the exer- cise of their many and important rights, and we defend with equal zeal the rights of the United States. The right- and authority of both were received from the people — the only source of inherent power. "We insist not oni\ thai, this is a Nation, but that the power of the Government within its own prescribed sphere, operates directly upon the States and upon all the . de. We insist that our laws shall be construed by our JAMES A. OABFIELD. 549 own courts and enforced by our Executive. Any theory which is inconsistent with this doctrine we will resisl to the end. '.' Applying these reflections to the subject of national elections embraced in this bill 1 remind gentlemen that this is a National House of Representatives. The people oi my Congressional district have a right to know that a man elected in New York city is elected honestly and law- fully ; for he joins in making laws for forty-five million- of people. Every citizen of the United States has an interest and a right in every election within the republic where national representatives are chosen. We insist that these laws relating to our national elections shall be enforced, not nullified ; shall remain on the statute-books, and not be repealed ; and that the just and legal supervision of these elections ought never again to be surrendered by the Government of the United States. By our consent it never shall be surrendered. " Now, Mr. Chairman, this bill is about to be launched upon its stormy passage. It goes not into unknown waters; for its fellows have been wrecked in the same sea. Its short, disastrous, and, I may add, ignoble voyage is likely to be straight to the bottom." I here close the record of General Garfield's career in Congress. At the October elections in L879, the Repub- licans in Ohio had a decided majority of votes in that State, and in December following the State Legislature chose General Garfield to fill the seat of Mr. Thurman in the Senate of the United States, his term to begin on March 4, 1861 . On that day, as Ave shall observe presently. General Garfield took a more exalted seat, to which the voice of the nation had called him. 5.30 THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XXII. REPTTBLIOAJS NATIONAL I H <.\ V 1..N I K >.\, JUNE '2, 1881. On "Wednesday, June 2, L880, the Republican Na- tional Convciitii.ii assembled at Chicago for the purpose of nominating a candidate for the presidency of the United States. The Convention was held in the immense hall of the Exposition building. It contained, with the galleries, seating places for ten or eleven thousand persons. The hour fixed for the meeting was at meridian, at which time delegates and spectators, in great crowds, swarmed into the large room. There were present, at an early moment, three dis- tinguished Republican Leaders who were supposed t<> wield an immense influence in their respective State.-. The-c were Conkling, of New York; Cameron, of Penn- sylvania, and Logan, of Illinois. These three were com- bined in favor of the nomination of General Grant, who had already occupied the Presidential chair during two terms. Cn opposition to these were the respective friends of Messrs. Blaine, Edmunds, E. B. Washburn, Windom and John Sherman. The latter was then the Secretary of the iiry, who had Labored most efficiently in accomplish- ing the resumption of specie payment. All these men had been Bpoken of as worthy of the Presidential chair. The Ohio delegation were in favor of Sherman as the nominee. At the bead of the delegation was General JAMES .1. GARFIELD. 58.1 Garfield. When he entered the Convention al the head of his delegation, he was greeted with enthusiastic plaud- its from the members arid spectators. At a little after one o'clock, Senator Cameron stepped to the front of the platform and announced that the Con- vention would be opened with prayer. It was done, when Mr. Keogh, Secretary of the National Republican Com- mittee, read the call. Senator Cameron then made a speech of about two minutes' duration, in which he uttered some telling sentences m favor of the nomination of Gen- eral Grant, and at the close nominated George F. Hoai of Massachusetts, as temporary chairman. lie was after- wards chosen President of the Convention. The business of the Convention was opened by Eugene Hale, of Maine (a friend of Mr. Blaine), who offered the usual resolutions for a call of States to report Committee- men, and very little more was done in the Convention that day. It convened at L 1 o'clock the next day (June 3), which was spent chieiiy in what might be termed pre- liminary skirmishing before the great battle. That skir- mishing was chiefly between Roseoe Colliding of New York, the champion of General Grant, and Messrs. Hale and Frye of Maine, the champions of Senator Blaine. This was while the Committee on Rules, of which Gen- eral Garfield was chairman, were engaged in their duties. On the third day of the session Mr. Colliding offered a resolution declaring that all delegates should be bound to give a cordial support to the nominees of the Conven- tion. He felt sure of the nomination of Grant, and this resolution was intended to secure possible bolters. When the vote was taken some voted ••no/* when Conkling, 553 THE BIOGRAPHY OF considering that vote as not in accordance with strict par- ty discipline, offered the following resolution: '• Resolved, Thai the delegates who Lave voted that they will not abide the action of the Convention do not deserve to have seats, and have forfeited their votes in (ho i 'onvention."' This was received with both applause and disapproba- tion, and Mr. Conkling, perceiving that it was distasteful to many members of the Convention, withdrew the reso- lution. The Associated Press report of the affair said : •• Mr. McCormick, of West Virginia, avowed himself one of the three dissenters, not because he did not expect to support the nominee of this Convention, for he did intend to do that, no matter who he should be. He was as good a Republican as the gentleman from New York, and whereas the latter made oniy one speech for the nominee of the lasl National Republican Convention [Mr. Hayes], he [McCormick] made one hundred. [Great applause and cheers.] Ee opposed the resolution only because it declares thai nun are not fit to sit in the Con- vention if they differ from other members of it. '• Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, who was received with a most flattering ovation, expressed his fear thai the convention w.i- aboul to commit a grave error. He would state the case. Every delegate save three had voted for a resolu- tion, and the three who had voted againsi it had risen in their places and stated they expected and intended to support the nominee of the convention. But it was not, in their judgment, a wise thing al this time to pass the resolution winch all the rest of the delegates had voted for. .\ re they to be disfranchised because they thoughi jo? [dies of "No! No !"J That was the question. Wob every delegate to have his Republicanism inquired in i) before he was allowed to vote P Delegates were re- JAMES A. Ml FIELD. sponsible for their votes, not to the convention, hut to their constituents. He himself would never, in any con- tention, vote against his judgment. He regretted that the gentlemen from West Virginja had thought it host to break the harmony of the convention by their dissent. lie did not know those gentlemen, nor their affiliations, nor their relations to the candidates. If this convention expelled these men, then the convention would have to purge itself at the end of every vote and inquire how many delegates avIio had voted "no" should go out. lie trusted that the gentleman from New York would with- draw his resolution and let the convention proceed with its business. [Loud cheering.]" There were many contested seats, and this condition gave rise to long debates. The Convention did not enter upon their most important duties, namely: adopting a platform and nominating a candidate, until the fourth day of the session, when on motion of General Garfield, the Committee on Resolutions were ordered to report. They submitted the following as the National Platform of the Republican party : " The Republican party, in National Convention as- sembled, at the end of twenty years since the Federal Government was first committed to its charge, submits to the people of the United States this brief report of its administration. "It suppressed a rebellion which had armed nearly a million of men to subvert the National authority. It re- constructed the Union of the States, with freedom in- stead of slavery as its corner-stone. It transformed four million human beings from the likeness of things to the rank of citizens. It relieved Congress from the Infamous work of hunting fugitive slaves, and charged il that slavery does not exist. It has raised the value of 554 THE BIOGRAPHY OF <>ur paper currency from thirty-eight per cent, to the par of gold. It has restored upon a .solid basis payment in coin for all the National obligations, and has given us a currency absolutely good and equal in every part of our extended country. It has lifted the credit of the Nation from the point where six per cent, bonds sold at eighty-six to that where four per cent, bonds are eagerly sought at a premium. "Under its administration railways have increased, from 31,000 miles, in 1860, to more than 82,000 miles, in 1879. Our foreign trade lias increased from $700,000,000 to $1,500,000,000 in the same time, and our exports, which were £20,000,000 less than our imports in 18G0, were 8264,000,000 more than our imports in 1879. " Without resorting to loans, it has, since the war closed, defrayed the ordinary expenses of Government, besides the accruing interest on the public debt, and has annually disbursed more than $30,000,000 for soldiers' pensions. It has paid $888,000,000 of the public debt, and by refunding the balance at lower rates has reduced the annual interest charge from nearly 8151,000,000 to less than $89, 000,000. All the industries of the country have revived ; lahor is in demand ; wages have increased, and throughout, the entire country there is evidence of a coming prosperity greater than we have ever enjoyed. "Upon this record the Republican party asks for the continued confidence and support of the people, and this Convention submits for their approval the following state- men! of the principles and purposes which will continue to guide and inspire its efforts : ••I. We affirm that the work of the Last twenty-one years has been such as to commend itself to the favor of the Nation, ami thai the fruits of the costly \ietories which we have achieved through immense difficulties should be preserved j that the peace regained Bhould be cherished; that the dissevered Union, now happily re- stored, should be perpetuated ; and that the Liberties se- cured to this generation should he transmitted nndimin- JAMEB A. GAIlFlKl.h. 555 islicd to future generations ; that the order established mid the credit acquired should never be impaired; that the pensions promised should he extinguished by the full payment of every dollar thereof ; that the reviving in- dustries should be further promoted, and that the com- merce already so great should he steadily encouraged. "II. The Constitution of the United States is a su- preme law and not a mere contract. Out of confederated States is made a sovereign Nation. Some powers are de- nied to the Nation, while others are denied to the States ; hut the boundary between the powers delegated and those reserved is to be determined by the National, and not by the State tribunals. " III. The work of popular education is one left to the care of the several States, but it is the duty of the National Government to aid that work to the extent of its constitutional power. The intelligence of the Nation is but the aggregate of the intelligenee in the several States, and the destiny of the Nation must not be guided by the genius of any one State, but by the average genius of all. "IV. The Constitution wisely forbids Congress to make any law respecting an establishment of religion, but it is idle to hope that the Nation can be protected against the influence of sectarianism while each State is exposed to its domination. "We, therefore, recommend that the Constitution be so amended as to lay the same prohibition upon the Legislature of each State, and to forbid the ap- propriation of public funds to the support of sectarian schools. ••V. We affirm the belief, avowed in 1876, thai the duties levied for the purpose of revenue should so dis- criminate as to favor American labor; that no further grant of the public domain should be made to any railway or other corporation ; that slavery having perished in the States, its twin barbarity, polygamy, must die in the Ter- ritories ; that everywhere the protection accorded t" zens of American birth must be secured to citizens by A .nierican adoption : and that we esteem it the duty of GOG THE BIOGRAPHY OF Congress to develop and improve our water-courses and harbors, bul insist thai farther subsidies to private per- sons or corporations must cease. That the obligations of the Republic to the men who preserved its integrity in the hour of battle are undiminished bj the lapse of the 6f teen years since their final victory. To do them per- petual honor is, and shall forever be, the grateful privi- lege and sacred duty of the American people. • VI. Since the authority to regulate immigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign na- tions rests with Congress, or with the United States and its treaty-making power, the Republican party, regarding the unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as an evil of great magnitude, invoke.- the exercise of those powers to restrain and limit that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane, and reasonable provisions as will pro- duce that result. "VII. That the purity and patriotism which char- acterized the earlier career of Rutherford B. Hayes, in peace and war, and which guided the thoughts of our im- mediate predecessors to him for a Presidential candidate, have continued to inspire him in his career as Chief Exec- utive, and that tlistory will accord to his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just, and cour- discharge of the public business, and will honor his interpositions between the people and proposed partisan laws. "VIII. We charge upon the Democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust of office and patronage ; that to obtain jsion of the .National and State Governments, and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the puritj and to conserve the freedom of suffrage, and have devised fraudulent certifications and returns; have labored to unseal lawfully elected members of Congress, to secure at all hazard the vote of a majority of the tStatee in the House of Representatives; have en- ired I" OCCUpy, by force and fraud, the places of JAMES A. GARFIELD trust given to others by the people of Maine and rescued by the courageous actios of Maine's patriotic .-ens ; have by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in pracl ice, attached partisan legislation to -appropriation billB, upon whose passage the very movement of the Government de- pends; have crushed the rights of individuals-; have ad- vocated the principles and sought the favor of rebellion against the Nation, mill have endeavored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war, and to overcome its inestima- bly valuable results of nationality, personal freedom, and individual equality. " The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Convention, of respect for the constitutional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform in the civil service shall be thorough, radical, and com- plete. To that end it demands the cooperation of the Legislative with the Executive Departments of the Gov- ernment, and that Congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service ; that the tenure of administrative offices (except those through which the distinctive policy of the party in power shall be carried out), sh%ll be made per- manent during good behavior, and that the power of re- moval for cause, with due responsibility for the good conduct of subordinates, shall accompany the power of appointment. "The equal, steady, and complete enforcement of laws, and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoy- ment of all privileges and immunities guaranteed by bhe Constitution, are the first duties of the Nation. The dangers of a solid South can only be averted by a faithful performance of every promise which the Nation has made to the citizen. The execution of the laws and the pun- ishment of all those who violate them are the only safe methods by which an enduring peace can be secured, and genuine prosperity established throughout the South. Whatever promises the Nation makes the Nation must 558 HI!-: BIOORAPMf OF perform, and the Nation cannot, with safety, relegate this duty to the States. The Bolid South must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all opinions musl there 6nd free expression, and to this end the hon- est voter must be protected againsl terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and the purpose of the Republican party to use every legitimate means to restore all the States of this Union to the most perfect harmony that may be practicable ; and we submit it to the practical, sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interesl of our country at this time to surrender the administra- tion of the National (iovernment to the party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under which we air so prosperous, and thus bring distrust and confusion where there are now order, confidence and hope.'' To these resolutions another concerning reforms in the Civil Service was adopted. It is as follows : "The Republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last National Convention of respectfor the Constitutional rules governing appointment to office, adopts the declaration of Presidenl Haws that the reform in the civil service shall be thorough, radical and com- plete. To that end it demands the co-operation of tin' Legislature with the Executive Departments of thi Gov- emment, and that Congress shall SO legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service. "' At the evening session of the fourth day, the most important and interesting work of the Convention was be- gun. Eugene Halo arose and moved a call of States for the purpose of placing the various candidates in nomina- tion. Ten minutes ire allowed for each nomination, JAMES A. GARFIELD. and live minutes to the seconder. When the roll was called there was no response until Michigan was reached, when James F. Joy, a delegate from that State, after a brief speech, nominated James G. Blaine of Maine, for President of the United States. The nomination was sec- onded by Mr. Pixley of California. When Minnesota was called, E. F. Drake presented the name of William Windom. The nomination was not seconded. Mr. Conkling arose, when New York was called, and made an eloquent speech of considerable length in commendation of his favorite candidate for the Presi- dency. He was frequently interrupted. At the close of his remarks, Mr. Conkling nominated General Grant for the Presidency. It was seconded by Mr. Bradley of Ken- tucky. An eye witness wrote : " The Grant men in Convention and galleries took a regular jubilee, and President Hoar had to sit down and let disorder tire itself out. The Grant delegation 'pooled' the flags which marked their seats, marched round the aisles, and cheered and yelled as if they were dwellers in Bedlam, just home after a long absence." When Ohio was called, General Garfield arose and, in the " midst of tremendous cheering," advanced to the place Mr. Conkling had just vacated. When order was restored, he spoke as follows : "Mr. President : I have witnessed the extraordinary scenes of this Convention with deep solicitude. No emo- tion touches my heart more quickly than a sentiment m honor of a great and noble character. But, as I Bal "ti these seats and witnessed these demonstrations, it seemed to me you were a human ocean in a tempest. I have Been 560 TEE BIOQRAPBY OF the sea lashed Into fury and tossed into a Bpray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dulleBl man. Bui I re- member that ii is not fcne billows, bul the calm level of the 3< ;i. from \\ bich all heights and depthsare measured. When the Btorm has passed and the hour of calm .settles on the m, when sunshine bathes its smooth Burface, 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 the 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 might v people are to be measured, and by which their final action will be determined. Not here, in this brilliant circle, where 15,000 men and women are assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to be decreed ; not here, where I see the enthusiastic faces of 756 delegates waiting to cast their votes into the urn and determine the choice of their party, but by 5,000,000 Republican firesides, where the thought- ful fathers, with wives and children about them, with the calm thoughts inspired by love of home and love of coun- try, with the history of the past, the hopes of the future, and the know ledge of the great men who have adorned and blessed our Nation in days gone by — there God pre- pares the verdict that shall determine the wisdom of our work to-night. Xot in Chicago, in the heat of dune, but in the sober quiet that conies between now and November. in the silence of deliberate judgment, will this great question be Bettled. Let us aid them to-night. "Bul now. gentlemen of the Convention, whatdowe want ? Bear with me a moment. Hear me for this cause, and for a moment be silent, that you may hear. Twenty- ii\e years ago this Republic was wearing a triple chain of bondage. Long familiarity with the traffio in the body and Bonis of men had paralyzed the consciences of a ma- jority of our people. The baleful doctrine of State sovr ereignty had shocked and weakened the noblest and most >n\- pasi history, and carries in his heart the memory of all it- glorious deeds, and who, looking forward, prepares to meet the labor and the dangers to JAMES A. GARFIELD. come. Wc want one who will act in no Bpirit of nnkind- ness toward those we lately met in battle. The Republi- can party offers to onr brethren of the South the olive branch of peace, and wishes them to return to brother- hood, on this supreme condition that it shall be admit led forever and forever more, that, in the war for the Union, we were right and they were wrong. On that supreme condition we meet them as brethren, and 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 cour- ageously 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 stocd by young Kansas then, and, returning to his duty in the National Legislature, through all subse- quent time his pathway has been marked by labors per- formed in every department of legislation. " You ask for his monuments. I point you to twenty- five years of the national statutes. Not one great benefi- cent statute has been placed on our statute books without his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided these men to formulate the laws that raised our great armies ami 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 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, intel- ligence, firmness, and poise of character' which has carried us through a stormy period of three years, with one half Sfifl THE BTOGRAPHY OF the public press crying 'Crucify him !' and a hostile Con- gress 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 pre- served, while executing the law of resumption, and effect- ing its object, without a jar, and against the false prophe- cies of one-half of the press and all the Democracy of this continent. He has shown himself able to meet with calm- ness 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 pre- sent him for your deliberate consideration. I nominate John Sherman, of Ohio." The nomination of Mr. Sherman was seconded by Mr. "Winkler of Wisconsin, and Eliott (colored) of South Caro- lina. Then Mr. Hillings of Vermont, nominated Senator George F. Edmunds of that State. It was seconded by Mr. Stanford of Massachusetts. This nomination was fol- lowed by that of E. B. Washburne of Illinois, by Mr. Cassidy of Wisconsin, seconded by Mr. Bandagee of Con- necticut. The nominees being now all named, and the time being only a few minutes before Sunday morning, the Convention adjourned until Monday morning. JAMKs A. GARFIELD. ju? CHAPTER XXIII. GARFIELD NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. On Monday, June 6 (1880), the Republican National Convention at Chicago was opened, as usual, with prayer. Eugene Hale then moved that the Convention proceed to ballot for a candidate for President of the United States. The motion was adopted, when President Hoar announced that during the balloting he would not allow any delay, debate or tricks, by changing votes after they were cast. The roll-call by States was begun in silence, and at the end of the first ballot the vote stood as follows : Grant. Blaine. Sherman. 304. 2S4. 93. Edmund*. Windom. Washhurne. 34. 10. 30. Eighteen ballotings occurred during the morning ses- sion without much change, excepting two votes given for General Garfield and one each for Hayes, McCrary and Davis. After the 28th ballot, at the evening session, with the addition of one vote for Governor Ilartranft (none for Hayes, McCrary or Davis), the Convention ad- journed until the next morning. It was estimated that fully twelve thousand persons, sweltering in the great heat, were looking upon the exciting scene, when the ad- journment took place at ten o'clock, 568 TITE BTOQRAPITT OF It is related that when General Garfield was on his way to the Convention, the next morning, arm-in-arm with Governor Foster of Ohio, as he turned a corner, one of the hundreds of people who were thrusting advertise- ments, circulars and political squibs into the hands of passers-by, pressed a little piece of paper upon him, which he accepted mechanically, and as mechanically glanced at. His eye caught "Acts iv. II." Thinking he would not throw a Bible-leaf into the mud, he rolled it up and put it in his pocket (where he afterward found it) and con- tinued his walk. Had he read it, the idea of a pro- phecy would, no douht. have struck him, as the words of that verse are these : " This is the stone which was set at nought of yon builders, which is become the head of the corner. [Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts iv. 11,-12. At the thirtieth ballot that morning, there were indi- cations that the lesser candidates were giving way, but Grier, of Pennsylvania, who was the first to give a vote for General Garfield, adhered to the Ohio statesman. On the thirty-first ballot a New Mexican delegate created s<»nic merriment by voting for Conkling. and on the suc- ceeding ballot it was evident that the Blaine line was weakening, while Grant's stood solid and immovable. < >n the thirty-third ballot, the supporters of other candidates turned into the Blaine ranks, but were not enough ven ie the Grant column. They did not want Blaine, but they wished to defeat Grant. There \va- considerable excitemenl at the close of the thirty-fourth ballot, when Wisconsin gave 16 vote- for Garfield and Grant's vote was 312. Garfield arose and JAMES A. GARFIELD 5«fl addressed the chair. The President inquired for what purpose he rose. " To a question of order," said Garfield. " The gentleman will state it," said the president. " I challenge," said Garfield, " the correctness of the announcement that contains votes for me. No man has a right, without the consent of the person voted for, to have his name announced and voted for in tins Convention. Such consent I have not given." This was over-ruled by the President, amidst laughter against Garfield. The events which immediately fol- lowed were thus described by an eye-witness : " The thirty-fifth was the most interesting ballot of the day so far. The call was quick, people had begun to show better spirits, and when the 27 Indianians, who had been looking around for some way out, cast themselves for Garfield, there was a deafening shout, and Garfield's seat was immediately surrounded. Maryland followed with four for the Ohio dark horse, and Wisconsin for a second time turned in sixteen of her votes solid for him. It was apparent that the Blaine movement had broken up, and the friends of Grant and Garfield had the cheer- ing to themselves at the end of this ballot. " The call of the States for the thirty-sixth ballot be- gan amidst considerable excitement. Everybody saw that Blaine was now out of the way, and it was a matter of beating Grant so far as the opposition was concerned. It was evident, too, that it would have to be done with Gar- field, and Connecticut led off on this ballot with 11 votes for him. The most of the Washbttrne vote of Illinois fol- lewed this, and when Indiana was called, General Harri- son cast 29 of her 30 votes for Garfield. " The storm at this point broke. The people rose up and gave one tremendous cheer, and hats and handker- chiefs were tossed high, as they had so often been b< 570 THE BIOGRAPHY OF The confusion had not fairly subsided when Iowa followed with 22 votes for Garfield, and the outburst was renewed and gained in force with every fresh start. A little farther down Maine cast her 14 votes for the Ohio man, and the cheering was greater than ever. The confusion was so great that it was almost impossible to go on with the call. The delegations of Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Mississippi each insisted upon an individual roll-call, and the Blaine and Sherman votes nearly all turned up for Garfield. Conkling was dodging about a good deal at this time, but it dawned upon the Grant men that all was up with them. They were well disciplined, however, and hung together all the way down the call. It was getting down to Pennsylvania. Cam- eron sat imperturbable in the midst of his delegates, and was repeatedly urged to cast the solid Pennsylvania dele- gation for Blaine on this ballot. This would have pre- vented the nomination of Garfield on that ballot, at least, and might have stayed the Garfield cyclone by getting Blaine back on the track ; but Cameron at this time would not acknowledge that Garfield could go through as he did go. " Ohio was finally called. The delegation had been thrown into confusion, and it was some time in getting around, but it finally turned up with forty-three for Gar- field, tin' missing delegate being Garfield himself. The convention relapsed into cheers again, but recovered in a moment to hear General Beaver announce the Pennsyl- vania vote as thirty-seven for Grant, twenty-one for Gar- field. Gordon had swung around to Grant, and Hayes, who had voted for Blaine, felt himself released when Maine virtually put him out of the field, and went with the Grant people. The Grant men got in a little cheer here, but it was of shori life. As the call went on, as well as it could in t ho confusion, the Blaine delegates wheeled into line for Garfield. Vermont was wildly cheered when the ten Edmunds votes swung around, and JAMES A. GARFIKl.n. 571 Wisconsin's eighteen following shortly after, gave the man from Ohio a majority of the whole number. "The thousands had kept tally, and knew this. There was a momentary hush, as if the seven or eight thousand people were taking breath, and then the storm burst, and while the cheering went on the banners of the several States were borne to the place where Ohio's delegation sat, Garfield in the midst of them, and there was a scene almost equal to that of midnight on Friday. The band was playing ' The Battle-Cry of Freedom ' at the lower end of the hall, and when the cheering subsided for a moment the air was taken up and sung in chorus by thou- sands of voices. Everywhere flags were waving, and on the outside of the building cannon were booming and thousands were cheering. This went on for a quarter of an hour, during which time Conkling sat in his place at the head of his delegation without show of emotion of any sort. Efforts were made to get Garfield out, but he remained hidden in the midst of his Ohio friends. "After Wisconsin the call of the Territories had little interest, and was conducted in the midst of the greatest confusion. The call for the first time was verified by a re-reading of the votes, and at the announcement of the result there was another outburst. The changes in the vote by which the nomination was reached are shown in the following table : 29th. 30th. 31st. 32d. 33d. 34th. 35th. 36th. Grant . . 305 306 308 309 309 312 313 306 Blaine . . 278 279 276 270 276 275 25 1 42 Sherman . 116 120 119 117 110 107 99 3 Edmunds. 12 11 11 11 11 11 11 — Washburne . 35 33 31 44 44 30 23 5 Windom . 7 4 3 3 4 4 3 — Garfield . . 2 2 1 1 1 17 50 399 Sheridan . — 1 Conkling. — — 1 — — — — — After the excitement had subsided there was a sort of 572 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF love-feast, Mr. Conkling rose and moved that the name of James A. Garfield be ananimously presented as the nomi- nee of the Convention, and .-aid : " I trust that the zeal, the fervor, and now the unanimity of the scenes of the Convention will be transplanted to the fields of the country, and that all of us who have borne a part against each other will be found, with equal zeal, bearing the banners and carrying the lances of the Republican party into the ranks of the enemy." General Logan .-aid: "Whatever may have trans- pired in this Convention that may have produced feelings of annoyance will be, I hope, considered as a matter of the past. I, with the friends of one of the grandest men on the face of the earth, stood here to fight a friendly battle for his nomination, but this Convention has chosen another leader, and the men who stood by Grant will be seen in the front of the contest for Mr. Garfield. . As one of the Republicans from Illinois, I second the nomination of James A. Garfield, ami hope it will be made unanimous." It was done. Mr. Halo of Maine, said : " The nominee of this Con- vention " no new or untried man, and in this respect he is no "dark horse;" when he came here, representing his State in the front of hi- delegation, and was Been 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, '.'lad to help make him the candi- date of tin- Republican party for President of the United Stat.-, because, 1 say, of these things. 1 shall stand here to pledge the .Maine forces in tins Convention to earnest effort from now until the ides of November, to help carry him to the Presidential chair." JAMES A. GARFIELD. :,::: The chief business of the afternoon session was the nomination of a candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United States. After several names had been mentioned, General "Woodford of New York nominated Chester A. Arthur of that city. Only a single balloting was necessary, as Arthur received an overwhelming ma- jority, or ±68 votes, in the first and only ballot. It, also, was made unanimous. The nomination of General Garfield was hailed with gladness by the Republicans throughout the Union, not only because of the high character of the nominee, but because it promised unity in the Republican party and an assurance of victory at the election in the Fall. He was the recipient of many congratulatory telegrams and let- ters. President Hayes telegraphed from the Executive Mansion, on the day of the nomination : "You will receive no heartier congratulation to-day than mine ; this both for your own and your country's sake." Secretary Sherman telegraphed from "Washington on the same day : "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 groat peril and assured the continued success of Republican principles." Mr. Blaine telegraphed the same day : " 1.45 p. m. " Maine's vote, this moment cast for you, goes with my hearty concurrence. I hope it will aid in securing .•574 THE BIOQllM'UY OF your nomination and assuring victory to the Republican party.*' To this General Garfield immediately replied : " Accept my thanks for your generous dispatch." In the House of Representatives at Washington the announcement of the nomination was received with de- monstrations of great joy and singular unanimity on the part of the Republicans. The House adjourned at 2.30 in the- afternoon when a meeting of Republicans was at once held in the TIall, General Ilawley in the chair. After a few brief speeches, a committee was appointed to send a congratulatory telegram to General Garfield. It was as follows : " Washington, June 8, 1880. "To General J. A. Garfield, Chicago: Under in- struction of your Congressional associates, assembled in the hall of the House of Representatives. General Ilawley in the chair, we congratulate you on your nomination as the candidate of the great Republican party for the Presi- dency of the United, States. " W. D. Kiii i-., Geo. M. Robeson, Tho8. .M. Browne, Jobepb J. Martin, Horace F. Page, D. P. Richardson, Thomas J. Henderson." The students al Williams College, bis alma mater, appeared almost wild with delighl and enthusiasm, on hearing of Garfield's nomination. A " Garfield Club"' was immediately forraed,with a membership of over three hundred. In the evening a ratification meeting was held, THE (PEOPLE VIEWING- THE I£EJ£#IJTS IJ IlOTTJ}T(pjl JIT Wjl8HIJTGT0}f. JAMES A. QABFIELP. and the students sang, as a chorus to " Marching through Georgia :" " Hurrah ! Hurrah I 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!" An incident connected with the day of his nomination, may here appropriately tind a place as a coincidence. Gen- eral Garfield owned a residence in Washington. During his absence it was occupied by his private stenographer, George W. Rose, who related the following : " On the day of the general's nomination for Presi- dent, at about the very moment of absolute time (as the Signal Service Bureau would say) that the nomination was made, allowing for the difference in longitude be- tween here and Chicago, a magnificent bald eagle, after circling round the Park, swooped down and rested on the general's house. One of my children was playing out of doors at the time, and ran in to call the attention of the family to this striking spectacle. Several of the family and myself went out and saw the source of the child's wonder. Before the eagle rose from its strange perch a dozen people noticed and commented upon it. An old Roman would have seen in this an augury of the most in- spiring character. But we Americans are free from su- perstitions, and so it was a mere ' coincidence. ? » The nominating Convention at Chicago appointed a committee to wait on General Garfield and inform him of his nomination. The committee, with Senator Eoar, President of the Convention, at its head, waited upon him the same evening (June 8), at his rooms at the Grand Pacific Hotel. They were cordially received, when Sena- tor Hoar said : 578 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF " General Garfield, the gentlemen present are ap- pointed by the National Republican Convention, repre- sentatives of every State in the Union, who have been directed to convey to von the formal ceremonial notice of your nomination as the Republican candidate for the office of President of the United States. It is known to you that the Convention which has made this nomination assembled divided in opinion and in council in regard to the candidate. It may not be known to you with what unanimity of pleasure and of hopes the Convention has received the result which it has reached. You represent not only the distinctive principles and opinion of the Re- publican party, but you represent also its unity, and in the name of every State in the Union represented on the committee, I convey to you the assurance of the cordial support of the Republican party of these States at the coming election." General Garfield replied : "Mr. President and Gentlemen ; I assure you that the information you have officially given me brings the sense of very grave responsibility, and especially so in view of the fact that I was a member of your body, a fact which could not have been so with propriety had I had the slightest expectation that my own name would be con- nected with the nomination for the office. I have felt with you great solicitude regarding the situation of our party during the Btruggle, but believing that you are cor- rci ■! 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 living. 1 accept the trusi committed to my hands. ■ ilic work of our party, as to the character of the campaign to be entered upon, I will take an early occa- sion in reply more fully than I can properly do now. I thank yon for the assurances of confidence ami esteem and unity which you have presented me with, and shall JAMES A. GARFIELD. 579 hope that we may see our future as promising aa are the indications of to-night." General Gartield left Chicago for his home at Mentor, in a special car for Cleveland, accompanied by sonic inti- mate friends. His journey was a continuous ovation. When he reached Cleveland he was received by an im- mense multitude, who greeted him with great enthusiasm. Just before he left for Chicago, General Garfield promised to preside at the Commencement exercises of Hiram college. To that little town he repaired, where he met his wife and children, and many old friends. The stu- dents of the college gathered around him with expressions of congratulation, affection and reverence. On the follow- ing day he presided at the exercises of. the college, according to promise. In a brief address he said : " Fellow-citizens, Old Neighbors and Friends of many Years : It has always given me pleasure to come back here and look upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and new friends, for it has brought back a large share of that richness which belongs to those things out of which come the joys of life. "While sitting here this afternoon, watching your faces and listening to the very interesting address which hae just been delivered, it has occurred to me, that the leasl thing you have, that all men have enough of, is perhaps the thing that you care for the least, and that is your leisure — the leisure you have t<> think; the leisure you have to be let alone ; the leisure you have to throw the plummet into your mind, and sound the depth and dive for things below; the leisure you have to walk about the towers yourself, and find how strong they are or how weak they are ; to determine what needs building up : how to work, and how to know all that shall make you the final I you are to be. Oh, these hours of building ! 580 TEE BIOGRAPHY OF " If the Superior Being of the universe would look down upon the world to find the most interesting object, it would be the unfinished, unformed character of the : man or young woman. Those behind nic have probably in the main settled this question. Those who have passed into middle manhood and middle womanhood are about what they shall always be, and there is but little left of interest, as their characters are all developed. "But to your young and your yet unformed natures, no man knows the possibilities that lie before you in your hearts and intellects : and, •while you are working out the possi- bilities with that splendid leisure that you need, you are to lie mo-! envied. I congratulate you on your leisure. I com- mend you to treat it as your gold, as your wealth, as your treasure, out of which you can draw all possible treasures that can be laid down when you have your natures un- folded and developed in the possibilities of the 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, life, evidence of strength, confidence and affection from the people who gather in this place. I thank you for the permission to see you and meet you and greet you as I have done here to-day.'" After resting a few days at his summer home, General Garfield proceeded to Washington. On the night after his arrival he Mas serenaded, and in response to the cheers given him by a large multitude of citizens who had gathered on the occasion, he said: " Fellow-Citizens : While T have looked upon this -it -at array, I believe 1 have gotten a new idea of the majesty of the A.merican people. When I reflect that wherever you liml sovereign power every revereni heart on this earth bows before it, and w In u I remember thai here, for a hundred } ear.-, we have denied the sovereignty JAMBS A. GARFIELD. of any man, and in place of it we have asserted the sover- eignty of all in place of one. I see before me so vast a con- course, that it is easy for me to imagine thai the rest of the American people are gathered here to-night, and if they were all here, every man would stand uncovered, all in unsandaled feet in presence of the majesty of the only sovereign power in this Government under Almighty G-ocL [Cheers.] And, therefore, to th'is great audience I pay the respectful homage that in part belongs to the sover- eignty of the people. I thank you for this grdal and glorious demonstration. I am not, for one moment, mis- led into believing that it refers to so poor a thing as any one of our number. I know it means yonr reverence for your Government, your reverence for its laws, your rever- ence for its institutions, and your compliment to one who is placed for a moment in relations to you of peculiar im- portance. 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 imperiled Republic needed your hands and your hearts to save it, and you came back with your numbers decimated; but those you left behind were im- mortal and glorified heroes forever ; and those you brought back came carrying under tattered banners and in bronze hands the ark of the covenant of your Republic in safety out of the bloody baptism of the war [cheers], and 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 arc gathered here to-night, who are the strong stay and sup- 582 THE BIOGRAPHY OF port 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 wel- come 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 peo- ple, soldiers and civilians, there is one name that welds us all into one. It is the name of American citizen, un- der the Union and under the glory of the flag that led us to victory and to peace. [Applause.] For this magnifi- cent welcome I thank you with all there is in my heart." General Garfield soon returned to Mentor, and on the 3d of July delivered an eloquent and touching address at the dedication of a Boldiers 5 monument at Painesville, Ohio. A few days afterwards he sent to Senator Hoar, the Presidenl of the Chicago Nominating Convention, the following formal letter of acceptance : • Mentor, Ohio, July 10, 1880. " Dear Sir : — On the evening of the 8th of June last T bad the honor to receive from you, in presence of the committee of which yon were chairman, the official an- nouncemenl that the Republican National Convention at Chicago had thai day- nominated me for their candidate I'm- President of the United States. I accept the nomina- tion with gratitude for the confidence it implies, and with a deep sense of the responsibilities it imposes. I cordially indorse the principles sel forth in the platform adopted by the Convention : on nearly all of the subjects of whirl) it treats my opinions are on record among the published proceedings of Congress. "I venture, however, to make speoial mention JAMES A. GARFIELD. of some of the principal topics which ;ire Likely bo become subjects of discussion without reviewing the con- troversies which have been settled during the lust twenty years, and with no purpose or wish to revive the passions of the late war. STATE SUPREMACY. " It should be said that while Republicans fully rec- ognize and will strenuously defend all the rights retained by the people and all the rights reserved to the States, they reject the pernicious doctrine of State supremacy, which so long crippled the functions of the National Government, and at one time brought the Union very near to destruction. They insist that the United States is a nation, with ample power of self-preservation; that its constitution and laws, made in pursuance thereof, are the supreme law of the land ; that the right of the nation to determine the method by which its own legislation shall be created, cannot be surrendered without abdica- ting one of the fundamental powers of the Government ; that the national laws relating to the election of repre- sentatives in Congress shall neither be violated or evaded; that every elector shall be permitted freely and without intimidation to cast his lawful ballot at such election, and have it honestly counted, and that the potency of his vote shall not be destroyed by the fraudulent vote of any other person. NATIONAL WELL-BEING. " The best thoughts and energies of our people should be directed to those great questions of national well-being in which all have common interest. Such efforts will soonest restore perfect peace to those who were lately in arms against each other, for justice and good-will will out-last passion, but it is certain that the wounds cannot be completely healed and the spirit of brotherhood cannot fully pervadethewholecountryunt.il every citiaen, rich or poor, white or black, is secure in the free and unquali- fied enjoyment of every civil and political right guaran- teed by the constitution and the laws. Wherever thi 584 THE BIOGRAPHY OF joynient of this right is not assured, discontent will pre- vail, immigration will cease, and the social and industrial forces will continue to be disturbed by the migration of laborers and the consequent diminution of prosperity. The National government should exercise all its constitu- tional authority to put an end to these evils, for all the people ami all the States are members of one body, and no member can suffer without injury to all. "'The most serious evils which now afflict the South arise from the fact that there is not such freedom and toleration of political opinion and action that the minor- ity party can exercise an effective and wholesome restraint upon the party in power. Without such restraint party rule becomes tyrannical and corrupt. The prosperity which is made possible in the South by its great advan- tages of soil and climate, will never be realized until every voter can freely and safely support any party he pleases. POPULAR EDUCATION. "Next in importance to freedom and justice is popu- lar education, without which neither justice nor freedom can be permanently maintained. Its interests are en- trusted to the States, and the involuntary action of the people. Whatever help the nation can justly afford should be generously given to aid the States in support- ing common Bchools, but it would be unjust to our people and dangerous to our institutions to apply any portion of the n of the nation or vf the States to the supporl of sectarian schools. The separation of the Church and the State in everything relating to taxation should be absolute. NATIONAL FINANCES. "On the subject of national finances my views have been bo frequently and fullj expressed thai little is need: i'il in the way of additional statement. The public debt is now BO well -ecureel, and the rate of annual interest has been bo reduced, by refunding, thai rigid economy in ex- penditures and the faithful application of our surplus re- JAMES A. GARFlEl t>. venues to the payment of the principal of the debt will gradually but certainly free the people from its burdens and close with honor the financial chapter of the war. At the same time the Government can provide for all its ordinary expenditures, and discharge its sacred obliga- tions to the soldier of the Union and to the widows and orphans of those Avho fell in its defence. " The resumption of specie payments, which the Re- publican party so courageously and successfully accom- plished, has removed from the field of controversy many questions that long and seriously disturbed the credit of the Government and the business of the country. Our paper currency is now as national as the flag, and resump- tion has not only made it everywhere equal to coin, but has brought into use our store of gold and silver. The circulating medium is more abundant than ever before, and we need only to maintain the equality of all our dollars to insure to labor and capital a measure of value, from the use of which no one can suffer loss. Tfye great prosperity which the country is now enjoying should not be endangered by any violent changes or doubtful finan- cial experiments. CUSTOMS LAWS. " In reference to our customs laws a policy should be pursued which will bring revenues to the Treasury, and will enable the labor and capital employed in our greal industries to compete fairly in our own markets with the labor and capital of foreign producers. "We legislate for the people of the United States, not for the whole world, and -it is our glory that the American laborer is more in- telligent and better paid than his foreign competitor. Our country cannot be independent unless its people, with their abundant natural resources, possess the requi- site skill at any time to clothe, arm, and equip themselves for war, and in time of peace to produce all the □ sary implements of labor. It was the manifest intention of the founders of the Government to provide for Un- common defence, not by standing armies alone, but by 586 THE BIOGRAPHY or raising among the people a greater army of artisans, whose intelligence and skill should powerfully contribute to the Bafety and glory of the Nation. " Fortunately for the interests of commerce, there is no longer any formidable opposition to appropriations for the improvement of our harbors and great navigable rivers, provided thai the expenditures for that purpose are strictly limited to works of National importance. "The Mississippi River, with its great tributaries, is of such vital importance to so many millions of people that the safety of its navigation requires exceptional con- sideration. In order to secure to the Nation the control bf all its waters, President Jefferson negotiated the pur- chase of a vast territory extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. The wisdom of Congress should be invoked to devise some plan by which that great river shall cease to be a terror to those who dwell upon its banks, and by which its shipping may safely carry the industrial products of twenty-five millions of people, The interests of agriculture, which is the basis of all our material prosperity, and in which seven t welfths of our population are engaged, as well as the interests of manufactures and commerce, demand that the facilities for cheap transportation shall be increased by the use of all our great water-courses. THE CHINESE QUESTION. •• The materia] interests of this country, the traditions of its settlement, and the Bentiment of our people have led the Government to offer the widest hospitality to emi- grants who seek our shores for new and happier homes, willing to Bhare the burdens as well as the ben< fits of our society, and intending that their posterity shall become an (indistinguishable pari of our population. -The recenl movemenl of the Chinese to our Pacific • partakes bul little of the qualities of such an emi- gration, either in its purposes or its result. It ifl too much like an importation to be welcomed without restric- tion ; too much like an invasion to be looked upon with- JAMES A. GMiFTELD. out solicitude. We cannot consent to allow an\ form of servile labor to be introduced among u.- under the guise of immigration. Recognizing the gravity of this subject, the present administration, supported by Congress, has sent to China a commission of distinguished citizen- for the purpose of securing such a modification of the exist- ing treaty as will prevent the evils likely to arise from the present situation. It is confidently believed that these diplomatic negotiations will be successful without the loss of commercial intercourse between the two great powers, which promises a great increase of reciprocal trade and the enlargement of our markets. Should these efforts fail, it will be the duty of Congress to mitigate the evils already felt, and prevent their increase by such re- strictions as, without violence or injustice, will place upon a sure foundation the peace of our communities and the freedom and* dignity of labor. CIVIL SEKVICF. " The appointment of citizens to the various executive and judicial offices of the Government is, perhaps, the most difficult of all duties which the constitution has im- posed upon the executive. The Convention wisely de- mands that Congress shall co-operate with the executive departments in placing the civil service on a better basis. Experience has proved that, with our frequent changes of administration, no system of reform can be made effect- ive and permanent without the aid of legislation. Ap- pointments to the military and naval service are so regu- lated by law and custom as to leave but little ground of complaint. It may not be wise to make similar regula- tions by law for civil service, but without invading the authority or necessary discretion of the executive, Con- gress should devise a method that will determine the tenure of office, and greatly reduce the uncertainty which makes that service so uncertain and unsatisfactory. Without depriving any officer of his rights, as a citizen, the Government should require him to discharge all his B8fl THE BI0G11APIIY OF official duties with intelligence, efficiency, and faithful- ness. " To select wisely from our vast population those who are best fitted for the many offices to be filled requires an acquaintance far beyond the range of any one man. The executive should therefore seek and receive the informa- tion and assistance of those whose knowledge of the com- muuities in which the duties are to be performed, best qualifies them to aid in making the wisest choice. THE PLATFORM. " The doctrines announced by the Chicago Convention are not the temporary devices of a party to attract votes and carry an election. They are deliberate convictions resulting from a careful study of the spirit of our insti- tutions, the events of our history, and the best impulses of our people. In my judgment, these principles should control the legislation and administration of the Govern- ment. In any event they will guide my conduct until ex- perience points out a better way. If elected, it will be my purpose to enforce strict obedience to the Constitution and the laws, and to promote as best I may the interest and honor of the whole country, relying for support upon the wisdom of Congress, the intelligence and patriotism of the people, and the favor of God. " With great respect, I am, very truly yours, "J. A. Garfield. " To Hon. George F. Hoar, " Chairman of the Committee." Five davs after General Garfield's letter of acceptance was written. General Arthur also wrote a letter of accept- ance to Senator 1 [oar, as follows : " Nkw York, July 15, 1880. "Dear Sir: I accepl tin- position assigned me by the greal party whose action yon announce. This acceptance implies an approval of the principles declared by the Con- vention, but recent tfeage permits me to add some express- JAMES .1. OARFIELP. 891 sion of my own views. The righl and * 1 u i \ to secure hon- esty and order in popular elections is a matter so vital that it must stand in the front. The authority of tin; National Government to preserve from fraud and force elections, at which its own officers arc chosen, is a chief point on which the two parties arc plainly and intensely opposed. Acts of Congress for ten years have in New York and elsewhere done much to curb the violence and wrong to which the ballot and count have been again and again suhjectccL, sometimes despoiling great cities,-some- times stilling the voice of the whole State, often placing not only in Congress, but on the Bench and in Legis- latures, numbers of men never chosen by the people. " The Democratic party, since gaining possession of the two Houses of Congress, has made these laws the ob- ject of bitter, ceaseless assault, and despite all resistance has hedged them with restrictions cunningly contrived to baffle and paralyze them. This aggressive majority bold- ly attempted to extort from the Executive his approval of various enactments destructive of these election laws, by revolutionary threats that a constitutional exercise* of the veto power would be punished by withholding appropria- tions necessary to carry on the Government, and these threats were actually carried out by refusing needed ap- propriations and by forcing an extra session of Congress, lasting for months, and resulting in concessions to this usurping demand, which are likely in many Slates to sub- ject the majority to the lawless will of a minority. Omi- nous signs of a public disapproval alone subdued this ar- rogant power into a sullen surrender for the time being of a part of its demands. " The Republican party has strongly approved the stern refusal of its representatives to suffer the overthrow of statutes believed to be salutary and just. It has always insisted, and now insists, that the Grovernmenl of the United States of America is empowered and in duty hound to effectually protect the elections denoted bj the Consti- tution as National. More than this, the Republican party 22 592 THE BIOGRAPHY OF holds as the cardinal point in its creed that the Govern- ment should, by every means known to the Constitution, protect all American citizens everywhere in the full en- joyment of their civil and political rights. As a great part of its work of reconstruction, the Republican party gave the ballot to the emancipated slave as his right and defense. A large increase in the number of members of Congress and of the Electoral College from former slave- holding States was the immediate result. '• The history of recent years abounds in evidence that in many ways and in many places, especially where their number has been great enough to endanger Democratic control, the very men by whose citizenship this increase of representation was effected have heen debarred and robbed of their voice and their vote. It is true that no State statute or Constitution in so many words denies or abridges the exercise of their political rights, but bodies employed to bar their way are no less effectual. "It is a suggestive and startling thought that the in- creased power derived from the enfranchisement of a race m.w denied its share in governing the country, wielded by those who lately sought the overthrow of the Government, is now the sole reliance to defeat the party which repre- sented the sovereignty and nationality of the American people in the greatest crisis of our history. Republicans cherish none of the resentments which may have animated fchem during the actual conflict of arms. They long for a full and real reconciliation between tli< sections which were needlessly and lamentably at strife. They sincerely offer the hand of good will, but they ask in return a pledge of good faith. They deeply feel that the party whose career is bo illustrious in great and patriotic achievements will not fulfill its destiny until peace and prosperity are established in all the land, nor until liberty of thought, conscience, and action, and equality of oppor- tunity -hall not he merely cold formalities of the statute, hut living birthrights which the humble may confidently claim, and the powerful dare not deny. JAMhs A. GARFIELD. 598 CIVIL SERVICE. "The resolution referring to the public service B< to me deserving of approval. Surely no man should In; the incumbent of an office the duties of which he ie for a cause unfit to perform, who is lacking in ability, fidelity, or integrity, which a proper administration of such office demands. This sentiment would doubtless unci with general acquiescence, but opinion has been widely divided upon the wisdom and practicability of various reformator] schemes which have been suggested, and of certain pro- posed regulations governing appointments to public office. The efficiency of such regulations has been distrusted mainly because they have seemed to exalt mere educa- tional and abstract tests above general business capacity and even special fitness for the particular work in baud. It seems to me that the rules which should be applied to the management of public service may be properlj con- formed in the main to such as regulate the condin successful private business. Original appoint incuts should be based upon ascertained fitness. The tenure of office should be stable. Positions of responsibility shouli far as practicable, be filled by the promotion of worthy and efficient officers. The investigation of all complaints and the punishment of all official misconduct should be prompt and thorough. "These views, which I have long held, repeat idly de- clared, and uniformly applied when called upon to act, I find embodied in the resolution, which of course 1 approve. I will add that by the acceptance of public office, whether high or low, one does not, in my judgment, escape an\ of his responsibility as a citizen or lose or impair any of Ilia rights as a citizen, and that he should enjoy absolute lib- erty to think and speak and act in political matters accord- ing to his own will and conscience, provided only that he honorably, faithfully, and fully discharges all his official duties. FINANCE. "The resumption of specie payments— on< of the THE BIOGRAPHY OF l'raiis of Republican policy — has brought a return of abundant prosperity and the settlement of man} distract- ing questions. The restoration of sound money, the large reduction of our public debt and the burden of interest, the high advancement of the public credit — all attest the ability ai 1 courage of the Republican party to deal with such li tianoial problems as may hereafter demand solution. Our paper currency is now as good as gold, and silver is performing its legitimate function for the purpose of change. The principles which should govern the rela- tions of these elements of the currency are simple and clear. There must be no deteriorated coin, no depreci- ated paper, and every dollar, whether of metal or paper, should stand the test of the world's standard. '• POPULAR EDUCATION". "The value of popular education can hardly be over- stated. Although its interests must of necessity be chiefly confided to voluntary effort and individual action of the several States, they should be encouraged so far as bhe Constitution permits by the generous cooperation of the National Government. The interests of a whole country demand that the advantages of our common-school system should be brought within the reach of every citizen, and that no revenues of the Nation or the State should be de- voted to the support of sectarian schools. "TARIFF AND INTERNAL I M l'i;oV I.W KVls. •• Such changes should be made in the present tariff and System of taxation as will relieve any overburdened industry or class, and enable our manufacturers and artisans to Competo successfully with those of other lands. "The Government should aid works of internal im- provement, national in (heir character, and should pro- mote the development of .mi- water-courses and harbors wherever tin- general interests of commerce require. ••Ill I. KI.P! i:l l< \ \ I'A RTY. "Four years ago, as now. the nation stood at the threshold of a Presidential election, ami the Republican party, in soliciting a continuance of it.- ascendency, UES .1. QARFIKLD. 595 founded its hope of- success, nol upon its promises, but TiliDii its history. Its subsequent course has been such as to strengthen the claims which it then made to the confi- dence and support of the country. On the other hand, considerations more urgent than have ever before existed forbid the accession of its opponents to power. Their success, if success attend them, must chiefly come from the united support, of that section which soughi the forcible destruction of the Union, and which, according to all the teachings of our past history, will demand ascendency in the councils of the party to whose triumph it will have made by far the largest contribution. "There is the gravest reason for the apprehension that exorbitant claims upon the public Treasury, by no means limited to the hundreds of millions already covered by bills introduced in Congress within the past four years, would be successfully urged if the Democratic party should succeed in supplementing its present control of the National Legislature by electing the Executive also. "There is danger in intrusting the whole law-making power of the Government to a party which has in almost every Southern State repudiated obligations quite as sacred as those to which the faith of the Nation now stands pledged. " I do not doubt that success awaits the Republican party, and thai it,- triumph will assure a just, economical, and patriotic administration. I am, respect fully, your obedient servant, C. A. Arthur. " To the lion. George F. Hoar, President of the Re- publican National Con ■ ntion" 59G THE BIOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XXIY. garfield's election and inauguration. Soon after the nominations for President and Vice- President were made and the candidates had accepted, the race for the precious goal was begun. There were four other candidates for the presidency in the field, besides Garfield, namely : James B. Weaver of Iowa, nominated by the "National," or Greenback party, June 9 ; Neal Dow of Maine, nominated by the Prohibitionists. June 17; General Winfield S. Hancock, U. S. Army, nomi- nated by the Democrats, June 22 ; and John "W. Phelps of Vermont, nominated by the anti-Masons. In the canvass which ensued, and which became more and more vigorous every day until the election in Novem- ber, there was the usual partisan vituperation, personal defamation, mendacity, intrigues and low trickery resorted to by the baser sort of politicians on both sides. Every false charge, long before met and refuted, such as com- plicity in the Credit Mobilier scheme, was reiterated against Garfield; and even the National Committee of his political opponents descended to employ the disreputable scheme for injuring his character, of circulating a fac- simile of a forged letter. His simple denial of its genu [neness was sufficient be satisfy the minds of all honorable men that it was a forgery. General Grant, Senator Blaine and Secretary Sher- man all generously and patriotically at one gave their influence and labor m0Bl cheerfully for the promotion of JAMES A. GARFIELD. 307 General Garfield's election. Mr. Conkling did nol enter the field as a partisan speaker until Borne time afterwards, and this delay caused unfavorable speculation as to the cause. These were dispelled by his subsequent zeal in the campaign. A great Republican Conference was called at the Fifth Avenue hotel, in the city of New York, to which General Garfield was invited. He attended. His journey from Mentor to the great metropolis was like the tri- umphant march of a victor crowned with laurels, in tin: enthusiastic demonstrations of the people on the way. He reached New York on the evening of August 0, 1880. There he was met and cordially received by some of the distinguished leaders of the Republican party in th e Union. On that evening there was an immense multitude <>t the better sort of people of the city gathered in front of the Fifth Avenue hotel, and listened to the following brief address from the newly-chosen standard-bearer of the Republican party. The veterans of the Civil "War — the "Boys in Blue" — had taken this opportunity to ex- tend greetings to their old comrade in arms, and to them his words were largely addressed : " Comrades of the Boys in Blue and Fellow- Citizens of New York: I cannot look upon this great assemblage and these old veterans that have marched past us and listen to the welcome from our comrade who has just spoken (Speaker Sharpe), without remembering how great a thing it is to live in this Union, and be a pan i f it. This is New York, and yonder, toward the battery, more than one hundred years ago, a young Btudent of Columbia College was arguing the ideas of the American Revolution and American Union against the un-American THE BIOGRAPHY OF loyalty to monarchy of his college presidenl and profes- sors. By and by ho wont into the patriot army, was placed on the staff of Washington to light the battles of his country, and while in camp, before ho was twenty-one years old, upon a drum-Jiead, he wrote a letter which con- tained every germ of the Constitution of the United States. That student, soldier, statesman and great leader of thought. Alexander Hamilton of New York, made this Republic glorious by bis thinking, and left his lasting impress upon New York, the foremost State of the Union. And here on this island, the scene of his early triumphs, we gather to-night, soldiers of the new war, representing the same ideas of union and glory, and adding to the column of the monument that Hamilton, and Washington, and the heroes of the Revolution reared. "Gentlemen, 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 meel and grasp the hands of a com- rade, we will stand by the great truths of the war. And. comrades, among the convict ions of that war which have sunk dee}) into our hearts, there are some thai we can never forget. Think of the greal elevating spirit of the war itself. We gathered the hoys from all our farms, and shops, and .stores, and schools, and towns, all over the Republic, and they went forth unknown to fame, bul returned enrolled on the roster of immortal heroes. They wentjn the spirit of those soldiers of EL Dry of A.gincourt, to whom he said: " ' Who Hi is day sheds his tiln.nl with me, To day BhalJ be my brother. Were be ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition.' "And it did gentle the condition and elevate the bear! of every soldier who fought in it. And he shall be JAMBS .1. QABVIELD. our brother for evermore. And this thing wo will re- member; 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 i he hearts of these 4,000,000 were Cod-inspired with the spirit of liberty, and that they were our friends. We have seen white men betray the flag, but in all thai long, dreary war we never saw a traitor in a black skin. < >ur prisoners, escaping from the starvation of prisons, 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 thai, 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 allies. We will stand by them until the sun of liberty, fixed in the firmament of our Constitution, shall shine with equal ray upon ever man, black or white. throughout the Union. "Now, fellow-citizens, fellow-soldiers! in this there La all the beneficence of eternal justice, and by this we will stand forever. The great poet has said that in indi\ idual life we rise in stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things; and the Republic rises on the glorious achieve- ments of its dead and loving heroes to a higher and nobler national life. We must stand guard over our posl as soldiers, as patriots, and over our country as the common heritage of us all. "I thank you, fellow-citizens, for this magnificent demonstration. In so far as I represent, in my heart and life, the great doctrines for which you fought, I accept this demonstration as a tribute to my representative char- acter. In the strength of your hands, in the fervor of your hearts, in the firmness of your faith, in all thai he- tokens greatness of manhood and nobleness of character, the Republic finds its security and glory. 1 do not enter upon controverted questions. The time, the place, the situation forbid it. I respect the traditions that require 000 THS BIOGRAPHY OF me to speak only of those themes which elevate us all. Again I thank you for the kindness and enthusiasm of your greeting." Tlu' battles of the campaign grew warmer and warmer, as it progressed, an 1 Republican leaders in all the States, • (customed to addressing the public were actively at work everywhere. There was uncommon enthusiasm for the eminent candidate. Mr. Conkling, in many speeches, in 1 lis own State and elsewhere, spoke ably in favor of the R (publican party, and by his zealous championship did much to insure its success. Mr. Garfield won the victory in November, by receiving 213 electoral votes. The 1 >emocratic candidate received 156 electoral votes. The result of the election gave a powerful impulse to the business of the country, which had poised in suspense for several weeks ; and the year L880 closed with evi- dences of increasing and permanent material prosperity in every part of the Republic. Immediately after the election, visitors of almost every social degree began to make pilgrimages to the home of the Presidenl elect, at Mentor; some to present their con- gratulations, Inn a giiai portion to seek for place. Gen- eral Garfield's daily mail soon swelled to enormous pro- portions. A large number of the letters were welcome epistles, bul these were sometimes greatly outnumbered by those of hungry seeders for personal gain. Finally, as the lili of March approached, Borne of these were actually addressed to the < reneral's wife and aged mother, soliciting their influence in behalf of the correspondent or his friends. All applications were filed but not answered. The very firsl and ra08l acceptable visitors at Mentor at thin time, were the faculty and students of Obcrlin JAMES A. 9ABFIELD. floi college, of both sexes, who came on the day after the election, merely to present their congratulations. To them the President elect said : "Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemeu ■ Thiaapon- taneous visit is so much more agreeable than a prepared one. It comes more directly from the heart of the people who participate, and 1 receive it aa a greater compliment for that reason. I do not wish to be unduly impressible or superstitious, but, though we have outlived the daya oi augurs, I think we have a right to hold some events as omens, and I greet this as a happy and auspicious omen, that the first general greeting since the event of yesterday is tendered to me by a venerable institution of leaening. The thought has been abroad in the world a good deal, and with reason, that there is a divorce between scholarship and politics. Oberlin, I believe, has never advocated that divorce, but there has been a sort of a clois- tered scholarship in the United States that has stood aloof from active participation in public affairs, and I am glad to be greeted here to-day by the active, live scholar- ship of Ohio, and I know of no place where scholarship has touched upon the nerve-centre of public intelligence so effectually as at Oberlin. For this reason 1 am specially grateful for this greeting from the faculty and students of Oberlin College and its venerable President. I thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for this visit. "Whatever the signifi- cance of yesterday's event may be, it will be all the more significant for being immediately indorsed by the scholar- ship and culture of my State." On the 23d of December, 1880, General Garfield re- signed his title to a seat in the Senate of the 1'nited States which he had not filled, having been called "up higher." On February 28th he set out from Mentor for the National capital, there to be inaugurated the twen- 602 THE BIOGQAPHT OF tieth President of the United States. He travelled in a private Pullman car with his family, one of whom was his venerable mother, then eighty years of age. A com- mittee of citizens mel him on his arrival in Washington, and escorted him to the Riggs House, where he remained until after the inauguration. General Garfield's mother accepted an invitation from Mrs. Haves to take up her residence at the Executive Mansion until after that event. Friday, the 4th of March, the day appointed by the Constitution for the inauguration of the President, opened wit h menaces of a storm. Snow and ice, which, as the '};:;; advanced, changed into slush, covered the streets and avenues of the National capital. But the sun shining out early in the forenoon, cleared the streets of the eoid and slippery encumbrance, and before noon had dried them. At 10.15, the presidential party, consisting of Presi- dent Hayes, Presidentelect Garfield, Vice-Presidentelect Arthur, and Senators Bayard, Pendleton and Anthony, entered two carriages at the Executive Mansion and pro- ceeded by the AVesi gate to Pennsylvania Avenue, led by the < Heveland Troop. The Marine Band stationed there, saluted them with "Hail to the Chief."' Then the first division of the great procession, acting as an escort, took their position. It consisted of Tinted States infantry, cavalry and artillery, and the Naval Cadets from Annapolis. At thai time, Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the Treasury department — one mile of streel -was lit- erally packed with human beings of every hue and character; and a full hour was Bpenl in the straggle to gel through this swaying multitude. The avenue was JAMES A. GARFIELD. 603 bright with gaily flecked arches which spanned it, ami every building displayed one or more American flags. It. was a scene long to be remembered by w itnessea at favor* able stand-points. There was a select number of persons admitted to the Senate Chamber at the Capitol, and these only through passports, so the galleries, though filled, were not crowded. The persons who first took their places in the gallery, were Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Garfield, General Garfield's mother, and two young girls, the daughters, respectively, of Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Garfield. They were in charge of General Garfield's intimate friend, Major Swaim. The number of seats on the floor of the Senate Chamber had been much increased for the accommodation of eminent Americans and the representatives of Foreign Governments who might grace the occasion. The Senators occupied as small a place as possible, 'flic doors were opened a few moments before twelve (."cluck, when Senators Bayard, Thurman and Anthony entered, fol- lowed by President Hayes, President elect Garfield, and the members of the Cabinet. Already the Senate, the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic corps and Generals Sheri- dan and Hancock, were seated. They all arose. Very soon Vice-President elect Arthur entered, with Senator Pendleton, and took the oath of office, which was admin- istered by the retiring Vice-President, Wheeler. Then the latter declared the Senate of the Forty-sixth Congresfi adjourned sine die. Now followed the inaugural ceremonies which placed General Garfield in the Presidential chair. At L 2.40 the doors of the Rotunda were thrown ..-pen. and the mem- bers of the Supreme Court, escorted by Frederick Doug- 604 THE BIOGRAPHY OF lass (colored). Marshal of the District of Columbia. Tiny were habited in flowing gowns and carrying their hate in their hands. These were followed by the Ser- geant-at-arms of the Senate and two or three Senators; and then came the President and President elect. Gen- eral Garfield was greeted by lond cheers from the vast multitude that thronged the grounds on the east front of the ( 'apitol, where the inauguration ceremonies were to take place. General Gariield took a seat on the platform, Presi- dent Hayes on his right and Chief-Justice Waite on his left, Mrs. Hayes, Mrs. Garfield and General Garfield's mother occupied seats on the platform immediately be- hind the President elect, with the two little girls already mentioned. The oath of office was administered by Chief - Jnstice Waite, and when that ceremony was concluded, [dent Garfield turned and kissed his wife and mother in the presence of the immense gathering of citizens. This was a touching public acknowledgment of his large indebtedness to those two noble women for the honors he had received and was then receiving. Then he drew from his pocket his Inaugural Address and read it in a clear, strong voice. It was as follow c : " Fellow-citizens : We stand to-day upon an emi- nence which overlooks a hundred years of national life — a century crowded with perils, but cn.wned with the tri- umphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march, let lis pause mi this height for a moment to strengthen our faith ami renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled. It is now three 'lay.- re than a hundred years since the adop- JAMES A. GARFIELD. COS tion 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 na- tions. The decisive battle of the War for Independence, whose centennial anniversary will soon he gratefully cele- brated at Yorktown, had not yet been fought. The colon- ists were struggling not only against the armies of a great nation, but against the settled opinions of mankind ; for the world did not then believe that the supreme authority of government could be safely intrusted to the guardian- ship 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 necessity of a vigorous and ex- panding republic, they boldly set it aside, and in its Bteaa established a national union, founded directly upon the whole of the people, endowed with full powers of self- preservation and with ample authority for the accomplish- ment of other great objects. Under this Constitution boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the founda- tions of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has vindicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants. Under the Constitution our people long ago made themselves Bafe against danger from without and secured for their mariners and flag equality of rights on all the seas. Undertliia < lonstitution twenty-five States have been added to the Union, with Constitutions and laws framed and enforced by their own 606 THE BIO&RAPHY OF citizens to Becnre the manifold blessings of local self-gov- ernment. The jurisdiction of their Constitution now covers an area fifty times greater than that of the original thirteen States, and a population twenty times greater than that of IT-". "THE I'AIIAMiiINT DUTY OF THE EXECUTIVE. "The supreme trial of the Constitution came at last under the tremendous pressure of civil war. We, our- selves, 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 the nation, passed judg- ment npon tli c conduct and opinions of political parties, and have ed their will concerning the future ad- ministration 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 thai the nation i.~ resolutely facingto the front, resolved to employ its best energies in developing the great possibilities of Ihe future. Sacredly preserving whatever has hern gained to liberty and good government during the century, our people are determined to leave behind them all those bitter controversies concerning things which have been irrevocably settled, and the further discussion of which can only stir up strife and delay the onward march. " The BUpremacy of the nation and its laws should he no longer a subject of debate. That discussion which for half a century threatened the existence of the Union was clo ed al last in the high court of war, by a decree from ./.l.i/A'N I. GARFIELD. which there is no appeal, that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof arc and shall continue to be the Bupreme law of the land, binding alike upon the States and the people. This decree does nol disturb tin- anatomy of the States nor interfere with any of their necessary rights of local self -government 3 but ii does ti\ ami establish the permanent supremacy of the Onion The will of the nation, speaking with the voice of battle and through the amended Constitution, has fulfilled the great promise of 177<> by proclaiming k liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof.' " EMANCIPATION \N1> IWKKANc EOSEMENT. " 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 < Jonsti- tution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail to appre- ciate 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 individual forces of our people. It lias liber- ated the master as well as the slave from a relation which wronged and enfeebled both. It lias surrendered to their own guardianship the manhood of more than five million 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 neces- sary to'the other. The influence of this force will grow greater, and bear rich fruit with the coming years. No doubt the great change has caused serious disturbance our Southern communities. This is to be deplored, though it was perhaps unavoidable. But those who re- 608 THE BIOGRAPHY OF sisted the change should remember that under our in- stitutions there was no middle ground for the negro race between Blavery 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 ob- stacle 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 of self- support, widening the circle of intelligence, and begin- ning to enjoy the blessings that gather around the homes of the 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. "freedom of the ballot must be preserved. " The free enjoyment of equal suffrage is still in ques- tion, 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, hi bo far as the truth of this allegation is admitted, it is answered thai in many places honest local government is impossible if the mas- of uneducated negroes are allowed to vote. These arc grave allegations. So far as the r is true, it is the only palliation that can be offered for opposing the freedom of tin' ballot. Bad local govern- ment is certainly a greal evil, which ought to be prevented, hut to violate the freedom and sanctity of the suffrage is more than an evil — it is a crime which, if persisted in, JAMES .1. GARFIELD. COO will destroy the Government itself. Suicide ig qoI a remedy. If in other lands it be high treason to compass the death of a king, it should be counted u<> 1<>> :i crime liere to strangle our sovereign power, and stifle itfl voice. It has been said that unsettled questions haw no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said, with the utmost emphasis, that this question of suffrage will never give repose or safety to the nation until eaeh State within its own jurisdiction makes and keeps the ballot five 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 whose will hangs the destinies of our Government, can transmit supreme authority to no successor save the coming gene- ration 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. "a question of supreme importance to tiii: bouth. "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 im- portance. But the responsibility for the existence oi slavery did not rest upon the South alone. The nation r, to THE BIOQJtAPHT OF itself ie responsible for the extension of the suffrage, and is under special obligations to aid in removing the illit- eracy which it has added to the voting population. For the North and South alike, there is hut one remedy. All the constitutional power of the nation and of the State-, and all the volunteer forces of the people, should be sum- moned to meet this danger by the saving influence of universal education. It is the high privilege and sacred dutv 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 con- troversies. 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 t lie law. We may hasten or we may retard, but we cannof prevent the final reconciliation. Is it oof pos- sible for as now to make a truce with time, by antici- pating and accepting its inevitable verdici i Enterprises of the highest importance to our moral and material well- being invite us, and off er ample scope for the employ- ment of our besl powers. Let all our \ pie, and Leaving behind them the battle fields of dead issues, move forward, and in the strength of liberty and the restored Onion, win the grander victories of peace, JAMES A. GARFIELD, 811 "congress should preserve thi publk obedjt. " The prosperity which now prevails is without ;i parallel in our history. Fruitful seasons have done much to secure it, but they have not dune all. The preserva- tion of the public credit and the resumption of specie payments, so successfully attained by the administration of my predecessors, 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 re- quired 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 con- nection with the currency of the country, is to coin money and declare its value. Grave doubts have been enter- tained whether or not Congress is authorized by the Con- stitution to make any form of paper money legal tender. The present issue* of United States notes has been sus- tained 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 oi the holder, and not upon its compulsory circulation. These 612 THE ItTOGIiAPUY OF notes arc not money, bill promises to pay money. If the holders demand it, the promise should be kept. '• The refunding of the national debt at a lower rate of interest should be accomplished without compelling tlic withdrawal of the national bank notes, and thus dis- turbing 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 ami experience bave 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. "OUR AGRICULTURAL .VXD MANUFACTURING INTERESTS. '• 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 light- of practical science ami experience. " Our manufacturers are rapidly making us industrially independent, and are opening to capital and labor new and profitable fields of employment. Their 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 water-ways, and the increase of our tonnage on the ocean. The de- velopment of the world's commerce has led to an argent demand for shortening a great sea voyage around Cape Horn, by constructing ship canal- or railways across the [sthmus which unite- the two continents, Various plana JAMES A. GARFIELD. 618 to this end have been suggested, and will nerd considers tion, 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 en gage 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 in any commercial route, but, in the language of my pre- decessor, 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. " POLYGAMY SHOULD BE PROHIBIT I I >. "The Constitution guarantees absolute religious free- dom. Congress is prohibited from making any law reaped ing an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. The Territories of the United States art- subject to the 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 nol enjoined by the people, and the authority of Congress is Bel a1 naught. The Mormon Church not only offends the moral sense of mankind by sanctioning polygamy, but prevents the administration of justice through the ordinary instru- mentalities of law. In my judgment it is the duty oi Congress, while respecting to the uttermost the conscien tious convictions and religious scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within its jurisdiction all criminal practices, and especially of that class which destroy the family relations 614 Tin: BIOQBAPHY OF and endanger social order. Nor can any ecclesiastical or- ganization be safely permitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the functions and powers of the National < rovernment. " THE CIVIL SERVICE. •• The civil service can never he placed on a satis- factory basis until it is regulated by law. For the good of the service itself, for the protection of those who are intrusted with the appointing power against the waste of time and obstruction of 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 he made during terms for which incumbents have been appointed. "THE PURPOSE OF THE A I (MINISTRATION. "Finally, acting. always within the authority and limi- tations of the Constitution, invading neither the rights of the States nor the reserved rights of the people, it will be the purposeof my administration to maintain the author- ity of the nation, and in all places within its jurisdiction to enforce obedience to all the laws of the Union in the iuterests of the people; to demand rigid economy in all the expenditures of the Government, and to require the Il0ne8t and faithful service of all executive otlicers, re- membering that the offices were created, not for the bene- fit of the i i n-u 1 1 1 1 >« 1 1 1 -. or their supporters, but tor the serv- ice of the ( rovernment. •• an \rci \l. FOB t \l;\l 8T BUPPOET. •• And now. fellow-citizens, I am about to as.-ume the srreal trusl which you have committed to my hands. 1 QPJ1YIJTG- THE LjiST TI[IE,UTE OF h. OUI( LjlTE ^>I(E8IQEJJT. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 617 appeal for that earnest and thoughtful support which makes this Government in fact, as it is in law, a Govern- ment of the people. I shall greatly rely upon the wisdom and patriotism of Congress and of those who may share with mo 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 in- voke the support and blessings of Almighty God." 88 018 THE TiTOGRAPHY OF CHAPTER XXV. president oarfield's administration ; his assassination. At the close of President Garfield's Inaugural Address at the Capitol, the great procession of the occasion was first really organized for the purpose of accompanying the new Chief Magistrate of the nation to the Executive Mansion. The great body of military associations present, full fifteen thousand strong, was commanded by General "W. T. Sherman, General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. The procession was arranged iu the following order. First division, under command of Major- General R. B. Ayree, United States Army, consisted of twelve companies of regular artillery, four companies of marines, a battalion of Cleveland troops, cavalry, the President and party in carriages, Knights Templar, four platoons ; Grand Army of the Republic, eight platoons ; Boys in Blue, eight platoons ; Naval Cadets, two-horse batteries of regulars, battalion Washington Light Infan- try, four companies ; Colonel Moore, Company A, Fifth Battalion ; Second California Brigade, Hampton Cadets, Virginia ; Langston Guards, Norfolk, Va. ; Union Bines, Thomasville, Ga.; Rome Star Guards, Georgia; National Rifles, Washington, Captain Burnside ; Signal Corps, United States Army, and the Ninth Regiment of New York. Nexl came the mosi interesting feature of the procession — the Second division, under command of Major-General JAMES i QAkFItitl). Hartranft. It was made up entirely of Pennsylvania troops, whose step was firm; and it was the common remark that the regulars must look to their laurels. They were in the uniform of the United States Infantry, and carried knap- sacks, canteens ami rations for three days, living in camp. The Third division, commanded by Major-Genera) Thomas C. Fletcher, consisted of the Grand Army of the Republic, Boys in Blue and militia from New York, Dis- trict of Columbia. New Jersey, Delaware, < >bio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Kai Missouri, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and veterans from the Districtof Columbia and Pittsburg. The Harrisburg City Grays, the Titusville Citizens' Corjw and the Dickinson College and Pennsylvania Stat- I lege Cadets were also in this Division. The Fourth division, under the command of Major- General Charles II. Field, was composed of militia from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Ten- nessee and Florida. The Fifth division, under the com- mand of Colonel Robert Boyd, was composed exclusively of civic societies, and with these marched the Philadel- phia political clubs. >- Later, on the reviewing stand the scene was a -rand one. Pennsylvania' Avenue, in front of the "White Jlouse and for several squares above and below it, when the head of the procession reached the Treasury Di ment, was literally packed with people, who had waiting patiently an hour or longer for the return uf President Garfield from the Capitol. When the car containing the Presidential party reached the era gate leading to the Executive Mansion, they were driven inside, and the party Boon afterward m TEE BIOQRAPEJ OF appeared upon the grand stand, extending along the side- walk directly in front of the mansion. President Garfield, accompanied by ex- Pre [dent Hayes, appeared on the platform, which was elevated a few feet above the walk, and as the latter stepped to the front he was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers by the swaying multitude in whoso presence he stood. These were in the Avenue, outside the grounds of the Executive Mansion through which tho procession passed. The Presidential party stood there some time, watching the long and brilliant line as it passed by. The evening of the Inauguration Day was marked by a grand display of fireworks of every variety of design. The closing pyrotechnic performance was the presentation of portraits of the President and Vice-President, in bril- liant fires of many hues. This was a scene of great beauty, and elicited the most enthusiastic applause. "As the portraits opened out in lines of silver fire," wrote an eye witness, " the whole background presented one great mass of streamers of colored fires of the most brilliant, and varied hues, which, together with the springing of mines and exploding of shells, formed a spectacle of Bplendor. As the stars from the last shell disappeared, a magnificent bouquet, like a lingo volcano, ascended, fill- ing the heavens with every gem known to the art. This terminated the best pyrotechnic display ever seen in Washington." This closed the open-air proceedings of Inauguration Day. The usual inauguration ball was also a brilliant affair It was held in a large building in Washington. An eye witness of the scene has left on record the following account of ir : JAMES A. GARFIELD. 821 " Upon entering, the most conspicuous decoration to attract tho attention was the statue of ' America, ' placed directly in the centre upon a iofty base, deeply banked with tropical plants, and holding in her left hand a shield and in her right hand a torch, from which a powerful electric light shed its brilliancy down the four wings which di- verge from the central nave at angles to each other. Cables of evergreens, relieved with rare flowers, stretched from the ceiling and hung in mid-air, while tho numerous pillars, oxtending from tho floor to tho lofty coiling, wore banked with flowers and evergreens, and adorned with shields bearing tho heraldic emblems of the several States and Territories, with flags, streamers, and bunting twined about and pendant from them. Thousands of gas-jets illuminated the scene, and made it one of almost match- less beauty. At 9 o'clock, the hour at which the Presi- dent was expected, it was estimated that between 3,000 and 4,000 people had entered the building. "At 9.30 the Germania Orchestra, of Philadelphia, of one hundred pieces, announced the entrance of the 1 dent by playing with fine effect the Inaugural March (composed for the occasion by John Philip Sousa). After being presented to the Inaugural Reception Committee in a body, the President and invited guests moved in pro- cession from the Committee's rooms, in the following or- dor, to the place reserved for them in the hall : President Garfield, attended by J. W. Thompson. President of the Executive Committee ; ex-President Hayes, with Hon. Samuel Shellabarger and Dr. Welling ; Mrs. Garfield, wife of the President, attended by Col. II. C. Corbin and Hon. A. G. Riddle ; Mrs. Garfield, mother of the President. attended by Hon. William Lawrence and Mr. N. II. Wil- la'rd ; Mrs. Hayes, attended by Hon. John B. Alley. After them came Vice-President Arthur, ex-Yiee-1 dent Wheeler, General Sherman and staff, General Han- cock and staff, General Sheridan, General Beale, Admiral Kodgers, Colonel Ainger, Chief-Justice Waite and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, the Chief-Jus- 628 THE BIOGRAPHY ticeand the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, Chief-Justice and Judges of the Court of Claims, ami the Inaugural I Q Committee. " Upon reaching the place designated, the President took position, and, for an hour or more, received with blended dignity and cordiality all who came forward to receive and exchange greetings. Among the first was General Hancock, and the unaffected cordiality on the part of both was noticed. Shortly before 11 o'clock the President and his immediate party ascended to the Presi- dential balcony, remaining interested witnesses of the brilliant seems beneath for twenty minutes or more. A few minntes after 11 o'clock the President, with his wife and mother, retired, and, proceeding to the carriage in waiting, were driven to the White House. Contrary to general expectation, the President did not take part in the opening dance. The promenade concert continued until 11 o'clock. Then the dancing began, and when the ball was at its height the scene was one of unusual bril- liancy." The United States Senate assembled in Special Session immediately after the inauguration ceremonies had closed, and the next day (Saturday, March 5, 1881), the President sent in the names of the following persons whom he nominated as his Cabinet Minister : James n their respective coasts. On May 13th, the Senate poned a resolution which had been considered in February, asserting the "Monroe doctrine," in the case of the Isth- mus Ship-Canal. The extraordinary strife for office had continued at Albany until near mid-summer. The contending factions in the Republican party there were known as " Stalwarts," and " Half-breeds." The former were the friend- of the ex-Senators. While that struggle was at its height the nation was suddenly startled and appalled by the fearful tidings that were flashed over the land that President Garfield had been deliberately shot in a public plfl the National capital by a man who proved to be a disaj>- G28 Tilt: BIOGRAPHY OF pointed and inveterate office-seeker, having an ill-balanced m ind and having led an ill -regulated life. This event &■ occurred on the 2d of July, 1881, and produced a pro- found sensation of horror and sorrow everywhere. This sad and dreadful circumstance thrilled the public mind and appalled the heart of the nation, for a moment. It was inexplicable. There could be no reason discovered for the deed. When, a few hours later, the leading cir- cumstances of the assassination were made known, there was experienced great relief. There was an assurance that the Republic was safe. It appeared to be the work of a half-crazed, solitary assassin ; that there was no party, not even a faction back of him, and no conspiracy. With this assurance of faith, the public mind became calm. President Garfield had established himself and his family at the Elberon Hotel, at Long Branch, New Jer- sey, for a summer rest and quiet. He was about leaving the National capital to rejoin his wife for a brief tour in New England, and to attend the Commencement exerciser of Williams College, his alma mater. The President drove from the Executive Mansion, about nine o'clock on Sat- urday morning, July 2d, to the station of the Baltimore and Potomac Railway, in company with Mr. Blaine, the Secretary of State, where he was to join other members of his Cabinet and proceed on a trip to New York, meet his wife, and start thence on his brief tour in New England. As he was walking through the passenger rooms at the railway station, arm-in-arm with Mr. Blaine, two pistol shots were fired in quick succession from behind, and the President sank to the floor, bleeding profusely. JAMES A. 9ABFIBLD. «29 The wounded President was convoyed to the office of the railway company on the second floor of the station building. Several physicians were soon in attendance, and after an hour had elapsed it was decided to remove him to the Executive Mansion, where lie was made as comfortable as possible. Only one shot had touched his body; that entered it through the eleventh rib, about four inches to the right of the spine, making an extremely jagged wound, and lodging within. The assassin was immediately arrested, and proved to be Charles Guiteau, an inveterate and unsuccessful appli- cant for office under Government, and who had Led a precarious existence for many years in various cities of the country. He said to the police officer (Kearney), when arrested, " I did it, and will go to jail for it. I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be President." In his pocket was found the following letter, directed " To the White House " : "The President's tragic death was a sad necessity, but it will unite the Republican party and save the repub- lic. Life is a flimsy dream, and it matters little when one goes. A human life is of small Talue. During the war thousands of brave boys went down without a tear. I presume the President was a Christian, and that he will be happier in Paradise than here. It will he no worse for Mrs. Garfield, dear soul, to part with her husband this way than by natural death. lie is liable to go at any time anyway. I had no ill-will toward the President. Hifl death was a political necessity. " I am a lawyer, a theologian and a politician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with Gen. Grant and the rest of our men in New York during the canvass. I have some papers for the press which I shall leave with 630 THE BIOGRAPHT OF Byron Andrews and his co-: journalists at 1240 New York Avenue, where all the reporters can see them. I am going to the jail. Charles Guiteau." Mr. Andrews, to whom allusion is made in the fore- going letter, was the Washington correspondent of the Chimgo Inter-Ocean. When he heard of the affair, Mr. Andrews hastened to police headquarters and made a sworn statement to the effect that he never heard of nor met Guiteau until he saw him under arrest that day. A bulky parcel of manuscripts, addressed to Mr. Andrews by Guiteau, was retained by the police authorities, and contained a statement by the assassin, occupying twenty- five or thirty pages of letter paper, written in a heavy, coarse hand. Among the papers was the following letter addressed to General Sherman : "To Gen. Sherman: " I have just shot the President. I shot him several times as I wished him to go as easily as possible. His death was a political necessity. I am a lawyer, a theolo- gian and politician. I am a Stalwart of the Stalwarts. I was with Gen. Grant and the rest of our men in New York during the canvass. I am going to jail. Please or- der out your troops and take possession of the jail at once. "Very respectfully, Charles Guiteau. " Please to deliver at once to Gen. Sherman or his first assistant in charge at the War Department.'-' The police authorities declined to make public the statements prepared by Guiteau. District-Attorney Cork- hill, who had them in his possession, produced them at the AVI lite Souse that afternoon, where they were read to JAMES A. GABFIELD. 881 members of the Cabinet. In addition to those above in- ferred to, there was a letter addressed to Yiee-President Arthur, in which Guiteau informs him of the assassina- tion of President Garfield, and that he (Arthur), was by this act made President of the United States. Guiteau then proceeded to advise the Vice-President as to the selection of his Cabinet, and recommends Mr. Coulsburg for Secretary of State ; Levi P. Morton for Secretary of the Treasury ; Emory A. Storrs, of Chicago, for Attorney- General, and John A. Logan for Secretary of War. Ho further said, in this letter, that Postmaster-General James is doing so well in the Post-Office Department that Ik; might be retained ; that the Departments of the Xavy and Interior are not of much account, and it does not make much difference whether any change is made in them or not. United States District-Attorney Corkhill, of Wash- ington, afterwards furnished for publication the following statement, which is, undoubtedly, substantially correct : " The interest felt by the public in the details ol' 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 (>, and stopped at the Eh- bitt House, remaining only one day. lie then secured a room in another part of the city, and has boarded and roomed at various places, the full details of which I have. On Wednesday, May 18, the assassin determined to mur- der the President. He had neither money nor pistol at the time. About the last of May he went into O'Meara'a store, corner of Fifteentli and F streets, in this city, and examined some pistols, asking for the largest caliber, lie 632 THE BIOGRAPHY OF was shown two similar in caliber and only different in the price. On Wednesday, June 8, he purchased the pistol which he used, for which he paid $10, having in the mean- time borrowed IIS of a gentleman in this city on the plea that he wanted to pay his board bill. On the same even- ing, about 7 o'clock, he took the pistol and went to the foot of Seventeenth street and practiced firing at a board, firing ten shots. He then returned to his boarding-house and wiped the pistol dry and wrapped it in his coat, and waited his opportunity. " On Sunday morning, June 12, he was sitting in La- fayette 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 hip pocket, and followed the President to church. He entered the church, but found that he could not kill him there without dan- ger of killing some one else. He noticed that the Presi- dent sat near a window. After church he made an ex- amination 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 Guiteau went to the church, examined the location and the window, and be- came satisfied he could accomplish his purpose, and he determined therefore to make the attempt at the church on the following Sunday. He learned from the papers that the President would leave the city on Saturday, June 18,with Mrs. Garfield, for Long Branch. He therefore de- termined to meet him at the depot. He left his boarding place about 5 o'clock on Saturday morning, June 18, and went down to the river at the foot of Seventeenth street and lired live shots to practice his aim and be certain his pistol was in good order. He then went to the depot, and ill the ladies' waiting-room of the depot with the pis- tol ready when tho President's 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 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 083 ho 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 tho car- riage would stop ; but no opportunity was given. On Friday evening July l,he was sitting on the scat in the park- opposite the WhitoHouse,when he saw the President como out alone. He followed him down the Avenue to Fifteenth street, and then kept on the opposite side of the street up Fifteenth street until the President entered the resi- dence of Secretary Blaine. He watched at the corner of Mr. Morton's late residence, on the corner of Fifteenth and H streets, for some time, and then, afraid he would attract attention, he went into the alley in the rear of Mr. Morton's residence, examined his pistol and waited. Tho President and Secretary Blaine came out together, and he followed them over to the gate of the "White House, but could get no opportunity to use his weapon. "On the morning of Saturday, July 2, 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 one-horse Avenue 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 $2 to take him to the jail, went into the water-closet and took his pistol out of his hip pocket and unwrapped the paper from around it, which he had put there for the purpose of pre- ventingthe perspiration from the body dampening the pow- der ; examined the 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 and fired two shots. "These facts, I think, can bo relied upon as accurate, and I give them to the public to contradict certain fain- rumors in connection with the most atrocious of atrociowj crimes," 884 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Tho wounded President was taken from the railway station to the Executive Mansion, accompanied by Colonel A. F. Rockwell, his private secretary. It was some time after the event before it became known in Washington, except to a few, what had happened. But when a car- riage was seen rapidly driven up Pennsylvania Avenue, clearing the way for the ambulance which followed, the startled spectators soon learned the cause of the move- ment, and the news spread from lip to lip over the city. An immense crowd was soon seen at the gate leading to the Executive Mansion, through which the ambulance had passed, and all eyes were strained with eager anxiety when the large form of the President, his face pallid, was lifted tenderly from the vehicle, and carried into the mansion. A few moments afterwards, the Cabinet Ministers and their wives, who were to join him in the journey to New York, began to arrive. Surgeons had already been sent for, and soon after the President's arrival at his home, he recovered from the nervous prostration which the assault had produced, and he assumed his wonted cheerfulness. Exceedingly anxious concerning the effect the news of hirf wounding might have upon Mrs. Garfield, who was recovering from severe illness, he turned to Colonel Rockwell, and dictated to him the following telegraphic despatch, which was immediately sent : " Mrs. Garfield, Elberon, Long Branch. " The President desirefl me to say to you, from him, that he has been seriously hurt, how seriously he cannot yet say. He is himself, and hopes you will come to him loon. He sends his love to you. *• A. F. Rockwell." JAMES A. 9ARFIELD Mi's. -Garfield left Long Branch on a special train at near two o'clock, p, at. When the President was told of her departure, he said, " God bless the little woman !" Owing to a slight accident on the mad, she did not arrive at tho bedsideof her husband until after six o'clock. Tho boat physicians and surgeons in Washington were in at- tendance upon him. Those were Drs. D. W. Bliss, J. K. Burns, J. J. Woodward, and R. Reyburn. "Conceal nothing from me, doctors," ho said, " for remember J am not afraid to die." Late in the afternoon, when there were evidences of internal hemorrhage, • he asked Dr. Bliss what the prospects were. The doctor replied, " Your condition is very critical. I do not think you can live many hours." The President firmly responded, " God's will be done, Doctor ; I am ready to go if my time is come." When Mrs. Garfield entered his room, all others re- tired. She remained fifteen minutes, when the surgeons were admitted. The President was conscious, but very weak ; his pulse being 146. " There is no hope for him," said Dr. Bliss ; " he will not probably live three hours ; he may die in half an hour." But he revived, and with it a faint hope of his ultimate recovery. The Vice-President, Chester A. Arthur, who would, in case of the President's death, immediately become President of the Republic in accordance with the Pro- visions of the National Constitution, was, at this time, at his home in New York city. The following correspond- ence by telegraph, between him and the Secretary of State, occurred on that eventful day : rt36 THE HIOQiUVUY OF I. " Washington, July 2, 1881. " The Hon. Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President of the United States, No. 123 Lexington Avenue: " The President of the United States was shot this morning by an assassin named Charles Guiteau. The weapon was a largo-sized revolver. The President had just reached the Baltimore and Potomac station at about 9.20, intending, with a portion of his Cabinet, to leave on the limited express for New York. I rode in the carriage with him from the Executive Mansion, and was walking by his side when he was shot. The assassin was imme- diately arrested, and the President was conveyed to a private room in the station building and surgical aid at once summoned. He has now, at 10.20, been removed to the Executive Mansion. The surgeons are in consultation. They regard his wounds as very serious, but not neces- sarily fatal. I will keep you advised of his condition. His vigorous health gives strong hopes of his recovery. He has not lost consciousness for a moment. "James G. Blaine, "Secretary of State." II. " Washington, July 2, 1881. "Hon. Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President United States, No. 123 Lexington Avenue: "At this hour, 1 o'clock P.M., the President's symp- toms are not regarded as unfavorable, but no definite as- surance can be given until after the probing of the wound at 3 o'clock. There is strong ground fur hope, and at the same time the greatest anxiety as to the final results. "James G. B la ink, "Secretary of State." JAMES A. UARFIEl.lh III. " Executive Mansion, I "Washington, July 2, 1881. | " The Hon. Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President United States, No. 123 Lexington Avenue: " At this hour, 3.30, the symptoms of the Presid are not fuvoruble. Anxiety deepens. "James G. Blaine, " Secretary of State." IV. " Washington, July 2, : " The Hon. Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President: "At this hour, 6 o'clock, the condition of the Presi- dent is very alarming. He is losing his strength, and the worst may be apprehended. "James G. Blaine, " Secretary of State." V. "Executive Mansion, Washington, July 2, 188L V The Hon. Chester A. Arthur, Vice-President, New York : "Mrs. Garfield has just arrived, at 6.45 o'clock. The President was able to recognize and converse with her, but, in the judgment of his physicians, he is rapidly sink- ing. "James G. Blaine, "Secretary of State." In reply to Secretary Blaine, Gen. Arthur sent the following : I. "New York, July 2, 1881. "Hon. James G. Blaine, Secretary of State, Wash D. C: "Your telegram, with its deplorable nam ,; " ot reach me promptly, owing to my absence. 1 am pro- 638 Till' Md&RAPltr Op foundly shocked at the dreadful news. The hopes you express relieve somewhat the horror of the first announce- ment. I await further intelligence with the greatest anxiety. Express to the President and those about him my great grief and sympathy, in which the whole Ameri- can people will join. " 0. A. Arthur." II. " New York, July 2, 1881. " TJie Hon. James G. Blaine, Secretary of /State, Wash- ington, D. 0. : " Your 6:45 telegram is very distressing. I still hope for more favorable tidings, and ask you to keep me advised. Please do not fail to express to Mrs. Garfield my deepest sympathy. •• ('. A. Arthur." The sad tidings were officially communicated to Eu- rope by Secretary Blaine, through the United States Minister at the British Court, by the following telegraphic despatch : " Department of State, f Washington, I). C, July 2. \ "James Russell Lowell, Minister, <&c, London: " The President of the United States was shot this morning by an assassin named Charles Guiteau. The weapon was a large-sized revolver. The President had just reached the Baltimore and Potomac station, at about 9.20; intruding, with ft portion of his Cabinet, to leave on the limited express for New York. I rode in the car- riage with him from the Executive Mansion, and was walking by his sido when ho was shot. The assassin was immediately arrested, and the President was conveyed to a private room in the station building, and surgical aid at summoned. He has now, at 10.20, been removed to the Executive Mansion. The surgeons, on consultation, regard his wounds as very serious, though not necessarily fatal. His vigorous health gives strong hopes of his re- James a. Garfield. eovery. He has not lost consciousness for a moment Inform our Ministers in Europe. "James (;. Blaine, "Secretary of State/' The following responses were received on the same clay : " London, July •.'. "Blaine, Secretary, Washington: "Telegram received. Express to Mrs. Garfield the profound sympathy of this legation. Queen has sent to inquire and express solicitude. " LOWELL, Minister." III. EARL GRANVILLE TO MINISTER THORNTON. " London, July 2. — 5 P. m. " Thornton, Washington : "Is it true that President Garfield has hcen shot at ? If so, express at once great concern of Her Majesty's Government and our hope that report that he has sus- tained serious injury is not true. "Granville, "Foreign Office, London." The following are the first official bulletins, issued on the day of the occurrence : I. "Executive Mansion, 4 r. m. "The President's condition is somewhat less favorably evidences of internal hemorrhage being distinctly r< nized. Pulse, 132; temperature, 96.8 degrees — that is, little below normal. He suffers rather more pain, but his mind is perfectly clear." II. "Executive Mansion, 5.?o r. m. " Dr. Bliss says the President is resting moro com- fortably, but his condition is very critical." P The President had relapses and physical complications from time to time, and the heats of Summer, and the dread of malaria-charged atmosphere at the National capital, made a change of place and scenery and to purer air, an earnestly-longed-for blessing by the sufferer and Ins medical attendants. At length, early in September, there appeared to be indications that the President was on the sure n>ad to recovery, and, in obedience to his own strong desire and the judgment of the physicians, it was deter- mined to take him to the sea-shore at Long Branch. The sudden and remarkable improvement in the health of the President was welcomed with a sense of re- lief and profound sympathy throughout the civilized world. With special womanly feeling Queen Victoria sen! congratulations to .Mrs. G-arfield, for she had watched with deep interest the course of events in the President's c.isc. Immediately on hearing of the murderous attack she had telegraphed from Balmoral to Minister Lowell, expressing the deepest concern, and desiring to be kept advised of the President's condition. The appointed day for the removal of the President was waited for with the greatest solicitude, for it would be a momentous experiment. Every necessary prepara- tion was carefully but speedily made. On the morningx>f September 6, the President was tenderly brought down from his bed-chamber by the hands of the physicians and friends, and placed, in the bed in which he had lain so hni-. nn a platform of an express wagon, specially pre- pared for the purpi «e. The bed was supported at both Bides upon the knees of the attendants. Doctor Boynton (his family physician) and Colonel Rockwell were at the head: General Swaim JAMES A. GARFIELD. 847 and Dr. Bliss were in tbe middle, and Warren Foungand Colonel Corbin were at the foot. Behind stood Dr. \i< . burn and a number of attendants. Two colored men walked at the horses' heads. Slowly the wagon,- with it- precious burden, moved toward the railway station, where a car had been specially prepared for carrying the Pn ' dent to the sea-shore. Portions of some of the - were covered with sawdust to prevent jolting. Thousands of anxious spectators lined the route of this notabl< r- tege; and all stood in respectful silence, with uncovered heads, when the President's form passed by. Ee Mas placed in the car without, accident, where he was received by Mrs. Garfield, who immediately began fanning him. His family and his household were in a car behind, and he was left with Mrs. Garfield, the physician and two or three most intimate friends. The train started at aboul six o'clock. The day was one of the hottest of the season, yet the President made the journey without enduring much fatigue. Colonel Corbin, who assisted in carrying him from his room in the Executive Mansion to the wagon, and who accompanied him on the train, gave the subjoined interesting account of the journey : "The President was one of the first to be wide awake for the trip. After -i o'clock he would not try to sleep. He was anxious to go. His one slight apprehension was that it might be difficult to carry him downstairs, but as soonas that was done so easily and so safely he seemed to dismu - anxiety as to any part of the trip, lie was strongly DO on bidding good-bye to the attendants ai the White II but recovered himself soon. It was an evident pleasure to him to see the crowd on the avenue at the d< Their following him and their most respectful demeanor, THE BIOORAPEF OF touched him deeply. The first fifteen or twenty miles of the trip were madeai the rate of thirty-five miles an hour. The 1 'resident was delighted with his entire freedom from trouble of any kind, and urged a faster rate. A quicken- ing "i speed brought no inconvenience, and he several times said they could run fasteras far as he was concerned. He said this once or twice when the train was making over a mile a minute. "Everything was still on the line when the special train passed. The only noise outside of the train was in pass- ing stations, crossing bridges, and passing close to stand- ing trains, but the President did not seem to notice any of these things any more than on his trips when a well man. He seemed, however, to have a strong sense of his weak condition, and to realize that so long a trip in ex- tremely hot weather would affect a well man appreciably, and must, of necessity, make a severe strain on his store of strength, and so he urged the extreme of speed. The average for the journey was over fifty-five miles an hour, including two stops. A good part of the distance was run at a much more rapid rate. B} careful observations made l>\ several watcher.- two miles were run in fifty-five seconds, two in fifty-six, two in fifty-seven, and two in fifty- nine. A stop was made fifteen miles from "Washington to drese the swollen gland, and to observe the effect of bhe ride at thirty-five miles an hour, on the patient. He was found to he in good condition and improving. The rate of speed was found to be causing no trouble, and the President's wish to go faster v was gratified. The popula- tion along the entire line seemed t<> be watching for him. The small stations were crowded. There were greal masses ;i t Wea\ Philadelphia; the occupants of farm-houses were on the lockout and the workmen in fields as well. There was a universal turning toward the train with uncovered he-id- There was a genera] quiei and an order thai was touching in 11-' manifestation of a purpose to contribute nothing to*the possible discomfort of the President. \t Trenton, where the engine stopped for coal, there was a large JAMES -l. GARFIELD. 049 crowd of workmen on the platform, winch was so high tta to enable them to look directly in on the President. Oneoi the attendants pulled down the curtain near him. He al once asked to have it rolled up again. Baying thai these quiet men would not hurt him by looking in. The cur- tain was at once raised again. The reception was such as to show how deeply the President's illness has taken hold of all classes." Mr. Curtis, in ffiprper, "Editor's Easy Chair/' thus wrote of this journey : "The removal from "Washington to Long Branch was one of the most touching events in our history It was the hottest and most uncomfortable day of the year, the distance was more than two hundred miles, the traveler was a man who had been hovering for weeks between life and death, but who kept command <>f the journey; the comfort and success, and safety of the situation, depended upon the happy forethought and ad- justment of infinite details, and upon the wise concerl oi many men. "But nothing was forgotten or omitted; nothing faltered or failed. All went forward as had been de- signed, from the moment the President was lifted in the "White House, until he was laid down in the hong Branch cottage. And all this long morning, as the train -wept on, there arose a silent and universal prayer from millions of men and women all over the land : and as it darted by, thousands of hushed spectators, who could Bee nothing but the vanishing cars, stood silent, with bared heads and wistful hearts. jSTo such spectacle was ever seen. All this tenderness of affection and sympathy was not felt, elsewhere it might have been, for the representative <■! a G50 THE BIOQRAPBY OF house, or a family, traditionally associated, whatever the character of the individual person, with the renown and glory of a historic nation. It wasthe tribute of personal affection and admiration." The journey was accomplished in about seven hours. The train arrived at Long Branch, at a little past one o'clock in the afternoon. The Praneklyn Cottage had been prepared for the reception of the President and his familv. A temporary railway, 3,500 feet long, had been laid from the Btation to the cottage, close up to the porch. Crowds oi carriages, with spectators of the arrival, and a large number of pedestrians, were there, but, in this gathering, as elsewhere, the most respectful silence was observed. The President was conveyed to an upper room of the cottage, and placed where a window would afford a fine view of the sea from his bed. He showed paratively few symptoms of great fatigue, after the long journey in the intense heat. That evening the medical attendants issued their first bulletin at Long Branch, as follows : "Long Branch. Sept. 6, 1881, 6.30 p. m. "Since the last bulletin was issued, the Presidenl has been removed from Washington to Long Branch. Ee was more restless than usual lasl night, being evidently somewhal excited by anticipations of the journey. This morning, at 5.30 o'clock, his pulse was 118; temperature, 99.8 degrees ; respiration, 18. We left Washington with the Presi lenl at 6.30 a. m. Owing to the admirable ar- rangements made by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and to the ingeniously arranged bed designed by Mr. T. \. Ely, the fatigue incident to the transportation was re- duced to a minimum. Nevertheless, as Was anticipated, Bome signs of the disturbance produced by the journey JAMES A. GARFIELD. have been exhibited since his arrival by rise of temperature and increased frequency of pulse. At present bis pulse is 124 ; temperature, 101.60; respiration. Is. " D. Hayes Agxkw. J. K. Barnes, Frank H. Hamilton, J. J. Woodward, D. W. Bliss, Robert Reybi i;\.' The President continued to improve, apparently, until he was able to sit up awhile, in an easy-chair. The way to permanent convalescence appeared to be assured. 11 is Cabinet Ministers were lodged near by, and were admitted to his presence. Only Dr. Bliss, of the regular attending surgeons in .the case, remained with him. Dr. Boynton (who was not in the case), and Drs. Agnew and Hamilton were also in attendance. On Friday, September 16, he had an alarming relapse. Chills followed at intervals until Monday, the 19th. Then the physicians nearly lost hope: Thatevening, at about ten o'clock, Dr. Bliss inquired of the President if he felt uncomfortable. With his usual cheerfulness, he replied, "Not at all." Then the doctor retired to his room ac the hallway, leaving General Swaim and Colonel Rock- well, the President's warm personal friends, alone with him. The President had fallen asleep; in about fifteen minutes be awoke, and said to General Swaim, " 1 am suf- fering great pain here,'' laying his hand over his heart "Oh! oh! Swaim !" he exclaimed. These were his la>t words. The doctors and Mrs. Garfield were summoned. He was dying, and at twenty-five minutes before eleven o'clock, he expired. He had struggled with death for eighty days, heroically, hopefully and cheerfully. A few minutes after the death of the President, sad news was sent over the Eepublic and beyond the 652 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Back from States and Territories, and from all Europe, came quick responses of condolence and sympathy, From theQueen of England, who knew, by her own experience of asimilar bereavement, how to feel for Mrs.. Garfield, the brave, loving, hopeful wife of the President, came this dispatch : " Words cannot express the deep sympathy I feel for you at this terrible moment. May God support and comfort you, as he alone can. "The Queen. "Balmoral Court" Messages of condolence for Mrs. Garfield and the nation came from high dignitaries everywhere in Europe and America, and even from far-off Australia and New Zealand. The Secretary of State received from the Eng- ish Foreign Office the following dispatch: "I request you to assure Mrs. Garfield and the Gov- ernment of the United States of the grief with which Her Majesty's Government have received the announcement of the President's death. Parliament is not sitting, and [g thus prevented from giving formal expression to the sorrow and sympathy universally felt in the country, a feeling which has been deepened by the long suspense and by the courage, dignity, and patience shown 1>\ the illustrious sufferer. " Loud Granville, "Walmer Castle, England. "Sept. 80, 1881." The Queen of England and the Kings of Belgium and Spain ordered their respective courts to wear mourning For a week in honor of the illustrious dead. Within an hour of the President's death, the members JAMES .1. GARFIELD. of the Cabinet who were at Long Branch, united in Bend ing the following message to Vice President Arthur: " It becomes our painful duty to inform you of the death of President Garfield, and to advise you to take the oath of office as President of the United States, with- out delay. If it concurs with your judgment, we will be very glad if you will come here on the earliest train ;<- morrow morning." This was signed by Senators AY r indom, Hunt and Kirkwood, Postmaster-General James and Attorney- Gen- eral MacVeagh. The despatch found the Vice-Presidenl in his library at number 123 Lexington Avenue, \< '. York, in conversation with two or three friends. He de- termined to take the formal oath before he slept. Judge John I£. Brady of the Supreme Court was summoned, and in General Arthur's parlor he administered the oath at nearly two o'clock in the morning, September 20. President Arthur arrived at Long Branch the same day at about one o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by Secretaries Blaine and Lincoln, who had heard of the sad event while on their return journey from the East. On the morning of the 20th, an autopsy was had, and the following is the official report, signed by Doctors Bliss, Barnes, Woodward, Keyburn, Hamilton, Agnew, Smith and Lamb : "By previous arrangement a post-mortem examination of the body of President Garfield was made this afternoon, in the presence and with the assistance of Drs. Hamilton, Agnew, Bliss, Barnes, Woodward, Reyburn, Andrew 11. Smith, of Elberon, and acting Assistant-Surgeon B. S. Lamb, of the Army Medical Museu'n, Washington. Tin- operation was performed by Dr. Lamb. B wa- fouudthat the 654 THE BIOGRAPHY OF ball, after fracturing the right eleventh rib, had passed through the spinal column in front of the spinal canal, frac- turing bhe body of I he first lumbar vertebr®, driving a num- ber of small fragments of bone into the adjacent soft parts, and lodging below the pancreas, about two inches and a half u> the left of the spine, and behind the peritoneum, w here it had become completely encysted. The immedi- ate cause of death was secondary hemorrhage from one of the mesenteric arteries adjoining the track of the ball, the blood rupturing the peritoneum, and nearly a pint escaping into the abdominal cavity. This hemorrhage is believed to have been the cause of the severe pain in the lower part of the chest complained of just before death. "An abscess cavity, six inches by four in dimensions, was found in the vicinity of the gall-bladder, between the liver and the transverse colon, which were strongly adherent. It did not involve the substance of the liver, and no communication was found between it and the wound. A long suppurating channel extended from the external wound between the loin muscles and the right kidney, almost to the right groin. This channel, now known to be due to the burrowing of pus from the wound, was supposed during life to have been the track of the ball. On an examination of the organs of the chest, evidences of severe bronchitis were found on both . with broncho-pneumonia of the lower portions of the right lung, and, though to a much less extent, of the left. The lungs contained no abscesses and the heart no clots. The liver was enlarged and fatty, but free from esses. Nor were any found on an\ other organ, ex- cept the left kidney, which contained near its surface a small abscess about one-third of an inch in diameter. In ving the hi.-tory of tho case in connection with the autopsy, it is quite evident that the different suppurating surfaces, and especially the fractured, spongy tissues i I the vertebra, furnish a sufficient explanation of the septic condition which existed," JAMES A. GARFIELD. Preparations had been made for the removal of the body of President Garfield to the National Capital, on "Wednesday morning. The body had been placed in a casket, which was upon a bier in the centre of a room of the cottage, from which all the furniture had been re- moved. Two crossed Sago palm leaves were laid upon it. A large nnmber of people had gathered about th< The morning was fair and cool. At a quarter before nine o'clock notice was given that the people might approach and take a last look of the re- mains of the deceased President. For more than an hour there was a solemn procession in and out of tin' chamber of death. At half-past nine, Chief-Justice Waite, and members of the Cabinet with their families and others, arrived in carriages and participated in the brief funeral ceremonies. At the request of Mrs. Garfield, the Et< v. Charles J. Young, of Long Branch, officiated. After reading from the book of Revelations, the words: " Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Tea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them," he said : " We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house ool made with hands, eternal in the heavens. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that while we are at heme in the body we are absent from the Lord. We are i dent, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. For to me to live in Christ and die is gain. I am in a strait betwixt two, hav- ing a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better; there the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. And there shall be do more d< ath, ther sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be an} 658 THE BIOGRAPHY Of pain. And there shall he no night there, and they need no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God give th them light, and they shall reign for ever and ever. Be- hold, I show you a mystery. We shall all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, ai the last trump. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality ; bo when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be In ought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is thy sting ! Oh grave, where is thy victory ! The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray. "Oh Thou who walked through the grave of Bethany, that open grave of the brother in Bethany ! Oh Thou who hadst compassion on the widow of Xain as she bore her beloved dead ! Oh Thou who art the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, in whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning, have mercy upon us at this hour, when our souls have nowhere else to fly ! But we fly to Thee. Thou knowest these sorrows that we bow under. Oh Thou God of the widow, help this stricken heart before Thee. Help these children and those that are not here. Be their father. Help her in the distant State who watch- ed over him in childhood. Help this Nation that is to- daj bleeding and In. wed before Thee. Oh ! sanctify this heavy chastisement to its good. Help those associated with him in the Government. Oh Lord, grant from the darkness of this oight of sorrow there may arise a better da] for the glory of God and the good of man. Wethank Thee \'<>v the record of the life that is (dosed, for its heroic devotion to principle. We thank Thee, Oh thou Lord, thai he was Thy servant, that he preached Thee, Thy noble life and example, ami that we can say of him now, 'Bless- ed are the dead who die in, the Lord, their works do fol- low them. I Now Lord, go with this sorrowing company JAMES .1. GARFIELD. in this last sad journey. Go, bear them up and strength- en fchem. Oh God, bring us .-ill al lasl to the morning that has no shadow, the borne thai has no bears, the land that has no death, for Christ's sake. Amen." The funeral train left Long Branch at a little pasl tea o'clock, drawn by the same engine which served the train that brought the President to Long Branch. It was, in- deed, the same train which had borne him BO Bwiftly bnl so tenderly from the Potomac, aero-.- the country, to the sea. The train reached Washington al about half-past four o'clock, where it was received in the same Bolemn silence, with the dead body of the late President, as when it moved away with his living form, sanctified by the bless- ings of the hopeful people. All heads were unco as the train entered the station. This return journey from the ocean to Washington was almost as remarkable as the one from Washington to the sea. It was more sombre. Of it an eye-witness wrote : "When the special train reached Monmouth Junction, it began to follow the limited express from Ne*i Y"ik. and was only a few minutes later. As it passed by the little stations between Elberon and the Junction there were long lines of men. women and children standing up- on each side of the track in silence. The drapery of mourning was almost everywhere to be Been. Flags were Hy- ing at half-mast, and festoons of black hung even from the roofs of great factories. In the sparsely-settled country, farmers and women and children were standing in the fields. At Princeton Junction the Btudents had c< the iron rails with beautiful flowers in greal profusion, and the bells were tolling. All along the line the | bad gathered to pay their last tribute of respect to the 658 '/'///•' BTOQBAPHJ OF dead and silently offer sympathy bo the stricken relatives ami friends. At Philadelphia there were great crowds at every spot from which the train could he seen. The bridges which span the track were filled with silent people, and the banks by the side of the railway were thickly cov- ered. All were thoughtful and serious ; even the children were under the shadow of the Nation's loss and stood in silence. As the train passed on the same scenes were re- d. The people of the United States had abandoned business and pleasure, and through their ranks the dead body of the President was swiftly passing to the Capi- tol. " At 4.30 o'clock the bugle of Gen. Ayres, commanding the escort, sounded the 'assembly/ which was the signal of the approach of the funeral train, and before the harsh Qotes of the bugle had died away, the train with its som- bre trimmings and decorations was seen winding grace- fully around the curve that terminates within the depot Limits. Those persons who were admitted to the depot stood with uncovered heads as Mrs. Garfield and others of the late President's family and official household passed out to the carriages that were waiting to receive them. •• As soon as those who accompanied the body from Long Branch had Left the depot, eight non-commissioned officers of the Second Artillery, detailed for the purpose, Lifted i lie body of President Garfield from the ear and bore it along the platform to the main room of the depot, niching within a U-w feet of the spot where he fell when struck by tin- bullet of the assassin, and passing out of the cast, or Sixth street, door, deposited the coffin with its precious contents od the hearse, the troops presenting arms and the Marine Band playing ' Nearer, my God, to Following the body came officers of the Army and to the number of aboul 200, wearing the full-dress uniform of their respective ranks, and headed by Gen. Sherman ami Admiral NTichols, respectively. These offi- cers formed in ranks of two on each side of the bearse, the army officers being on the right, and the lines extend- JAMES .1. GARFIELD. ins for some distance behind the funeral car, "which was drawn by six gray horses, each horse being Led by a colon d groom, and grooms and horses wearing the customarj mourning trappings. Preceding the hearse were can containing President Arthur, members of the Cabinet, and others who were close to the late President.'' Everything being in readiness, the troops wheeled into column, the bands struck up a funeral march, and the procession moved down Pennsylvania Avenue with draped flags, muffled drums and solemn music. It passed around the south wing of the Capitol to the eas1 front, where the troops again wheeled into line, and the hearse and carriages drove up to the main entrance to the build- ing where, only a few months before, President Garfield was inaugurated. The coffin was borne through the open ranks into the Rotunda by eight United States artillerymen, and placed on the catafalque, which had been used for President Lincoln, Thaddens Stevens, Sen- ator Sumner, Chief-Justice Chase, and Vice-President Wilson. The body was left in the Rotunda to lie in state until the time appointed for its conveyance to Cleveland for interment. It was guarded by a detail of the Capitol and Metropolitan police; and resident members of the Army of the Cumberland acted as a guard of honor. That evening the Rotunda was opened and lighted, and several hundred people entered it to look' upon tin' face of the dead President. The next day this magnificent room was crowded from morning until nighi for the Bam purpose. The visitors numbered by thousands; and, a one time, the line seeking entrance extended a quarter oi a mile outside the Capitol, 660 THE BIOGRAPHY OF The Rotunda was heavily draped, and many floral decorations were strewn around the casket and upon the catafalque. On the casket was laid a beautiful wreath of great size, of white flowers, presented, by a telegraphic order of Queen Victoria, by a member of the British legation at Washington. To the wreath was attached a card bearing the words: " Queen Victoria, to the memory of the late President Garfield, an expression of her sorrow cmd sympathy with Mrs. Garfield and the American nation" It is related that the husband of a poor German woman, who had suffered a relapse in her illness through the excitement caused in her by the passage of President Garfield's funeral cortege under her window, going to view the remains at the Capitol, brought back to his wife a bud that he caught as it loosened and fell from Queen Victoria's lovely wreath on the casket. It bloomed by her bedside, disclosing a dove in the centre, and the poor woman, calling it the Christ-flower sent from the dead President to heal her, began to mend immediately. It was an orchid, the Espirito Santo, and as they are usu- ally Bold at the price of twenty dollars a blossom, it gives One an idea of the royal prodigality of the wreath. Friday, the 23d, was appointed for funeral services at the ('apitol, which was closed at eleven o'clock to prepare for them. Op to thai hour the people continued to pass through the Rotunda in a continuous stream to look at the casket, for the face of the dead Presidenl was hidden from view. After the Capitol was closed, M[rs ( Garfield, acponj JAMES .!. OAUFL 861 panied by her family and some friends, drove to the Senate wing of the building and entered. The forir 'lour., of the Rotunda were closed, the guard retired, and she was admitted into the vast room beneath the dome of tin- Capitol, where she remained f'>r a brief space of time, alone with her dead. When she retired, General Swaim and Colonel Rockwell entered, closed the lid of the ket, and locked it forever. Three o'clock in (lie afternoon was the hour appointed for the funeral ceremonies in the Rotunda. At thai hour theiov... was filled with notable men and women. There wen- survivors of the Army of the Cumberland ; officers of the Army and Navy, wearing crape on their sleeves and sword-hilts; the diplomatic corps, their glittering decorations half concealed by crape ; the Chief-Justice and other members of the Supreme Court, and ex-Tioe Presidents Hamlin and Wheeler. Winn these were seated, ex-Presidents Grant and Hayes and President Arthur, with Secretary Blaine, entered, followed by nieni- bers of the Cabinet and their families, and were seated in front. The clergymen, who were to conduct the services, and the singers, were grouped at the head of the casket. At precisely three o'clock, the sweet melody and words of the hymn, " Asleep in Jesus." filled the Rotunda. At the first note, the guard of honor, twelve in number, withdrew. At the conclusion of the hymn. Rev. Dr. Rankin read a portion of the Scriptures : \l Isaac Evret, of the Disciples' Church (a life-long friend of President Garfield), offered prayer; Rev. Dr. Power, the pastor of the late President, addressed the gathered mourners, and the services dosed with prayer by Dr. Butler, for many years chaplain of the Houfli Tin: biography of Krpivsentatives. Dr. Power's remarks embodied a most feeling tribute to the memory of the illustrious dead. He said : " The cloud so long pending over the Nation has at tasl burst upon our heads. We sit half-crushed amid the ruin it has wrought. A million million prayers and hopes and tears, as far as human wisdom sees, were vain. Our loved one has passed from us. But there is relief. We Look away from the bof the casket until the funeral ceremonies should be over. Euclid Avenue presented a most interesting aspect on that occasion. It is one of the finest in the world. Its broad roadway is fringed with stately mansions, blooming gar- dens and elegant shade trees. The houses were literally covered with symbols of mourning. Some of them were almost hidden in folds of black. The pillars of porticoes were swathed in black and white cloth. Flags at half- mast, with wide black borders, floated from many a lofty staff. All over this beautiful city, on the borders of Lake Erie, the business portion and the cottages of the pa the outskirts, were profusely clad in habiliinenti mourning. The pavilion in which lay in state the body of the dead President, from Saturday until Monday, was an im- posing structure. The floor on whieh the catafalque rested was forty-five feet square and five-and-a-haU from the ground. It was reached by an inclined | on the east and on the west. There were four arched openings on the sides, each facing a cardinal \ THE BI0QRAPH1 OF The columns at each corner were festooned with flags, and high over each was unfurled a large black banner. The interior of the pavilion was graced with many floral decorations, which displayed much taste aud inge- nuity. We may here describe only one. A light-house of balsams, tuberoses, begonias and geranium leaves, with a broad base of fern leaves and begonias, bore a shield, on which, in purple and immortelles, were the words : " GAR- FIELD -A BEACON TO POSTERITY." The entrance gate to the public square leading to the pavilion was spanned by a triple arch covered by black cloth. On the outer faces of the external piers were the names of the States of the Union on huge tablets. Before the outer-face of the keystone of the central arch swung :. ladder of white balsams, its base resting on a canal boat. Its rounds, beginning with the lowest, bore the following words : " Chester — Hiram — Williams — Ohio Sen a i ■ >b Colonel — General — Congressman — United Si mis Senator — Prks.dknt — Martyr." The readers of this volume will readily understand how this ladder symbolized the career of James A. Gar- field, in climbing the ladder of life from the lowest round to Hie highest. All day long on Sunday the 25th of September, from early morning until night, the people of Northern Ohi< . who had flocked to Cleveland from cities, villages, ham- lets and farm-houses, passed under that arch and through the pavilion to look at the black coffin on the catafalque, at the nit* of about seven thousand an hour, walking four abreast. Nor did the Btream of mourners cease to flow throughout the entire night. JAMES .1. GARFIELD. A little before 1 () o'clock on Monday morning, prepa- rations for the funeral services were began. Seats had been placed at the pavilion for the officers and representa- tives of the National Government and other distinguished persons, and back of these were scats for the di The funeral car, prepared to convey the body to the ceme- tery, was drawn into the public square by twelve spirited black horses, harnessed four abreast, covered with black robes trimmed with gold, and led by six colored grooms, who held the horses by black cords. The ear was a large platform on wheels, with a sombre canopy, rising twenty feet from the ground, with furled flags covered with crape at the corners, and decorated with black and white plumes. The family of the deceased President, including his aged mother, were present at the funeral ceremonies, which began at about half -past ten o'clock. They took seats near the coffin. Dr. J. P. Robinson, president of the ceremonies, announced that the services would open by the singing of Beethoven's funeral hymn, by the ( lleve- land Vocal Society, beginning : " Thou art gone to the grave, but we will not deplore thee, Though sorrow and darkness encompass the tonih ; The Saviour has passed its portals before thee, And the lamp of his love is thy light through the gloom." Bishop Bedel, of Ohio, read appropriate portions of Scripture, and Rev. Ross 0. Haughton offered a prayer. The Vocal Society then sang again, when the Rev. Isaac Evrett, of Cincinnati, of the Disciples' Church, delivered the following discourse: C74 7'///; nroGRAPnr of " This is a timo for mourning that has no parallel in tho history of the world. Death is constantly occurring everyday and every hour, and almost every moment some life expires and somewhere there are broken hearts and desolate homes; but we have learned to accept the un- avoidable, and we pause a moment and drop a tear, and away again to the excitements and ambitions of life, and forget it all. Sometimes a life is called for that plunges a large community in mourning, and sometimes whole nations mourn the loss ot a good king, or a wise statesman, or an eminent sage, or a great philosopher, or a philan- thropist, or a martyr who has laid his life upon the altar of truth, and won for himself an envious immortality among the sons of men. But there was never a mourning in all the world like unto this mourning. lam not speaking ex- travagantly when I say this, for I am told it is the result of calculations, carefully made from such data as are in possession, that certainly not less than 300,000,000 of the human race share in the sadness and the lamentations -and Borrow ;:nd mourning that belong to this occasion here to-day. It is a chill shadow of a fearful calamity that has extended itself into every home in all this land, and into every heart, and that has projected itself over vast Beafi and oceans into distant lands, and awakened the sin- ceresl and profoundest sympathy with us in the hearts of the good people of the nations, and among all people. "It is worth while, my friends, t" pause a moment and toast wii h is, doubtless, attributable in part to the wondrous triumphs of science and art within the mi century, by means <»(' which time and Bpace have been bo far conquered, that nations, once far distant and arilv alienated from each other, are brought into JAMES A. GARFTELD. «75 close communication, and the various ties of commerce and of social interests and of religious interests bring them into contact of fellowship that could not have been known in former times. Tt is likewise, unquestionably, partly due to the fact that this nation of ours has grown to such wondrous might and power before the whole earth, and which is, in fact, the hope of the world in all that relate- to the highest civilization — that sympathy with this nation and respect for this great power leads to these offerings of condolence and expressions of sympathy and grief from the various nations of the earth, and because they have learned to respect and recognize that the Nation is Btricken in the fatal blow that has taken away our President from us. "And yet this will by no means account for this mar- vellous and world-wide sympathy of which we are speak- ing. Yet it cannot be attributed to mere intellectual great- ness, for there have been, and there are, other great men ; and, acknowledging all that the most enthusiastic heart could claim for our beloved leader, it is but fair b that there have been more eminent educators, there have been greater soldiers, there have been more skillful and experienced and powerful legislators and leaders of mighty parties and political forces. There is no one de- partment in which he has more eminence where the world may not point to others who attained higher and more intellectual greatness. It might not be considered more righteously here than in many other cases; yet. perhaps, it is rare in the history of nations that any one man has combined so much of excellence in all those variou partments, and who, as an educator and a lawyer and a legislator and a soldier and a party chieftain and ruler, ha.- 678 THE BIOQBAPBF OF done so well, so thoroughly well, in all departments, and brought out such successful results as to inspire confidence and command respect and approval in every path of life in which la' has walked, and in every department of public activity which he has occupied. Yet I. think, when we come to a proper estimate of his character, and seek after the secret of this world-wide sympathy and affection, we shall find it rather in the richness and integrity of his moral nature, and in that sincerity, and in that trans- parent honesty, in that truthfulness that lay the basis for everything of greatness to which we do honor to-day. "I may state here what perhaps is not generally known as an illustration of this. When James A. Gar- field was yet a mere lad, in this county, a series of relig- ious meetings were held in one of the towns of Cuyahoga County, by a minister by no means attractive as an orator, possessing none of the graces of an orator, and marked Only by entire sincerity, by good reasoning powers, and by earnestness in seeking to win souls from sin to right- eousness. The lad Garfield attended these meetings for many nights, and after listening to the sermons night after night, he went one day to the minister and said to him : • Sir, 1 have been listening to your preaching night after night, and I am fully persuaded thai if these things you say are true, it is the duty and the highest interest of every man of respectability, and especially of every young man. to accepl that religion and seek to be a man. But, really. I don'1 know whether this thing is true or not. I can*t say thai 1 disbelieve it, but I dare nol Bay thai 1 fully and honestly believe it. If I were sure that it was true. I would niu-i gladly give it my hearl and my life.' "So. after b long talk, the minister preached that JAMES I. GARFIELD. 877 night on the text, { What ifl Truth? and proceeded to show that, notwithstanding all the various and conflicting theories and opinions in ethical science, and notwithstand- ing all the various and conflicting opinions in the world, there was one assured and eternal alliance for every human son! in Jesus Christ; that every bohJ was with Jesus Christ; that He never wonld mi-lead: that any young man giving Him his hand and heart, ami walk- ing in His pathway, would not go astray, and that, what- ever might be the solution of 10,000 insoluble mysteries, at the end of all things the man who loved Jesus < 'hrist and walked after the footsteps of Jesus, and realized in spirit and life the pure morals and the Bweet piety, was safe, if safety there were in the universe of God ; safe, whatever else were safe; safe, whatever else might prove unworthy and perish forever. And he seized upon it after due reflection, and came forward and gave his hand to the minister in pledge of his acceptance of the guid- ance of Christ for his life, and turned his hack upon the sins of the world forever. "The boy is father to the man. and that pure honesty and integrity, and that fearless spirit to inquire, and that brave surrender of all the charms of sin to conviction, of duty and right went with him from that boyhood thn out his life, and crowned him with the honors that were so cheerfully awarded to him from all hearts over this vast land. There was another thing— he passed all the conditions of virtuous life between the log cabin in Cuyahoga and the White House, and in that wonderfully rich and varied experience, moving np from higher to higher, he has ' touched every heart in all this land at some point or other, and he became the representative 978 THE BIOGRAPHY OF of all hearts and lives in this lain! ; not only the teacher but the representative of all virtues, for lie knew their wants and he knew their condition, and he established Legitimately the ties of brotherhood with every man with whom he came in contact. I take it that tins vow, lying at the basis of his character, this rock on which his whole lift- rested, followed up by the perpetual and enduring industry that marked his whole career, made him at once the honest and the capable man who invited and received in every act of his life the confidence and trust and love of all that learned to know him. " There is yet one other thing that I ought to men- tion here. There was such an admirable harmony of all his powers; there was such a beautiful adjustment of the physical, intellectual, and moral in his being; there was such an equitable distribution of the physical, intellectual, and moral forces that his nature looked out every way to get at sympathy with everything, and found about equal delight in all pursuits and all studies, so that he became, through his industry and honest ambition, really .encyclo- pedic. There was scarcely any single chord that you could touch to which he would not respond in a way that made you know that his hand had swept it skillfully long ago, and there was QO topic you could bring before him, there was no*object you could present to kim, that you did not wonder at the riehm>s ami fullness of information somehow gathered ; for his .yes were always open, and his heart was always open, and his brain was ever busy and equally interested in everything -the minute and the vast, the high and the low, in all classes and creeds of men. He thus gathered up that immense store and that immense variety of the most valuable and practical JAMES A. GARFIELD, knowledge that made him a man, not in one department, but all around, everywhere, in his whole beautiful and symmetrical life and character. "But, my friends, the solemnity of this occasion for- bids any further investigation in that line, any further details of a very remarkable life, for with these details you are familiar, or, if not, they will come before yon through various channels hereafter. It is my duty, in tin- presence of the dead, and in view of all the solemnities that rest upon us now in a solemn burial Bervice, to call your attention to the great lesson taught you, and by which we ought to become wiser, purer, and better nun. And I want to say, therefore, first of all, that there cornel a voice from the dead to this entire Nation, and not only to the people, but to those in places of trust, to our legis- lators and our Governors and our military men and our leaders of parties, and all classes and creeds in the Union. The great lesson to which I desire to call your attention can be expressed in a few words. James A. Garfield went through his whole public life without surrendering for a single moment his Christian integrity, his moral in- tegrity, or his love for the spiritual. Coming into the exciting conflicts of political life with a nature as capable as any of feeling the force of every temptation, with temptations to unholy ambition, with unlawful prizes within his reach, with every inducement to surrender all his religious faith and be known merely as a successful man of the world, from first to last he has manfully ad- hered to his religious convictions and found the more praise, and gathers in his death all the pure inspiration of the hope of everlasting life. " I am very well aware of a feeling among political men. THE BIOGRAPHY OF greatly shared in all over the land by those who engage in political life, that a man cannot afford to be a politician and a Christian ; that he must necessarily forego his obligations to God and be absorbed in the different measures of policy that may be necessary to enable him to achieve the de- sired result. Now, my friends, I call attention to this grand life as teaching a lesson altogether invaluable just at this point. I want you to look at that man. I want yon to think of him when, in his early manhood, he was so openly committed to Christ and the principles of the Christian religion, that he was frequently found among a people who allow a large liberty, occupying a pulpit. Yon are within a few miles of the spot where the great congregations gathered, when he was yet almost, a boy, just emerging into manhood, week after week, and hung upon the words that fell from his lips with wonder, admiration, and enthusiasm. It was when he was known to be occupying this position that he was invited to be- come a candidate for the Ohio State Senate. "It was with the full knowledge of all that belonged to him, in his Christian faith and his efforts to live a Christian life, that this was tendered him; and, without any resort t<> any dishonorable means, he was elected, and began his legislative career. When the country called to arms, when the Onion was in danger and his great heart leaped with enthusiasm and was filled with holiesl desire and ambition to render some service to his country, it re- quired no surrender of the dignity or nobleness of his Christian lite to Becure to him the honors that fell upon him bo thick and fast and the successes that followed each other BO rapidly as to make him the wonder of the world, though he entered upon that career wholly unacquainted JAMBS -I. . •with military life, and could only win his way by tlio honesty of his purpose and the diligence and faithfu with which he seized apon every opportunity to aceom plish the work before him. Follow him from thai time until he was called from the service in the field and tin- people of his district sent him to Congress, their hearts gathering about him without any effort on his part. They kept him there as long as he would stay, and they would have kept him there yet if he had said so. Be remained there until, by the voice of the people of this State,4ie was made Senator, when there were other bright and strong and grand names — men who were entitled to recognition and reward, and altogether worthy in every way to bear Senatorial honors. "Yet there were such currents of admiration and sympathy and trust and love coining in and centering from all parts of the State that the action of the Legisla- ture at Columbus was but the echo of the popular voice when, by acclamation, they gave him that place, and every other candidate gracefully retired. And then, again, when he went to Chicago to serve the interest oi another, when, as 1 knew, his own ambition waa fully satisfied, and he had received that on which his heart wad set, and looked with more than gladness to a path in lite for which he thought his entire education and culture had prepared him. When wearied out with every effort to command a majority for any candidate, the hearts o4 that great convention turned on every side to dan Garfield. In spite of himself and against every feeling, wish, and prayer of his own heart, this honorwas crowded upon him, and the Nation responded with holy entllUi from one end of the land to the other, and in the same 682 THE BIOGRAPHY OF honorable way he was ducted to the chief magistracy under circumstances which, however great the bitterness of party conflict, caused all parties not only to acquiesce, but to feel proud in the consciousness that we had a chief magistrate of whom they need not be ashamed before the world, and unto whom they could safely confide the des- tinies of this mighty Nation. Now, gentlemen, let me say to you all, those of you occupying great places of trust who are here to-day, and the mass of those who are called upon to discharge the responsibilities of citizenship year by year, the most invaluable lesson that we learn from the life of our beloved departed President is, that not only is it not incompatible with success, but it is the surest means of success, to consecrate heart and life to that which is true and right, and above all question of mere policy, wedding the soul to truth and right, and the God of truth and righteousness, in holy wedlock never to be dissolved. I feel just at this point that we need this les- son. " This great, wondrous land of ours, this mighty Na- tion in its marvelous upward career, with its ever-increas- ing power, opening its anus to receive from all lands people of all Languages, all religions, and all conditions, and hoping iii the warm embrace of political brotherhood To blend them with us, to melt them into a common mass, needs this lesson of virtue, so that, when melted and run over again in a new type of manhood it will incorporate all the various nations of the earth in one grand brother- hood, presenting before the nations of the worlds specta- cle of freedom and Btrength and prosperity and power beyond anything before Known. Let me Bay the perma- nency of the work and its continual enlargement must JAMES A. GARFIELD. depend un our maintaining virtue as well as intellig and making dominant in all the land those principli pure morality that Jesus Christ has taught us. Ju we cling to that we are safe, and jusl as we forgel and depart from that we proceed toward disaster and ruin. "And when we see what has been accomplished in a mighty life like this, we have an instance o\ the power of truth and right which spreads from heart to heart, and from life to life, and from state to state, and finally from nation to nation, until, these pure principles reigning every where, God shall realize His great purpose, so long ago expn to us in the words of prophecy, that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and oi hifl Christ; so that over the dead body of Jam"- A. Garfield may all the people join hands, and swear, by the Eternal God, that they will dismiss all unworthy purposes, and love and worship the true and the right, and, in the inspiration of the grand principles that Jesus Christ taught, seek to realize the grand ends to which His word of truth and right continually point us. "I cannot prolong my remark to any great extent There are two or three things that I must say. ho* before I close. There is a voice to the Church in this death that I cannot pause now to speak of particularly. There is a tenderer and more awful voice that Bpeakfl to the members of the family: to that sacred circle within which his really true life and character were better devel- oped and more perfectly known than anywhere else. What words can tell the weight of anguish that rest* upon the hearts of those who so dearly loved him. and Bhared with him the sweet sanctities of his home : the pure lite, the gentleness, the kindness, and the manliness thai 884 THE BIOGRAPHY OF vaded all his actions, and made his home a charming one for its Inmates, and for all that shared in its hospitalities \ •' It is of all things the saddest and most grievous now that those bound to him by the tenderest ties of the home circle are called to yield him to the grave ; to hear that roiceof love no more; to behold that manly form no Longer moving in the sweet circle of home; to receive no more the benediction from the loving hand of the father that rested upon the heads of his children, and commanded the blessings of God upon them; the dear old mother who realizes here to-day that her four score years are after all but labor and sorrow, to whom we owe. back of all I have spoken of, the education and training that made him what he was. and who has been led from that humble home in the wilderness side by side with him, in all his elevation, and assured him the triumph and the glory that came to him, step by step, as lie mounted up from high to higher, to receive the highest honors that the land could bestow upon him ; left behind him, lingering on the shore, while he has passed over to the other side ; what words can express the sympathy that is due to her, or the consolation that can strengthen her heart, and give her courage to bear this bitter bereave- ment. And the wife, who began with him in her young womanhood, and has bravely kept step' with him, right along through all his wondrous career, and who has been not only his wife, but his friend and his counselor through all their succession of prosperities and this increase of influence and power, and who. when the day of calamity came, wa "here, his ministering angel, his prophetess, and hi- priesteSS, when the circumstances Were such as to forbid ministrations from other hands, speaking to him JAMES A. GARFIELL. the words of cheer which sustained him through thai long, fearful struggle for life, and watching over him when his dying vision rested on her beloved form, and soughl from her eyes an answering gaze thai should speak when words could not be spoken, of a love that has never died, and that now must be immortal. "And the children, who have grown up to an when they can remember all that belonged \<> him, left fatherless in a world like this, yet surrounded with a Nation's sympathy and with a world's affection, and able to treasure in their hearts the grand lessons of his noble and wondrous life, may be assured that the ey^ of the Nation are upon them, and that the hearts of the people go out after them. While there is much to support and encourage, it is still a sad thing, and calls for our deepest sympathy, that they have lost such a father and are left to make their way through this rough world without his guiding hand or his wise counsels. But thai which makes this terrible to them now is just that which, as the years go by, will make very sweet and bright and joyous mem- ories to fill the coming years. By the very loss which they deplore, and by all the loving actions that hound them in blessed sympathy in the home circle, they will live over again ten thousand times all the sweet lite of the past, and though dead, he will still live with them, and though his tongue be dumb in the grave it will speak anew to them ten thousand beautiful lessons of love and righteousness and truth. "May God, in His infinite mercy, fold them in II - arms and bless them as they need in this hour of thick- darkness, and bear them safely through what remains of the troubles and sorrows of their earthly pilgrimage, onto 636 THE BIOGRAPHY OF the everlasting home where there shall be no more death nor crying, neither shall there be anymore pain, for the former things shall have forever passed away. We com- mit y«»u. beloved friends, to the arms and the care of the everlasting Father, who has promised to be the God of the widow and the Father of the fatherless in His holy habita- tion, and whoso sweet promise goes with us through all the dark and stormy paths of life — ' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' " I have discharged now the solemn covenant and trust reposed in me many years ago, in harmony with a friendship that has never known a cloud, a confidence that has never trembled, and a love that has never changed. Farewell, my friend and brother, thou hast fought a good fight ; thou hast finished thy course ; thou hast kept thy faith ; henceforth there is laid up for thee a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to thee in that day ; and not unto thee alone, but un- to all them who love His offering." The following hymn, which was a great favorite of President Garfield, and which he always requested to be 6ung whenever he visited Hiram, was sung by the vocal society at the close of Dr. Evrett's discourse: "Ho, reapers of life's harvest, Why stand with rusted blade Until the nighi draws round you, And day begins to fade ? Why stand ye idle, waiting For reapers more to come ? The golden morn i- passing, — Why sit ye idle, dumb ? JAMES A. GARFIELD. 687 "Thrust in your sharpened sickle And gather in tho 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, nngathered, 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." The Rev. Charles S. Pomeroy, D.D., uttered the tina. prayer and benediction, and at a quarter before twelve o'clock the ceremonies at the catafalque were ended. Then General Barnett, the master of ceremonies, sum- moned the bearers (ten sergeants of artillery |, who carried the casket to the funeral car. The long line of can were soon filled ; minute guns began to fire at Lake Park; the bells of numerous church steeples began to toll, and the Marine Band of Washington played, in bIow measure, "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Yery soon the vast procession (one hundred thousand men in uniform, it was estimated, and an immense num- ber besides), with 'numerous bands playing, moved toward the Cemetery along Euclid Avenue. The hospitabL zens distributed twenty thousand sandwiches and twenty thousand gallons of ice-water to their guesta : and barrels of water were placed at intervals on the way. When the THE BIOGRAPHY OF head of the procession readied the great black arch at the entrance to the Cemetery, the column opened, and the funeral car passed within the sacred grounds. Upon the piers of the arch were the words: " lay 11i.m to bleep whom we have learned to trust, Lay him to sleep whom we have learned to love." On the key-stone were the words : " Come to Rest." In front of the vault in which the body was to be temporarily laid was a large black pall, under which evergreen sprays had been strewn. These were covered by roses, geraniums and immortelles, which the feminine school teachers of Cleveland had scattered in rich profu- sion. The iron gates of the vault were standing open. The walls within were covered with smilax and floral decorations of various kinds. Among them was a beauti- ful design contributed by the Brazilian Embassy at Washington. Only a few carriages were admitted within the grounds. That of the mourning family took a position whence the proceedings at the vault might be distinctly seen. None of them left the carriages excepting Mrs. Garfield's two young sons, for rain fell most of the time during the ceremonies there. These ceremonies, after the casket was placed in the vault, consisted of a brief discourse by Rev. J. II. Jones, chaplain of the Forty-Second Ohio regiment, commanded by Genera] Garfield, and the singing of a Latin ode from Borace and the President's favorite hymn, by the CTnited James i. qarfirld, German Singing- Society of Cleveland. A benediction was pronounced by President Hinsdale of Hiram Col and at half-past four o'clock the funeral obsequies of James A. Garfield were ended. He was " left alone in his glory." Very near the receiving vault, on a beautiful knoll, the remains of President Garfield are to be buried. I them it is proposed to erect a suitable monument, by means of a popular subscription. N 1 THE hlOGHAFHT OF CHAPTER XXVIII. UHITEB6 -)'5!PATHT, Dueew the solemn funeral ceremonies at Cleveland the civilized "as also rendering homage to the mem- £ the illustrious Garfield. The mysterious agencv of legraph had per:, of the noble, patient suii-: watching eve. don of his heart, every respiration, every phase of temperature, every symptom of dan_ - ifety which medical science could detc t j of mankind on tl. and ou the if Touched with liv sympathy ; and earnest prayers, winged with profound so- licitude, went up from the listening nations to the throne It was the crv of hu- man brotherh ling for the salvation of a great hu- man never before a who | eetaele. W hen the n the tragedy a* " _-ton on July :.t over the land and across the sea, there was i:. excitement everywhere, and telegrams came to the Execn- -: inquiries and t s the household of the President and c calm f raith of the noble wife of the the admi: JAMES A. GARFIELD. of all, and every heart in the land was drawn toward her in tenderest sympathy. The words of the Btricken President when lie heard of her departure from the dis- tant sea-shore to hasten to his chamber, " God Bless the Little Woman /" stirred every heart in the land with deepest emotion, and called forth loving responses. < )m: of the most touching of these responses which gave voice to public feeling in America and Europe, appeared in the Albany (N. Y.) Evening Jov/rndl^ as follows ; " God Bless the Little Woman." " God bless you, little woman, In the work you have to do, And may His grace be with you, And may Ho help you through ! For we love you, little woman, With a heart so true and brave, Who dares to be courageous, In the shadow of the grave. " God bless you, little woman. With your heavy weighl of care ; If our hearts could give assistance, .Many millions would be there: Our hearts are beating for you, And responding to your orn, And beside your husband's bedside You are watching not alone. " For we are standing by you, O'er the dear one lying low, And we see the life-lamp flicker, Swinging slowly to and fro ; And our hearts grow weak with anguish, And our eyes grow wet with tears, Till your presence, like an angel's, Comes to mitigate our fear-. 692 THE lirOGRAPIIY OF •• So kei p uji cheer, dear woman, Never falter till you're through, And (ioil must Burely help you, For the whole world asks Him to. You have won our love, dear woman, And a nation's gratitude, For your noble self devotion And heroic fortitude. " God save you, little woman — God save your husband, too ! God save you both unto us ! For we love both him and 3'ou. Stand by him, little woman ! Stand firm and brave and true ! And remember, little woman, We will always stand by you." We have seen how promptly Queen Victoria sent a tender message to Mrs. Garfield and a request to Minister Lowell to keep her informed as to the condition of the President. The English Secretary for Foreign Affairs I Lord Granville), and several ambassadors from European Governments called on Mr. Lowell with expressions of sympathy, a few hours after the occurrence was known ; and telegrams of condolence were sent to Mrs. Garfield and the Government, by European Courts and from M. Grevy, President of the French Republic. Similar tele- grams came from all parts of the Union. To all these the Secretary of State responded as follows: " Executive Mansion, i " Washington, duly 4 — 11 p.m. j •' To the Press: "On behalf of the Presidenl and Mrs. Garfield I de- sire to make public acknowledgment of the very numerous »% THE JUiOaWfiY JIT THE EJtfTIfJlJfCE TO LflKEVIEW CEJtfETEI?Y. JAMMS A. GARFIELD. messages of condolence and affection which have be< oeived since Saturday morning. From almost every State in the Union, from the South as bountifully afi from thu North, and from countries beyond the Bea, have come messages of anxious inquiry and tender words of sympathy in such numbers that it has been found impossible to answer them in detail. 1 therefore ask the newspapers to express for the President and Mrs. Garfield the deep gratitude which they feel for the devotion of their fellow-country- men and friends abroad in this hour of heavy affliction. •• James (i. Blaini:, " Secretary of Stair." The newspaper press at home and abroad, in their im- mediate comments on the occurrence, united in praise of President Garfield's character as a man, a statesman and a Christian. In the presence of the awful event, every voice uttered abhorrence of the savage and unprovoked deed, aud every citizen of the Republic felt that he had been wounded in the person of the smitten President. There seemed to be absolutely no motive for the assault, either of personal grievance, or of public consideration. The New York Tribune said, on the following morning : " There was hardly a man in this country who seemed at sunrise yesterday more safe from murderous assault. A great-hearted, loving, kindly man, whose warm and genial nature had made 50,000,000 of people his personal friends. President Garlield was immeasurably more popular terday than he was when the ballots of the Natiou made him its President. The party which he had defeated had learned to admire and love him. His political friends were thrilled with pride when they saw that he had ready accomplished in only four months more than other Presidents in four years of service. It was felt by friends 26 . BIO&RAP&¥ oy and foes that he was one of the ablest Presidents eve? chosen, and the country looked forward with great hope to the grand work to be done by bucIi a President during the rest of a term but just !>egun. And yet to-day the ■whole Nation bows in sorrow. The noble President, the statesman whose deeds have already honored the Nation throughout the world, the genial friend, the tender hus- band, and loving father, lias fallen by the shot of an assassin. There was no personal quarrel. It docs not appear that the victim had ever known or seen his assail- ant. There is absolutely nothing to account for this horrible deed, which, to a great Nation, id a terrible calamity, except a crazy spirit of faction." The Boston Traveller said: '"It is unutterably shame- ful and inexpressibly sad. Every friend of reaction, every enemy of liberty, every champion of strong, abso- lute government will take encouragement from this in- iquitous deed. It is a plea for the rule of the Romanoffs and the Bonapartes, presented at the bar of history from the land of George Washington. Every citizen of the Republic will feel to-day the hot blush of Bhame on his face, and a deep sense of irreparable wrong at his heart. It is a crime utterly without excuse- -evil, base, and damnable. Words will wholly fail to give expression to the feelings that will crowd for utterance from every honest heart. As the news of this outrage upon the hu- man race speeds from one branch to another of the family of nations, they can but sit in silence and nurse the bitter wrath which they cannot hope to adequate . i xpress." The Lon. Ion Post, «>n July 4, said : " No event has so profoundly moved the English nation for many years, not excepting the assassination of the Czar, as the attempt JAMES A. &ARFIELD. upon the life of President Garfield. We venture I that not only in England, but wherever the English lan- guage is spoken, the sad tidings have fallen with all the farce of a domestic calamity. AVe hope Mr. Garfield may be spared to discharge the duties of his proud oilier, but we cannot banish the feelings awakened by the grav- est apprehensions. The crime is apparently motiveless and purposeless. Mr. Garfield has done nothing to pro- voke that political animosity which so frequently furnishes excuse for regicide. "We fail to see how the murder of the President can serve the ends of any political party. We may be permitted to hope that with Mr. Garfield's excel lent constitution he will steadily recover. It is tnexj ibly saddening to think that by the act of a miserable idiot the President of a mighty Republic and the nominal ruler of millions of the most intelligent and industrious people should be laid at death's door, the machinery of a conti- nent momentarilj T paralyzed, and possibly two States on opposite sides of the Atlantic plunged into mourning." The London Daily ^'eics, on July 4, said : " It g us the liveliest satisfaction to be able to announce that there is now every hope of Mr. Garfield's recovery. The utmost sympathy will be felt throughout England with Mrs. Garfield and the people of America in the grievous misfortune which has befallen them. The Queen has given fitting expression to this sympathy by the dispatch of telegrams to Mr. and Mrs. Garfield. The former has won the general respect of friend and foe. If Mr. field recovers the satisfaction of the English people will be deep, genuine, and universal."' The London Telegraph, on July 4th, said: " America will find that this cancer of place-huuting must be cut THE &I0QRAPH1 01 out or it will eat away the healthy life of the bock politic. We yrap thizi ■'. the American Nation from the At- lantic to the Pacific, who, but for the mercy of Provi- dence, might at this moment mourn beside the death-bed of their elected chief. We are brethren in the heritage of freedom and genius, and as brothers we oiler them the comfort of brotherly love. The banners they like to set fluttering on the Fourth of July will droop from their poles to-day or lie furled. What more can be said than that the British nation, clasping a brother's hand, bids America be of good cheer and good hope. Meanwhile, desire joins with duty to hope and pray that Garfield's illustrious life may be spared to his country and the world." The London Standard of July 4, said : " Indignation, sympathy, and the emotions of hope and fear have been as strong and vivid here as in America, and when the news was received that President Garfield was better the feeling of thankfulness was as hearty and sincere as it was universal, from the Queen down to her humblest sub- ject. The circumstances of the outrage, and the period of its occurrence, intensify the feelings of detestation and abhorrence which the new.- would at any time have excip A despatch from Vienna, Sunday, July 3, said : " Many prominent persons and almost all the foreign reprc to express condolence on account of the attempt upon the life of Presided < Garfield. The newspapers without exception condemn the deed." A despatch from Paris on the same day, said: li All the journals of all parti emn the attempt sinutc President Garfield. -ideut and Minister of JAMES iFIELD. Foreign Affairs have both tel< to Washington. Prayers w< re Baid for President ia the two American churches and .ill the English ! gelical churches in Paris to-day." A despatch from Rome the Mancini, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has expn dolence to Minister Marsh, on behalf of the [l Government." Sir Moses Montefiore, a distinguished I Jew, now ninety-seven years of age, telegraphed a requ< Palestine for prayers f or President Garfield in the gogues of the four holy cities. From other parts of Europe; from Mexico and South America; from Australia and the islands of the sea, fame, also, words of condolence at first, and congratnlations afterwards, when it was hoped the President migl cover. The civilized world watched the osely as if the victim was every man and woman's brother. ' '•. July 21, Mr. Gladstone, the English Premier, wroti following letter to Mrs. Garfield : "London, July 81 x , 1 "Dear Madam: You will, I am - though a personal stranger, for addressing you by I to convey to you the assurance of my own feelings those of my countrymen on th< hie attempt to murder the President of tHe I'm —in a form more palpable, at least, than tl. conveyed by telegraph. Those feelings hav( in the first instance of sympathy and afterward thankfulness almost comparable, and 1 venture to say only second, to the strong emotions of the which he is the appointed bead. Individually I hai me beg you to believe, had my full share in I 700 THE BIOGRAPHY OF ments which have possessed the British Nation. They have been prompted and quickened largely by what I ven- ture to think by the ever growing sense of harmony and mutual respect and affection between the two countries and of a relationship which from year to year becomes more and more a practical bond of union between us, but they have also drawn much of their strength from a cor- dial admiration of the simple heroism which has marked the personal conduct of the President, for we have not yet wholly lost the capacity of appreciating such an example of Christian faith and maul}- fortitude This exemplary picture has been made complete by your own contribution to its noble and touching features, on which I only for- bear to dwell because I am directly addressing you. 1 beg to have my respectful compliments and congratula- tions conveyed to the President, ami to remain., dear madam, with great esteem, your most faithful servant, '• William E. Gladstone." In reply to this Secretary Blaine tegraphed as follows : " Lowell, Minister^ London. " Washington, July 22, 1881. " 1 have laid before .Mrs. Garfield the note of Mr. Gladstone. 1 am requested by her to say that among the many thousand manifestation- of interest and expressions of sympathy which have reached her none has more deeply touched her heart than the kind words of Ml", Gladstone. His own solicitude and condolence are received with grati- tude. Put far beyond this she recognizes that Mv. Gladstone rightfully .-peaks for the people of tile British Pies, whose sympathy in this National ami personal affliction has been as quick and sincere as that of her own countrymen. Her chief pleasure in Mi'. Gladstone's cordial letter is found in the euinfort which it bring- to her husband. The Presi- dciit cheered and solaced on hi.- painful and wears v\ay to health by the many no sympathy which in his JAMES -i. (i.xuru i :• returning .strength he safely receives and mo.it gratefully appreciates. " Blaine, " >'< i rct'inj." At the middle of September a beautiful picture young woman at prayer, by Thomas Nast, appeared in Ilaiyers Weekly, with the following poem, entitled : "God Save tue President. " Oh, Lord of Lifo, before Thy throne. Thy sorrowing children bend the knee; They lift their fervent prayer to Thee, For Thou canst save and Thou alone. " In every clime, in every tongue Wherein Thy children learn to pray, Rise strong petitions, day by day From hearts with fear and sorrow wrung. " Fount of Mercy, unrestrained, Send forth Thy gracious healing power, And grant that in this anxious hour, The bitter cup may pass undrained. " Wilt Thou not hear, and hearing grant. The world's, the stricken nation's pl< That all our sorrowing prayers may bo Changed to a glad thanksgiving chant ?" The fair promises of recovery which the successful removal of the President to the Bea-shore, and hi parent convalescence, gave for many days, and the ful bulletins from the sick chamber, inspired fidence that the announcement of the President on the night of the IDthof September, produced a severe shock at home and abroad. In ever) i ?••' THE BIOGRAPHY OF the United States the deepest sorrow was felt and ex- pressed ; and in all parts of Europe, especially in Eng- land, there was exhibited the most marked demonstrations of grief, and sympathy for the bereaved family of the President and for the nation. In Harper's Weekly appeared another touching pic- ture, by Nast, of the same young woman, with her head bowed in grief, and the following little poem, entitled : "After all. " Despite the prayers and tears and earnest pleading, And piteous protests o'er a hero's fall ; Despite the hopeful signs our hearts misleading, Death cometh after all ! " Over the brightest scenes are clouds descending ; The flame soars highest ere its deepest fall ; The glorious day has all too swift an ending, Night cometh after all ! " O'er bloom or beauty now in our possession, Is seen the shadow of the funeral pall ; Though Love and Life make tearful intercession, Death cometh after all !" In various parts of England, bells of parish churches were tolled — an unprecedented tribute to a foreign chief magistrate. Municipal bodies passed resolutions of con- dolence. A mourning flag was hoisted on Manchester Cathedral. The Queen, as we have observed, ordered the Court to wear mourning for a week, from the 21st. Letters and telegrams of sympathy wen; sent by Mayors of cities and other civil officers. So. also, did Prince Teck, and the Lord Provo I of Edinburgh. The London JAMES A. G A Ul' 1 1 Times devoted eleven columns to news concerning t 1 1 < > death of the President. The Times said : " The death of President Garfield ia regarded as hardly less than a national calamity, In all ranks, from Queen to pej there is the most heartfelt sympathy for the ben widow and the injured Nation. The career o^ President Garfield is of the kind which appeals to the beet feelings and most cherished traditions of our people. His early poverty, his manful independence, his hard-won attain- ments, his integrity of character, had all caused his c to be watched as that of a man of exceptional powers and brilliant promise, and he was regarded as standing out very distinctly from among the majority of politician.-. Even among Russian Nihilists, Guiteaw's crime will ex- cite nothing but loathing and execration." The ZW/// Nt vws said : "In this melancholy crisia all Englishmen will feel for their kinsmen beyond the A.t- lantic. They will comprehend better than any nation in which self-government is less fully developed how _ if not irreparable, is the loss of one whom his countrymen but a few short months ago elected to be.ehief magistr the American Republic. Before he has had time to do more than show that he had in him the promise of a real statesman and genuine leader he has been numbered with the many illustrious men who have preceded him. Apart altogether from politics, and even from national int. this terrible catastrophe cannot but appeal to the comni< n feelings of humanity."' The Liverpool Cow*U r headed an article " The Martyr President,*' and said : " We consider the most appropriate comfort to the American people are the words of Mr. Garfield's own speech delivered on the death of Lincoln, 704 THE BIOGRAPHY OF and concluding, ' The Government at Washington still lives.' "' The Liverpool Post said: "The man dies not in vain round whose death-bed are buried all dissensions. People's misgivings relative to Gnen. Arthur are probably unjust to him, and certainly underestimate the good sense with which American public opinion uniformly control the Executive." On the 23d, Mr. Tennyson, the English poet laureate, wrote Minister Lowell : " We heard yesterday that the President was gone. We had watched with much admi- ration his fortitude and, not without hope, the fluctuations of his health these many days. Now we almost seem to have lost a personal friend. He was a good man and a noble. Accept from me and my wife and family assur- ances of heartfelt sympathy for Mrs. Garfield, for yourself, and for your country." Col. Poulett Cameron telegraphed from Cheltenham as follows : " The veteran soldiers and sailors here, includ- ing a few survivors of Trafalgar and Waterloo, earnestly solicit the American Minister to convey to Mrs. Garfield their deep and earnest sympathy and their regret for the good and gallant soldier she has lost." The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote to Mr. Lowell on the death of President Garfield, as follows ; " Addington Park. "My Dear Sir: I have just returned from the formal opening and adjourning of the Convocation of the Prov- ince of Canterbury. The nature of our proceedings at this period of the year has precluded the possibility of any resolution being proposed, but I feel confident that, had the Convocation been actually in session, my brethren JAMES A. GARFIELD. 700 of the episcopate, as well as the representatives of the clergy in our lower house, would have joined me in the expression of that heartfelt sympathy with the people of the United States, which I now beg leave, through you, to offer in my own name and, I think I may say, in the name of -the Church of England, on the occasion of the sad loss sustained by the death of President Garfield. Trusting you will kindly make known both to the late President's family and to the Government of the CTnited States this feeling entertained by the Church which I may claim to represent, I have the honor to be your obedient, faithful servant." "When it was known that Monday, the 26th, was the day appointed for the public funeral services in America, English newspapers of ever}' shade of opinion suggested that the day should be signalized in Britain by some sort of national mourning. They advised that the shops in cities should be partially closed, and that the people should wear crape on their arms, and exhibit other tokens of mourning. This advice was heeded all over the King- dom, especially in the larger cities, among all classes. Laboring men as well as titled citizens were seen with mourning symbols of some kind : and in London and Liv- erpool, the cabmen draped their whips in black and white muslin. At a house in a leading thoroughfare in Loudon. a portrait of President Garfield was displayed on the day of the funeral, with the words : " To one of Nature's noblemen, a great uncrowned monarch, second to none on earth." Americans, everywhere, in Great Britain and on the Continent, assembled for mutual expressions of sympathy. TOO Til K BIOGRAPHY OF Between three ami four thousand Americana met in Exe- ter Hall, in London, and under the presidency of Minister Lowell, in which he closed a brief address in these words: "I should do injustice to your feelings as well as to my own, if I did not offer our grateful acknowledgments to the august lady, who, — herself not unacquainted with grief, — has so repeatedly and so touchingly shown how true a woman's heart may beat under the royal purple." On the day of the funeral, memorial services were held in all the churches of the larger cities in England, and in numerous rural parishes, and public and private buildings were draped in black and white. On the continent there were universal expressions of sympathy and condolence. The Russian Government, presented to the American Legation at St. Petersburg words of kindly sympathy, and all the newspapers of the imperial city published warm obituary notices of the President, dwelling upon his high personal qualities, and saying that Russia, whose " heart was sensible of its own recent loss, felt profound sympathy for the great Amer- ican nation which has ever shown the same sympathies for Russia." King Leopold, of Belgium, ordered his court to wear mourning eight days as a token of respect for the late President. So also did King Alfonso, of Spain ; and the press of Madrid wen- unanimous in expressions of condo- lence, and speaking of President Garfield as the " inde- fatigable defender of true liberty and administrative morality." The Diet of the Province of Lower Austria voted a resolution of condolence to Mr-. Garfield. The Rouman- ian Government ordered a requiem lor the dead Presi- JAMES A. GARFTBLD dent to be chanted at the cathedral in Bncli Sun- day morning, September 25. An dent took place in the Oratory Church three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the 24th, to which the French and all friends of the United Stab s wen Special places were allotted to the Diplomatic < : high functionaries. From Rome, Cardinal Jacobina, the Papal Secretary of State, in behalf of the P graphed condolence to Mrs. Garfield. The Italian govern- ment, in behalf of its King and the people, seul woi sympathy; and the American Legation in Rome was the recipient of a continual stream of letters and telegrams offering condolence. Several of these were from the Italian Court, which was attending the wedding of the Crown Prince of Sweden. Words of sympathy and conduit -ix-. rom the Emperor William, at Berlin; and on October 30, funeral service in memory of President Garfield was held in the principal room in the Town Hall of thai which was draped with mourning. Many persons were present, including members of the diplomatic coi tific and learned societies, the Minister of the Interior. the Minister of Public Works, the Minister of Jn and military and municipal authorities. Professor ( ri delivered an oration before a colossal bust of th< President. Letters of regret because of their inabili be present were sent by Prince Charles ami Prince I erick Charles. There was choral music at ening and conclusion of the services. At Paris, the British ambassador (Lord Lyons) was among the first to wait upon the American ministi offer condolence : and on the same day Prasui I ' 70S TUK BIOGRAPHY OF of the French Republic, sent the following telegram to Mr,. Garfield : " Mont-Sous Yaudrey, Sept, 20, 1881. " I Learn that the Presidentof the United State, has just died, notwithstanding the excellent and intelligent care which he has received during the long period of his Buffer- ing. Be pleased to convey the expression of w\ sympa- thy to Mrs. GarOeld, his widow, whose carriage during the painful ordeal to which he has been subjected has called forth my sincere admiration. Accept, also, in my name and in that of the French Republic the expression of the deep grief which we feel in consequence of the fatal result of the odious crime to which Mr. Garfield has fallen q victim. GBJBVY." Both Houses of the Parliaments of Victoria and New South Wales, Australia and New Zealand unanimously adopted addresses of sympathy. Grateful for the exhibi- tion of kindly feelings from all parts of the British Em- pire, the Secretary of State telegraphed as follows to Minister Lowell : "Publish a card in the London press saying that the bereaved family of the late President and the mourning Nation are deeply touched by the kind messages of sympa- thy which the telegraph brings from all parts of the Brit- ish Empire, and expressing deep regret at the impossibili- ty of making the special acknowledgment due in each ease. B u ink. Secretary." Aristarchi Bey, the Turkish Ambassador to the Uni- ted States, wrote to Secretary Blaine, as follows, from New York : "The Minister of Foreign Affairs telegraphs me that the Sultan and the Ottoman Government are profoundly JAMK& I. GAHFIBLD. grieved at the death of the President, and his Excellency charges me to present, in the name of his Majesty and the Government, their sincerest sympathy to Mrs. Garfield and the Government of the United States. " Akimakchi." A correspondent writing from Santiago, Chili, say- : The death of President Garfield created a profound im- pression here. Nearly all of the newspapers were draped in black, the places of business were closed, flags were placed at half-mast, and the church bells almost every- where were tolled. A general and deep feeling of sorrow- prevailed among the people of all classes, and those in authority seemed anxious to express their sympathy for the American people in their great sorrow. Gen. Kilpat- rick received an official telegram from the Secretary of State Chili couched in the following language : "In the name of his Excellency, the President of the Republic of Chili, and his Cabinet, I desire to make known t<> your Excellency our profound sorrow for the death of the President of the United States. This great calamity is felt here in Chili as an absolute public sentiment, so deep ly are we interested in the good fortune and prospi of the great Republic that your Excellency with bo much dignity represents here," The expressions of sympathy which came over the from Europe and the far-off islands, might be greatly multiplied. Sufficient lias been here given to illn the universal grief that was manifested for the death of President Garfield. Let us turn for a moment and view the aspect of our country in those days of mourning. Throughout the entire Republic, without the I 710 THE BIOGRAPHY OF tion of a city, village or hanilet, or even rural dwellings tokens of mourning were displayed while the body of the dead President was lying in state under the great dome of the National Capitol, or was receiving the honors of fun- eral ceremonies at the tomb. It was truly and most signifi- cantly a day of National mourning in the United State? ; more completely so than at the time of the death of the martyred Lincoln, for then a large portion of the people of the Union stood in tin; attitude of its enemies: The smoke of the battles of a fearful civil war was just clear- ing away, and the fearful animosities which had heen en- gendered during that struggle were yet active and malig- nant. Now, these animosities had in a large degree disap- peared. 'I'hc conciliatory course of President Hayes, and especially the foreshadowing and earnest carrying out of a similar policy by President Garfield, had inaugurated an era of good feeling, and never before, in the history of our country, was there less sectional strife displayed than at the moment when President Garfield was struck down by the assassin's bullet. When, therefore, the news of that dreadful event went over the land, there were expressions of horror because of the deed, and sympathy forthedistn esed family, warm and heartfelt, by the people in all pails of the Union,— the North and the South, the East and the West. In tin- presence of the public grief, all former dif- ferences were forgotten. The universal solicitude felt and expressed by the whole people of the Republic, during the eighty days of in- tense Buffering by the victim, was mosl acute. The Nation seemed to be as one family, watching by the bedside 6f a dear friend who wae tenderly loved. And finally, when JAMES A. GARFIELD. 711 death came and snatched from earth the gr< there was a general burst of grief, deep and Bincerc. The hour seemed intensely dark for the Nation, for a mo- ment, when in streamed the light of Garfield's glorious words, uttered in New York on the morning of the death of Lincoln: "God reigns and the Government at Washington still lives." When the time for the burial of the dead chief came, almost every dwelling in the land, from the palatial resi- dence of the wealthy inhabitant of a great city, to the log-cabin of the humble dark toiler in the cotton-fields of the South, and of the pioneers in the wilderness. What wc have said of the appearance of Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, on the day of the funeral, may be said of the great thoroughfares in all our cities. The commercial metropolis of the nation — the city of New York — may be taken as an illustration of the aspect of other cities in the Union, on that occasion. It was thus described by the New York Times: " All classes participated in the sad celebration, and the ragged inhabitants of the tenement-houses of the lower part of the City seemed to feel as keenly and t<> lament as sorely the bereavement of the Nation as the denizens of the mansions of Fifth avenue. The City was unusually quiet — more so, if possible, than it is on Sun- day. Broadway, with its double line of heavily draped buildings, was naturally the centre of attraction t<. the multitude, and it was thronged all day. There we»o thousands whose business had before prevented them from looking upon the magnificent decorations of tin- great, thoroughfare, and yesterday they flocked to upon the emblems of woe with which the busines men of 712 THE BIOGRAPHY OF the City had draped their buildings. The crowd which thronged both sides of the street from Fourteenth street to the Battery was as dense as it usually is on business days, but it exhibited none of the hurry and bustle of business days. Everybody walked slowly, Boberly, and quietly along, pausing occasionally at windows where some particularly elaborate display was made, and gazing upward at the long streamers of black and white which depended from every building. " Must of the bar-rooms were open, but few drunken men were to be seen. The day was \<>ry warm, and the. rays of the sun beat down with pitiless force upon the heads of the promenades, but nobody seemed to mind the heat. It is safe to say that on no other day, and on no other occasion, would so many persons have braved the torrid temperature. The trucks and business wagons, which on ordinary days fill the street and deafen the ear with their rumbling, were missing, but their place was taken by a long line of vehicles such as are seldom to be seen in Broadway. The elegant equipages of the wealthy residents of the avenues deserted for once Central Park and the fashionable drives, and appeared in long lines along Broadway from morning to night. Ladies and gentlemen from up town drove along the street, observing the decorations and the crowds which lined the sidewalks. "The effect of this procession in a street like Broad- way, which is: seldom given up to anything but business, was striking and picturesque. The omnibuses were crowded all day long, hut everybody wanted to ride on top in the broiling sun to get a better view of the decora- tions, and the result was that the roofs were packed with men. Nearly every place of business, except restaurants. JAMES A. OARFIELD. 713 drug stores, and shops necessary to be open, was clobed daring the day; the show windows were concealed by drawn curtains or heavy folds of black drapery. A point of peculiar interest which attracted thousands was the City Hall, with its elaborate draping*. The throngs, as they passed down Broadway, turned off into tin. City Hall Park and stood in deep columns fronting the Hall and ad- miring the work which had been done upon it. Only the outside could be seen by the public yesterday, the decoration.^ v( the inside being guarded 1>\ the closed iron gates. The picture of the murdered President, sur- mounted by the broken column and its wreath of flowers, elicited enthusiastic comments from all lips. The park was crowded all day until night fell upon the scene, and for a long time after quite a large gathering remained in front of the Hall. " A feature of the observance of the day was the ap- pearance of the shipping in the harbor. The docks along the water-front, both in the North and East Rivers, were crowded with steamers and sailing craft, and on board of all the solemnity of the occasion was fully recognized and its observance faithfully kept. The ensigns on all the vessels were displayed at half-mast, and foreign phips, KB well as American, paid this tribute of respect to a Nation's sorrow. At Pier No. 9 East River the British brig Ran- som flew the English flag at half-mast, with a broad band of black crape across the centre of the red field. The tugs and barges which usually appear moving in the rivcfs were all laid up. The docks were Bilent and deserted, and the crowds of 'longshoremen which are usually to be found along the river-fronts were absent from their old haunts. The people on the canal-boats were in holiday 714 THE BIOGRAPHY OF attire, and many of them came ashore to witness the dec orations. On nearly all vessels, foreign as well as. Ameri- can, all work was suspended and the crews were given a holiday. " The Post-office was closed for business at eleven o'clock in the morning, and the Custom-house and other Federal buildings, as well as all the Municipal offices, were closed during the day. None of the schools were open, all the Exchanges were closed, and there was, to all intents and purposes, a total suspension of business. At Bun-nse, the cannon of the Navy yard and at Governor's Island belched forth a salute of thirteen guns. At two o'clock, the time which was understood to mark the inter ment of the dead President, the church and tire bells of the city began to toll, and continued for half an hour, while minute guns were fired on Governor's Island, and from the barge office during the same period. The effect of the tolling bells and the booming guns was inexpres- sibly solemn, and brought the whole city to the tomb in < leveland, where a Nation's dead was being laid to rest. The religious exercises which marked the day were pecu- liarity impressive." All over the country, in rural districts, funeral cere- monies were held in churches and other places at the hour appointed for the obsequies at ('lcveland. Atone of thcsc.in the heart of Duchess County, New York, one of the speakers alluding to the fact that for eighty days all Christendom had been offering up solemn and earnesl prayers tor the life of the President, remarked: *• Blind skepticism and shallow philosophy said. 'This is your answei to prayer!' Unbelief trailed its sombre banner in the dust. The faith of multitud • way JAMEB A. OARFIELi) for the moment, and trembling la-arts asked the dreadful question, 'It; this our answer to prayer?' Let u member that — ' God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform ;' " Has he not answered our prayers '( Has he not given us more than we, in our finite ignorance, asked i We plead- ed for the preservation of the mortal life of our beloved President — a fleeting shadow, at best. We prayed for the continuance of his bodily life on earth; our Omniscient Father has preserved for us his better life — the powerful moral influence of his mortal career and character, which has been so wonderfully diffused throughout the civilized world during the eighty days of suffering — vicarious suf- fering, as it were, for the political sons of our people ami of mankind, 'which, I trust, will result in our redemp- tion from much public evil. "James A. Garfield still lives in the fullness of the life which belong to the salutory moral influence of his public and private career. Our prayers have been answered with all the plenitude of a loving Father's goodness. Far more useful and beneficent, to the • of faith, appears the life of our President to-day, than when he walked the earth in mortal garb. In its grand moral strength, it touches the hearts, leads the oon directs the wills and fashions the opinions of myriad* our race. "His way of life recalls to us the secret cause of the international mourning to-day. It has been that Christian gentleman; a disciple of Justice and Ri ,'iti rill. BIOGHAPHT OF ; a champion of tlio Good and True. And for that way of life the world is indebted, under God, to the in- fluence of a woman the aged woman of Huguenot blood, Bitting, at this hour, by the side of the mortal remains of our President, her son bowed in grief, and with the weight of four score years of toiling life, yet patient and placid, for she is upheld by the arms of a living faith in the righteousness of Heaven." That the long suffering and death of President Gar- field, which so intensely excited the interest and sympa- thy of the civilized world, will be the means of cementing in a more permanent bond of common brotherhood the nations of the earth, there can be no doubt. By this dis- pensation the hearts of our countrymen have been drawn into closer union as one people having all interests in com- mon. And it is believed that by it the animosities and heart-burnings which have been fostered for a century be- tween England and her mature daughter will be cured. The Pall Mall (Loudon) Gazette said at the time of Gar- field's death : k " To-day, when England and America stand as mourn- ers beeide one grave, we may venture to hope that the bitter memories and animosities engendered by the Revo- lutionary war are finally passed away ;" and suggests that England and America shall endeavor to arrange some kind of an informal union for the prevention of interne- cine strife. "If an European concert, despite almost in- surmountable difficulties is recognized as a political neces- sity, why should there not be an Anglo-American concert wide enough to include in one fatherland all English* speaking men '." The 'London i Standard Baid, at the same time: jambs a. oarfieLd. ?n "The attitude of the American people during the pro- tracted season of the President's prostration has been ad- mirable, and such as only a strong and sterling community could exhibit. They have shown how tightly knit is the national and patriotic tie among them by the suspense they have silently, and without any combination or agree- ment, imposed upon political rancor. Perhaps we are not wrong in thinking that they have in some small de- gree been aided in this dignified course by the perpetual current of sympathy that has gone out toward them from this side of the ocean. Here in England we know what it is for the nation to wait for hourly news from the bed- side of great citizens. The one touch of nature required to make the whole world kin has been present. ' It might have been so with us,' is the basis of that imagina- tive sympathy which enables one English-speaking com- munity to throb and thrill with the emotions that shake the other. Undoubtedly for no other ruler, no crowned head or other President of a Republic, could the English people have felt as they felt in the case of Mr. Garfield. Blood is thicker than water ; and all the breadth of the Atlantic leaves Englishmen and Americans one people in such a moment, and under such terribly trying circum- stances. If there be yet another crumb of consolation to gather from one of the most painful incidents of modern times it is the reflection that, in emergencies such as the people of the United States have had to face, freedom is justified of her children. Nowhere save in a community nerved by the habitual exercise of liberty, and the tradi- tional assertion of that self-control which is fostered in the absence of external compulsion, could feelings bo deep I'll: A, 1/7/)" OF and anxic acute have expressed themselves apparent. less a mam.' '.._ ad and the English people generally tu have had an almost sudden revelation, no: of the grand personality of President Garfield, but of the excellence and advantages of onr political institutions, 'fa said: "If one might venture to y one in America that he would never be Presi- dent or even a distinguished citizen, it would be an infant in a log hut, just rescued from a forest fire by efforts tig the life of its father, and throwing all the work on the wretched widow. How was such a being to ac- quire any of the qualifications for politics, r the com- monest social position \ In this country i i ■ pro- nounced impossible, even if the difficulty only in a limited income, a village hon and a narrow circle of friends. The cry here is that noth- ing can be done without enormous assistance, and a des- •arrying everything before it. Nothing, it is said, can be done without a irt : nothing without good tothing with I _ 1 opportunities. In point of fact, we are rapidly producing and swelling to an langerous class in the world — - that, with all the physical energies and app. of full-grown without the real independence ility by which those energies are directed and t'.. The lest true inde- :i had to In- taught under conditions that d -\ • Tl i re is the inevitable reply that th extraordinary abil- ■mmon luck, and that, after al vulgar thii the worldling. There can be JAMES A. GARFIELD. no such disparaging thoughts here. President Garfield's has been a truly heroic career — heroic in its beginning, in ite long struggle, and in its end." 87 722 Till: BIOGRAPHY CHAPTER XXIX. garfield's domestic life. The aspect of President Garfield's domestic life, whether at the National Capital or at his rural home in Ohio, was charming in every feature. So testify all who knew or had a right to know it most familiarly. The moral and intellectual atmosphere there was always pure, always healthful, always invigorating, always inspiriting ; love, born of mutual respect and appreciation and of abiding friendship, was the presiding deity of the house- hold, and none but its worshippers found a domicil therein. In preceding pages we have had mere glimpsed of the elements which constituted this household in the character of those who founded it — of the grand old matron who bore him ; of the model wife and mother ; the noble, generous, big-souled husband and father, and intelligent, promising and loving children, like their parents simple in their tastes and lovely in character. The husband and wife became acquainted in their time of adolescence ; were fellow-students and helpers in maturer years ; appreciated and honored each other's worth, and after a long betrothal, when time had tempered every extravagances of fancy, had married and began home-life in a simple way. Mrs. Garfield was ever a help-mate in the truest sense of the expression, industrious, prudent, wise, cheerful, even minded, trustful and loving. Of her stability of character and sound judgment, her husband once said, in JAME'S A. '/. I 7.7 7/7 !>. the later years of his public life : " I bave been wonder fully blessed in the discretion of my wife. She u one of the coolest and best-balanced women I ever saw, She is unstampcdable. There has not been one solitary instance of my public career where 1 have suffered in the smallest degree for any remark she has ever made. It would have been perfectly natural for a woman often to say some thing that could be misinterpreted, but without any de- sign, and with the intelligence and coolness of her char- acter, she has never made the slightest mistake that I ever heard of. V-ith the competition that has been against me, many times such discretion has been a real blessing." A writer, one of her own sex, living in Washington, wrote as follows of Mrs. Garfield at about the time of her husband's inauguration; " She has ' the philosophic mind 1 that Wordsworth sings of, and she has a self-poise, a strength of unswerving absolute rectitude. . . . Mueh of the time that other women give to distributing visiting-cards, in the frantic effort to make themselves ' leaders of soeirty," Mr-. Garfield spends in the alcoves of the Congressional Li brary, searching out books to cam home to study while she nurses the children. You may be sure of one thing- - the woman who reads and studies while >he rocks ber babies will not be left far behind by her husband in the march of actual growth. I have seen many women come to the surface of capitolian life out of obscurity a: back into obscurity again ; have seen hundiv called 'leaders of society' shrivel and go out in the scorching flame of fashion; while I have followed with a tender heart this woman, the wife of a famoufl man— u woman whom nobodv called a ' leader.' 7-ji 'j hi-: mOQRAPni of " She, meanwhile, has not been lifted off herfe< . many women are, by her husband's rising fortunes ; no 'spreading' forth in style of dress or living, no 'airs.' And in Washington, in official life, that means everything — indicative of character. She has moved on in the tran- quil tenor of her unobtrusive way, in a life of absolute devotion to her 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 hon- ored wife, of her husband. Gentle, patient, unobtrusive almost to timidity, keenly intelligent, liberally educated, conscientiously devoted to everything good — this is the woman who will perpetuate the loving, consecrated life that to-day abides in the White House, if as its mis- tress she enters it." The writer of this volume never saw Mr. or Mrs. Gar- field, and must therefore depend upon others, who have, for a description of their personal appearance. A writer during the Presidential canvass in 18S0, describes them as follows : " In porson Gen. Garfield is six feet high, hroad- shouldered and strongly built, lie has an unusually large head, that seems to l>e three-fourths forehead, light-brown hair and beard, large, light-blnc eyes,a prominent and full cheek.-. lie dresses plainly, is fond of broad- brimmed slouch hats and stout boots, € ts heartily, cares nothing for luxurious living, is thoroughly temperate in all respeeu save in that <>f brain-work, and devoted to his wife and children and very fund of hi.- country home. Among men he i.- genial, approachable, companionable) and a remarkably entertaining talker. JAMES J. 9ARFIBLD. 7M "Mrs. Garfield is a woman of medium height, aji alight but well-knit form, has a kind good ; the gentlest of manners. Sho has small features, witL a some what prominent forehead, and her black hair, crimped in front and done up in a modest eoil, L- slightly tinged with gray. A pair of black eyes, and a month about which there plays a sweetly bewitching smile, are the most at tractive features of a thoroughly expressive faro. In dress she is qnite as plain as the present mistress of the White House, whom she resembles in several respect*. Her manners arc graceful and winning in the extreme. Though she k noted for her modest, retiring ways and her thorough domesticity more than for any other distinguish- ing characteristic, her educational accomplishments art- many and varied. In all the public life of her distin- guished companion she has been his constant helpmate and adviser. She is a quick observer, an intelligent listener, but undemonstrative in the extreme. "When the General was at Chickamauga, and everybody at Hiram was painfully anxious to get the latest news from the held of battle, Bhe sat quiet and patient in what is now Professor Hinsdale's cosy library, and was able to control the inmost emotions that swayed her breast. How she received the nev the General's nomination at Chicago will probably never be fully known, but everybody who knows her is sure that she was as undemonstrative as when waiting for new-, from Chickamauga." A visitor at their rural home in Ohio, giving an count of the household, wrote as follows of G field's mother, and of an interview with her: !' k Have you met my mother?' asked Gen. Garfield ** « No,' I replied; Tin: BIOQRAPUT Vl '0h, T want to introduce you then; you must know mother. 1 "He spoke of her so often, and so tenderly, I could not but sec that she was constantly in his thoughts. 1 went down stairs to see her. She is a very small woman and appeared almost diminutive beside her stalwart son. She is eighty years of age, quick in her movements, and in full posession of her mental faculties. She is thin, white-haired, rosy-checked, and has a prominent nose. " On being introduced, 1 found her rather reticent, she seemed to be most concerned about the children and the work around the house, that it should go on uninterrupt- edly." Both General Garfield and his wife were thoroughly attached to the region of country in which they were born, grew and dwelt during the earlier years of their happy married life ; but when he became a member of Congress be was compelled to have a home in Washing- ton also. His pecuniary means were limited, and during the greater portion of his congressional career, simplicity and economy were necessarily practiced in both homes. Garfield's Washington home (which he had built for himself), was plain, roomy, well arranged, every way comfortable, but, fortunately for him, it was not a large house, for when the family were in it, there was no other limit to its hospitality excepting its area in square feet. The house was always open to friends, "new and old. high and humble, plain and cultured;" There was in it a rare commingling of the atmosphere of politics, litera- ture, sociality, quiet family cultivation, children's sports, ami Unusual good nature. This metropolitan home was ;> modest, unpretentious JAMES A GARFIELD mansion of brick, plain and square built, near the famous Franklin School building-, and fronting on Franklin Square. The neighborhood is respectable, but bv do means fashionable. The parlor side windows of the bouse looked out on the pleasant park. A recent writer (1880) said : "Above all other places of interest in this house, however, is the library. Here is the working-ground of a man of energy and ideas; here the student and scholar lives and has being in the exclusion of the man ; here the statesman and politician takes nourishment and flourishes. The room is about twenty-five by fourteen feet, three windows opening south on I street, one to the east. The pattern carpet leaves about three feet of stained floor about the margin. In the centre and under the heavy chandelier is a double walnut ollice-desk, with an addition of pigeon-holes and boxes and drawers on the end. There is an air of legal brusqueness everywhere, of orderly dis- order, as if the owner cared less for general symmetry than for immediate convenience. " Half a dozen bookcases occupy the available space against the walls, and two or three thousand books freight their shelves. No two of these cases are alii.' the same height, width or make. It is as if the accumu- lation had from time to time overflown the limit of boot room, and another case had been hastily procured in which to store the surplus, and then, when that was full, another was added, and so on. Books, books, books ! It is the one striking feature of Mr. Garfield's home. They confront one in the hall upon entering, in the parlor and sitting-room and in the dining-room— yes, and even in the bath-room, where documents and speeehes arc ordeol 728 THE BIOGRAPHY OF up liku firewood. I would nut be at all surprise*! if a fair library could be discovered iu the kitchen. Among all these books there is not a trashy volume. Thev are law and history, biography, poetry, politics, philosophy, government, and standard works of all sorts, the accumu- lation of years of study, and the patient research of the scholur. And these are but a portion of Mr. Garfield's collection, a considerable one being at his country home in Ohio." Those who knew General Garfield best, speak with admiration of his untiring industry and ever studious habits. He was a continually hungry learner. His theory was that variation of labor was productive of rest. One of his friends has given this single illustration: "Once during the busiest part of a very busy session at "Washington I found him in his library, behind a big barricade of books. This was no unusual sight, but when I glanced at the volumes I saw that they were all different editions of Horace, or books relating to that poet. ' I find I am overworked and need recreation,' said the General. ' Now, my theory is that the best way to rest the mind is not to let it be idle, but to put it at something quite out- side of the ordinary line of its employment. So I am resting by learning all the Congressional library can show about Horace, and the various editions and translations of his poems.' " We have observed in our earlier portion of this vol- ume, that Mr. and Mrs. Garfield kept up their classical studies together while ho was on duty in Congress. He often found relief from the cares and fatigues of public life in literary pastime. He alludes to his longing for domestic quiet and the sweets of literature in the follow- ./AMES A. GARFIELD. 739 ing sentence in a letter to Colonel A. F. Rockwell, written at Washington in May, 1873 : " After many years of prosperity and success, it baa been my fortune to try the discipline of disaster, without any fault or wrong on my part. My name has been dragged into the whirlpool of calumny, and I have been defending nrjself against assault. I enclose you a copy of my review of the Credit Mobilier rascality, ami shall be glad to know how it strikes you. I think of you as away and in an elysium of quiet and peace, where I should love to he, out of the storm and in the sunshine of love ami books. Do not think from the above that I am despond- ent. There is life and hope and tight in your old friend yet." A few months afterwards (January, 1874), he wrote ;i- follows to Colonel Rockwell : "Permit me to transcribe a metrical version which \ made the other day of the third ode of Horace's first book. It is still in the rough : * To the Ship which carried Virgil to Athens. i. ' So may the powerful goddess of Cyprus, So may the brothers of Helen, twin stars, So may the father and ruler of tempest (Restraining all others, save only lapix), ii. ' Guide thee, ship, on thy journey, that owest To Attica's shores Virgil trusted to thee. I pray thee restore him, in safety restore him. And saving him, save me the half of my soul. ran THE BIOGRAPHY OF ill. 1 Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom Who first to the waves of the merciless sea Committed his frail hark. He feared not Africus, Fierce battling the gales of the furious North. IV. ' Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-be.iring Hyads, Xor the rage of fierce Xotus, a tyrant than whom Xo storm-god that rules o'er the broad Adriatic Is mightier, its billows to rouse or to calm. v. ' What form, or what pathway of death him affrighted, Who faced with dry eyes monsters swimming the deep, Who gazed without fear on the storm-swollen billows, And the lightning-scarred rocks, grim with death on the shore ? VI. ' In vain did the prudent Creator dissever The lands from the lands by the desolate sea, If o'er its broad bosom, to mortals forbidden, Still leap, all profanely, our impious keels. VII. ' Recklessly bold to encounter all dangers, Through deeds Grod forbidden still rushes our race ; The son of lapelus, Heaven-defying, By impious fraud to the nations brought fire. VI n. ' When fire was thus stolen from regions celestial Decay smote the earth and brought d*>wn in his train A new summoned cohorl of fevers o'erbrooding, And Pate, till then slow and reluctant to strike, IX. ' (lave wings to his speed and swift death to his victims. Bold Dffidalus tried the void realms of the air, Borne upward on pinions nul giv.en to mortals. The labors of Her< tiles broke into Hell. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 731 X. 1 Naught ia too high for the daring of mortals, Even Heaven we seek in our folly to scale : By our own impious crimes we permit not the thunder To sleep without flame in the right hand of Jove.' u I can better most of these verses, but send them to you as I lift them in the first rough draft." In 1875, General Garfield was compelled to submit to a painful surgical operation, and was obliged to remain in Washington several weeks after the adjournment of Con gress, waiting for recovery. On one of the peculiarly hot day 8 at the National Capital, a friend called upon him and found him alone with his wife. " I have been reading/' said the General from his sick bed, "charming, silly old Bozzy's [Boswell's] account of his journey with Dr. Johnson to the Hebrides over again. He is always the same kindly, lazy, genial man, forever saying good things — a sleek, soft-handed, softhearted giant of a fellow. I have read, since I have been lying here, struggling with this pain, eighteen volumes ; and I have indexed and common-placed them all. Pretty fair work, I take it, for six weeks of midsummer in Washington." " The narrative of 'Bozzy's journey ' lay beside him, and an immense atlas, supported by an elevated stand, stood near the bed opened at the map which showed tin- course of the travellers in their trip to the Hebrides. II is wife was tracing with a pencil the ins and outs which they took to the Northern Islands. It was in this w.iy that General Garfield was turning to profit the leisure that the surgeon's knife had given him." 732 THE BIOORAPBT OF At about that time (July 8, 1875), Gen. Garfield wrote to President Hinsdale as follows : " I am taking advantage of thin enforced leisure to do a good deal of reading. Since I was taken sick I Lave read the following : Sherman's two volumes ; Leland's 'English Gypsies;' George Borrow's 'Gypsies of Spain;' Borrow's ' Rom many Rye ;' Tennyson's 'Mary;' seven volumes of Fronde's England ; several plays of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a new book, which I think you will l>e glad to see, 'The History of the English People,' by Prof. Green, of Oxford, in one volume." General Garfield's rural home when he was elected President of the United States, was in Mentor, in Lake County, Ohio, where he purchased a farm of about one hundred and fifty acres, lying on each side of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. About 1875, he sold his cottage at Hiram, and built a little summer resi- dence on Little Mountain, a bold elevation in Lake Coun- ty, which commands a view of thirty miles of rich farming country stretched along the shores of Lake Erie. In 1877, lie bought the farm in Mentor. It was in a state of high cultivation, and there the statesman, when relieved of" harness in the public service, indulged in exquisite recrea- tion in directing field-work, and making improvements in building.-, fences and orchards. Twenty-five miles away is the beautiful citv of Cleveland ; and the pretty rural town of Painesville is only four or six miles distant. Within half a mile of the residence is B post-office and a railway station. About two miles away, through the woods, is the shore of Lake Erie, the place of the old farm-house. General Garfield ./.I. i//> .1. GARFIELD ;:u» built a new and quite spacious home, which may by from the Lake Shore Railway, and this pleasant country seat was named ' v Lawnfield." Major Bundy, injiis campaign life of Garfield, givee the following interesting account of his visit to " Lawn- field," after its master was nominated for the Presidency in 18SM ; "The new Mentor home, however, is the most aotable and visited place in the country, and all the housekeeping tact and ability of Mrs. Garfield are put to their sever- est test by the crowd of visitors. That she was equal to every emergency, and seemed at the end of each day's 'country hotel' keeping as fresh, undisturbed and free of care-marks as though the daylight hours had passed in elegant leisure, I can testify from an experience of an eight days' visit in the latter part of June and the first of July, when ' Lawntield ' was busiest and most populous. In that eventful period for the Garfield household, I failed to see that Governors and Senators and Con§ men and Generals and committee-men fared any better, or were treated with more courtesy, than 'common people.' If Governor Foster's arrival was hailed with unusual fervor, it was not because of his title, but because he was greeted as the old friend 'Charles, 5 or 'Charlie Foster,' by the older, and as 'Uncle Charlie' by the younger members of the family. His response to all these greetings was hearty, but especially to the last. ."Driving along the wide, pleasant, well-kept, I shaded road for six miles from the lovely town of Paines- ville, with lawn-surrounded houses worthy of the finest suburbs of New York, the firet impressions of ' Lawn- field ' are decidedly attractive. The aspect oi the large 784 TEE EIOORAPEY OF well-proportioned and honicdike product of Mrs. Garfield's skill and taste is that of the country place of a family who want plenty of room, indoors and on piazzas. Although costing far less than would be thought economical for a carriage-house up the Hudson, it is by no means an ordi- nary or uninteresting structure. To be particular : with its sixty feet of front and fifty of depth ; with its three stories, including that under the high and picturesque roof ; with its commodious piazzas without and wide hallways within, and graceful proportions generally, it is a piece of architecture that grows in one's esteem, especially as it so admirably fits into a lovely landscape, and is dignified by the number of the outbuildings, large and small, all suggesting the uses of actual farming and also perfect arrangement. " With enclosed grass fields in front and on the south- western side ; with the croquet lawn between it and the road ; with the orchard and garden on the east, and a lane in the rear through which the sunset glories trans- figure the bordering trees, and with the book and desk and table filled little house near and to one side of the rear, it suggests truthfully the living and working place of a family enjoying Nature's most human aspect — that iu which she responds to all of healthy, hard-working, simple, human nature's needs and tastes. Its interior arrangements show careful and thoughtful provision for the several and various demands of the family, especially the cosey and cheerful upstairs 'snuggery' of the General, and the delightful room, on the ground floor, with the front piazza on one side the garden on another, and the parlor on another, devoted to the uses of the most important and one of the busiest members of the JAMES .1. GARFIELD. household, independent, individual and uuiqno ' Mother' Garfield, who is as bright and vigorous as most old ladies of sixty or less, and between whom and her ' .1 there is a comradeship which is only abandoned when, in her judgment, the compliments of distinguished guests seem likelv to make him unmindful of his proper filial subordination. And yet, six months before the Chicago Convention, this mysterious and prophetic old lady one dav startled her son by entering his room, saying, oracu« larlv, 'James, you will be nominated for President next June,' and departing without saying or waiting for another word. She knew what she and Providence had been training- him for, as only a mother, and such a mother, can know by the mingled intuitions of heart and head. " The household was enlivened by the presence of the General's two eldest boys, Harry A. and James, just returned from the famous St. Paul's School, at Concord, ISew Hampshire, the former bringing a well-earned prize for English declamation. There were, besides, Mollie, a bright, joyous, beautiful girl just in her 'teens;' Irvin McDowell, next younger, and Abram, the youngest and most peculiar of a flock that has in it no ' black sheep." together with the son and daughter of Colonel Rockwell, of about the ages of Harry and Mollie. These are not mentioned by way of mere chronicling of personalities, but to illustrate the spirit that pervades the household of which they were the life and light. With all their v studies and sports, the father and mother Beemed to sym- pathize, and fully entered into, as though the latter were but ' children of a larger growth." "Love took the place of authority on the one Bide, 7:r, THE BIOGRAPHY OF and of fear on the other, and I believe the father had a more realizing and prouder sense of his boy Harry's success and manly promise than of his own triply accu- mulated p >litieal honors. Nor could I see that any mem- ber of the family seemed to be put at all out of his or her spiritual gear by the constant and inevitable allusions of visitors to the probable destiny of the plain head of the household. One might have supposed that it had 'run in the family' to have Presidential honors, to which, be it added, few allusions were made by any of its members, though all were pervaded with a pleased consciousness of the future, except the General himself, who does not welcome the approaching close of the free and unfettered activities that have so long been the joy of his vigorous life. And he did welcome every good chance to escape from the work of dealing with thousands of letters and dispatches and continual political calls and conferences, to talk over old times and incidents, and to discuss ques- tions far removed from politics. If ever a Presidential candidate was free from self-consciousness, and regarded himself only as the standard-bearer and representative of a great party and great principles, James A. Garfield is the man. " And he is best seen and known at his Mentor home, which he began to 'make' three years ago last spring. lie had felt a growing longing for his old-time relations with Nature, when by hard labor he earned his support from her bounties. He wanted the soul-resting labor of actual farming, and to get fresh vigor from actual contact with ' Mother Earth.' So he bought part of the farm be now owns, and has added until it comprises about one hundred and fifty acres. Like most of the farms that. JAMES A. Q Alt F 1111 D. border the old turnpike, or ' ridge road,' near the shore of Lake Erie, it has a small frontage, only fifty rods, and rnii6 back, across the 'ridge,' about a quarter of a mile in the rear, which was the old and wave beaten shore of the lake, down across the low and spring-moistened alluvial soil of the beautiful valley, in the middle Of which, oq the tracks of the Lake Shore Railway, the long and thun- dering trains, bearing the mighty traffic of twenty Bt suggests the heavy pulsations of a nation's vigorous life. " As his wife enlarged and gave beautiful proporr to the home-nest, so he mixed his practical and scientific farmer brains with the soil he set out to master. A wet and uncultivable field between the 'ridge' and the rail- road was scientifically drained, and made capable of big corn crops ; a hydraulic ram was put in the low land near the ridge, which received and was worked by the copious and pure spring water from the gravelly ridge, and made to send a constant and abundant supply for house and ont-honses, for people and for their dumb servants. A workshop, a tool-shop, a root-house, improved agricultural machinery, and the other outfits of a good farm were added; and in all the farm work, the master easily took the lead, working with a will, and until tired nature brought the solid rest that is not given to brain toilers, By this sort of actual companionship with Nature, he has recuperated from the prodigious overwork of legislation and politics, got renewed strength, and preserved hi.- "Id simplicity of tastes. He has got a more valuable crop out of that farm than is harvested from the largesi of tin* famous Minnesota wheat domains, that rival principalities in size and value. " T-vvo quite different opportunities of seeing < rarfiold 738 77//; BlOORAPnT OF in his relations with his fellows, outside of politics, wore afforded during my visit. The first was the Fourth of July celebration at Painesville, whose peculiar interest drew out the largest and best attendance of 'Western Reserve' people ever known in that handsome town, for there was to be witnessed the formal dedication of a noble ' Soldiers' Monument/ in the park-like public square, which had been many years in course of comple- tion, and then everybody wanted to see and hoar their own long-trusted and beloved representative, as of old, before the nation claimed him. There was a long and interesting procession, and there were several good speeches. " Ex-Governor Cox, the main orator, was scholarly and eloquent, of course ; the Hon. A. G. Riddle recalled, by his off-hand short speech, the memories of old-time irresistible pleas before 'Western Reserve' juries, and 7W£?/ftd correspondent E. V. Smalley, as one of the first company of Painesville volunteers, warmed up into a most effective style of reminiscence. But no one had a fair chance of securing the full attention of the thousands oi intelligent and earnest people who swarmed around the speakers' stand and back out of ear-shot, save the pride and glory of the 'district,' Garfield. And, moving around the crowd that hung breathlessly <>n every glowing and thrilling utterance of the ' citizen-soldier,' I could see how the 'old Western Reserve,' 'rises at' Garfield, and holds him in its heart of hearts, as greater than Giddings, vet unspoiled by success and unconscious of the fulness of his powers. "•The Fourth' came <>n the third, at enterprising Painesville. The next day, Sunday, afforded a totally dif- JAMES i GARFIELD, ftf ferent experience. I was asked to go to the ' Dis. : meeting-house, about a mile toward Painesville, and attend the worship there, and went, as did pretty nearly all the Garfield family. The meeting-house, is a small, old-fash- ioned rural New England sort of temple, built of boards and paiuted white, with commodious horse-sheds around. Tho attendance was not large, but of people who looked earnestly religious in their plain and primitive way. There was no 'preacher,' in the usual sense of that word. But in the preacher's seat was General Garfield's practi- cal, original and independent old friend and adviser, one of the most noted characters in the 'Reserve' Dr. J. I'. Robinson,- who, when young Garfield first seriously con- templated the task of getting a college education, careful- ly examined the brawny and brainy youth, at the Latter's request, and told him that he 'had the brain of a Web- ster/ and lung power and muscle to support it. "In his younger career the doctor was a famous and successful lay preacher, but with his large and varied busi- ness and farm interests, and advanced years, he confines his public exhortations to his own neighborhood church. His discourse was a plain and pungent and sometimes Barcastic and humorous attack on all human substitutes for, and ad- ditions to, the revealed word of God. He classed the com- plex modern ' theologies 'with the ' mythologies ' of « ild while admitting the value of a thorough theological traiu- ing, could not help alluding to the learned doctors of divin- ity whose preaching yielded few converts, while l Paul stole out of jail, converted a whole family, and got back so quickly that he was not missed.' * Dr. Robinson presided at the funeral obsequies of President Garfield, at Cleveland. 740 THE mOQUAVUY OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. M I confess that the plain and powerful talk of this vigorous eld man, whose grip on worldly realities and business is remarkable, and who seemed so equally sure of the c eternal verities' of the Gospel, with his uncon- sciously splendid contempt for any human assumptions of divine authority, gave me an impression not at all unfa- vorable to the ' Disciples' persuasion. Af tor the preaching- was over he asked the congregation to ' 6ing a song,' and proceeded, with the aid of two deacons, to administer the ' Lord's Supper,' as is done every Sunday by the ' Disci- ples.'' The ceremony was impressive by its very simplici- ty and evident sincerity. After the broken bread had been blessed and partaken of, the doctor asked 4 Brother Garfield ' to ask a blessing on the wine, and the latter did so, with the maimer of one who was performing a simple and customary duty. " Altogether the services were exceedingly suggestive of the apostolic times and of the notion that much might be learned from the misunderstood and humble ' Camp- bellites.' They gave me a much clearer conception of the natural and normal character of Garfield's ' preaching,' in his early manhood, and fur this reason had special value and significance. And it seemed to me that when a man so brilliantly successful in politics is so endeared to all his old neighbors, and moves them so deeply, one day, by his thrilling expressions of eulogy for the dead heroes of the war in which he freely exposed his own life, and the next day, among those with whom he has long worshipped in simplicity, as an earnest and devotional leader, ho lias a. largeness and wholeness of nature and life that inevitably draw to him the best sentiments of the people who know him best." APPENDIX. t Substantial Sympathy. Immediately after the wounding of President Gar- field, Cyrus W. Field, of New York City, gave public no- tice that he would endeavor to rake by subscription the sum of $250,000, to be invested in United States bonds, for the benefit of Mrs. Garfield and her family. The primary object of this fund was to defray medical and other expenses in case the President should live; but it was considered all the more desirable and necessary, should the wound prove fatal. Of the proposed sum, $150,000 were promptly sub- scribed ; but further subscriptions were suspended until after the President's death, when all classes of citizens seemed anxious to contribute to the fund. The amount subscribed soon amounted to sufficient to afford the family of the late President an annual income, from an in ment in United States four per cent, bonds, of abonl §1 7,000. 741 742 THE BIOGRAPHY OF II. Monument to the Memory of Garfield. Before the funeral of the late President Garfield, a project was conceived for raising a fund for the erection of a fine monument over his remains in Lake View Cemetery at Cleveland, Ohio. It was proposed to have the fund raised by popular subscription. A Garfield Monument Fund Committee was organized at Cleveland. That Committee issued the following circular : To the People of the United States : The movement to secure funds for the erection of a monument over the grave of James A. Garfield is being responded to from all sections of the country — East, West, South and North. In order to make it popular and suc- cessful it is desirable and will be necessary for the citizens of the different States to immediately organize. The com- mittee hereby request all national banks, private bankers, savings banks, newspapers and postmasters to call attention to the movement by posting notices and otherwise, aud to receive contributions and to remit the same to the Second National Bank of Cleveland, Ohio, which has been designate ed as treasurer of the fund; also to Bend the names and office address of all contributors. These names will all be recorded m books that will be preserved in the monu- ment. All contributions will be receipted for by the Sec- ond National Bank. J. II. AVade, Joseph Pekkin-*, H. B. Paym . J. II. Rhodes. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 74:t III. President Garfield's Fortitude. Colonel Rockwell, General Garfield's intimate personal friend and devoted attendant during his long 6truggle for life, lias left on record the following account of the mar- vellous display of fortitude by the illustrious sufferer during the fearful conflict : " He was brave, patient and uncomplaining, but never, while I was with him, in what could be called good spirits. Those who suppose he could have been so, don't know the awful character of his wound, and the desperate nature of his struggle. I can't remember that lie ever attempted to smile but once. We know that he was hopeful, but we' learned it mure from the steady, brave light in his eyes than from any assurances he gave. He seemed determined to waste nothing of his strength, but to bend it all to the contest. I think he realized that hope lay most in his own will and judgment, and he occupied his mind in their exercise. " During the first few weeks, his suffering was acute and terrible, but through it all the light in his eyes was clear, and his courage never seemed even to falter, and upon him, rather than anything that could be done for him, I built my confidence. Poor man, he had no reason to smile, but on the other hand, he rarely permitted him self to express in any way the degree of his suffering. Once only, while I sat by his bedside fanning him, did ho give way to an uncontrolled manifestation of his agony ; *44 THE BI0QRA1WY OF then, suddenly lifting Lis arms to my neck, lie cried ont, in the nervous agitation of the moment, ' Save me.' It, came so suddenly that it nearly broke me down, but it was as quickly passed, and lying perfectly motionless, the look of determination came into bis eye- again, and, paying no word, be seemed to settle himself again to the silent, single-handed contest he was making. For days and days it went on the same. It was an excitement and a stimulant to see the evidence M his unfaltering courage, and wo lived upon it. The awful time came when we could see that there was literally nothing but his will left. Strength gone, utterly, lie still lived, but oh, how pitiful now, when in the weakness of his suffering he would often reach out his hand to lay it on the face of the friend by his bedside, and stroke with a caressing move- ment and the touch peculiar to the helplessness of an inf unt." — Ch ioago In ten- Ocean . IV. President Garfield, and Fatalism and Coincidences. A correspondent of the New York Times, writing of General Garfield, while he was a candidate for the Presi- dency in 1> V ", said : "Those who are familiar with General Garfield say that for many yeare he cherished the belief that he would no1 live to be older than his father was when he died, and that he would die in some ^udden and violent manner. His frieuds, with all their persuasion, were net able to make bim dismiss thia thought. He would sav in answer 'I I ' I VjUMESABRftMGARFi^f lfL> UNITED STATES' rcr JULY 2-MS8I. Sjfl^LiS*- EKEGTE® IJt THE ^LTIJ.1 . ^SCPOS-, WHEI{E CPIlE8I(T>E}t woman is so handsome and witty and ac- complished that she can aflord to do tint. Ten chances in the dozen, the man will say, if not to the woman herself, at least to himself, " I was about to ask you, but I think you are just a little too willing ; I believe I'd rather not/' The American people like to discover a man. Then tluy can claim him as their own by an old and established us- age. They will discover him sooner or later, if there is anything in him worth discovering. I have more confi- dence in the judgment of the united intellect of the Am- erican people than in anything else in the world. Great men and orators may move and modify it, and knaves and charlatans may pervert it, but, sooner or later, the true con- clusion will be reached, and right and justice will tri- umph.' " A correspondent of the Ilartford (Conn.) Times, writ- ing at Washington, D. C, on October IS, 1881, relates some curious facts in relation to President Garfield's mind. lie say a : " On the 26th of August, the day on which the late Presi- dent's physicians first gave him up as beyond recovery, General R I). Mussey, a lawyer of this city, being asked whether he expected the President would recover, said ho did not, but thought ha would die on the L9th of Septeiu- ber, the anniversary of the first day of the battle of ( Ihicka- mauga. His prediction postponing death for so long h. time attracted considerable attention, and much more com- ment since, it being verified. The Times' correspondent railed on Gen. Mussey here to-day and obtained from him some particulars oi the prediction, lie said: "The Pred JAMK8 a Garfield. 749 dent never told me that he thought he would die on the 19th, as has been printed in some papers; Marshal Hen- ry, a particular friend of his, however, told nn> that the President told him that he thought he would die cm the 19th of November of last year, his forty-ninth birthday. Gen. Garfield was never in any way what might be called superstitions, though he was a great believer in dab quences, and coincidences. The New England stork which peopled the West are like him in that respect. Garfield's mind was analytical, and he gave such matters more attention than most people do. I will give you an incident illustrating what I mean. On the 19th of June of the present year the Army of the Cumberland (of which Gen. Garfield was a distinguished and honored and I a humble member) had a grand re-union. Not one of the party thought about the date until Judge DeveU6, of Massachusetts, in responding to the toast k> The Ladies/ 1 accidentally referred to it, adding that the selection of the date of the dinner was a happy one. in view of the fact that it was the anniversary, as far as the date, but not the month, was concerned, of one of the largest battles of the Army of the Cumberland. C "A few minutes afterwards, in speakingto the Presi- dent, I asked if he had noticed the similarity of his nom- ination with that of Lincoln. He said lie had. And 1, without, thinking of it, said, Providence may have the same destiny, for you. lie did not answer for awhile, remaining silent and thoughtful. Then he said, '* The first "Western man elected to the Presidency was Harrison, of Indiana. Lincoln was elected in 1S60, and I was elected in 1880." Thinking that we had not noticed the Jumps of twenty years, he saidj " '40, J 60 and '80, what :,n THE BWGJtAPfff <>F does tit: t mean' Then, again,' 1 said the President, "look at the part Indiana has played in it. Besides having the honor itself iii Harrison's case, it was Indiana that turned the scales, and made Lincoln the Republican nominee and President. It was Indiana by Ben Harrison, a grandson of President Harrison, that cast the vote of Indiana that made me the nominee and President." Then, tap- ping his finger on the hack of his hand, he repeated 1840, 1S60, 1880. 'Did he continue the sequencer 'Oh yes, said he ; "Harrison died while he was President, and in the White House ; Lincoln was assassinated while he was President; what will become of me?" Of course, this put us all, or at least the little group that sat about him, thinking of coincidences, and T asked the President if he had noticed a Shakespearean quota tion on Marcus Ward's business calendar of the date he was nominated for President. He said he had re- ceived at least fifty of them from different persons; all of whom called his attention to the peculiarity of the quotation. It was from "Julius Caesar :" " Oh, that a man might know the end of this day's business ere it comes." In view of all the circumstances, this was a remarkable incident, and it had considerable effect oh the President. While he did no< believe in Special acts of Providence, he liked to talk of .such things, and reason out conclusions. The incident following his nomination was in the same line. I published it during the campaign, after securing the President's permission, though I then stated it was on information furnished by General Swaim. It was furnished by Swaim first, and by the President after- ward. "'While on hi. wav to the building in which the ./ i )//:.s i. GARFIELD. convention was held at Chicago, a man handed him on the streets a circular or dodger of some kind. II- he lirst supposed it was a railroad advertisement. He was about throwing it away, when he noticed that it had ex tracts from the Scriptures on it. Not having time to read it then, he crushed it up, and put it into his pocket On the close of that day he was nominated, and before he left the convention he had received hundreds of tele grams extending congratulations. Going to his room, he emptied his pockets on a table, telling Swaim to save those that should be saved, and destroy those that should be destroyed. General Swaim was doing this when he saw the crumpled paper. Opening it, he read it, and was so struck with the quotations that he saved it until General Garfield returned, when he read it. Garfield told me it made the hair of his head almost stand on end. There were two quotations. The first was this: "The. stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner." The other was : "Neither is there salvation in any other : For there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." The connection of the two quotations lay in the fact that Garfield had never been spoken of a- a candi- date before the convention, and that he was about the only man who could bring the factions of the party a- . then together, and march through to victory. He coin biried the party as hardly another man could. The l'.'th was an important date in his life. It was the day of his birth, of his greatest triumphs, and finally it was the date of his death.' " THE BIOGBAPIll >>t Honored w Vi r Many tributes of honor, reverence ;md love, in poetic effusions, were offered to the memory of the late President after bis death. The last poem, it is believed, written by the l;it<- 1 >r. J. G. Holland. following, on the death of the illustrious statesman, in which the public horror is portrayed : •• A wasp flew out upon our fairest son. And stung him to the quick with poisoned shaft, The while !.e chatted carelessly ami laughed. And knew not of the fateful mischief done. And life, amid onr love begnii. Envenomed by tin- insects hellish craft, AVas drunk by Death in one long feverish draught, And he was lost — our precious, priceless one! Oli. mystery of Mind, remorf Oh, cruel end of a most causeless hate ! That life so mean >h<>uld murder I great I "What is there left to us who think and feel, "Who have do remedy, and no appeal, But damn the was}) and crush him under heel ?" Docl : Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the (Gar- field Memorial number of the Boston Daily Globe, t la- following poem, entitle : iik Bubial. I. Fallen with autumn's falling leaf l.i, summer's noon was p JAMES A QAtlFIELD. 74g Our friend, our guide, our trusted chief, — What words can match a woe bo east, And whose the chartered claim to speak The sacred grief where all have part, When sorrow saddens e,very pheck And broods in every aching heart '. Vet nature prompts the burning phrase That thrills the hushed and shrouded hall, The loud lament, the sorrow ing 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, — seen t less, — 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 peacef il choice Fills witli a breath its empty throne! God, speaking through thy people's voice Has made that voice for once his own. No angry passion shakes tin: State Whose weary servant seeks for rest, — And who could fear that M-ouliiie hate Would strike at that unguarded breast '. 734 THE BIOGRAPHY OF He stands unconscious of las doom, In manly strength, erect, serene, — Around him summer spreads her bloom, — llf falls, —what horror clothes the scene 1 How swift the sudden Hash of woe Where all was bright as childhood's dream I 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 battleground of pain: Love tends his pillow, science tries Her every art, alas ! in vain. The strife endures how lone! how lonir! Life, death, seem balanced in the scale, While round his bed a viewless throng Awaits each morrow's chanmnir tale. In realms the desert ocean parts What myriads watch with tear-filled eyes, Ilis pulse-beats echoing in their hearts, His breathings counted with their sighs! Slowly filestores of life are spent, Yel hope still battles with despair, — Will Heaven not yield when knees are bent i Answer, () Thou that hearest prayer! Bnl silent is the bra/.ell sky, ( >n sweeps the meteor's threatening train, — JAMtiS A. GAliFTELD. Unserving Nature's mute reply, Bound in her adamantine chain. Not ours the verdict to decide Whom death shall claim or skill shall save; The here'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-strown earth enfolds Our stay, our pride, our hopes, our fears, • And autumn's golden sun beholds A nation bowed, a world iu tears. Louisa Parsons Hopkins, author of " Motherhood," wrote the following poem for the memorial number of the Globe, entitled " Laurel — Cypress." March 1, 1881. He stands at the Capitol's portal With lifted hand. The vows of Go 1 are upon him For the trust of the land ; Chief true and grand! His manhood turns in its glory To womanhood. To his wife and mother he yearns From the multitude : Heart true and good ! 756 THE BIOGBAPET OF He crowns them before the people With kiss of love. See it. ye men, and shout, Full hearts will out ; Rend the heavens above ! September 23, 1881. He lies in the wide rotunda With folded palms ; " Wounded for our transgressions." Comrades in arms, Spread ye his pall, For the peace of all ! The thronging crowds have passed him, With falling tear ; A queenly woman's garland Upon his bier ; Knight without fear, Man brave and dear ! In this his martyr-glory Leave him alone; For his kiss-crowned wife is coming. Though dead — he ha.s known She would come — his own, — To share his throne. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe wrote the following poem for the Boston Globt : 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 rne&oaffe hv ox\r tears is shaped. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 7M 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 light 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 ! TCo;e of joy, that hid'st a thorn so sharp ! Ah ! Golden woof that meet'st a severed warp ! 758 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Ah ! Solemn comfort that the stars rain down ! The Hero's garland his. the Martyr's crown ! Newport, September 25, 1881. The following beautiful poems appeared in different journals : After All's Done. BY THE AUTHOR OF ".JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." His wife iisked where was his pain. Garfield answered, "Darling, even to live is pain." ** To live was pain — to die is peace ; Falling asleep in tender arms ; Ended vain hopes, more vain alarms, Blind struggles for impossible ease. Yes, life was loss, and death is gain ; The martyr's blood the church's seed. O Christian, to Christ's world-large creed Faithful till death ! — die, rise and reign ! Reign, king-like, o'er the souls of men ; Shame them from paltry lust of gold, From public honor bought and sold, From venal lie of tongue or pen. Reign in the hearts of women brave, Fit mothers of the men to be; Like that true woman loved by thee, Whom God so loved He could not save. But thou art saved — her hero ! Thine The glorious rest of battle won, A setting of the mid-day sun. And lo ! the stars burst out and shine. JAMES A. &ABFIBLD. No long dull twilight of weak age, Morn's glow forgot in paisty night. Thy record was full writ in light, And then— thine angel closed the page. All's clone, all's said. The tale is told. Across the ocean hands clasp hands: One voice of weeping from all lands Binds the new world unto the old : Then— silence ; and we go our ways, Work our small work for good or ill : But thou, through whom the Master's will Was done, and didst it, to His praise, Go straightway into eternal light ! On earth among the immortal dead ; In heaven— that mystery none hath read : We walk by faith, and not by sight. But this we know, or feel, half known : He who from evil brings forth good, His message, although writ in blood, Has left upon thy funeral stone. Breaking the "News." " Who will break the news to mother ?" Was the daughter's grieving cry At the tidings that a brother Had at last been called to die. "She will be bereft, heartbroken. When she hears that life has fled ; Who will break the news to mother? Who will tell her James is dead F 1 On her couch she sweetly slumbered. Dreaming pleasant dreams of him ; fOO THE BIOGRAPHY OF Almost eighty years she numbered, And her eyes with age were dim. Who could bear to see the sorrow That would bow that silver head ? Who could listen to her weeping Wnen they told her James was dead? Waiting for her feeble fingers, On the shelf the message lay, That should pierce her loving bosom On that fair September day. And they passed her room in silence, Where the Holy Book she read ; In the sunlight of the morning She must learn that James was dead. With a slow but gentle stepping Came the unsuspecting dame, To the presence of the children Who were whispering her name; And they tried their grief to smother, As she met their troubled sight ; \Vho could break the news to mother That her darling died last night ? That beside the moaning ocean He was lying still and calm, With tin.' waves' eternal motion Chanting his funereal psalm. That while white-winged ships were sailing Homeward to a flowery lea. He was drifting, darkly drifting, Out upon death's shadowy sea. And they broke the news to mother, Arid she hi- 1 her face in woe, jami:s a. <;m; FIELD. ' nl And she wept, alas ! how sorely, For the precious one laid low. But with trembling voice she faltered, Ere her tears had ceased to run, With her faith in God unaltered : f| Let the dear Lord's will be done." Such a son, and such a mother, Can endure to part awhile ; And the sisters of this brother Yet shall greet him with a smile. He was scholar, soldier, statesman, He was proud Columbia's head; But that fairer title, " Christian," Clings about this hero dead. " Who will break the news to mother 3" No one now has need to say ; She has knelt beside his coffin, She has seen it borne away. There will come no " news" for " mother," Henceforth, till her crown is won, From the princely child who kissed her In the gaze of Washington. The Last Bulletin. BY MARIE E. BLAKE. Bay after day, as morning skies did flame — " How fares our Liege T we cried with eager breath, " How fares our Liege, who fights the fight with death C And ever with fresh hope the answer came, Until that solemn midnight when the clang Of woful bells tolled out their tale of dread. 703 THE BIOGRAPHY OF That he, the good and gifted one, was dead, And through his weeping land the message rang. Thon in the darkness every heart was bowed : While thinking on the direful ways of Fate, Where Love could thus he overthrown by Hate, — " So wrong hath conquered right !"' we said aloud : " If this be life, what matter how it flies ; What strength or power or glory crowns a name , What noble meed of honesty or fame, Since all these gifts were his. — and there he lies Blighted by malice ! Woe's the day ! and dead While yet the fields of his most golden prime Are rich in all the pomp of summer time, With all their ripening wealth unharvested !" Thus fares it with our Liege I Nay, doubting soul, Not thus ; but grandly raised to nobler height Of strength and power and most divine delight, — At one swift breath made beautiful and whole ! Nor mocked by broken hope or shattered plan. By some pale ghost of duty left undone, By haunting moments wasted one by one, Bui crowned with that which best becometh man. Holding with brimming hands his heart's desire ; While the tierce light of these last glorious days, Blazing on each white line of thought and ways, Touches his record with immortal fire! Boston, September 35, 1881. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 763 President Garfield. BY HARRIET MABEL 8PALDINO. " Dead ! dead ! a nation's pitying tears Flow o'er our land from mount to sea : .With drooping folds her Hag appears, Her flag— the emblem of the free. O'er our fair shore, in tower and hall, • Dark elouds of heaviest sorrow sleep, Flow fast, ! tears ! let one and all, Like children, for their father, weep. II. Oh, great, true heart, that stored no wrong, Treasured no base nor ill intent, What powers were thine of hope so strong ! What virtues in thy nature blent ! Dead ! dead ! and still from mount to Bttand Comes the sad wail, the soul-breathed prayer, The badge of mourning drapes our land, And all one mutual sorrow share. III. Oh ! could the bugle's ringing cry Wake him to join the quivering fray, How grandly would his voice reply, As on red rhickamauga's day. But now our tears unbidden fall. O'er him let party tumults cease, And strive to guard as brother.-, all. His creed— the holy creed of peace. :<;■» THE i;io,i;.\t'ii) OF IV. 80 bring the flowers, and lay them low O'er the white hands in rest serene, With dark leaves crown the lilies' snow, Our own heart-tears will keep them green. For hini one common grief we bear. For him the s;id dirge sinks and swells, For him a world's united prayer. White wreaths and snowy immortelles. V. Toll ! toll ! O bells ! from land to sea, For him, our fallen chieftain, toll : Toll for that chainlesj spirit free, For him, that grand, departed soul. The cross is laid forever down, Fought is the tight, the victory won, Christ, with di vines t honors crown Thy chosen and earth's martyred son ! In Mkmoki.vm. General James Abraham (iaukikld, PRESIDENT OF TUE CKITED STATES. Quills pure and strong from God still wing their Might And dwell among us for a little space ; N\ lioso loves truth may in their beauty trace The semblances of the everlasting light. Too soon the beam of truth is quenched in night. The nations in their shame their ga/.e abase, Mourning that men should scorn the Heaven-sent grace. And set all good below their narrow spite, JAMES i Q [RFIELD. The great may perish, but their name endures, A mountain beacon by whose flame we find The path that leads us high above the plain. So Garfield to Columbia's sons assures A high ensample of the equal mind, As modest in success as brave in pain. J. W. VI. A Medical Review. The following is a review, by Dr. D. W. Bliss, of the medical treatment of President Garfield, published in the Medical Record, after the President's death : "The great interest which has been manifested by the medical public in the surgical history of the case of President Garfield, and my close and direct connection with it as surgeon in charge, from the time I was sum- moned until his death, imposes upon me the obligation of giving, even at this early date, a general summary of the salient points connected with its diagnosis, treatment and pathology. u It seems important at this time, in view of an im- plied demand on the part of my professional brethren throughout the country, that at the risk of anticipating the complete and technical report, which will appear in due time under the editorial direction of J. J. Woodward, Surgeon United States Army, and signed by all the gen- tlemen associated with me, that I should present such data as may serve to give the leading facts of the general plan of management of the case, the reasons t<>v making 766 THE MOGRArilY OF the diagnosis, and such other points as were developed in its study, which may serve to explain the most im- portant autopsical lesions, the report of which accom- panies this paper. • "Perhaps these conditions can be fulfilled in no better way than by a summary in which the main and important "data are given in the form of a general medical history. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state at this point that I shall not undertake to reproduce the daily bulletins, nor a minute history of the dietetics, as they are not neces- sary to enable the profession to comprehend the general treatment as applied to the case in view of the erroneous diagnosis made, or to the conditions presented by the autopsy. " Immediately after the shooting of President Gar- field, on the morning of July 2, I was summoned by the Secretary of War to take charge of the case. I was con- ducted to an upper room in the building, where I found the President lying upon a mattress, in a semi-prone posi- tion on the left side. lie presented the appearance of perfect collapse, the lines of expression were lost, there was extreme pallor, sighing respiration (about eight or ten per minute), pulse exceedingly small, feeble, and frequent, and ranging about 120. The ingcsta lying upon the mattress indicated that he had recently vomited, and upon mentioning the fact the President replied that he had not ; but assurances from the physicians and others, with the evidences before me, Indicated that the emesia had taken place while he was unconscious. Large beads of perspiration stood upon his face, forehead, hands and forearms. " There were present at that time Dr. Bmitb. Townsenclj JAMES A. <; A A7-7 /•'//>. fclie Health Officer of the District, and Dr. Purvis. The former, who was the first physician \>> reach the wounded President, informed me that he had administered half mi ounce of brandy and a dram of aromatic spirit* "i ammonia internally. The President's coat had previously been removed ; the remainder of his clotlting was intact, except that over the region of the wound, which was -" arranged as to expose the point of entrance of the ball. '* The President complained of a sense of weight and numbness, and subsequently of a tingling sensation and pain in the lower extremities. With a view of exploring the wound to ascertain the course of the ball and th<- or- gans involved in its passage, I introduced a Nelatoii probe which took a direction downward and forward, on a line which would represent a point of exit four inches to the right, and nearly directly opposite to the umbilicus. Tin- point of entrance of the ball, which was oval and sharply cut, was on the right side, four inches from the median line of the spine, and on a line with the eleventh rib. A slight discharge of blood was oozing from this orifice, and had soiled the clothing. I passed the probe in the direction previously indicated, through the tenth intercostal space for a distance of three an 1 one-half inches from the surface of the body to what appeared to bea cavity, and I was unable to detect any foreign substance beyond the rib to indicate the presence of fragments of bone or the missile. In at tempting to withdraw the probe it became engaged be- tween the fractured fragments and the end of the rib, and could not be liberated until pressure was made npoi sternal end of the rib, so as to slightly elevate it- frac4 extremity. I then passed the little finger of mvlcft hand to its full extent into the wound, which developed the ?Ofl 'I'll!' BIOO UM'IIY OF character and extent of the fracture of the rib,' and was only able t«> reach a point on a line with the inner Sin-face of the rili, where it came in contact with what appeared to be lacerated tissue or comparatively firm congnla, probably the latter. After withdrawing my finger i made an ex- ploration With a long, flexible silver probe, which I Suitably curved before entering, and gently passed it down- ward and forward, and downward and backward in several directions, with a view of indicating the course of the ball, if it had been deflected by contact with the rib, and meet- ing with resistance from soft parts 1 desisted and excluded the probability of deflection, being inclined to the opinion that the ball had entered the liver, which, if true, would not warrant further exploration in that direction. " By this time a large number of physicians had gath- ered in the room, and I gave to them a hurried account of my examination, and expressed the opinion that no fur- ther explorations should be made during the stage of col- lapse, and that stimulants by the stomach should not at that time be given, as the president was suffering from constant nausea, and in his condition of collapse absorption would not take place, and further, that they would become a source of additional irritation. In these opinions, ex- pressed at the council in one corner of the room, the phy- sicians concurred. The gentlemen in attendance at this time, so far as I can recollect, were Drs. Townsend, Purvis, Reyburn, fforris, Lincoln, and Ford. "The President repeatedly requested that he be taken to the White House, and after further consultation and a full understanding of the manner and detail of his trans- fer, his speedy removal wa.s agreed upon. Temporary dressings were applied to the wound, when the President JAMES A. QAIIFIELD. was lifted on to the mattress, carefully placed upon a stretcher, coitveyod down stairs, and placed in an ambu- lance in waiting; The vehicle was driven with great care over the rough pavement of Sixth street, about 4o yards 1 distance, until reaching the smooth asphalt pavement of Pennsylvania Avenue. The great rush of people in the excitement made it necessary to move rapidly. On the way there was no disagreeable motion in the carriage, which fact is attested by Dr. Townsend and ethers who accompanied me in the ambulance. On inquiry, the Presi- dent replied that the motions of the carriage did not give him any discomfort. At the street railroad crossings at Seventh and Fourteenth streets the vehicle was driven with exceeding caution, and with scarcely an uncomfor- table motion. He was then taken in the same manner as before to his room, and placed with extreme caution on the low family bed. The room is known as the south- west, or family room of the house. On his arrival thither a careful examination was made of his condition. The pulse continued feeble, frequent, and extremely compress- ible; the respiration was slow and sighing: extremities and surface cold, with occasional vomiting and profile perspiration over the entire body ; voice husky, with con- stant complaint of severe pains in the inferior extremities. He was placed upon his right side, so as to make the wound dependent, to facilitate drainage and keep the vis- cera in contact with the injured parietes, with a view of preventing further hemorrhage and looking to the possi- ble adhesion of the injured parts to the peritoneum. A: ter consultation it was deemed improper to remove the clothing, as such a proceeding would thus increase the danovrs. Water was given, in small quantities, of ten re- 770 THE BtOQRAPHl. OJf peated. This was necessitated by the extreme thirst from which the patient suffered. •' A hypodermic injection of one-eighth of a grain of morphine and one-eightieth of a grain of atropia was ad- ministered to control the pain in the extremities, and as a more permanent stimulant to assist reaction. The place selected for injection was the dorsal aspect of the fore- arm. This was about 10 a. m. July 2. '• There was hut little change in the condition of the patient, either in temperature, respiration or pulse, until about eleven o'clock, when it was determined to repeat the morphine in the dose of one-sixth of a grain, the atropia being omitted. This soon had the effect of modifying the pain and discomfort, and the respiration became more frequent and easy. The pulse responded but little to the stimulants. Nausea and vomiting con- tinued at intervals of thirty minutes during tjje entire ■ lay and until 7 p. m., when it became less frequent, with lese retelling- -in fact, being simply ;. regurgitation of the fluids of the stomach. This condition continued at longer intervals, until six o'clock the following morning. " At 5.30 p.m., in accordance with a previous under- standing with the physicians, the clothing was removed by being cut from the body in such a manner as to prevent any motion or agitation, and to permit the more suc- cessful application of >\v\ heat by warm llannels to the entire body, which had been imperfectly accomplished before. Upon examination, a well-defined held of dull- over the region of the wound, thought to be due to hemorrhage in the substance of the liver, along the sup- posed track of the ball, extended seven and one-half JAMES A. GAltFlELD. 771 inches antero-posteriorly and five and one-half inches lateral 1 j. " The urine was retained until 6 o'clock p. m., when a flexible, velvet-eyed catheter was introduced, and about tax ounces of normal urine drawn. During the remainder of his illness, the urine was voided without restraint, and frequent careful examinations were made, proving the ah- sence of albumen or other significant abnormal ingre- dients. A spontaneous evacuation of the bowels took place on July 3, which was natural in character and free from blood or other foreign matter. After this, and during the entire period of his illness, the President was not sub- ject to diarrhoea, and his movements were either spon- taneous or regulated by enemata. The only exception to this was that, during the last few days of his illness, occasional small involuntary evacuations took place, which seemed to depend upon the existence of large hemor- rhoids, which, from their size and locality, produced dila- tation and partial paralysis of the sphincter muscle, the evacuation always occurring in an effort to expel flatus. "At 10 p. m. the pulse was 158, temperature 0»'>.r> . respiration 35, which was the most critical period attend- ing the collapse. At 11.20 p.m., the evidences of reaction began to manifest themselves. "When the pulse had diminished to 120, the tem- perature had risen to 98° Fahrenheit, and the respiration was 18. The carbolized absorbent cotton, which had previously sealed the wound, having become displaced, was reapplied. " Until 2 p. m. of July 3, the variations of pulse were comparatively slight, ranging from 104 to 120. the res- piration beino- normal. 20 ;;■*> Tee biogkafiiy ot { " Tho patient slept at short intervals, generally arous- ing with an effort at regurgitation of the contents of the stomach, but otherwise expressed a feeling of ccgnfort and gave evidences of rest. During ihe night, he seemed to l>e refreshed, and was comparatively free from pain. There was no time after my lir^t visit, up to this period, that the patient was not perfectly rational, and often made brief, pertinent inquiries as to the character of 'the wound and his condition. At the evening consultation July 2 (7 r. m.) the opinion was expressed by some of the medical gentlemen invited to the case, that internal hemorrhage had taken place, and that he would not survive the night, and ex- pressed those views to the council. Tho symptoms of profound collapse were so gravo that Surgeon-General Wales was induced to express the opinion that tho Presi- dent was dying. " The consultations heretofore referred to were, as a matter of course, held in the adjoining room. Only three or four physicians of the number present were invited to visit the bedside on each occasion to make per- sonal examinations, to verify tho reported progress, and enable them to intelligently advise the council. "Tho gentlemen invited by me to visit tho bedside were Surgeon-General Wales, Surgeon J. J. Woodward and Dr. Reyburn. On that occasion, tho opinion was ex pressed that the field of dullness heretofore referred to, ihe boundaries of which were well defined, was thought to be • .1. ti.SUFin IK 77:: the extreme prostration and feebleness of the respiration were duo to that cause, and that the President would not survive the night. " There was some oozing of dark venous blood durin«- the entire night, sufficient to saturate the oarbolized cotton, and stain the bed. On the following mom inn-, the hemorrhage had entirely ceased, and the dressings became adherent to the skin. " All the physicians visited the White House at 8 a. m. July 3, for the morning consultation, agreeably to a previous understanding that such should be the case if the President survived the night. "At this consultation Surgeon-General Barnes and Surgeon Yv'oodward, United States Army, Dr. Reybnrn and Dr. N. S. Lin coin, visited the bedside of the patient with me,with a view T of making the necessary examinations, dress- ing the wound and of reporting results to the other mem- bers of the council. The patient was found with a pulse of 115; the temperature was nearly normal, as was the respiration. lie was cheerful, gave evidence of being rested, and made definite inquiries regarding his condition and prospects. The use of morphine hypodermicnlly, in doses of sufficient quantities to control the pain in the ex- tremities was advised, and it was agreed that the patient should continue to occupy the position on his right side as before directed, so far as was possible ; and that the Wuiind should be exposed only when the dressings became disar- ranged ; and that their character should not be changed. "Immediately after the consultation, the .subject of medical attendance was considered by the President. The only persons present were, besides the President, Mr<. (nnCield. and myself. He then formally placed himself nn- 774 the Biography otf der ruy professional care, ami requested me to select my counsel the result of which is well known. lie also de- sired me to individually thank the large number.bf physi- cians who had composed the council up to that time, which I accordingly did, ••"The primary reaction reached its highest point of tem- perature, pulse and respiration at 2 p.m., on Sunday, July 3. Slight tympanites was detected, but no pain on pressure, nor any marked rigidity of the abdominal walls. These were the only symptoms which pointed to the existence of peritonitis throughout the whole course of the case, and the spontaneous movement of the bowels, already noted, was an additional evidence that the peritoneum was not involved. " At 10.45 p.m., the pulse had gradually increased in frequency until it reached 120. The temperature re- mained at 100, and respiration at 20. At this time Dr. D. Hayes Agnew, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Frank II. Hamil- ton, of New York, were summoned to visit the patient in consultation. Dr. Agnew arrived about 4 o'clock the fol- lowing morning, July 4, and Dr. Hamilton at 6 a.m.. They were presented to the President formally at the con- sultation, 8.15 a.m., July 4, at which time the pulse was 104, temperature 99.4°, and respiration 19. lie had passed a comparatively comfortable night, awakening every 20 or 30 minutes, taking water or liquid nourishment in small quantities each time, and dropping quickly to rest. The nausea had quite subsided, and the pain and soreness of the lower extremities was measurably controlled by the administration of morphia, which was continued in quar- ter-grain doses each evening, administered hypodermical- JAMES A. GARFIELD. ??;, " A careful review of the case from the time I first saw the President was given to these gentlemen^ with the request that they, with the data before them, examine the case thoroughly, as though it was their own, and freely ex press their views of the character and gravity of the in- jury and the course of treatment of the case up to that time. I also gave them a detailed account of the explora- tions made in the wound, and the unsettled convictions as then held as to the course of the missile and the organs in- volved in the injury. They individually examined the wound with great care. These examinations consisted in the introduction, in different directions, of probes, flexible bougies, in order, if possible, to determine the coilrs< the ball. With the evidences developed by this personal examination, together with the complete history of the shooting of the President, and the progress <>f the symp- toms for the first 47 hours, they proceeded to discuss the possible course of the ball and organs involved, viz., whether it passed directly forward into or through the liver, or was deflected backward at a right angle BO as to in- volve the spinal column, or downward behind the perito- neum toward the pelvic cavity. Carefully weighing all the evidences, the more prominent symptoms upon which the diagnosis was based are presented in the following cider : The relative position of the assassin to the President at the time of the shooting, the direction of the ball through the tissues, so far as safe exploration could determine, grad- ual subsidence or modification of pain and hyperesthesia of the feet and scrotum; the repeated unsuccessful efforts to pass a probe or flexible instrument more than one-half inch in any direction beyond the fractured rib, except m a direction downward, a little forward and anterior to the 776 THE BIOGRAPHY twelfth rib, a distance of about two inches. The (act also was considered that explorations had twice been made with the linger — one by m;. .:.- . .<-hed the injured President, and subsequently by Surgeon-General Wales, of the Navy, on the occasion of the consultation on the evening of July 2 ; and in each instance it was found impossible to successfully explore by that means beyond the inner border of the fractured rib, so as to determine, with accuracy, the course of the ball, or even the condition of the tissues indicated by the end of the finger. Nor did thev underestimate the significance of the profound shock, nor the unusual period of collapse which followed and seemed to point to extensive lesion of important viscera. However, that the kidneys, intestine, and peritoneum were not immediately involved was made patent by the unre- strained passage of normal urine at proper intervals, the spontaneous movement from the bowels of natural f the frequent discharge of flatus, and the absence of other symptoms of peritonitis. With all these facts before them it was impossible to determine positively the course taken by the ball. The indications pointed to a downward course of the ball into the pelvic cavity. Upon careful consider- ation of the foregoing facts and of the opinions expr< by the distinguished counsel, we were inclined to re- cede from the opinion at first adopted regarding the .-ap- posed passage of the ball through the liver. The propri- ety of making extensive incisions and dissections s<> explore the fractured ribs and to remove as much as might be necessary to reveal the true course of the ball, was duly i. Rut the opinion was maintained that the fa- vorable prog : the President thus far did not warrant any interference, and, further, Buch an operation would IAMBS 1 GARFIELD. seriously complicate the case and diminish the of recovery. The facts revealed by the ant >nfirai the wisdom of tho course pursned. With this view all the surgeons concurred. "The subsequent history of the case, which pro that the liver, kidneys, the intestines, and the larg had escaped serious injury, as well as the gradual subsi- dence of the nervous disturbance of the lower extremities, tho almost entire absence of pain in the back or that por- tion of the body in which the track existed, together with a pus-sac which dissected its course down behind the peri- toneum into the right iliac fossa, was but corroborative, and naturally misled our judgments into an erroneous diagnosis. " On the evening of July -i, the pain, hypenesth and vomiting had nearly disappeared, soreness of the feet supervening and continuing for some days. " The case progressed, with slight fluctuations, up to July 23, when a rigor occurred at 7 P. m., followed by a pulse of 124, respiration 26, and temperature 104° Fahren- heit. Two days previous to this, a pus-sac was observed in the common integument, extending down below thu twelfth rib toward the erector spiuae muscle, and underneath the latissimus dor.-i, and was carefully evacuated by gentle pressure into the original opening on the occasion o: dressing. We did not feel satisfied that this superficial and limited collection of pus, which was so ruidily evacuated, Mas the principal cause of the aggravation ot the symptoms present. However, a free incision was made into the pus-sac. which afforded a more direct dependent channel to the fractured rib, from which u small fragment of bene wms removed, 773 THE BIOGRAPHY OF " Pressure made backward and upward upon the ab- dominal wall, between the umbilicus and anterior spine, gave exit to a flow of peculiarly white and firm pus. I remarked at the time to the council that the appearance of this pus gave assurance that it had never been exposed to the air, and must have come from a deep-seated source. " After this operation, the improvement was not as prompt as we had reason to expect, and on the 2Gth of Jul}', the opening between the fractured ends of the eleventh rib was enlarged, and a small detached portion was removed. This facilitated the discharge of pus, and, as a result, a more uniform condition of the symptoms were maintained k until about August 6, when slight febrile exacerbations were observed, which continued to be manifest until the operation was made to afford a more free passage of pus from the supposed track of the ball. The necessity of the operation was more plainly devel- oped by passing a flexible catheter through the opening previously made, which readily coursed toward the crest of the ilium, a distance of about seven inches. This cavity was evacuated twice daily by passing through the catheter, previously inserted in the track, an aqueous solution of permanganate of potash from a small hand fountain slightly elevated, the water and pus returning and escaping at the opening externally. The indica- tions for making a point of exit in the dependent por- tion of this pus-6ac were urgent, and on August 8, the operation was performed by extending the incision pre- viously made, downward and forward through the skin, subcutaneous fascia, external and internal oblique muscles, to a sinus or pus channel The exposed muscle contained a considerable number of minute spiculae of bouc. Upon JAMES A. <-.\i;i'll-:i.i> 77ft carrying a long, curved director through the opening between the fractured rib downward to the point of incision, there was a deeper channel which had not been exposed by the operation thus far, and the incision was carried through the transversalis muscle and transver- sals fascia, opening into the deeper track, and exposing the end of the director. A catheter was then passed into the portion of the track below the incision, a distance of three and one-half inches, and in a direction near the anterior superior spinous process of the ilium. The Presi- dent was etherized during this operation. "A comparatively uniform condition of temperature, pulse and respiration continued until August 14, when nausea, vomiting and general prostration occurred, with an increase of pulse to 108, temperature 100.8° Fahrenheit, and respiration 19 — the pulse continuing to increase, although the temperature remained nearly normal up to August 17, when food was again retained by the stomach. AVhen the previous attack of vomiting took place, August 14, the stomach was placed at physiological rest, and resort was had to rectal alimentation until August 17, when the function of the stomach was gradually re-estab lished, and the enemata discontinued. "On August 18 a slight tumefaction of the right paro- tid gland was noticeable, unaccompanied by pain or tender- ness on pressure, until the suppurative period was estab- lished, when mental disturbance, vomiting, restlessness, and jactitation supervened : nor was there any increase of tem- perature, local or systemic, to indicate the probability of its metastatic origin. The parotitis presented many of the characteristics of an ordinary carbuncle, and was un- accompanied by any other abscesses in the adjoining tis- 780 TIIE BIOQRAPRt OF sue. Dnring the progress of the parotitis \ ■■< ial paralysis occurred, and continued, with slight improvement, tmtil the time of his death. When the climax of suppuration was reached, a free fliseharge of laudable pus followed, with a rapid abatement of thembre urgent symptoms, and after the separation of the slough (which was limited in extent) reparation was rapid and complete throughout the entire suppurating surface, as well as in the several incisions which had been previously made to liberate the pus. These lesions had entirely healed at the time of death, ex- cept an opening behind and below the right ear, referred to in the autopsy. It was a marked feature during this whole period of parotid suppuration, that there was no associate systemic disturbance. The question of malarial complication was discussed at this time, but it must be remembered that quinine had been given in tonic doses much of the time ; and occasionally, when periodicity was noticeable, sedative doses were administered for a period of 24 hours at a time. "On August 19 a small slough was discharged from the lower pus-track, when the flexible catheter was readily ed downward a distance of 12 inches toward the right iliac fossa. This channel was kept free from accumula- tions by passing into it carbolic or permanganate water from the hand fountain heretofore described, at the same time carefully withdrawing the catheter, so as to avoid un- due distention oi the track. " During the latter part of August a number of pua tules of suppurating acne appeared in the axillae, and la- ter, four or five on the surface of the body. They were superficial, numbering five or six in each axilla, and about JAMES A. OARFIBLD. 781 the size of large peas ; they were opened as soon as sup puratiou took place, healed without recurrence, and are believed to have been due to the septic condition of the system. The small carbuncle mentioned in the report of the autopsy was doubtless referable to the same cause. The above were the only suppurating surfaces, excepting the incisions made into the wound, and four small superficial bod-sores formed on the sacrum, which were observed dur- ing the President's illness. " The subject of the removal of the President to a more salubrious locality had been discussed for several day6, and was urgently presented at the consultation on August 25. The majority of the council, with myself) considered that his removal at this time would be attended with very great hazard. The hope, however, was expressed that the President might be sustained until suppuratiou was established in the parotid, and the constitutional dLs- turbances incident thereto had subsided, when it would be possible to remove him. Stimulants were given in doses of vj drams, with ij ounces of beef-tea, occasionally introducing j dram of beef peptones, alternated with the yolk of an egg. These measures undoubtedly contributed largely to his sustentation during this period of continued gastric disturbance. "Our efforts were rewarded on August 26 by a free discharge of pus from the external auditory canal ; also in the mouth. It was believed that the pus which discha in the mouth dissected its way along the course of St< duct. There being rigidity of the masseter muscle, the jaw was fixed so as to preclude the possibility of op the month sufficiently for a satisfactory examination. A tenacious mucus was secreted from that side in large quan 782 THE DIOORAPnT OF titles, and occasioned great annoyance. The patient dur- ing this period was occasionally wandering in his mind, especially after rousing from sleep. When his attention was fixed by an attendant his mental condition seemed to be comparatively perfect. " An interesting fact connected with the inflammation of the mucous membrane of the mouth was that it extend- ed by continuity to the pharynx, larynx, trachea, and bron- chi. The physical signs developed the fact that acute bronchial catarrh was the sequel. Hypostatic congestion of the lungs was observed for some weeks before, more extensive on the right than the left, because of decubitus. On the right side it extended to the sixth rib posteriorly, while on the left side it was comparatively slight, An improved condition was maintained, with a free-suppurat- ing condition of the parotid, and marked reduction of the tumefaction of the gland. " Finally it was decided by the majority of the sur- geons that the President should be removed to the sea- shore. The details as to the precautions taken to secure a safe transit were minute in every particular, and every provision was made to meet any emergency that might arise in the course of the journey — even preparations for his removal from the train to suitable places on the road had been previously selected, in case evidences of exhaus- tion should become manifest. "His transfer from the Executive Mansion to the cars was made with the least possible disturbance, without accident, and with perfect satisfaction and comfort to the patient. During the journey, his pulse and temperature were taken from time to time, and frequent examinations made to determine the effect of the motion at diffi rent JAMES A. GAIiFfF/n rates of speed. The minimum of nnplea aril motion seemed to be secured at a rate of about sixty mill hour. During the fast hour of his journey lie showed symptoms of fatigue, which would have prevented a longer journey had such been required to reach hw dea< tination. His pulse increased, the countenance became slightly anxious, and the temperature measurably exalted at the period to which I allude. "He was transferred from the cars to the Elberon Cottage without accident, the pulse at lit p. m. reaching 124, temperature 101.6°. The morning of September? his .pulse had fallen to 106, temperature 98.4°, respiration 18. The President expressed great satisfaction that he had arrived at the sea-shore, and, notwithstanding the heat of the two succeeding days, it made hut little impres- sion upon the distinguished patient, the pulse, temper- ature and respiration continuing the same until September 15, when his pulse slightly increased in the evening, so that it occasionally reached 120 during the night. "After his arrival at Elberon, there was an extension of the bronchial catarrh into the ramifications of the bronchi of the right lung, and limited broncho-pneumonia followed. " I should mention here a fact well known, that the President was so much pleased with his improvement that he expressed a wish that the number of his p] sional attendants should be reduced. Accordingly Dra, Barnes, "Woodward and Reyburn retired from tin- lea ving Elberon the morning of September 8. "September 17, at 11 a. m., a severe rigor occurred of hklf an hours duration, followed by a sharp rifie in tem- perature. At 12 m. the pulse was 120, temperature 784 T1IE BIOGRAPHY OP Fahrenhoit, and respiration 2-i. The mental disturbances wero more noticeablo during the febrile rise, but the stomach was able to retain the nourishment and stimulants, which wero given at regular intervals in the form of milk-punch. This chill was accompanied by severe pain over the anterior mediastinum, and the President said to me that it was similar to what he understood a.s angina pectoris. It is evident that this pain, which occurred on several occasions at intervals of six to twelve hours prior to his death, was occasioned by first a rupture of the aneurismal sac, and the progressive dissection, at irregular intervals, of the blood into the surrounding tissue, until finally it burst into tho peritoneum. " A febrile rise was very marked by 12 noon of the 17th, attended with great anxiety of countenance, the temperature falling to 98° Fahrenheit, the lowest point of normal range, tho pulse being, however, steadily at 102, and rather feeble. While there was, in my judgment, au absence of typical metastatic abscesses to produce this symptom, there was a profound expression of gravity in his condition that was not commensurate with tho sys- temic disturbance, and which prevented my absence, even for a few moments at a time. I remarked to Dr. Agnew : ' I am in constant fear of some danger impend- ing. We may have a terrible outburst, possibly in the shape of a cardiac thrombus.' I said to members of the family : ' There is a gravity in this case that portends Berious trouble.' " At G p. m. <»f the L8th there was another chill, accom- panied with pain as before. The febrile rise continued until midnight, the pulse varying from 112 to 130. " At 8 \. m. September 19, the pulse was 106, and JAMES t. GARFIELD, feeble; temperature L08.8 , and all the conditions an favorable. In half an hour afterward there wu another chill, followed by febrile rise and sweating and also with pain as before. During the periods of chill and fever he was more or less unconsciou- Be passed all day in comparative comfort, and at 8.30 in the evening his pulse was 108, respiration 20, and temperature dently a little lower than normal. "At 10.10 p.m. I was summoned hastily to the I side, and found the President in an unconscious and i condition, pulseless at the wrist, with extrome pallor, the eyes opened and turned upward, and respiration 8 per minute, and gasping. Placing my finger upon the carotid, I could not recognize pulsation ; applying my ear the heart, I detected an indistinct flutter, which continued until 10.35, when ho expired. The brave and heroic sufferer, the Nation's patient, for whom all had lat> so cheerfully and unceasingly, had passed away. "Soon after the President expired, it became no sary to make arrangements for an autopsy, so . present to the profession, in a definite manner, the track of the ball and the parts involved ; also to ascertain the immediate cause of death. I deemed it proper to invite Surgeon-General Barnes and Surgeon J. J. Woodward, United States Army, and Dr. Robert Reyburn, of W irigton, D. C, who were formerly associated in the to take part in the autopsy, and also invited, at the instance of Dr. Woodward, Dr. Lamb, of the Army Medical Museum, for the same purpose. The forme! tlemen arrived at Elberon, X. J., about 3.45 p.m., when the post-mortem examination was commenced. Dr. T86 THE BIOUliAPUY OF A. II. Smith, of New Jersey and New York, and tem- porarily at Elberon, was also invited. "The most important points revealed by the autopsy, and which are to be considered by the profession, are : "First. Would the condition of the President, immedi- ately after his injury, have justified a more thorough ex- ploration of the wound, or would such a procedure have been safe at any time before primary reaction was estab- lished ? " Second. Was his transfer to the Executive Mansion timely and properly made ? " Third. Were the best and most judicious means insti- tuted to secure prompt reaction ( " Fourth . After reaction was comparatively complete on the 3d of July, and when there had occurred spontaneous evacuations of normal urine and alvinc evacuations, and an absence of any evidence of internal hemorrhage or peritonitis, would further exploration have been necessary, especially when it is considered that the probable reopen- ing of the lacerated vessels would induce hemorrhage? " Fifth. Were the surgeons then in attendance justified in deferring any further exploration until the arrival of the distinguished counsel on the morning of July 4 { u Sixth. At the consultation, July 4, and after it was proved to be impossible to follow the track of the ball any considerable distance beyond the fractured rib, would an operation have been justifiable, necessitating an incision Through the soft parts and a removal of a portion of the rib, »oaa to develop the track i " Seventh. In the light of modern military surgery, vhich teaches the readiness with which leaden balls be- come encysted, would au operation at any time for re- JAMES A. QAHFIBLD. moval of the missile have been justified unless there was some evidence of the missile being a source of irritation ? " Eighth. Considering carefully the condition of the President during the entire period of his illness, and the facts revealed by the autopsy, would not any operation for the purposes before mentioned have placed the President's life in great jeopardy, and, at best, have hastened the time of his death without affording any signal relief ? " Ninth. Was the treatment of the case as presented proper, and did it or not prolong his life to the utmost limit ? " Tenth. Was the mistaken diagnosis a natural result of the conditions present, and to have developed a correct diagnosis would not operative procedures have ensued ? " Eleventh. If we had known the exact course and lo- cality of the ball, and the organs injured in its passage, should the treatment have been modified in any particu- lar. " The artistic drawings which accompany this history will, I trust, facilitate its study, and their accuracy i- attested not only by myself, but by Prof. Faneuil I). Weisse, M. D., and Dr. George F. Shrady, of New York, both of whom visited Washington, on my invitation, to study the case, and make thorough and persona! examina- tion of the specimens preserved, with a view of verifying the facts in its history. " These drawings were made by Mr. Max Oohn, ot New York, who came to Washington, P. C, for that purpose, at my request. "They very satisfactorily illustrate the pom1 impact and course of the ball, and the pathological eondi 788 THE BIOGRAPHY OF tion.-. which followed, and upon which the diagnosis and treatment were based. u I desire to say, in a brief review of the leading facts ad to the general conduct of the case, that it has been ap- parent to the medical reader that my prognosis was favor- able, and notwithstanding the mutations I augured a successful termination. It is but justice to myself to state that my prognosis was based on a lesion of minor importance. Had our diagnosis been correct, modern surgery should have conducted the case to a successful termination. I believe the medical profession, whom I address, will bear me o*ut that the prognosis was correct if the diagnosis had been also correct. I was not always able, during the progress of the case, to account for many of the in.. re profound symptoms, and yet could not succeed in learning of any more extensive or complicated lesions than wore first suspected. I desire to make the inquiry whether more extensive explorations could have been safely made, or whether the condition presented — a knowledge of the relative position of the patient to the assassin, the character of the missile, and the condition of the lesion and symptoms which follow — would have directed the investigation toward the actual track and lodgment of the ball, the track of the ball presenting a course of entrance downward and forward to the point of impingement upon the eleventh rib, and being then de- i to the left at almost a right angle, passing behind the kidney, perforating the intervertebral cartilage and first lumbar vertebrae anterior and to the left of the kidney, and finding it.- lodgment below the left extremity of the pancreas, wounding in its track the splenic artery, i would ask ifauv known instrument or means of explora- JA.MES A. GARFIELD. tion has ever been presented to the profession capable- of tracing before the death of said patient the course of this bullet? A Uo whether the conditions could have improved or mitigated, or his life preserved longer by any other line of treatment ; whether, in view of the facts, modern conservative surgery could offer Anything more for the comfort or recovery of the illustrious patient. " It is proper to state, in conclusion, that the most ap- proved antiseptic dressings were used during the entire progress of the case." - VII. A Curious Record. The following is a copy of the daily record of the pulse, temperature and respiration of President Garfield, from July 2 to September 19, 1S81. DATE. PULSE. temperature, i;i>rn:.\: A. 51. M. P. M. A. M. M. P. H. A. M. M. P. M. 20 July S 120 July 4 'l08 "did 126 99\4 i66" loi 9 19 Stf July 5 111 110 106 1i «) 5 101 UN) 9 24 24 54 July 6 98 100 104 98 'J 99 7 100.6 a July 94 100 106 99.1 100.8 100.2 28 23 July 8 '.Mi 108 108 99 2 101 1 101.3 24 July 9 100 101 108 99.4 101 ■-■ 101.9 24 a July 10 106 102 108 100 100.5 Ml 9 22 £4 July U 98 106 108 99.2 102 s 22 24 July 12 06 100 101 99.6 100.8 102 i 22 21 July 13 90 94 100 100.6 20 •.'I July 11 90 94 98 101 July 15 90 94 98 5 98 "i 100 : ID J u 1 V 16 90 01 '.is 5 '.K 1 100 -' 18 IE July 17 90 94 ■ 98 1 Is July is 88 98 102 ipo 18 '.'1 July lit 90 92 96 18 19 July July i-'O 86 its 98 98.4 98 i 99 d 18 19 21 88 98 96 96 l 10 July gg 88 82 98 98 l 100 2 1- July 23 93 1S5 118 97 l 104 H'l T 19 July July 24 08 118 104 18 25 96 104 110 98 1 20 July 26 102 ii«; 104 98.4 i"i r 19 July 27 94 90 95 98 4 98 i 18 790 THE BIOGRAPHY OF PULSE. TEMPERATURE. RESPIRATION. DATE. A. M. M. r. m. A. M. K. r. m. A. M. M. r. m. July 28 92 94 104 98.4 98.5 100.5 18 18 20 July 29 92 98 98 93.4 98.4 100 18 19 .20 July 30 92 98 104 93.5 93.5 1(H) 18 20 20 July 31 94 100 104 98.4 98.5 90 18 19 20 Aug. 1 94 100 104 98.4 98.4 18 19 20 Aug. 2 94 99 104 98 t 98.4 100 18 19 20 A UK- 3 % 100 102 98.4 98.4 9.1.4 18 19 19 Aug. 4 90 96 102 98.4 98.4 H XI 2 18 18 19 Aug. 5 88 98 102 98.4 98.4 100.4 18 18 19 Aug. 6 92 100 102 93.4 98.5 101.8 18 19 19 Ang. 7 96 104 104 98.7 100 101 2 1 18 20 20 Aug. 8 94 104 108 98.4 100.2 101.9 i W 20 19 An?. 9 93 104 100 99.fi 99.7 101.9 19 19 19 Aug. 10 104 1)0 108 98.5 98.6 101 19 19 19 Aug. 11 100 102 IDS 08.0 98.6 101.2 19 19 19 AOg. 13 100 too 108 98 B 99.3 101.2 19 19 19 Aug. 13 104 102 104 100.8 99 2 100.7 19 18 19 lug. 11 100 96 108 99.8 99.3 100.8 18 13 19 Aug. 15 ins 118 130 100.2 99 99.6 20 19 22 Aug. 16 110 114 120 98.6 98 a 98.9 18 is 19 Aug. 17 110 112 112 98.3 98.7 98 8 18 18 18 Aug 18 104 108 108 98 8 98.4 100 17 18 18 Aug. 19 100 106 100 98. 4 98.8 100 17 17 18 Aug. 20 98 107 110 98 4 98 l 100.4 is 18 ig Aug. 21 106 108 108 93.8 99.4 99.2 18 18 is Aug. 22 104 104 110 9S.4 98.4 100.1 18 18 19 Aug. 28 100 104 104 98.4 9S.9 99 2 18 IS 19 Aug. 24 100 104 108 98.5 99.2 100.7 17 17 19 Aug. 26 106 112 112 98.5 99.2 99.8 18 19 19 Aug. 26 108 118 116 99 1 10U 99 9 17 18 is Aug. 27 120 120 111 98 1 99.6 98.9 22 22 22 Aug. 28 100 104 110 93.4 99.5 99.7 17 18 20 Aug. 29 100 106 110 98 6 98.6 100.5 17 18 18 Aug. 30 102 110 109 98.5 98.9 99,5 18 is 16 Aug. 31 100 95 109 98.4 98.4 9-1.6 18 17 18 Sept l 100 108 108 98.4 98.6 99.4 17 18 18 Sepl 2 100 IDS 104 98 I 98.7 99 2 17 is 18 Sept. 8 104 104 102 98.6 98.4 99.6 18 is 18 Sept. 4 108 106 110 98 l 98.4 99 18 18 IS Sept. 5 102 114 108 99.5 99.5 99.8 18 is 19 Sept. 6 118 110 124 101.0 IS Sept. 7 106 114 108 9M 9M 101 is is 18 S< pt. 8 104 94 100 98.7 98 I 99.1 is 17 is Sept. 8 li»il 100 100 98.5 98 1 98 s 17 17 18 Sept. 10 100 100 100 99 1 98 5 is 18 18 Sepl ii 104 110 110 98.8 100 (06 19 20 20 Sept. 12 100 106 100 :ts , 1 99 8 98 8 is 20 18 Sept. 18 100 100 100 99.4 98 s 98 i 20 20 20 Sept. l i 100 104 118 98 i 99 2 19 20 21 Sept. 16 too \i\> 104 98 l 98 9 99 e 20 21 21 Sepl 16 104 116 104 :« 98 8 21 21 22 Sept. 17 108 WO 102 09.8 102 98 21 24 18 Sepl 18 M-,' 110 102 98 100 98.4 IS 20 20 bept. 19 106 104 102 08.8 9s a 98.4 22 20 18 JAMES A. GARFIELD. 7U1 VIII. Some of Garfield 1 s Notable Words. The following utterances of General Garfield have been selected from his Public Speeches and Private Let- ters. Nearer to God. 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 their 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. Oration on Abraham Lincoln. Calm Deceptive. Quiet is no certain pledge of permanence and sa; Trees may flourish and flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain side, while silently the trickling rain-dro] filling the deep cavern behind its rocky barriers, which, by and by, in a single moment, shall hurl to wild ruin it> treacherous peace. Oration at Ravenna, O.. /i//i/4, 1880. 792 '1HK BtOQHAPHf OP The two great Oceans. The Atlantic is still the great historic sea. Even in its sunken wrecks might be read the record of modern na- tions. Who shall say that the Pacific will not jet become the groat historic sea of the future — the vast amphitheatre around which shall sit in majesty and power the two Americas, Asia, Africa, and the chief colonies of Europe. 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. Discernment of Character. I have sometimes thought that we cannot know any man thoroughly well while he is in perfect health. As the ebb-tide discloses the real lines of the shore and the bed of the sea, so feebleness, sickness, and pain bring out the real character of a man. For years he pushed away the hand that was reaching for his heart-strings, and bravely worked on until the last hour. I do not doubt that his will and cheerful courage prolonged his life many years. Oration on Congressman Starkweather. Education. A finished education is supposed to consist mainly of literary culture. The story of the forges of the Cyclops, where the thunderl olts of Jove were fashioned, is sup- posed to adorn elegant scholarship more gracefully than those sturdy truths which are preaching to this generation in the wonders of the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang of the iron-mills, and the other innumerable in- dustries which, more than all other human agencies, have ./ [JfffS .1. QARFIfll i> made our civilization what it is, and arc destined to achieve wonders yet undreamed of. Address at Strom, June 14, 1889. Our Safeguard. Finally, our great hope for the future, our great safe- guard against danger, is to be found in the general and thorough education of our people, and in the virtne which accompanies such education. And all these ele- ments depend, in a large measure, upon the intellectual and moral culture of the young men who go out from our higher institutions of learning. From the stand-point of this general culture we may trustfully encounter the perils that assail us. Secure against dangers from abroad, united at home by the stronger ties of common interest and patriotic pride, holding and unifying our vast terri- tory by the most potent forces of civilization, relying upon the intelligent strength and responsibility of ouch citizen, and, most of all, upon the power of truth, with- out undue arrogance, we may hope that in the centuries to come our Kepublic will continue to live and hold its high place among the nations as " The heir of all the ages in the foremost files of time." Address at Hudson CoUegt- An Interesting Object. 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. J mum Cvlltp, July, 1880. 794 THE BIOGRAPHY OF The Wrath of the World. 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. 1 know it, and you will know it. Class Dinner, Washington, March 3, 1881. The Co?iditio7i of Poverty. 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. Private Letter. Possibilities of a young Man. 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 nie 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 above him, all these things, with the untried pathway of life opening up : .ts difficulties and dangers, inspire him to courage, and force, and work. Private Letter irritten at Mentor. Efforts Wrongly Directed. One-halt of the time which is now almost wholly wasted, in district schools, on English grammar, at- JAMES A. UAHFIEI.H 7»r, tempted 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. It is to me a perpetual wonder that any child's love of knowledge survives the outrages of the school-house. That man will be a benefactor of his race who shall teach us how to manage rightly the first years of a child's education. Hope for the Nation. 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 traveled 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. Symbol of the Business of the Country. The business of the country is like the level ot 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 irrand level rules all its waves and lavs its measuring lines on every shore. So the business of the country, which, in the aggregated demands of the people for 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 legis- lation, is the only safe rule by which the volume of our currency can be determined. House of Representative*, January 7, 1870. SO 706 THE BIOGUM'HY OF Public Opinion and Finance. 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. An Artificial Giant. A government is an artificial giant, and the power that moves it is money — money raised by taxation and distrib- uted to the various parts of tho body politic, according to the discretion of the legislative power. A Note of Warning. During the many calm years of the century our pilots have grown careless of the course. The master of a vessel sail- ing down Lake Ontario has the whole breadth of that beau- tiful inland sea for his pathway. But when his ship ar- rives at the chute of the Lachiue there is but one pathway of safety. With a steady hand, a clear eye, and a bravo heart he points his prow to tho well-fixed landmarks on the shore, and, with death on either hand, makes tho plunge and shoots ther rapids in safety. "We too are ap- JAMES A. GARFIELD. 797 proaching the narrows, and we hear the roar of the angry waters below and the muttering of the sullen thunder overhead. Unterrified by breakers or tempest, let us Bteer our course by the Constitution of our fathers, and we shall neither sink in the rapids nor compel our children to shoot Niagara and perish in the whirlpool. Congress. Congress must always be the exponent of the political character and culture of the people, and if the next cen- tennial 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 em- ployed to select the men who shall occupy the great places of trust and power. "4 Century in Congress*" Atlantic -Monthly, Aug., 1876. Behind Public Life. Behind this public life lies a world of history, of quiet, beautiful, home-life, within which the religious opinioxs and sentiments are manifested— a world of affection, the features of whic'i are rarely brought out in this forum. Oration on the death of Congressman Starkweather. J?nj?artial Suffrage. Laugh as we may, put it aside as a jest if we will, keep it out of Congress or political campaigns, still, the woman question is rising in our horizon larger than the size of a man's hand ; and some solution, ere long, that question must find. Address before Washington Butiflot* GoUqp. THE BIOGRAPHY OF Concerning Fin Subjects. Men's first opinions are almost always wrong in re- gard to thern, as they are in regard to astronomy, and lie who reads tike truths that lie d - in imminent dan- ger of being tabooed for a madman. Private Letter, Dec. 15, 1867. An uncertain currency that goes up and down, hits the laborer, and hits him hard. It helps him last and hurts him first. Divine Right. We have happily escaped the dogma of the divine right of king?. Let us not fall into the eqnaliy pernicious error that multitude is divine because it is a multitude, Structure of Soc There is no horizontal stratification of societv in this country like the rocks in the earth, that hold one class down below forevermore, and let another come to the sur- face to stay there forever. Our stratification is like the ocean, where every individual drop is free to move, and whero from the sternest depths of the mighty deep any drop may come up to glitter on the highest wave that rolls. A notable Danger in Politics. The most alarming feature of our situation is the fact that so many citizens of high character and solid judgmeirt pay but little attention to the sources of political power, to the selection of those who shall make their laws. The clergy, the faculties of colleges, and many of the lea ling business men of the community, never attend the township caucus. JAMES A. GARFIELD. 790 the city primaries, or the county conventions ; but they allow the less intelligent and the more selfish and corrupt members of the community to make the slates and " run the machine " of politics. They wait until the machine has done its work, and then, in surprise and horror at the ignorance and corruption in public office, sigh for the re- turn of that mythical period called the " better and purer days of the Republic." "A Oentury in Congress" Atlantic Monthly, July, 1877. Absolute Power. It was the purpose of our fathers to lodge absolute power nowhere ; to leave each department independent within its own sphere ; yet, in every case, responsible for the exercise of its discretion. Atlantic Monthly. A Great Virtue. If I were to state to-day the single quality that appears to me most admirable among the fathers of the Revolu- tion, I should say it was this : that amidst all the passion^ of war, waged against a perfidious enemy from beyond the sea, aided by a savage enemy on our own shores, our fathers 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-abid- ing people. Speech accepting the Statues of Winthrop and Adams. Volu n tary En terpr ise. There is another force even greater than that of the 800 THE BIOGRAPHY OF 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. House of Representatives) Feb. 6, 1872. A Popular Right. 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. Commerce and Industry. Commerce links all mankind in one common brother- hood of mutual dependence and interests, and thus creates that unity of our race which makes the resources of all the property of each and every member. Wherever a ship plows the sea, or a plow furrows the field ; wherever a mine yields its treasure ; wherever a ship or a railroad train carries freight to market ; wher- ever the smoke of the furnace rises, or the clang of the loom resounds ; even in the lonely garret where the seamstress plies her busy needle, — there is industry. House of Representatives, April 1, 1870. Raih'oads. Imagine if you can what would happen if to-morrow morning the railway locomotive and its corollary, the tele- graph, were blotted from the earth. To what humble proportions mankind would be compelled to scale down the great enterprises they are now pushing forward with such ease. Ibid. JAKES A. QABFIBLD, Reign of Law. The assertion of the reign of law has been stubbornly resisted at every step. The divinities of heathen super- stition etill 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. Truth, Truth is so related and corelated 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. The Value of Yietory. Victory is worth nothing except for the fruits that are under it, in it, and above it. New York, August 6th , 1880. Power*, Power exhibits itself under two distinct forms — strength and force,— each possessing peculiar qualities and each perfect in its own sphere. Strength is typified by the oak, the rock, the mountain. Force embodies itself in the cataract, the tempest and the thunder-bolt. What Most Men Desire. I take it for granted that every thoughtful, intelligent man would bo glad, if he could, to be on the right side, BOS THE BIOGRAPHY OF believing that in the long run the right 6ide will bo the strong side. Cleveland, October 11, 1879. A Laudable Endeavor. I am trying to do two things : dare to be a radical, and not bo a fool, which, if I may judge by the exhibi- tions around me, is a matter of no small difficulty. Private Letter, Jan. 1, 1867. A Dread. I must do something to keep my thoughts fresh and growing. I dread nothing so much as falling into a rut, and feeling myself becoming :i fossil. Private Utter, July 11, 1868. A Noble Sentiment. I would rather be defeated than make capital out of my religion. Remark at Chatauqua, Aupuat 8, 1880. Chow Old Graeefidly. You and I are now nearl}' in middle age, and have not yet become soured and shriveled with the wear and tear of life. Let us pray to be delivered from that con- dition whero life and nature have no fresh, sweet sensa- tions for us. JYivate Letter to Mr. HimdoJe, December 81, 1872. If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old. Ijctter to Cofonel llochrcll, on revisiting WiUiamt CoU* JAMES A. GARFIELD. BO:j Ujyrujhteouxu It is not enough for one to know that his heart and motives have been pure and true, if lie is not sure but that good men here and there, who do not kn<»\v him, will set him down among the lowest men of doubtful morality. Fools not All Dead, There are always a few who believe in the quadrature of the circle and the perpetual motion. The gods of Greece were discrowned and disowned by the civilized world a thousand years ago ; and yet within the las! generation an eminent English scholar attested his ]"\r for classical learning, and his devotion to the Greek mythology, by actually sacrificing a bull to Jupiter in the back-parlor of his house in London. ( 'induct in I' V< ■>:','<■ I. I have always said, that my whole public life was an experiment to determine whether an intelligent people would sustain a man in acting sensibly on each proposition that arose, and in doing nothing for mere show or for demagogical effect. I do not now remember that I ever cast a vote of that latter sort. Private Letter, April 4, 1873. Unsettled Questions. It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said, with the ut- most emphasis, that this question of suffrage will never give repose or safety to the nation until each State within its own jurisdiction makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law. Oration at Ravenna, 0., July 4, 1860, 904 THE BIOGRAPHY OF Independent JoumaLmn . I hold it equally necessary to liberty and good govern- ment that the press should comment with the utmost free- dom upon public acts and opinions of all men who hold positions of public trust. Ibid. Perpetual Conflict. For the noblest man that lives there still remains a conflict. Private Judgment, The right of private judgment is absolute in every American citizen. The Ground of Hopefulness. 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 Wash- ington still lives ! Speech in New York on the assassination of President Lincoln. An Advance. We no longer attribute the untimely death of infante to the sin of Adam, but to bad nursing and ignorance. Ibid. Predicts We no longer hope to predict the career and destiny of a human being by studying the conjunction of the JAMJBS A. GARFIELD. planets that presided at his birth. We study rather the laws of life within him and the elements and forces of na- ture and society around him. Ibid. Power of the Printing iVm. The printing press in without doubt the most powerful weapon with which man has ever armed himself for the tight against ignorance and oppression. But it was not free born. It was invented at a period when all the func- tions of government were most widely separated from the people, when secrecy, diplomacy, and intrigue were the chief elements of statesmanship. Address be/ore the Ohio Editorial Association, July 11,1878. God and Man in HUtory. Theologians in all ages have looked out admiringly upon the material universe and from its inanimate exis- tences 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. Woman's Want. At present, the most valuable gift which can be bestowed on woman is something to do, which they can do well and worthily, and thereby maintain themselves. Oration before the Washington Business College, Jan. 29, 1889. The Government and Education. The stork is a sacred bird in Holland, and is protected by her laws, because ii destroys those insects which would undermine the dikes, and let the sea again overwhelm THE BIOORAl'UY uF the rich fields of the Netherlands. Shall this government do nothing to fo6ter and strengthen those educational agencies which alone can shield the coining generation from ignorance and vice, and make it the impregnable bulwark of liberty and law ? House of Representatives, Jan. 8, 1866. JTtoughis on Robert Barns. To appreciate the genius and achievements of Robert Bums, it is fitting to compare him with others who have been eminent in the same field. In the highest class of lyric poetry their names stand eminent. Their field covers eighteen centuries of time, and the three names are Horace, Beranger, and Bums. It is an interesting and suggestive fact, that each of these sprang from the humble walks of life. Each may be described as one — u Who begs a brother of the eiirth. To give him leave to toil." and each proved by his life and achievements that, how- ever hard the lot of poverty, " a man's a man for a' that." A great writer lias said that it took the age forty years to catch Burns, so far was he in advance of the thoughts of his times. But we ought not to be surprised at the power lie exhibited. We arc apt to be misled when we seek to find the cause of greatness in the schools and universities alone. There is no necessary conflict between nature and art. In the highest and best sense art is as natural as nature. We do not wonder at the perfect beauty of the rose, although we may not understand the mysteries by which its deli- cate petals are fashioned and fed out of the grosser ele- JAMB8 A. GARFIELD incuts of earth. We do not wonder at the perfection of the rose, because God is the artist. When ] 1 the germ of the rose-tree lie uiade possible the b its flower. The earth and air and sunshine couspin unfold and adorn it — to tint and (Town it \vi;h j>. - beauty. When the Divine Artist would produces poem, He plants a germ of it in a human soul, and out of that soul the poem springs and grows as from the rose-tree the rose. Burns was a child of nature. He lived close to her beating heart, and all the rich and deep sympathies of life glowed and lived in his heart. The beauties of earth, air and sky filled and transfigured him. " He did but sing because he must. And piped but as the linnets sing." With the light of his genius he glorified '"the banks and braes" of his native land, and, speaking for the uni- versal human heart, has set its sweetest thought to mu- sic, — 11 Whose echoes roll from soul to soul, And grow forever and forever." Oration on the Anniversary of Burns' s Death. The Mount of Disc, >r< ry. To every man of great original power, there comes, in early youth, a moment of sudden discovery — ofself-n nition — 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 bees thenceforth and forever the inspiration of hi-> life — "Like noble music unt<> uul>k- words." 808 Till. hlOGHAVHY OF Labor and Legislation. When we recognize the fact that artisans and their pro- ducts are essential to the well-being of our country, it fol- lows that there is no dweller in the humblest cottage on our remotest frontier who has not a deep personal inter- est in the legislation that shall promote these great national industries. Washington's Superior Judgment, ITamilton was the master of a brilliant style, clear and bold in conception, and decisive in execution. Jefferson was profoundly imbued with a philosophic spirit, could formulate the aspirations of a brave and free people in all the graces of powerful rhetoric ; and other master-minds of thai period added their great and valuable contributions to the common stock ; but, whether in the camp or in the cabinet, the quality that rose above all the other great gifts of that period was the comprehensive and unerring judgment of Washington. It was that all-embracing sense, that calmness of solid judgment, that made him easily chief. Not only the first of his age, but foremost " in the foremost files of time." Theory of Law. Our theory <>f law is free consent. That is the granite foundation of >>my whole superstructure. Nothing in the Republic can be law without consent, -tin- free consent of the House; the free consent of tneSenate; the free consent of the Executive; <>r. if he refuse it, t'n«' free con- sent of two-thirds <»f these bodies. hxtro Seukn^ Mnn-h 20, 1871), JAMES A. GA.EFIRLD. gofl Modern Feudalism. The consolidation of our groat industrial and commer- cial 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, levy tribute at will upon all our industries. And, as the old feudalism was finally con- trolled and subordinated only by the combined effort 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. Speech on the Railroad Problem, June 22, 187 I. Power of an, An\> riran I In the Old World, under the despotism of Euro the masses of ignorant men, mere inert masses, are n. upon and controlled by the intelligent and cultn aristocracy. But in this Republic, where the government rests upon the will of the people, every man has an aotive power for good and evil, and the great question is, will he think rightly or wrongly ? House of Bepresentative» x Jurn B 4 L8 Statesmanship. For all the great professions known among Ajnori special training-schools have been established orencour by law except for that of statesmanship. And yel profession requires for its successful pursuit a wider r THE BJOOhAPiir OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. meral and special knowledge in a more thorough and varied culture. Death of 0. P. Morton, Jan. 18, 1878. Statesmanship consists rather in removing causes than in punishing or evading results. Statistical science is in- dispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation, us in physical science, it is beginning to be understood that avc can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics. A Cause of Corruption. There is scarcely a conceivable form of corruptiou or public wrong that does not at la^t present itself at the cashier's desk and demand money. The legislature, there- fore, that stands at the cashier's desk and watches with its Argus eyes the demands for payment over the counter in- most certain to see all the forms of public rascality. JAMES A. GARFIELD. m IX. Trial of the Assassin. The trial of Charles Guiteau, the assassin of President Garfield, was begun at the National Capital, in the Su- preme Court of the District of Columbia, before Judge Cox, on Monday, November 15, 1881. Guiteau had been imprisoned in Washington since the day when he shot the President, July 2, 1881. He had been indicted of wilful murder by the grand jury of the District ; bad bi ( d arraigned before the court ; the act of shooting the Pr< s- ident by the prisoner had been acknowledged, and he had pleaded irresponsibility fur the awful crime which he had committed by asserting that he was inspired and directed iby the Deity to perform the deed, and had therefore ceased to have control of his will and his actions. The only defense that could be made for the prisoner in palliation for the crime was that of insanity, tempo- rary or permanent, and consequently his irresponsibility. This, then, was the only plea that was made in Gnitean's defense on the trial ; and the real question for the jun- to decide was whether, at the time the prisoner committed the deed, he was sane or insane. The incidents attending the trial of the assassin of the President made that trial one of the most remarkable found recorded in criminal history. The exalted public station occupied by the victim, and his grand char as a man, a citizen and a statesman, caused this trial to excite a wide-spread interest in its progress and its result, at home and abroad. This interest was heightened by the deportment of the prisoner throughout the long trial, which was defiant, impertinent, sometimes aim it or -'gar. He : ■ - - " a conviction - - - - . - . : - ■ : an c: - : - • _ : : • • : . • 1 : _ ...-: .v - ... I - . - JA.L QABFIBLD. room in the court-house at eight o'clock. Guiteau was conveyed to the place of trial in the prison van by four mounted policemen, two in front and two in the rear, and four policemen riding on the veniclc. A large number of special officers had been appointed t made the prisoner angry, who rose and in an excited manner said : "I desire to be heard. I appear here in a dun: pacity — first, as a prisoner, and second, as counsel, and I want to have the final say in this matter. When I n • quest counsel the court can assign them. That paper was addressed to the legal profession, and I expect many responses to it. I want it understood that I appear here in part as my own counsel, and until I request com. propose to defend myself." The following is a copy of the paper alluded to : " To the Legal Profession of America : "I am on trial for my life. I formerly practiced law in York and Chicago, and I propose to take an active part in n fense, as I know more about my inspiration an«i news in tbi rn*c than any one, My brother-iu law. George Bcoville. Esq.. w my 818 THE BIOGRAPHY Of only counsel, and I hereby appeal to the 1> g:il profession in Amer- ica for aid. I expect to have money shortly, so I can pay them. I shall get it partly from the settlement of an old matter in New York, and partly from the sale of my book, ami partly from pub- lic contributions to my defense. My defense was published in the New York Herald on October 6, and in my speech published Nov. 15 (yesterday). Auy well-known lawyer of criminal capacity, desiring to assist in my defense, will please telegraph without de- lay to George Scoville, Washington, D. C. If, for any reason, an application be refused, the same will be withheld from the public " Cuakles Guiteac. " In Court, Washington, D. C, Nov. 16, 1881." On the morning of November 17, the District Attorney opened the case for the Government, Judge Porter and Mr. Davidge of Washington, being associated with him as counsel for the prosecution. Guiteau had already cre- ated a lively scene in court. An immense crowd were present. As soon as his hand-cuffs were removed, the prisoner began nervously to write, scarcely noticing his brother and sister, who sat beside him. Mr. Scoville briefly explained the seeming disagreement between him- self and Mr. Robinson at the beginning, and declared that they were now working harmoniously in the case. At this announcement the prisoner took fire, and spring- ing to his feet, his eyes flashing with indignation, and with violent gestures, he exclaimed : " May it please the Court, I object to Mr. Robinson appearing in this case." "Take your seat, prisoner," said the Court. " I wish you to understand distinctly that your labors as counsel in this case, as you claim to be, shall be confined to consult- ation with the associate counsel in the case. If you diso- bey," he continued, as the prisoner jumped to his feet, and began another wild speech, " the court will be under the necessity of ordering your removal from the court- room, and the proceeding with the trial in your absence." " Your Honor," retortod the prisoner, " said I could \ be heard, and I have a speech." ^< JAMES A. GARFIELD. 819 " You cannot be heard till the close of the case," re- plied the judge. The prisoner, trembling with excitement, and throw- ing bis arms wildly about, exclaimed : " I desire to be heard throughout the case. Your Honor has no right to cut me off ; and I urn going to make a noise to the coun- try about it. When I want counsel I will notify your Honor." " Counsel have been assigned you, and you must keep quiet," said the Court, calmly but sternly. Meanwhile the deputy marshals were endeavoring to press Guiteau into his seat, when the struggling prisoner cried out : " The law is that when a man wants counsel they are assigned to him. If your honor does not coincide with me, I will make a noise to the country about it. The oountry is broader than this court is." " Keep quiet now," said the Judge, "and let us have no more discussion." But the prisoner was irrepressible. His friends could not restrain his tongue. He abused Robinson, and just as the District Attorney was about to open the case, he exclaimed, in great excitement : " I come here in the honorable capacity of being the agent of Deity on this occasion and I propose to appear as such. I don't come on my hands and knees, and that is all about it." The District Attorney opened the case in a speech of considerable length, in which he showed by letters written by the prisoner in which he applied for high offices, his inordinate egotism, vanity, self-esteem and malignant spirit. Guiteau sought first to be appointed Minister to Austria ; then Consul at Paris, urging the righteousness of his claim because of his unbounded influence in pro- curing the election of Garfield to the Presidency. He teased the President and the Secretary of State with letters and personal applications until he became intolerable, when Mr. Blaine, in a curt letter, dismissed him. This, and the refusal of the President to give him an office, ?: TE~ RAPHY OF cd his malice, and or forty days be- fore he made ^rfield, he . following fcettei :o him, marked ,, 'pr: "Ge>"XRai Gabfisld: I t been :• ying to be your Eri I do r:: kno ■ •s'hether jou appreciate it or cot ; -but I am moved to call your attention to the remarka": M Blaine ::ced. Accorr _ ...icago, E i get 1 I ." - "■* that Mr. BbuiM is i - with you. :t-^.t Him letter indicated the r.:::^ ; which prompted the cr.r.: larkrj hinted fttinl .:.::.-- POfdLa were not heede: uid :ae Republican rjr:v would "come to grief. " The wicked :r.:eiv.:n was made -: by the following d on the 1 June IS, a fc: B commission of the " I intended to remove the F . ! m : a i n - the depot, l- be took the cars fcr L . r Branc Id looked m Bun, and clung so tenderly :: the Preeidi: - mn, that rr.y - rd me to part the n .fed tot.. .lone. I: will be no m Mr.-, '.d to part with berlraabi nd ...- w»y, Hi u bj ale to go at anv time, u •■ C G r was q_ : :f Uifl tin : the eion II chill called as the first witness for the ;. me comm. :-53es of : ^lled, hl Indo not denied, A: the : ! morning of the 18tb, JAM m Mr. Scovilli anth I Bercc a: ". * (] Be u do i.v talent in this ! I am ?■ is go:: B ' suppress him, ad your own sailed M r. 5 " 5 afi- dence in you: first- want judg' in banc will ; The court calmly r .'.had beon done several o* I .Suu# o:. count of tho disorder!] " I- the table with hid hits and . * * If I am convict- give me a new trii •• We w ill !. " I have had i. >wn. me during t 10 publi Judg liber. .. undignified proceeding ■ THE BIOGRAPHY OF fense could only plead insanity of the prisoner, as a ground for asking his acquittal by the jury, and it was good policy to allow him to invalidate that plea by over- acting the part, of a maniac, for it was evident from tho outset that there was "method in his madness."' Besides, the prisoner was a counsel in the case, and he had rights to be respected; and it was evidently good policy to give him such license that he could not successfully apply for a new trial on the ground of unfairness or illegality of treatment. As the evidence produced in court revealed the un- desirable character of Guiteau, the public indignation became more and more intense, and threats against his life were uttered by excitable persons. On the afternoon of Saturday, the 19th, while the prisoner was on his way back to the jail, an unknown man, mounted on a sorrel horse, rode up to the van in which the assassin was con- fined, shot at him with a pistol through an upper panel of the vehicle, and rode away so rapidly that he escaped. Afterward a man named William W. Jones was arrested and indicted on a charge of attempting to kill Guiteau, and was held in prison for trial. The ball cut a hole in the sleeve of Guiteau's coat, and slightly grazed his arm, abrad- ing the skin. To a reporter who visited him in. jail that evening, Guiteau said : "Say in your paper the Lord will not allow me to be shot." But he requested the guard of the van to be strengthened. The evidence for the prosecution having been com- pleted on Saturday, the 19th, the defense of Guiteau began on Monday, the 21st. A serious misunderstanding having occurred between Mr. Scoville and Mr. Robinson, the latter. at the opening of the court, requested and obtained leave to retire from the case, and he was honorably discharged, with the thanks of Judge Cox. Mr. .Scoville said he did not anticipate being entirely without assistance, as he was negotiating with a gentleman from Chicago. The pris- oner broke in : " My defense here is that it is the Deity'3 JAMBS a act, not mine, and I Ho has taken The I > i ~ 1 1 . • if the testimonj • <»f the Presidi tit's wouu d, Mr. S heard in his ow u The boon wa I rofu- ml up w bile ing the trial, to the corre< I for the past few days, and thai would go on the stand ined. Mr. Scoville then ner, with n<> attempt flections in advance u] might employ, bj wai n led by them, : while his expert •■■■ testimony should favor the prisoner, tl tracis< As the insanity of thi pica of the d< nine Bketch of different O OU8 man. acter a bearing npon the H kT * • brief and into I b t.f thi ' are of Huguenot desct nt, had been or w prisoner's lifi shown thai his birth • ill, which sickn her head. His lif< rncy to religious man ciicv in the various • w-.rK termpted him 836 2 HE BIOGRAPHY OF times charging him with lying, repeating the charge oyer and over. To these charges and interruptions Mr. Scoville paid no attention, which indifference some persons con- strued as collusion with the prisoner in his simulated in- sanity. Mr. Scoville finished his opening address for the de- fense on November 23d, and then introduced his first witness, a Congregational clergyman from Illinois, who said that he thought Guiteau's mind was not so much de- ranged as very badly arranged. There were many other witnesses introduced from various parts of the country. Up to this time the crowd of spectators (a large pro- portion of them women), had been in the habit of giving tokens of approbation or disapprobation of the proceed- ings, sometimes applauding the impertinent interjections of the assassin. On the morning of the 25th, Judge Cox gave notice that any further exhibition of such demon- strations would be followed by an immediate clearing of the court-room. This unseemly conduct now ceased. The prisoner was threatened with the application of a gag if ho did not restrain his tongue, but this threat was of little avail, for he persisted in his abrupt comments on the testimony and in fiat contradictions of the witnesses. At this point, Charles II. Reed, a lawyer of Chicago, and once State's Attorney, was solicited to become Mr. Scoville's associate counsel in the case. He complied with the request soon afterwards. On the 27th General Logan was called for the defense. He testified to Guiteau's per- sistence in soliciting his aid in procuring for the prisoner the Paris Consulship, and that his personal appearance and conduct were indications of partial insanity. Mrs. Scoville (Guiteau's sister), also testified to several acts of Guiteau which indicated unsoundness of mind. No testimony as to Guiteau's menial irregularities, Ins hallucinations and his aberrations of mind yet given had sufficient to establish a solid plea for insanity, when, at the close of Mrs. Scoville's testimony on the 28th, her brother, J. W. Guiteau of Boston, was called to the wit JAMWA A 9AMFIM ^tund by th- damaged the insanitj i brim I the piisoner*! Life which iiu man • her than a conversation he had with hi Bxpreased ;i I shoot the Pn thai beli( !*• honest and sincere in •:>«! no* to be insane. He admits had, on several u brother had hem inspired bj I and do' in committing the orii choaen I by the devil, and was ander demoniai infl u d he now believed him to b. This witness, in n -lion whu hy his brother being \ plained the theological notioni ■ prisoner, which comprehended in the world, one of | the other of the Devil; thai man gbt follow whichever he time in his life, must bav< 1 notion- willfulness, bia Btubbornn< Satan to gam gush a < the power of the Evil One. 'I he based his opinion I ^aa mora. eible to God, but perhs] -iible a*, human or legal : • ° n « i * nJ# H*** *- Here the prisoner broke ii "You have that thinj •• Perhapa 1 hav( • «*♦ or posit you to tas Toward the I called to the stand written. He did lowing he was agi M » tAuJ anJ WM 828 THE BIOGRAPHY OP subjected to a searching examination and crose-exami- nation for the space of three days. His character and career were laid open to public view. lie was questioned as to the notions of the Oneida Community, among whom he spent his early years, concerning inspiration in general and of the special inspiration of individuals to do certain things; what was his own view on the subject of inspiration; as to his way of life generally ; as to his political status, offico- seeking and personal aspirations; as to his first concep- tion of the idea of murdering the President, and of its ne- cessity ; of his preparation for the deed, its executiou, and the state of his mind afterwards. It came out that he was in accord with the Oneida Community on the subject of the special inspiration of individuals to do certain things which they believed ; that he had been loose, theoretically and practically, in his ideas of honesty in behavior toward his fellow-men ; that he had aspired to high public honors, but had never been elected to an office, but that he had believed, and he still believed, that he would some day be President of the United States ; that he had conceived the idea of " re- moving " the president by assassination before he wrote the threatening letter to him on May 23, given in preced- ing pages ; that from that time until he committed the terrible crime he was under " constant pressure, pressure, pressure of inspiration," to do it, and that he earnestly resisted it, and that after the deed was done, and he was in jail, he felt happy. He told, in sickening detail, how for days he had sought an opportunity to shoot the Pres- ident ; and when asked whether, when he pointed the pistol at General Garfield, he believed that it was God and not Guiteau who pulled the trigger, the wretched pris- oner said : " I was simply executing the Divine will. He used me as his agent in pulling the trigger. I had no option in the matter. I would have done it if I had been sure of being shot dead the next moment. The pressure [of in- JAMES i. GARFIELD spiration] was so enormouB I could that down.*' The prisoner said that when he was lodged in mind became perfectly at ease, and he nrai ha] conflict with the " pressure of inspirati< had done his dutj as an agent of D Bciousness thai the Deity would tak< ll<- admitted that he i on the second coming of Christ, which had would now have an enormous and ] >i< >ti * of the notoriety which his hor] On December 5, the defense inti of medical experts. Dr. Kiernan, ] Review," of Chicago, was fii Bprang to his feet and -aid ; •' Before any . •■■. mony b< i a short speech. The very point on which 1 uerts to pass upon is tfa will do it again. When n man claim to do an illegal act from a power beyond I h lm cannot recall, where his moral a these experts to say whether that is sanit; Mr. Scoville put this hypothet Kiernan : " Assuming it t< hereditary taint, of in- that at the without simulation ; that dui ii . ing with the I persons in various places had that in June, L8»l, he v, Kill th< immediately after the lieved by the perfo sane or insane at the time of tl Dr. Kiernan answi -an«— no doubt of This witness, aftei school which advocat- - »ot THE BIOGRAPHY OF and that he did not believe in a state of future existence for man. testified that inequality in the two sides of a head was an evidence of hereditary insanity. "That fits my case exactly/' said the prisoner. •• One side of my head is larger than the other. Doctors exam- ined me the other night." The witness said that perhaps one quarter of all c of insanity that had come under his observation, were caused by this inequality of the two sides of the head. In answer to the question, What is the proportion of insane people to the sane, in the world ? the witness continued : " Probably of twenty-five persons in ordinary life — business people — five are insane and sooner or later they become inmates of an insane asylum ; the proportion is greater among idle people ;" to which the questioner (Judge Davidge) replied : "That is an encouraging pros- pect for us all." "That would take you in, Judge," said the prisoner. Dr. Charles Ii. Nichols, of the Bloomingdale Asylum for the Insane at New York, in reply to the hypothetical question put to Dr. Kiernan, answered, " Taking that hypothetical question to be true, I should think the person described in it was insane." To the same hypothetical question a similar answer was given by Doctors Foster, Goldy, McBride, ('banning and Fisher, all of them connected with asylums for the insane or institutions for the treatment of mental diseases. After the depositions of a few more witnesseSj the counsel for the prisoner announced that the testimony for the de- fense was closed, excepting that of Dr. Spitzka of New York, for whom he had telegraphed. The government opened rebutting testimony on the morningof December 7. The family physician of Guiteau's father said he had never discovered the slightest trace of insanity in him or any of his family, his peculiar religious' views, in his opinion, not being incompatible with his soundness of mind. Several leading citizens of Freeport, Illinois (the home of the Guiteau's), intimately acquaint- m ed with the family . also | teau family, • insanity in others of tfa . tie who w in, fur i\ recriminal which tin fensirely parti l>r. Sj., ■ ' and who bad at he had examined the prisoner in jail, .. ion that In 1 n lectually ami ami consequent!) rts took i :.n tin Loring, of W New York, j favor of the Banity of the | court, that he was not a month before, ami at the i that is to say, ho was undi of God " to do the deed. In i ration. Dr. MacDona testified that, as I than 6, ml thai " inspired/' a I thing enl conrsi of " moral in believe in it : that, in fa been playing a part in I that he on the 834 THE BIOGRAPHY OF President. Other experts who were called agreed in opinion with Dr. MacDonald. At near the close of December, the defense had a plaster cast of G-uiteau's head made by Clark Mills, the sculptor, for the purpose of giving support to the theory of Dr. Kiernan, that irregularity in the two sides of a head was a cause and an outward indication of hereditary insanity, but it settled no question. At this time the conduct of the prisoner in court had become so intolerable that the judge remanded him to the dock, but he was still irrepressible. He boasted that he would " laugh the case out of court," and proceeded to put his boast into execution by reading the following- telegram, which he pretended he had received the night before : " All Boston sympathizes with you. You ought to be Preti dent. " A Host ok Admirers." The evidence was all in and closed on January 4, when it was announced that after some law points had been disposed of, the arguments of counsel on the merits of the case would be begun. These points were finally disposed of on January 10 (1882), and two days afterward Mr. Davidge opened the plea for the Government or the prosecution. On the 14th, Mr. Reed began a plea in favor of the claim of insanity on the part of the prisoner. Gui- teau asked leave to speak in his own defense, but the court, wearied with his abusive " speeches,'' refused ; whereupon the prisoner, whose address he had written out, furnished a copy of it for the Associated Press for publication'. It appeared in the morning papers through- out the country on January lb'. It was a long and char- acteristie document, containing nothing new excepting copies of numerous letters which he pretended he had re- ceived, filled with words of praise and sympathy. Mr. Scoville followed Mr. Reed on the 17th, and con- cluded hi.-, speech on the 20th. On the 23d, Judge jAMKti a OARjrrai Porter, for the Government, began his u jury, and concluded it on the afternoon of the 26tb, * Judge Cox delivered his charge to the jury. It wm ■ culm, impartial aud lucid review of thi hour was occupied in the reading of it. During \U d ery tho prisoner interrupted tho judge only I dued tones. His voice had not the old defiant rii)^\ he seemed to be impressed with a sense of impending peril. While Judge Cox wns reading, the twilight of * i ter's evening, gray and deepening, filled tl. i oom. A lamp was brought for the use of the judge and t! ficial reporters, for there wore no £:i* fixtures in the I Tho prisoner became shrouded in almost darkness which seemed portentous of his doom s<»> >n I nouncod. The .shadows of his guards standing about him the gloom in which he was nearly hidden f Hi was manacled, thoughtful and quiet At five o'clock the jurors retired to liberate on a verdict, The prisonei stared into the face of each a- he p r him, « deep, anxious, inquiring gaze. After thej had room Guiteau asked to be taken t<. th< shal, where, during the trial, he had taken hia dil His request was granted, and he walked out thi curious, inquiring crowd. Soon afterwards the judge ordered a recess of half an hour. In the marshal's room Guit< " Will they acquit me?" he anxiously inquin captain of his guard. 1 • could I they disagree ':" he as anxiously inquire I guards. He could not tell. The | long in suspense, Th hour later, was one to be Ion- remember of it. Darkness brooded in the dien only two oil lamp* A crowd of fully four hundred almost indistinguishable mass, Presently tlm 83$ THE BIOGRAPHY OF candles were lighted at points in the room distant from each ot-her, and a few were furnished for the reporters' tables. Strange, ghostly shadows tapestried the grim walls in flitting masses. The cold wave, just surging from the far northwest, made the room exceedingly chilly, and the wearied spectators were shivering with cold and excitement when silence was commanded by the proper officer, and the judgo appoared and took his scat on the bench. The hu6h of the portals of death now prevailed, broken only by the solemn tread of the prisoner and his guards as they entered the room. Guiteau, pale, shiver- ing, subdued, dropped into his chair in the dock, and gazed anxiously at the seats soon to be filled with the arbiters of his fate. Just fifty minutes after the jury retired from the court room, they returned and took their seats. The prisoner, as he sank back trembling in a corner of the dock, tried to read the- verdict in the faces of the twelve jurors, but the light was so dim he could scarcely observe their fea- tures. The names of the jurymen were called by the gray-haired crier, when the clerk of the court inquired ; "Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon a verdict ?" "We have," responded the foreman. " What say you gentlemen," continued the clerk ; " is the prisoner at the bar guilty or not guilty ?" The foreman slowly arose, and in a low clear voice, that could be heard in every part of the silent room, answered : " Guilty as indicted." Pent up feelings of applause struggled for expression all over the room, and as it was breaking out, silence was commanded and secured. As soon as order was restored the clerk said to the jury : " Your foreman says, 'guilty as indicted,' so say all of you ?" " We do," they all responded. Mr. Scovillo instantly demanded a poll of the jury, when each juror was called by name and answered in the 7. A xji affirmatn nulled and tho an- swer giv< Bhrieked — upon the thai jur. y : " desir counsel, under the law and 1 1 that, if I anythii wto would thank tl t in licate him. Ju opportunity ; thai print the next day, and be would I • allowed by law within which t<> 81e 1. . and that be would be entitled to f move an arrest of judgment. When the ju 1 hii remarks, the •• (. 1 will aveng< I Ju ;ry and tlemen of the jury : I cann the manner in v You have richly D -, )C than!, and I feel assured you will tak< tho approval of your men of the jury, Id: .." With this announcement, the court ' journed, and bo this rem President Garfield was conclude The verdict of the jur . approval. The pi ficd that the • nly acting a part in i that mental conditioi patient and disgusted by h inc: 1 toward all wl him, and his. frcq were undoubtedly lip was Bane and 840 THE BIOGRAPHY OF need not have been absent from the court-room five min- utes in agreeing upon their verdict. Their only motive for remaining out nearly an hour was to avoid the appear- ance of unseemly haste. The verdict was regarded every- where as an honest and most important vindication of natural justice and as a promise of protection against a similar outrage in the future. The Nqw York Times justly remarked : "Any other conclusion of the trial upon which public attention has been concentrated for more than ten weeks would have been a shock to the general feeling that justice demands a swift retribution for crimes of such enormity. It would have shaken popular faith in the efficacy, of the jury system as a means of insuring the execution of justice against criminals of the most atrocious type, and weak- ened the safeguards of life on which the stability of human institutions so largely depends. It would have given the enemies of free government a new argument against its power to vindicate its authority from the attacks of law- less citizens. The general sense of the people that justice should be done in this case as promptly as was compatible with the due observance of the forms and requirements of law has not prevented Ouiteau from receiving a fair and im- partial trial. He has been allowed the widest liberty, verg- ing closely upon unrestrained license of conduct, in the court-room ; he has had the most liberal construction that the law bearing upon his case would permit, his counsel have done everything in his behalf which their ingenuity and ability could compass, and he has had a full hearing before a jury of uncommon intelligence and fairness." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 785 727 3