LiBRARY OP CONGRESS, 
 
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 ■*=OyOxJ "IX 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 

Inter Folia Fructcs. — Library Motto of James A. Garfield. 
 
 GARFIELD'S WORDS 
 
 SUGGESTIVE PASSAGES FROM 
 
 THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WRITINGS 
 
 JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 WILLIAM RALSTON BALCH. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 
 
 1881. 
 
 r 
 

 Copyright, 1881, 
 By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 
 
To 
 THE MANY THOUSAND MEN AND WOMEN OF THIS REPUBLIC 
 
 WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN MADE BETTER ANT) NOBLER 
 BY THE MARTYRDOM OF 
 
 JAMES A. GARFIELD, 
 
 (£1)13 Folume 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The attention paid in this country to the litera- 
 ture of Congress and the literature of the stump is 
 trifling. This, possibly, is excusable, as much of it 
 is but the sawdust of debate, the dry chips that 
 some prosy orator hews from the block of a tire- 
 some topic. Literary brilliancies are seldom ex- 
 pected from political successes. In consequence 
 much that is valuable, powerful, and eloquent of 
 national life, appearing in speeches that are the ex- 
 ception to the rule, is missed by the majority. 
 
 The reader will, probably, read with surprise — 
 not being aware of their existence — the clever, 
 philosophical, manly, and patriotic sayings that are 
 printed in the following pages. They are com- 
 piled from the public utterances and the private 
 letters of our late President. It is indeed remark- 
 able how thickly his speeches and letters are stud- 
 ded with jewels of utterance. 
 
 No apology is presented for offering this little 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 volume to the public, and, in the light of the events 
 that have followed the black 2d of July, none is 
 needed. The compiler has made no great effort at 
 elaborate classification. The selections have been 
 arranged so as to bear a certain relation of subject, 
 and such references as were deemed necessary have 
 been added. The index to subjects will permit of 
 quick search for any desired theme. 
 
 The manly beauty, the wit and appreciable wis- 
 dom of much that President Garfield uttered, can- 
 not but win its way to an abiding place in the 
 hearts of the American people, and serve to bring 
 them into closer relation with the admirable sen- 
 timents of the man who, elected to the highest 
 post of honor in this Republic, died bravely in the 
 discharge of the trusts committed to his hands. . 
 William Ralston Balch. 
 
 Philadelphia, the Fall of 1881. 
 
 I will pick up a few straws here and there over the broad 
 field and will ask you a few moments to look at them. 
 
 Garfield at Cleveland, October 11, 1879. 
 
MEMOIR, 
 
 To tell the story of James Abram Garfield's life 
 is to recite the trials and triumphs of the last 
 twenty years of American history, so intimately 
 was his life twined with that of the nation. Such 
 a story will not be attempted here. Instead, will 
 be given a few notes, which will recall to readers 
 the series of grand influences that encircled him 
 and which had so much to do with shaping his 
 
 brave words. 
 
 He was born at Orange, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, 
 on November 9, 1831, and had the advantage in 
 his veins of a sound strain of blood. Abram Gar- 
 field, his father, was of Welsh descent, an ancestor, 
 Edward Garfield, having renounced his home in 
 Chester (Wales), to join great Governor Win- 
 throp's Company in their search for land and living 
 in the New World. The name Garfield — it is to 
 be found to-day in Wales under the earlier form of 
 Gaerfili, and in Massachusetts as Gaerfield — means, 
 in Anglo-Saxon, " field- watch." Edward Garfield 
 settled at Water town, Massachusetts, where he and 
 some of his descendants are buried. One of these, 
 
8 MEMOIR. 
 
 Solomon Garfield, was the father of Abram Gar- 
 field and the grandfather of James Abram. Abram 
 was named for an uncle Abram, who was among the 
 foremost to repulse the British assault on Concord 
 Bridge. After the assault, he joined Judge Hoar 
 in drawing up a deposition for use by the Conti- 
 nental Congress, in proving that the British govern- 
 ment was the aggressor and began the war which 
 resulted in our independence. Abram Garfield's 
 wife, the mother of the President, bore the historic 
 name of Ballou and was the sixth in descent from 
 Maturin Ballou, who fled to this country on the 
 revocation of the edict of Nantes, and found refuge 
 in Rhode Island. Eliza Ballou, for such was her 
 name, was married in 1819. All the best years of 
 her life were passed in the wilderness, framed in 
 the narrow boundaries of border civilization. Her 
 husband died in 1833, and left upon her hands the 
 raising of four children and the maintaining the 
 fight for existence which from the first had been bit- 
 ter. She bent herself bravely to the ta?k, and her 
 determination, patience, and perseverance were the 
 first lessons of life James Garfield ever had. In 
 the poverty and privation of life at the little home- 
 stead he fully shared. As soon as he felt him- 
 self able he struck for independence, and took the 
 position of a driver on the canal boat Evening Star. 
 From his career on the canal the ague cut him off. 
 At the usual age he entered the district school. 
 Here he easily stood at the head of his class, and by 
 
MEMOIR. 9 
 
 the time he was eighteen, he was possessed of all 
 the school could teach him. He next attended for 
 three terms the Geauga Seminary at Chester, Ohio. 
 While studying there he paid his way with the 
 earnings of carpentering, at which he worked early 
 and late, and successfully. In 1851 he entered the 
 Eclectic Institute, now Hiram College, at Hiram, 
 Ohio, where he prepared for college. A kind word 
 from the then President, Mark Hopkins, fixed Gar- 
 field's choice upon Williams College, at Williams- 
 town, Massachusetts, and from there he graduated 
 with the highest honors of his class in 1856. In 
 seven years he had covered all the ground that lay 
 between an old-fashioned district school and a high- 
 class New England College. He had accomplished 
 even more. He had taught school, he. had worked 
 at his carpenter's trade, and for two years while 
 carrying on his studies at Hiram, he had occupied 
 worthily a teacher's position. In all this learning 
 and teaching he was eminently successful. Fate, 
 it seemed, was shaping his life in the pitiless lines 
 of a public educator. 
 
 On his return to Hiram from Williams, he was 
 made instructor in Ancient Languages, a post he 
 was not allowed to occupy long, as in less than a 
 year he was chosen principal. Pie proved himself 
 an educator of strong power and popularity. In 
 1858 he was married to Lucretia Rudolph, the 
 grand-niece of Michel, Duke of Elchingen, Marshal 
 Ney. About this time he began to think of useful- 
 
10 MEMOIR. 
 
 ness in another field, that of the law. The break- 
 ing out of the civil war stopped progress in this 
 direction, and swept him away to the front as lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the 42d Ohio Volunteers. His 
 first operations in the fall of 1861. on being pro- 
 moted to the colonelcy, were directed against Gen- 
 eral Humphrey Marshall, then occupying the Big 
 Sandy Valley of Kentucky. For this and other 
 able operations he was made a brigadier-general on 
 January 10, 1862. Subsequently he commanded a 
 brigade at Shiloh, was chosen chief of staff by 
 Rosecrans, and was with George H. Thomas dur- 
 ing the awful struggle at Chickamauga. For his 
 " gallant and meritorious service " on this occasion 
 he was made a major-general. 
 
 Quite early Garfield manifested an interest in 
 politics. He attended his first political meeting 
 during the Harrison campaign, though appearing 
 more as a spectator than a participant. The Kan- 
 sas-Nebraska difficulty was probably the first politi- 
 cal question in which he interested himself, and his 
 political career opened actively in 1857, when he 
 took the stump, and did effective service for his 
 party. Two years later he was elected a member 
 of the Ohio Senate, taking his seat from Portage 
 and Summit counties, his strong anti-slavery views 
 having proved the credentials of his election. This 
 honor he resigned on accepting a regiment. While 
 at the front, in 1862, his friends at home chose him 
 to represent the 19th Ohio Congressional District, 
 
MEMOIR. 11 
 
 so long spoken for by honest, able Joshua R. Gid- 
 dings. By the advice of President Lincoln and 
 General Rosecrans, he accepted the honor and took 
 his seat — the youngest member of Congress — on 
 December 5, 1863, resigning from the army on the 
 same day. To this body he was nine times succes- 
 sively elected, remaining a member until the close 
 of the first session of the Forty-Sixth Congress, in 
 the early summer of 1880. In January of that 
 year he was chosen by the legislature of Ohio, to 
 succeed Allen G. Thurman for the six years end- 
 ing March 4, 1887. On June 10th following he 
 received at Chicago, at the hands of the National 
 Republican Convention, — of which he was a mem- 
 ber, — the nomination to the Presidency. Novem- 
 ber 2d he was elected ; March 4, 1881, he was in- 
 augurated ; July 2d he was struck down by a cow- 
 ardly assassin, and on September 19th, at Elberon, 
 New Jersey, he died, the regretted of the world. 
 
 His political career was one unbroken service to 
 his country. He never made a speech that was 
 not noticeable for honesty of purpose, earnestness 
 of vision, soundness of judgment, unimpeachable 
 logic, and overwhelming evidence, while framed in 
 beautiful words, and animated by complete charity 
 and manly courtesy. Among his associates during 
 his term in Congress, William Pitt Fessenden, Lot 
 M. Morrill, John P. Hale of New Hampshire, 
 Hannibal Hamlin, Charles Sumner and Henry Wil- 
 son, Oliver P. Morton, Ambon}', Reverdy Johnson, 
 
12 MEMOIR. 
 
 bluff Ben Wade, John Sherman, Chandler, Blaine, 
 Hill, Conkling, Logan, and others were members of 
 the Senate, while in the House were E. B. Wash- 
 burne, " the watch-dog of the Treasury ; " Thaddeus 
 Stevens, Schenck, Boutwell, Fenton, Henry Win- 
 ter Davis, Allison, Kasson, of Iowa, Dawes, John 
 A. Bingham, English of Connecticut, Pendleton of 
 Ohio, Randall, George W. Julian, Fernando Wood, 
 Judge Kelley, Frye, Hale, Hoar, Blair of New 
 Hampshire, and many another man of brains. And 
 yet no one of these can show so bright a page of 
 service to the country as James A. Garfield. No 
 one of these stamped his own likeness so deeply 
 upon the Mosaic of national legislation of the past 
 twenty }-ears. Daring that period hardly one great 
 measure of national importance was passed without 
 the impress of the Garfield medallion. His ser- 
 vice on most of the very important committees was 
 continuous and untiring. He was either father or 
 god-father to every sound financial measure origi- 
 nating during his career in Congress. He was the 
 determined enemy of all forms of inflation, repudia- 
 tion, and payment of just debts by jugglery. Slavery 
 found in him a foe of magnificent proportions, the 
 black man a friend of great value. Freedom and 
 the inviolability of the Constitution were with him 
 every-day texts. The doctrine of State sovereignty 
 he attacked with bitter vehemence whenever it 
 showed its head. The broadening of the scope 
 and eifect of education was a cherished hobby of 
 
MEMOIR. 13 
 
 his, wliich he never lost an opportunity of riding 
 to advantage. Protection was upheld, believed in, 
 and defended. The sacredness of the public faith 
 was a grand gospel. While believing that the 
 South was '-forever and forever wrong" on the 
 great question that tore the nation in two, yet no 
 Northern man forgave more quickly or more fully 
 than he. He had no sympathy with the " bio >dy- 
 shirt " antics of his party, and did what he could to 
 condemn them. He never for an instant lost sight 
 •of his country, its honor, its welfare, or its citizens, 
 and he never advanced any but enlightened and 
 progressive principles. A profound student of 
 statesmanship, he easily became the leader of the 
 House, no less than the leader of his party. Bril- 
 liant in debate and oration, no member ever sur- 
 passed him in speech and argument, that are as 
 well worth reading to-day as on the day of their 
 delivery- Though a man of intense convictions, 
 stating them in thunders of impassioned words, 
 never was a political debater more courteous to his 
 opponent, more mindful of the amenities of the 
 forum, more generous in construing the utterances 
 of those who differed with him. In marshaling 
 evidence against the Democratic policy upon any 
 measure, he would always quote from Democratic 
 papers or Democratic orators, very seldom from 
 the press and politicians of his own party. Pre- 
 eminently a constructive statesman, he endowed his 
 speeches with a practical quality that made them 
 
14 MEMOIR. 
 
 immediately available for the principles and meth- 
 ods under discussion ; and this, too, when the amount 
 of work that he accomplished was almost incredi- 
 ble. Besides serving on the Military Committee 
 
 then the most important and the busiest of all 
 
 committees — of the House during the thirty-eighth 
 Congress, 1863-65, he delivered speeches on the 
 following: "Deficiency bill," "Bill to continue 
 bounties," " Revenue bill," " Confiscation," " Con- 
 scription bill," " Bill to revive grade of Lieutenant- 
 General," " Resolution of thanks to General 
 Thomas," " Sale of surplus gold," " Relating to 
 enlistments in the Southern States," " Bill to drop 
 unemployed general officers," "New Jersey rail- 
 road bill," "Currency bill," "The state of the 
 Union, in reply .to Mr. Long," "The expulsion of 
 Mr. Long," " A correspondence with the Rebels," 
 " Revenue bill (No. 405)," " The inquiry in rela- 
 tion to the Treasury Department," " The Army 
 appropriation bill," " Pennsylvania war claims," 
 " The bankrupt bill," " Repeal of fugitive slave 
 law," " Bill to provide for claims for rebellion 
 losses." And no one of these but what was most 
 carefully and fully prepared. And from this be- 
 ginning the stream of his activity widened into a 
 vast sea. 
 
 As a lawyer his career was not so brilliant, but if 
 we may accept the suggestion of the cases that he 
 argued, it was because his political duties left him 
 but little time for the law. And this is still more 
 
MEMOIR. 15 
 
 patent when it is recollected that, with the excep- 
 tion of 1868 and 1880, he bore a conspicuous part 
 in the yearly political canvass on the stump. Ohio, 
 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New 
 York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, 
 and Missouri, record with gratitude his powers in 
 a canvass. He was the most serious and the most 
 instructive man on the stump in the Republic. As 
 a lawyer he was logical, clear, careful, never slight- 
 ing anything or anybocty, and always confirmed in 
 the justice of his cause. 
 
 His scholar's career, his literary activity, his 
 style, the training and habits of his mind are, per- 
 haps, at this moment of the greatest interest. The 
 growth of his intellect began with the unsurpassed 
 English of the Bible, much of which he learned 
 at his mother's knee. This was the grounding of 
 that upright Christian career which he so earnestly 
 entered upon and so fearlessly followed, of that 
 profound reverence for Christian teachings, which 
 was afterwards strengthened and confirmed by his 
 preaching in the pulpits of his sect. The next 
 mental development was his love of freedom and 
 his ambition to be something in the world, brought 
 out by the bristling pages of " The Pirate's Own 
 Book," Weems's " Marion," border histories, and 
 Grimshaw's " Napoleon," which also stirred his 
 soldier's spirit, volumes that over and over again 
 aroused his ready enthusiasm. To these succeeded 
 the dry sentences of Kirkham's Grammar, then, 
 
16 MEMOIR. 
 
 book-keeping, penmanship, and elocution. The 
 next refining influences upon his mind were the 
 able ministrations of his teacher at Hiram, Miss 
 Almeda A. Booth, the Margaret Fuller of the West. 
 Xenophon's "Anabasis," the Pastorals of Virgil, 
 the Georgics and Bucolics entire, Demosthenes on 
 the Crown, and the first six books of Homer, ac- 
 companied by a thorough drill in Latin and Greek 
 grammar, preceded his entrance at college. In 
 these studies he was very thorough, at all times 
 examining and perusing collateral works to the 
 particular text book upon which he was engaged. 
 
 On his arrival at Williamstown he found a great 
 prize, — a good library. His absorption in the doable 
 work of teaching and fitting himself for college, 
 had hitherto left him little time for general reading, 
 and the library opened a new world of profit and 
 delight. lie had never read a line of Shakespeare, 
 save a few extracts in the school-readers. From 
 the whole range of fiction he had voluntarily shut 
 himself off at eighteen, when he joined the church, 
 having serious views of the business of life and im- 
 bibing the notion — then almost universal among 
 religious people in the country districts of the 
 West — that novel-reading was a waste of time, 
 and therefore a simple, worldly sort of intellectual 
 amusement. Turned loose in the college library, 
 he began with Shakespeare, which he devoured 
 " with the divine hunger of genius " from cover 
 to cover. Then he went to English history and to 
 
MEMOIR. 17 
 
 the English poets. Tennyson pleased him best. In 
 Charles Kingsley's " Alton Locke " and " Yeast " he 
 found congenial spirits. Longfellow's " Hiawatha " 
 produced a lasting impression. At the end of six 
 months this serious reading produced intellectual 
 dyspepsia, his mind could not assimilate the food 
 fed to it, it refused to be bound down to the printed 
 page. He therefore revised his notions of fiction, 
 and came to the conclusion that romance is as 
 valuable a part of a mental repast as salad of a 
 dinner. In consequence he prescribed for himself 
 one novel a month, and on this medicine his mind 
 speedily recovered its elasticity. Cooper's " Leather- 
 stocking Tales " were the first novels he read, 
 after these Sir Walter Scott. Then an Eno-Rsh 
 classmate introduced him to Dickens and Thack- 
 eray, and he roared with laughter over Mr. Bum- 
 ble. During this course of reading he made notes 
 of everything he did not clearly understand, such 
 as historical references, mythological allusions, 
 technical terms, etc. These notes he would take 
 time to look up afterward, in the library, so as to 
 leave nothing obscure concerning the books he ab- 
 sorbed. The ground his mind traversed he care- 
 fully cleared and plowed before leaving it for fresh 
 fields. 
 
 Garfield studied Latin and Greek, and took up 
 German as an elective study. One year completed 
 his classical studies. German he carried on suc- 
 cessfully, until he could read Goethe and Schiller 
 2 
 
18 MEMOIR. 
 
 readily and acquired considerable fluency in the 
 conversational use of that language. The influ- 
 ence of the mind and character of Dr. Hopkins 
 was seriously felt in shaping the direction of 
 his thoughts and views of life. He repeatedly 
 said that the good president rose like a sun before 
 him and enlightened his whole mental and moral 
 nature. His preaching and teaching were a con- 
 stant inspiration of the young Ohio student, and he 
 became the centre of his college life, the object of 
 his hero worship. In all the college literary work 
 Garfield joined enthusiastically. He was a mem- 
 ber, and one year, 1855-6, president of the Philolo- 
 gian Society. He contributed constantly to " The 
 Williams Quarterly." This gave him an advan- 
 tageous journalistic experience and brought him 
 into closer relations with the men around him. 
 One year Garfield formed one of the corps of edi- 
 tors, and during this connection with it he numbered 
 among his contributors Professor Chadbourne, Hor- 
 ace E. Scudder, G. B. Manly, S. G. W. Benjamin, 
 J. Gilfillan, W. R. Dimmock, John Savery, and 
 W. S. Hopkins, some of whom survive today to a 
 more distinguished fame than the pages of " The 
 Williams Quarterly." 
 
 Garfield graduated with the class honor in met- 
 aphysics, reading an essay on " Matter and Spirit, 
 the Seen and Unseen." It is singular how at dif- 
 ferent times in the course of his education, he was 
 thought to have a special aptitude for some partic- 
 
MEMOIR. 19 
 
 ular line of mental work, and how at another period 
 his talents were as pronounced in some other line. 
 First it was mathematics, then classics, then rhet- 
 oric, and finally metaphysics. The reason of all this 
 lay in his remarkably vigorous and well-rounded 
 brain, capable of effective work in any direction. 
 His studies had breadth. He was always busy, yet 
 never a recluse or bookish fellow. His studies 
 were also noticeable for their evenness. He had 
 large capacity and extreme diligence, and he applied 
 both to any subject that he undertook. What he 
 did was accomplished by hard work. There was 
 nothing spasmodic, but ever a steady, healthy, on- 
 ward, upward progress. This judgment on his life 
 then, has been equally applicable at all times since. 
 
 His intense love of books never left him. All 
 through his congressional career we catch glimpses 
 of his literary life, his turning aside, lest his great 
 dread should be accomplished of " falling into a rut 
 and becoming a fossil." Though he might not 
 have admitted it, there was little danger of such a 
 relapse. In a letter to an intimate friend, he says, 
 under date of July 8, 1875 : " I am taking advan- 
 tage of this enforced leisure to do a good deal of 
 reading. Since I was taken sick I have read the 
 following : Sherman's two volumes ; Leland's ' Eng- 
 lish Gypsies ; ' George Borrow's ' Gypsies of Spain ; ' 
 Borrow's l Rommany Rye ; ' Tennyson's ' Mary ; ' 
 seven volumes of Froude's England; several plays 
 of Shakespeare, and have made some progress in a 
 
20 MEMOIR. 
 
 new book, which T think you will be glad to see, 
 4 The History of the English People/ by Professor 
 Green, of Oxford, in one volume." 
 
 His interest in books was always fresh and vigor- 
 ous. Brief verdicts on much of his reading are re- 
 corded in his correspondence. The " Shakespeare 
 Tales " by Charles and Mary Lamb afforded him 
 a great deal of pleasure. Walter Savage Landor's 
 " Pericles and Aspasia " he found to be one of the 
 finest things he ever read, furnishing as it does in a 
 vivid and beautiful style " the best obtainable sum- 
 mary of the spirit and character of Greek history, 
 politics, philosophy, and literature." Reclus's " Phys- 
 ical Geography " he deemed a remarkable book, and 
 " Ten Great Religions," by James Freeman Clarke, 
 he read several times, the perusals leading him to 
 believe he had taken too narrow a view of the sub- 
 ject of religion. During the winter of 1874-75 he 
 made a thorough study of Goethe and his epoch, 
 and sought to build up in his mind a picture of the 
 state of literature and art in Europe at the period 
 when Goethe began to work, and the state of the 
 same when he died. After grouping the facts in 
 order, he wrote out a sketch, as was his custom in 
 regard to his reading, of the impressions produced 
 upon his mind. It was this sort of work that per- 
 mitted his literary growth to keep pace with his 
 political power, and made him eventually the scholar 
 of the White House. I will venture on the read- 
 er's patience, a private letter which will still further 
 
MEMOIR. 21 
 
 illustrate how consistently President Garfield kept 
 pace with himself. It touches on his great interest 
 in Horace. 
 
 " "Washington, D. C, December 16, 1871. 
 
 " Dear Professor : Before I am wholly over- 
 whelmed with the very arduous and long-continued 
 work which this winter's session will impose upon 
 me, I will take the time to write you a long, and 
 I hope not an uninteresting letter on a subject to 
 which I have given some attention, from time to 
 time, during the last few years. 
 
 " Since I entered public life, I have constantly 
 aimed to find a little time to keep alive the spirit 
 of my classical studies, and to resist that constant 
 tendency, which all public men feel, to grow rusty 
 in literary studies, and particularly in the classical 
 studies. I have thought it better to select some 
 one line of classical reading, and, if possible, do a 
 little work on it each day. For this winter, I am 
 determined to review such parts of the Odes of 
 Horace as I may be able to reach. And, as pre- 
 liminary to that work, I have begun by reading up 
 the bibliography of Horace. 
 
 " The Congressional Library is very rich in ma- 
 terials for this study, and I am amazed to find how 
 deep and universal has been the impress left on 
 the cultivated mind of the world by Horace's writ- 
 ings. 
 
 " In a French volume before me, entitled ' Edi- 
 
22 MEMOIR. 
 
 tion Polyglotte,' M. Monfalcon, Paris, 1834, in 
 which the Latin text and translations into Span- 
 ish, Italian, French, English, and German are 
 given, I find a catalogue of the editions of Horace 
 published in each year from the date of the inven- 
 tion of printing down to 1833. This remarkable 
 catalogue of editions fills seventy quarto columns of 
 Monfalcon 's book. Besides this Polyglot edition, 
 there are lying on tny table, for reference, two 
 thick volumes made up wholly of comments on 
 Horace (the body of the text being wholly omitted), 
 by Lambin, a great French scholar, who lived two 
 hundred years ago; also two thick volumes by 
 Orelli, the Swiss scholar, who died in 1850 ; also 
 three volumes of the Delphin Horace, edited by 
 Valpy, the English scholar. These form but a 
 small part of the stores of Horatian literature which 
 our library contains ; but these facts refer rather 
 to the bibliography of Horace, and are aside from 
 the particular point I have in view in this letter. 
 
 " I have observed, in looking over the works on 
 Horace, that a line of thought has been pursued by 
 scholars and antiquarians quite analogous to that 
 pursued by scientific men in forecasting — I might 
 almost say discovering — facts by induction from 
 general principles. Let me illustrate this. You 
 remember the familiar illustration of it in the case 
 of Lcverrier, who found a perturbation in the 
 movements of some of the planets of the solar sys- 
 tem, and, after having established the character 
 
MEMOIR. 23 
 
 and extent of that perturbation, declared that there 
 must be an unknown planet of a certain size in a 
 certain quarter of the heavens, whose presence 
 would account for the perturbation ; and finally, 
 by pointing the telescope to that quarter of the 
 heavens, the predicted planet was found. 
 
 " A recent fact may afford a still further instruc- 
 tive illustration of the same principle. Two weeks 
 ago to-day, Professor Agassiz, on the eve of de- 
 parture for South America on a voyage~of scientific 
 discovery, addressed a letter to Professor Peirce, of 
 the United States Coast Survey, in which he pre- 
 dicts with great particularity what classes of marine 
 animals he expects to find in the deep-sea sound- 
 ings of the southern hemisphere ; what disposition 
 of bowlders, the character and direction of glacial 
 groovings, he expects to find in the southern conti- 
 nent. The Professor has so fully committed him- 
 self that the result of the expedition must be a 
 great triumph or a great failure for him. 
 
 " Now, quite analogous to these researches in the 
 field of science has been the process by which 
 scholars have discovered the long-lost location of 
 the country residence of Horace. Its site, and al- 
 most its existence, were forgotten during the cen- 
 turies of darkness which the Middle Ages brought 
 upon Europe ; and it was only after the revival of 
 learning that men began to inquire for the old 
 shrines and homes of the ancient Greeks and Ro- 
 mans. For a long time the site of the country 
 
24 MEMOIR. 
 
 home of Horace was merely a matter of conjecture, 
 and scores of theories were advanced in regard to 
 it. I have now before me the work which was, I 
 believe, the first thorough and elaborate attempt to 
 apply the scientific process to the discovery of the 
 site of the villa of Horace. It is in three volumes, 
 of about five hundred pages each, and was written 
 at Rome in 17CG-67 by the Abbe Bertrand Cap- 
 martin de Chaupy, a French ecclesiastic, who about 
 that time spent several years in Rome, and subse- 
 quently, at the time of the French Revolution, fled 
 to Italy, partly for safety and partly to gratify his 
 love of classical study. 
 
 " I have run hastily over these volumes, and will 
 give you a brief statement of the scope and char- 
 acter of the argument. The first volume lays down 
 the method by which we should proceed in finding 
 the location of the Horatian villa. In following 
 out this method, he brings together all the refer- 
 ences made to it, directly or indirectly, in the works 
 of Horace, and many other similar references from 
 many other contemporary authorities and authors 
 of the next succeeding period. From these ele- 
 ments he sets forth in general terms the features 
 that any proposed site must possess in order to be 
 trusted as the real place. 
 
 " In his second volume he applies the results of 
 the first volume to all the localities that have been 
 proposed as the site, and reaches the conclusion 
 that none of them will stand the test. 
 
MEMOIR. 25 
 
 " In the third volume he traces the history of the 
 changes that swept over the country in the neigh- 
 borhood of Rome, the devastations and rebuildings, 
 the decays and reconstruction of cities and villas, 
 and finally directs all his tests to one point, which 
 ho affirms, a priori, must be the very location. 
 
 " This investigation leads him to the conclusion 
 that the country home of Horace was situated 
 among the Sabine Mountains, a few miles above 
 Tivoli, upon the little river Digence, between the 
 mountains Lucretile and Ustica on one side and the 
 village of Mantella on the other, and not far from 
 Varia, which was a little village on the Anio, and 
 is now the hamlet of Vario. 
 
 " Such were the conclusions drawn by the Abbe 
 from his elaborate investigation. Subsequent ex- 
 plorations have, I believe, in the main confirmed 
 the correctness of his conclusions. 
 
 "In a London edition of Horace, of 1849, by the 
 Rev. Henry Hart Milman, there is printed a letter 
 by G. Dennis, written, as its author believes, near 
 the very spot where Horace wrote most of his od^s 
 The letter is a most charming one, full of enthusi 
 asm for the poet and his works, and gives a delight 
 ful description of the country and its surroundings 
 
 " Did I not know that I lack the time and you tho 
 patience, I should be tempted to send the whole 
 letter ; but, when you visit us in Washington, as I 
 hope you will do some time, you must not fail to 
 read it. I hope I may not have distressed you with 
 the length of this letter. 
 
26 MEMOIR. 
 
 " My children are nearly recovered from scarlet 
 fever. All the family are now well, and join me 
 in kindest regards to Mrs. Demmon and yourself. 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " J. A. Garfield. 
 
 "Professor I. N. Demmon, Hiram, 
 Portaye County, Ohio.'" 
 
 Such constant study had naturally a strong influ- 
 ence on his utterances, an influence unquestionably 
 good. These utterances are never dry. You can- 
 not read a dozen sentences anywhere, not even in 
 his annual "budget" speeches, and not find some 
 profound idea that is all human in its interest. His 
 animal spirits, his extreme cheerfulness, his gentle- 
 ness and courtesy, threw an indescribable charm into 
 his speeches, and won him a more patient hearing 
 than was accorded his brother Congressmen. When 
 he rose talking ceased, as in days before the war, 
 when Peyton or Wise asked the time und atten- 
 tion of the House. Ho possessed boldness of 
 imagery, picturesqueness of illustration, logical 
 analysis, unbounded patriotism developed by his- 
 tory and the hard facts of 1861, large powers of 
 observation, poetry, respect for men, an ardent 
 admiration for the' Union and the Constitution, 
 and a supreme faith in his Creator. The char- 
 acter of his utterances is largely prophetic; what 
 he said of others almost invariably applies with 
 greater force to himself. In delivery he was sym- 
 pathetic and powerful, and never failed to win the 
 
MEMOIR. 27 
 
 respect and applause of his audience. He never 
 delivered a bad speech or a dull one ; it is doubtful 
 if he knew how. He leaves no one behind him in 
 our halls of legislation who is completely worthy to 
 lift the mantle he has relinquished. In the history 
 of the American Congress, Garfield's character and 
 ability are unique. 
 
 His death was the completed majesty of his life, 
 — a death that has redounded to the welfare of the 
 American nation, that prompts a broader charity, 
 a greater love, a profounder faith among all classes 
 of Americans. The President was more to us in 
 dying than in living. He has harmonized and 
 united the American people far 1 tetter than the 
 most brilliant administration could have done ; he 
 has forced us to forget, as of old he ever strove to 
 do, our pettiness and our selfishness in the common 
 outburst of a great emotion. So, cheerfully and 
 well, he served us to the end, bravely, manfully, 
 uncomplainingly taking his part in 
 
 "The direst tragedy that ever challenged wonder." 
 
GABFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 PART I. — MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS. 
 
 The selections that follow under this head relate to a variety 
 of subjects, iu the main, other thau of purely patriotic or political 
 import. 
 
 GARFIELD'S CREED. 
 
 Its Corner Stone. 
 
 1. I would rather be beaten in Right than 
 succeed in Wrong. 
 
 A Principle. 
 
 2. There are some things I am afraid of, 
 and I confess it in this great presence : I am 
 afraid to do a mean thing. 
 
 Speech at Cleveland, Oct. 11, 1379. 
 Reverence for Boys. 
 
 3. I feel a profounder reverence for a boy 
 than for a man. I never meet a ragged boy 
 in the street without feeling that I may owe 
 
30 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 him a salute, for I know not what possibili- 
 ties may be buttoned up under his coat. 
 
 The Shriveled Time of Life. 
 
 4. You and I are now nearly 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 condition 
 where life and nature have no fresh, sweet 
 sensations for us. 
 
 Private Letter to Mr. Hinsdale, Dec. 31, 1872. 
 Uprightness. 
 
 5. It is not enough for one to know that 
 his heart and motives have been pure and 
 true, if he is not sure but that good men here 
 and there, who do not know him, will set him 
 down among the lowest men of doubtful mo- 
 rality. Ibid. 
 
 Garfield's Effort in Public Life. 
 
 6. 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 propositi n 
 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 lat- 
 ter SOrt. Private Letter, April 4, 1873. 
 
GARFIELD'S CREED. 31 
 
 A Radical, not a Fool. 
 
 7. I am trying to do two things : dare to 
 be a radical and not be a fool, which, if I may 
 judge by the exhibitions around me, is a mat- 
 ter of no small difficulty. 
 
 Private Letter, Jan. 1, 1S67. 
 A Bulwark of Opposition. 
 
 8. I am glad to have the opportunity of 
 standing up against a rabble of men who has- 
 ten to make weather-cocks of themselves. 
 
 Private Letter, Dec. 15, 1867. 
 The Shores of Life. 
 
 9. Strolling on the shore of life, it is with 
 reluctance I plunge back again into the noisy 
 haunts of men. 
 
 Letter to A. F. Rockwell, on revisiting Williams College, Aug. 1866. 
 Garfield's Dread. 
 
 10. I must do something to keep my 
 thoughts fresh and growing. I dread noth- 
 ing so much as falling into a rut and feeling 
 myself becoming a fossil. 
 
 Private Letter, July 11, 1868. 
 The Fight against Gloom. 
 
 11. There is much in life to make one sad 
 and disheartened ; but whether we maintain 
 a cheerful spirit or not, depends largely on 
 the way in which we view the events and out- 
 comes of life. I think the main point of 
 
32 GARFIELD'S WORDS 
 
 safety is to look upon life with a view of doing 
 as much good to others as possible, and, as far 
 as possible, to strip ourselves of what the 
 
 French Call egoism. Private Letter, April 30, 1874. 
 
 Safety from Gloom. 
 
 12. The worst days of darkness through 
 which I have ever passed have been greatly 
 alleviated by throwing myself with all my 
 energy into some work relating to others. 
 Your life is so much devoted in this direction 
 that I think you will find in it the greatest 
 safety from the danger of gloom. ibid. 
 
 Garfield's Model. 
 
 13. This public life is a weary, wearing 
 one, that leaves one but little time for that 
 quiet reflection which is so necessary to keep 
 up a growth and vigor of Christian character. 
 But I hope I have lost none of my desire to 
 be a true man, and keep ever before me the 
 character of the great Nazarene. 
 
 Letter to Dr. Boynton. 
 A Christian's Keply. 
 
 14. I would rather be defeated than make 
 capital out of my religion. 
 
 Remark at Chatauqua, Aug. 8, 1880. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 33 
 
 "Wrinkles. 
 
 15. If wrinkles must be written upon our 
 brows, let them not be written upon the heart. 
 The spirit should not grow old. 
 
 Letter to Col. Rockwell, on revisiting Williams College. 
 
 Danger. 
 
 16. It may be well to smile in the face of 
 danger, but it is neither well nor wise to 
 let danger approach unchallenged and unan- 
 nounced. 
 
 A Good Symbol. 
 
 17. 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. 
 
 Communists. 
 
 18. Who of us would not be communists 
 in a despotism ? 
 
 The Shallowness of Words. 
 
 19. With words, we make promises, plight 
 faith, praise virtue. Promises may not be 
 kept ; plighted faith may be broken ; and 
 
34 GARFIELD'S WORDS, 
 
 vaunted virtue may be only the cunning mask 
 
 Of vice. _ Decoration Day Oration, 1868. 
 
 Sovereign Power. 
 
 20. Wherever you find sovereign power, 
 every reverent heart on this earth bows be- 
 fore it. Reception Speech, Washington, Nov., 1880. 
 
 Lying. 
 
 21. It is not right or manly to lie, even 
 
 about Satan. Warren, O., Sept. 19, 1874. 
 
 Governments and Man. 
 
 22. Governments, in general, look upon 
 man only as a citizen, a fraction of the state. 
 God looks upon him as an individual man, 
 with capacities, duties, and a destiny of his 
 own; and just in proportion as a government 
 recognizes the individual and shields him in 
 the exercises of his rights, in that proportion 
 is it Godlike and glorious. 
 
 Ravenna, O., July 4, 1860. 
 The Treatment of Crime. 
 
 23. It is cheaper to reduce crime than to 
 
 build jails. House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
 The Mandate of Christianity. 
 
 24. Christianity bids us seek, in com- 
 munion with our brethren of every race and 
 clime, the blessings they can afford us, and to 
 
HERE AND THERE. 35 
 
 bestow in return upon them those with which 
 our new continent is destined to fill the world. 
 
 House of Representatives, April 1, 18.0. 
 The Advantages of Communication. 
 
 25. Distance, estrangement, isolation, have 
 been overcome by the recent amazing growth 
 in the means of intercommunication. For 
 political and industrial purposes California 
 and Massachusetts are nearer neighbors to- 
 day, than were Philadelphia and Boston in 
 the clays of the Revolution. It was distance, 
 isolation, ignorance of separate parts, that 
 broke the cohesive force of the great empires 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Address before the Literary Societies of Hudson College. 
 
 Intercourse. 
 
 26. We cannot if we would, and should 
 not if we could, remain isolated and alone. 
 Men under the benign influence of Christian- 
 ity yearn for intercourse, for the interchange 
 of thought and the products of thought as a 
 means of a common progress toward a nobler 
 civilization. MA ' 
 
 The Dead. 
 
 27. We hold reunions, not for the dead, 
 for there is nothing in all the earth that you 
 and I can do for the dead. They are past 
 
36 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 our help and past our praise. We can add to 
 them no glory, we can give to them no im- 
 mortality. They do not need us, but forever 
 and forever more we need them. 
 
 Geneva, Aug. 3, 1880. 
 The Power in the Speech. 
 
 28. No man can make a speech alone. 
 It is the great human power that strikes up 
 from a thousand minds that acts upon him 
 and makes the speech. 
 
 The Doctrine of Chance. 
 
 29. Nothing is more uncertain than the 
 result of any one throw ; few things more 
 certain than the result of many throws. 
 
 The Fools. 
 
 30. There are always a few who believe 
 in the quadrature of the circle and the per- 
 petual motion. The gods of Greece were 
 discrowned and disowned by the civilized 
 world a thousand years ago ; and yet within 
 the last generation an eminent English scholar 
 attested his love for classical learning, and 
 his devotion to the Greek mythology, by act- 
 ually sacrificing a bull to Jupiter in the back- 
 parlor of his house in London. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 37 
 
 Talent's Substitute. 
 
 31. If the power to do hard work is not 
 
 talent, it is the best possible substitute for it. 
 
 The Fruits of Occasion. 
 
 32. Occasion may be the bugle-call that 
 summons an army to battle, but the blast of 
 a bugle can never make soldiers or win vic- 
 tories. 
 
 Methods of Discovery. 
 
 33. Things don't turn np in this world 
 until somebody turns them up. 
 
 The Fellowship of the Virtues. 
 
 34. There is a fellowship among the vir- 
 tues by which one great, generous passion 
 stimulates another. 
 
 The Kingdom of Opinion. 
 
 35. In the minds of most men the kino-- 
 dom of opinion is divided into three territo- 
 ries : the territory of yes, the territory of 
 no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of 
 
 ^ 0U °k House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 18S0. 
 
 A Mystery of Sorrow. 
 
 36 It is one of the precious mysteries 
 
38 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 of sorrow that it finds solace in unselfish 
 thought. 
 
 The Deception of Calm. 
 
 37. Quiet is no certain pledge of perma- 
 nence and safety. Trees may flourish and 
 flowers may bloom upon the quiet mountain 
 side, while silently the trickling rain-drops 
 are filling the deep cavern behind its rocky 
 barriers, which, by and by, in a single mo- 
 ment, shall hurl to wild ruin its treacherous 
 
 peace. Ravenna, July 4, 1860. 
 
 The Laborer's Commodity. 
 
 38. The laborer has but one commodity 
 to sell, — his day's work. It is his sole reli- 
 ance. He must sell it to-day, or it is lost for- 
 ever. House of Representatives, Feb. 24, 1876. 
 
 The Desire of Men. 
 
 39. I take it for granted that every 
 thoughtful, intelligent man would be glad, if 
 he could, to be on the right side, believing 
 that in the long run the right side will be the 
 
 Strong Side. Cleveland, Oct. 11, 1879. 
 
 Men and their God. 
 
 40. There are times in the history of men 
 and nations, when they stand so near the veil 
 
HERE AND THERE. 39 
 
 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 
 deacfheroes 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. 
 The Portion of Man. 
 
 41. For the noblest man that lives there 
 still remains a conflict. 
 
 The Principles of Ethics. 
 
 42. The principles of ethics have not 
 changed by the lapse of years. 
 
 The Value of Victory. 
 
 43. Victory is worth nothing except for 
 the fruits that are under it, in it, and above 
 
 •i. New York, Aug. 6, 1880. 
 
40 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Our Happiness. 
 
 44. We are never without a man or a 
 motto to shout over. 
 
 The Fame of the Fisherman. 
 
 45. The fame of the dead fisherman has 
 outlived the glory of the Eternal City. 
 
 Arlington, May 30, 1868. 
 Theological Scholarship. 
 
 46. To profound theological scholarship 
 German is indispensable. 
 
 Private Letter, July 30, 1873. 
 Intelligent Americans. 
 
 47. No intelligent American of our day 
 leads an isolated life. Cleveland, July 11, 1878. 
 
 A Missent Millennium. 
 
 48. A millennium that comes before its 
 time would be a very profitless and stupid af- 
 fair. Ibid. 
 
 Light. 
 
 49. Light itself is a great corrective. A 
 thousand wrongs and abuses that are grown 
 in darkness dissappear like owls and bats be- 
 fore the light of day. 
 
ART. — CUARACTER. 41 
 
 ART. 
 True Art. 
 
 50. True art is but the anti-type of nature 
 — the embodiment of discovered beauty in 
 utility. 
 
 The Spirit of Art. 
 
 51. We cannot study nature profoundly 
 without bringing ourselves into communion 
 with the spirit of art, which pervades and fills 
 the universe. 
 
 CHARACTER. 
 
 The Production of Character. 
 
 52. Every character is the joint product 
 of nature and nurture. 
 
 Where to Pitch the Tent. 
 
 53. I beg you, when you pitch your tent, 
 pitch it among the living and not among the 
 
 dead. Cleveland, Oct. 11, 1S70. 
 
 The Problems of Character. 
 
 54. The problems to be solved in the 
 study of human life and character are these : 
 
42 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Given the character of a man and the c6n- 
 ditions of life around him, what will be his 
 career? Or, given his character and career, 
 of what kind were his surroundings ? The 
 relation of these three factors to each other is 
 severely logical. From them is deduced all 
 genuine history. Character is the chief ele- 
 ment, tor it is both a result and a cause — a 
 result of influences and a cause of results. 
 
 Knowledge of Character. 
 
 55. I have sometimes thought that we 
 cannot know any man thoroughly well while 
 he is in perfect health. As the ebb-tide dis- 
 closes 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 pro- 
 longed his life many years. 
 
 Oration on Congressman Starkweather. 
 
 The Foundation of Character. 
 
 56. Character is the result of two great 
 forces : the initial force which the Creator 
 gave it when He called the man into being ; 
 
CHARACTER. 43 
 
 and the force of all the external influence and 
 culture that mold and modify the development 
 
 01 a lite. Oration on Congressman Gustave Schleicher. 
 
 The Influences of Character. 
 
 57. No power of analysis can exhibit all 
 the latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a 
 new-born child, which derive their origin 
 from the thoughts and deeds of remote ances- 
 tors, and, enveloped in the awful mystery of 
 life, have been transmitted from generation 
 to generation across forgotten centuries. 
 Each new life is thus " the heir of all the 
 ages." lbld . 
 
 A Rare Gift of Character. 
 
 58. The great Carlyle has said that the 
 best gift God ever gave to man was an eye 
 that could really see ; and that only few men 
 were recipients of that gift. I venture to add 
 that an equally rare and not less important 
 gift is the courage to tell what one sees. 
 
 Oration on Zachariah Chandler, Jan. 28, 18S0. 
 
 The Formation of Strong Character. 
 
 59. 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 
 
44 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 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 char- 
 acters. Private Letter on the breaking out of the War. 
 
 The most Interesting Object in the "World. 
 
 60. If the superior beings of the universe 
 would look down upon the world to find the 
 most interesting object, it would be the unfin- 
 ished, unformed character of young men, or of 
 
 yOUng WOmen. Hiram College, July, 1880. 
 
 The Value of Leisure. 
 
 61.1 congratulate you on your leisure. I 
 recommend you to keep it as your gold, as your 
 wealth, as your means, out of which you win 
 the leisure you have to think, the leisure you 
 have to be let alone, the leisure you have to 
 throw the plummet with your hand, and sound 
 the depths and find out what is below ; the leis- 
 ure you have to walk about the towers of your- 
 selves, and find how strong they are, or how 
 weak they are, and determine what needs 
 building up, and determine how to shape 
 them, that you may make the final being that 
 
 you are to be. Oh, those hours of building ! 
 
 ibid. 
 
GREAT CHARACTERS. 45 
 
 The Early Influences. 
 
 62. No page of human history is so in- 
 structive and significant as the record of those 
 early influences which develop the character 
 and direct the lives of eminent men. 
 
 Oration on Joseph Henry, Jan. 16, 1879. 
 
 The Moment of Discovery. 
 
 63. To every man of great original power, 
 there comes, in early youth, a moment of sud- 
 den discovery — of self -recognition — when 
 his own nature is revealed to himself, when he 
 catches, for the first time, a strain of that im- 
 mortal song to which his own spirit answers, 
 and which becomes thenceforth and forever 
 the inspiration of his life 
 
 "Like noble music unto noble words." Ibid. 
 
 Poverty no Obstacle to Advancement. 
 
 64. Let not poverty stand as an obstacle 
 
 in your Way. Oration on Miss Booth, Jan 22, 1876. 
 
 GREAT CHARACTERS. 
 
 George H. Thomas. 
 
 65. Not a man of iron, but of live oak. 
 
 Oration on Geo. H. Thomas. 
 
46 GARFIELD- S WORDS. 
 
 Thomas's Simplicity. 
 
 66. His character was as grand and sim- 
 ple as a colossal pillar of chiseled granite. 
 
 ibid. 
 
 Thomas's Power. 
 
 67. His power as a commander was de- 
 veloped slowly and silently ; not like a vol- 
 canic land lifted from the sea by sndden and 
 violent upheaval, but rather like a coral island, 
 where each increment is a growth, — an act 
 of life and work. ibid. 
 
 Lincoln's Place. 
 
 68. He was the pilot and commander of 
 
 his administration. Oration on Lincoln. 
 
 Lincoln's Character. 
 
 69. He was one of the few great rulers 
 whose wisdom increased with his power, and 
 whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his 
 triumphs were multiplied. 
 
 Oration on Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Miss Booth. 
 
 70. After her return from Oberlin, she 
 paid more attention to the mint, anise, and 
 
 CUmmin Of life. Oration on Miss Booth. 
 
GREAT CHARACTERS. 47 
 
 John Stuart Mill. 
 
 71. I can't see that he ever came to com- 
 prehend human life as a reality from the act- 
 ual course of human affairs, beginning with 
 Greek life down to our own. Men and 
 women were always with him more or less 
 of the nature of abstractions ; while, with his 
 enormous mass of books, he learned a won- 
 derful power of analysis, for which he was 
 by nature surprisingly fitted. But his edu- 
 cation was narrow just where his own mind 
 was originally deficient. He was educated 
 solely through books ; for his father was never 
 a companion. His brothers and sisters bored 
 him. He had no playfellows, and of his 
 mother not a word is said in his autobi- 
 ography. Private Letter, Jan. 18, 1874. 
 
 Zachariah Chandler. 
 
 72. As a political force Mr. Chandler may 
 be classed among the Cyclopean figures of 
 history. The Norsemen w T ould enroll him 
 as one of the heroes in the halls of Valhalla. 
 They would associate him with Thor and his 
 thunder hammer. The Romans would asso- 
 ciate him with Vulcan and the forges of the 
 Cyclops, who made the earth tremble under 
 the weight of his strokes. 
 
 House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1880. 
 
48 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Congressman Starkweather. 
 
 73. He had one experience that almost 
 every man must have before his character can 
 be fully tested. He was tried in the fievy 
 furnace of detraction and abuse. I remember 
 well, in that period of assault, how calmly, bow 
 modestly, and yet how bravely he bore him- 
 self — without bitterness and without shrink- 
 ing — boldly meeting all assaults, calmly an- 
 swering, bearing himself through the storm 
 like a genuine man as he was. That was the 
 test that set the seal of character and gave 
 assurance that he was made of the real stuff 
 of which genuine heroic men are made. 
 
 Robert Burns. 
 
 74. To appreciate the genius and achieve- 
 ments of Robert Burns, it is fitting to com- 
 pare him with others who have been emi- 
 nent 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 Burns. It is an interesting and sugges- 
 tive fact, that each of these sprang from the 
 humble walks of life. Each may be described 
 as one — 
 
 " Who begs a brother of the earth, 
 To give him leave to toil," 
 
GREAT CHARACTERS. 49 
 
 and each proved by his life and achievements 
 that, however hard the lot of poverty, " a 
 man's a man for a' that." 
 
 A great writer has 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 he 
 exhibited. We are 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 elements of earth. We do not wonder 
 at the perfection of the rose because God is 
 the artist. When He fashioned the germ of 
 the rose-tree He made possible the beauties of 
 its flower. The earth and air and sunshine 
 conspired to unfold and adorn it — to tint and 
 crown it with peerless beauty. When the 
 Divine Artist would produce a 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 
 
 4 
 
50 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 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 universal human heart, has 
 set its sweetest thought to music, — 
 
 " Whose echoes roll from soul to soul, 
 And grow forever and forever. ' 
 
 Oration on the Anniversary of Bums' s Death 
 
 GREAT MEN. 
 
 Towering Men. 
 
 75. As a giant tree absorbs all the ele- 
 ments of growth within its reach and leaves 
 only a sickly vegetation in its shadow, so do 
 towering great men absorb all the strength 
 and glory of their surroundings and leave a 
 dearth of greatness for a whole generation. 
 
 Honors. 
 
 76. A monopoly of popular honors is as 
 much of a tyranny as a monopoly of wealth. 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 51 
 
 Descendants of Great Men. 
 
 77. It has been fortunate that most of 
 our greatest men have left no descendants to 
 shine in the borrowed lustre of a great name. 
 
 SUCCESS IN LIFE. 
 The Men who Succeed. 
 
 78. The men who succeed best in public 
 life are those who take the risk of standing 
 by their own convictions. 
 
 Luck. 
 
 79. Luck is an ignis-fatuus. You may- 
 follow it to ruin, but never to success. 
 
 Poverty. 
 
 80. 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. 
 
 Growth. 
 
 81. Growth is better than permanence, 
 and permanent growth is better than all. 
 
62 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Bestowal of the "Wreath. 
 
 82. It is no honor or profit merely to ap- 
 pear in the arena. The wreath is for those 
 who contend. 
 
 The Man Men Love. 
 
 83. If there be one thing upon this earth 
 that mankind love and admire better than an- 
 other, it is a brave man — it is a man who 
 dares to look the devil in the face and tell 
 him he is a devil. 
 
 Pluck. 
 
 84. A pound of pluck is worth a ton of 
 luck. 
 
 The Chance of the Republic. 
 
 85. There is no American boy, however 
 poor, however humble, orphan though he may 
 be, that, if he have a clear head, a true heart, 
 a strong arm, may not rise through all the 
 grades of society, and become the crown, the 
 glory, the pillar of the State. 
 
 The Commanders. 
 
 85. To a young man who has in himself 
 the magnificent possibilities of life it is not 
 fitting that he should be permanently com- 
 
SUCCESS IN LIFE. 53 
 
 manded ; he should be a commander. You 
 must not continue to be the employed. You 
 must be an employer ! You must be pro- 
 moted from the ranks to a command. There 
 is something, young man, which you can com- 
 mand — go and find it and command it. Do 
 not, I beseech you, be content to enter upon 
 any business which does not require and com- 
 pel constant intellectual growth. 
 
 Knowledge. 
 
 87. In order to have any success in life, 
 or any worthy success, you must resolve to 
 carry into your work a fullness of knowledge 
 — not merely a sufficiency, but more than a 
 sufficiency. 
 
 Achievement. 
 
 88. Be fit for more than the thing you 
 are now doing. 
 
 Proportion. 
 
 89. If you are not too large for the place 
 you are too small for it. 
 
 The Kight Trust. 
 
 90. Young men talk of trusting to the 
 spur of the occasion. That trust is vain. Oc- 
 
5 J: GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 casions cannot make spurs. If you expect to 
 wear spurs you must win them. If you wish 
 to use them you must buckle them to your 
 own heels before you go into the fight. 
 
 THE PRIVILEGES OF YOUTH. 
 Two Privileges. 
 
 91. The privilege of being a young man 
 is a great privilege, and the privilege of grow- 
 ing up to be an independent man in middle 
 life is a greater. Speech at p ee kskiu, Aug. 4, 1880. 
 
 The Glory of Manhood. 
 
 92. I have not so far left the coast of 
 youth to travel inland but that I can very 
 well remember the state of young manhood, 
 from an experience in it of some years, and 
 there is nothing to me in this world so inspir- 
 ing as the possibilities that lie locked up in 
 the head and breast of a young man. The 
 hopes that lie before him, the great inspira- 
 tions above him, all these things, with the 
 untried pathway of life opening up its diffi- 
 culties and dangers, inspire him to courage, 
 and force, and work. Mentor, oa. 8, isso. 
 
EDUCATION. 55 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 A Principle. 
 
 93. School-houses are less expensive than 
 rebellions. 
 
 Outrages of Education. 
 
 94. It is to me a perpetual wonder that 
 any child's love of knowledge survives the 
 outrages of the school-house. 
 
 The Beginning. 
 
 95. 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. 
 
 Wrongly Directed Effort. 
 
 96. One half of the time which is now 
 almost wholly wasted, in district schools, on 
 English grammar attempted at too early an 
 age, would be sufficient to teach our children 
 to love the Republic and to become its loyal 
 and life-long supporters. 
 
 The New Necessities. 
 
 97. The old necessities have passed away. 
 We now have strong and noble living lan- 
 guages ; rich in literature, replete with high 
 
56 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 and earnest thought, the language of science, 
 religion, and liberty, and yet we bid our chil- 
 dren feed their spirits on the life of the dead 
 ages, instead of the inspiring life and vigor of 
 our own times. I do not object to classical 
 learning — far from it — but I would not have 
 it exclude the living present. 
 
 Greek. 
 
 98. Greek is perhaps the most perfect in- 
 strument of thought ever invented by man, 
 and its literature has never been equaled in 
 purity of style and boldness of expression. 
 
 The Graduate's Achievements. 
 
 99. The graduate would blush were he to 
 mistake the place of a Greek accent, or put 
 the ictus on the second syllable of Eolus ; but 
 the whole circle of the " liberalium artium" 
 so pompously referred to in his diploma of 
 graduation, may not have taught him whether 
 the jejunum is a bone or the humerus an in- 
 testine. 
 
 The Student's Course. 
 
 100. The student should study himself, 
 his relation to society, to nature and to art — 
 and above all, in all, and through all these, 
 
EDUCATION. 57 
 
 he should study the relations of himself, so- 
 ciety, nature and art, to God the author of 
 them all. 
 
 A Danger. 
 
 101. It would be unjust to our people and 
 dangerous to our institutions to apply any 
 portion of the revenues of the nation or of the 
 States to the support of sectarian schools. ' 
 
 The Idea of Giving. 
 
 102. 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 for- 
 ever, he has planted a chain of the greatest 
 lakes on the earth, and the exhalations aris- 
 ing from their pure waters every day, come 
 down in gracious showers, and make that a 
 blooming garden which otherwise might be a 
 desert waste. And from our great wilderness 
 lands 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 na- 
 tion, giving them, for all time to come, all the 
 blessing, and growth, and greatness, that ed- 
 ucation can afford. That thought, I say it 
 
58 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 again, is a great one, worthy of a great na- 
 tion ; and this country will remember the man 
 who formulated it into language, and will re- 
 member the Congress that made it law. 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb. 6, 1S72. 
 
 Two Forces of Education. 
 
 103. 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 
 centre of responsibility. There is the chief 
 educational power. There can be enforced 
 Luther's great thought of placing on magis- 
 trates the duty of educating children. . ibid. 
 
 The Mind in Education. 
 
 104. This work of public education par- 
 takes in a peculiar way of the spirit of the 
 human mind in its efforts for culture. The 
 mind must be as free from extraneous control 
 as possible ; must work under the inspiration 
 of its own desires for knowledge ; and while 
 instructors and books are necessary helps, the 
 fullest and highest success must spring from 
 the power of self-help. Rid. 
 
EDUCATION. 59 
 
 The Best System. 
 
 105. The best system of education is that 
 which draws its chief support from the volun- 
 tary effort of the community, from the indi- 
 vidual efforts of citizens, and from those bur- 
 dens of taxation which they voluntarily im- 
 pose upon themselves, ibid. 
 
 The Importance of Education. 
 
 106. Next in importance to freedom and 
 justice, is popular education, without which, 
 neither justice nor freedom can be perma- 
 nently maintained. Letter of Acceptance. 
 
 How to Study. 
 
 107. Use several text-books. Get the 
 views of different authors as you advance. 
 In that way you can plow a broader furrow. 
 I always study in that way. R ep i y to a scholar. 
 
 108. The student should first study what 
 he needs most to know ; the order of his needs 
 should be the order of his work. 
 
 Hiram, June 14, 1869. 
 
 The Perversions of Education. 
 
 109. It will not be denied that from the 
 day that the child's foot first presses the green 
 
60 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 turf till the day when, an old man, he is ready- 
 to be laid under it, there is not an hour in 
 which he does not need to know a thousand 
 things in relation to his body, "what he shall 
 eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal he 
 shall be clothed." If parents were themselves 
 sufficiently educated, most of this knowledge 
 might be acquired at the mother's knee ; but, 
 by the strangest perversion and misdirection 
 of the educational forces, these most essential 
 elements of knowledge are more neglected 
 than any other. ibid. 
 
 A Finished Education. 
 
 110. A finished education is supposed to 
 consist mainly of literary culture. The story 
 of the forges of the, Cyclops, where the thun- 
 derbolts of Jove were fashioned, is supposed 
 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 indus- 
 tries which, more than all other human agen- 
 cies, have made our civilization what it is, and 
 are destined to achieve wonders yet un- 
 dreamed Of. Ibid. 
 
EDUCATION. 61 
 
 Education and Industry. 
 
 1 1 1. This generation is beginning to un- 
 derstand that education should not be forever 
 divorced from industry ; that the highest re- 
 sults can be reached only when science guides 
 the hand of labor. With what eagerness and 
 alacrity is industry seizing every truth of 
 science and putting it in harness. ma. 
 
 Educating Children. 
 
 112. Grecian children were taught to rev- 
 erence and emulate the virtue of their ances- 
 tors. Our educational forces are so wielded 
 as to teach our children to admire most that 
 which is foreign and fabulous and dead. ibid. 
 
 A Condition of Graduation. 
 
 113. I insist that it should be made an in- 
 dispensable condition of graduation in every 
 American college, that the student must un- 
 derstand the history of this continent since its 
 discovery by Europeans, the origin and his- 
 tory of the United States, its constitution of 
 government, the struggles through which it 
 has passed, and the rights and duties of citi- 
 zens who are to determine its destiny and 
 share its glory. Md - 
 
62 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Education of Women. 
 
 114. At present, the most valuable gift 
 which can be bestowed on woman is some- 
 thing to do, which they can do well and wor- 
 thily, and thereby maintain themselves. 
 
 Oration before the Washington Business College, Jan. 29, 1869. 
 The Duty of the Government. 
 
 115. The stork is a sacred bird in Hol- 
 land, and is protected by her laws, because it 
 destroys those insects which would undermine 
 the dikes, and let the sea again overwhelm the 
 rich fields of the Netherlands. Shall this gov- 
 ernment do nothing to foster and strengthen 
 those educational agencies which alone can 
 shield the coming generation from ignorance 
 and vice, and make it the impregnable bul- 
 wark of liberty and law ? 
 
 House of Representatives, Jan. 8, 1866. 
 
 A Question of "Weight. 
 
 116. Is it of no consequence that we ex- 
 plore the boundaries of that wonderful intel- 
 lectual empire which encloses within its do- 
 minion the fate of succeeding generations, and 
 of this Republic ? ibid. 
 
EDUCATION. 63 
 
 The Architects of the Future. 
 
 117. The children of to-day will be the 
 architects of our country's destiny in 1900. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 The Student's Studies. 
 
 118. Prominent among all the rest should 
 be his study of the wonderful history of the 
 human race, in its slow and toilsome march 
 across the centuries — now buried in igno- 
 rance, superstition, and crime ; now rising to 
 the sublimity of heroism, and catching a 
 glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning 
 remorselessly away from, and leaving to per- 
 ish, empires and civilizations in which it had 
 invested its faith and courage and boundless 
 energy for a thousand years, and plunging 
 into the forests of Germany, Gaul, and Brit- 
 ain, to build for itself new empires better 
 fitted for its new aspirations ; and at last, 
 crossing three thousand miles of unknown 
 sea, and building in the wilderness of a new 
 hemisphere its latest and proudest monu- 
 ments. Address at Hiram. 
 
 The Power of InteUect. 
 
 119. The intellectual resources of this 
 country are the elements that lie behind all 
 
64 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 material wealth, and make it either a curse 
 or a blessing. ibid. 
 
 Our Safeguard from Danger. 
 
 120. Finally, our great hope for the fu- 
 ture, our great safeguard against danger, is 
 to be found in the general and thorough edu- 
 cation of our people, and in the virtue which 
 accompanies such education. And all these 
 elements 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 gen- 
 eral 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 territory by 
 the most potent forces of civilization, relying 
 upon the intelligent strength and responsi- 
 bility of each citizen, and, most of all, upon 
 the power of truth, without undue arrogance, 
 we may hope that in the centuries to come 
 our Republic 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 College. 
 
IDEAS. — LIT ERA T URE. 65 
 
 IDEAS. 
 
 The Life of Ideas. 
 
 121. Ideas outlive men. 
 
 Great Ideas. 
 
 122. Great ideas travel slowly, and for a 
 time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet were 
 shod w T ith wool. 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 The Relations of Art and Literature. 
 
 123. What the arts are to the world of 
 matter, literature is to the world of mind. 
 
 A Fault of Modern Literature. 
 
 124. The greater part of our modern 
 literature bears evident marks of the haste 
 which characterizes all the movements of this 
 age ; but, in reading these 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 har- 
 mony between the rushing of the train and 
 the haste of the author ; but to enjoy the 
 older authors, we need the quiet of a winter 
 
 5 
 
66 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 evening — an easy-chair before a cheerful fire, 
 and all the equanimity of spirits we can com- 
 mand. 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 con- 
 templation 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 au- 
 tumn day, when every object which meets the 
 eye bears all the impress of the completed 
 year, and the beauties of an autumnal forest. 
 
 Essay on "Karl Theodor Korntr" in Williams Quarterly, March, 
 1856. 
 
 The Real Spirit of Literature. 
 
 125. He who would understand the real 
 spirit of literature should not select authors 
 of any one period alone, but rather go to the 
 fountain-head, and trace the little rill as it 
 courses along down the ages, broadening and 
 deepening into the great ocean of Thought 
 which the men of the present are exploring. 
 
 Ibid. 
 The True Literary Man. 
 
 126. The true literary man is no mere 
 gleaner, following in the rear and gathering 
 
LITERATURE. 67 
 
 up the fragments of the world's thought ; but 
 he goes down deep into the heart of humanity, 
 watches its throbbings, analyzes the forces at 
 work there ; traces out, with prophetic fore- 
 sight, their tendencies, and thus, standing out 
 far beyond his age, holds up the picture of 
 what it is and is to be. md. 
 
 Forced Work. 
 
 127. It is indeed an uninviting task to 
 bubble up sentiment and elaborate thought 
 in obedience to corporate laws, and not infre- 
 quently these children of the brain, when 
 paraded before the proper authorities, show 
 by their meagre proportions that they have 
 not been nourished by the genial warmth of 
 
 a Willing heart. Editors Table, Williams Quarterly, 1856. 
 The Purpose of Literary Production. 
 
 128. It proposes a kind of intellectual 
 tournament where we may learn to hurl the 
 lance and wield the sword, and thus prepare 
 for the conflict of life. It shall be 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 be ready for sterner duties. We shall 
 also endeavor to decorate the arena with all 
 
68 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 the flowers that our own gardens afford, and 
 thus render the place more pleasant and in- 
 viting. Ibid. 
 
 Books. 
 
 129. The few books that came within his 
 reach he devoured with the divine hunger of 
 
 genius. Oration on Lincoln. 
 
 AN ODE FROM HORACE. 
 
 A Translation. 
 
 Washington, January 15, 1874. 
 
 130. Permit me to transcribe a metrical 
 version which I 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. 
 
 So may the powerful goddess of Cyprus, 
 So may the brothers of Helen, turn stars, 
 So may the father and ruler of tempest 
 (Restraining all others, save only Iapix) 
 
 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. 
 
AN ODE FROM HORACE. 69 
 
 Stout oak and brass triple surrounded his bosom 
 Who first to the waves of the merciless sea 
 Committed his frail bark. He feared not Africus, 
 Fierce battling the gales of the furious North. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Nor feared he the gloom of the rain-bearing Hyads, 
 Nor the rage of fierce Notus, a tyrant than whom 
 No storm-god that rules on the broad Adriatic 
 Is mightier, its billows to rouse or to calm. 
 
 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 ? 
 
 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 God-forbidden still rushes our race ; 
 The son of lapel us, Heaven-defying, 
 By impious fraud to the nations brought fire. 
 
 When fire was thus stolen from regions celestial 
 Decay smote the earth and brought down in his train 
 A new summoned cohort of fevers o'erbrooding, 
 And Fate, till then slow and reluctant to strike, 
 
 Gave wings to his speed and swift death to his victims. 
 Bold Daedalus tried the void realms of the air, 
 
70 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Borne upward on pinions not given to mortals. 
 The labors of Hercules broke into Hell. 
 
 Naught is 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. 
 
 I can better most of these verses, but send 
 to you as I left tlieni in the first rough draft. 
 
 From a Private Letter. 
 
 A SPRAY OF ELOQUENCE. 
 
 A Monument of our Liberties. 
 
 131. When Pericles had made Greece im- 
 mortal in arts and arms, in liberty and law, 
 he invoked the genius of Phidias to devise a 
 monument which should symbolize the beauty 
 and glory of Athens. That artist selected for 
 his theme the tutelar divinity of Athens, the 
 Jove-born Goddess, protectress of arts and 
 arms, of industry and law, who typified the 
 Greek conception of composed, majestic, un- 
 relenting force. He erected on the heights 
 of the Acropolis a colossal statue of Minerva, 
 armed with spear and helmet, which towered 
 in awful majesty above the surrounding tein- 
 
A SPRAY OF ELOQUENCE. 71 
 
 pies of the gods. Sailors on far-off ships be- 
 held the crest and spear of the Goddess, and 
 bowed with reverent awe. To every Greek 
 she was the symbol of power and glory. But 
 the Acropolis, with its temples and statues, is 
 now a heap of ruins. The visible gods have 
 vanished in the clearer light of modern civil- 
 ization. We cannot restore the decayed em- 
 blems of ancient Greece, but it is in your 
 power, O Judges, to erect in this citadel of 
 our liberties a monument more lasting than 
 brass ; invisible, indeed, to the eye of flesh, 
 but visible to the eye of the spirit as the 
 awful form and figure of Justice crowning 
 and adorning the Republic ; rising above the 
 storms of political strife, above the din of 
 battle, above the earthquake shock of rebel- 
 lion ; seen from afar and hailed as protector 
 by the oppressed of all nations ; dispensing 
 equal blessings, and covering with the pro- 
 tecting shield of law the weakest, the hum- 
 blest, the meanest, and, until declared by 
 solemn law unworthy of protection, the guilt- 
 iest of its citizens. 
 
 Peroration to Argument in the L. P. MUUgan Case, Supreme 
 Court, March, 1866. 
 
72 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 MEMORY. 
 A Poem. 
 
 132. " 'Tis beauteous night ; the stars look brightly down 
 Upon the earth, decked in her robe of snow. 
 No light gleams at the window save my own, 
 "Which gives its cheer to midnight and to me, 
 And now with noiseless step sweet Memory comes, 
 And leads me gently through her twilight, realms. 
 What poet's tuneful lyre has ever sung, 
 Or delicatest pencil e'er portrayed 
 The enchanted shadowy land where Memory dwells? 
 It has its valleys, cheerless, lone and drear, 
 Dark-shaded by the mournful cypress tree. 
 And yet its sunlit mountain-tops are bathed 
 In heaven's own blue. Upon its craggy cliffs, 
 Robed in the dreamy light of distant years, 
 Are clustered joys serene of other days; 
 Upon its gently-sloping hillsides bend 
 The weeping-willows o'er the sacred dust 
 Of dear departed ones ; and yet in that land 
 Where'er our footsteps fall upon the shore, 
 They that were sleeping rise from out the dust 
 Of death's long, silent years, and round us stand, 
 As erst they did before the prison tomb 
 Received their clay within its voiceless halls. 
 The heavens that Lend above that land are hung 
 With clouds of various hues: some dark and chill, 
 Surcharged with sorrow, 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, 
 
HISTORY. 73 
 
 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 car in childhood's early morn; 
 
 And wandering thence, along the rolling years, 
 
 I see the shadow of my former self 
 
 Gliding from childhood up to man's estate. 
 
 The path of youth winds down through many a vale 
 
 And on the brink of many a dread abyss, 
 
 From out whose darkness comes no ray of light, 
 
 Save that a phantom dances o'er the gulf, 
 
 And beckons toward the verge. Again the path 
 
 Leads o'er a summit where the sunbeams fall; 
 
 And thus in light and shade, sunshine and gloom, 
 
 Sorrow and joy, this life-path leads along. 
 
 Williams Quarterly. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 The Battle of History. 
 
 133. After the battle of arms comes the 
 battle of history. 
 
 TJie Province of History, Williams Quarterly. 
 "What History Is. 
 
 134. History is but the unrolled scroll of 
 prophecy. w 
 
 The Rewriting of History. 
 
 135. The developments of statistics are 
 causing history to be rewritten. 
 
 House of Representatives. 
 
74 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The World's History. 
 
 138. The world's history is a divine 
 poem of which the history of every nation is 
 a canto and every man a word. Its strains 
 have been pealing along down the centuries, 
 and though there have been mingled the dis- 
 cords of warring cannon and dying men, yet 
 to the Christian philosopher and historian — 
 the humble listener — there has been a di- 
 vine melody running through the song which 
 speaks of hope and halcyon days to come. 
 
 The Province of History, Williams Quarterly. 
 The Lesson of History. 
 
 137. The lesson of history is rarely 
 learned by the actors themselves, especially 
 when they read it by the fierce and dusky 
 light of war, or amid the deeper shadows of 
 those sorrows which war brings to both. 
 
 House of Representatives, Aug. 6, 1876. 
 God in History. 
 
 138. Theologians in all ages have looked 
 out admiringly upon the material universe 
 and from its inanimate existences demon- 
 strated the power, wisdom, and goodness of 
 God ; but we know of no one who has demon- 
 strated the same attributes from the history 
 of the human race. 
 
HISTORY. 
 
 75 
 
 The Lights of History. 
 
 139. All along the dim centuries are 
 gleaming lamps which mind has lighted, and 
 these are revealing to him (the historian) the 
 path which humanity has trod. 
 
 Truth in History. 
 
 140. The cause that triumphs in the field 
 does not always triumph in history. 
 
 House oj Representatives, Aug. 6, 1876. 
 
 The Historian's Work. 
 
 141. Till recently the historian studied 
 nations in the aggregate, and gave us only 
 the stories of princes, dynasties, sieges, and 
 battles ; of the people themselves, the great 
 social body with life, growth, forces, elements, 
 and laws of its own, — he told us nothing. 
 Now statistical inquiry leads him into the 
 hovels, homes, workshops, mines, fields, pris- 
 ons, hospitals, and all places where human 
 nature displays its weakness and its strength. 
 In these explorations he discovers the seeds 
 of national growth and decay, and thus be- 
 comes the prophet of his generation. 
 
 House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
76 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 THE PRESS. 
 
 A "Weapon of Civilization. 
 
 142. The printing press is without doubt 
 the most powerful weapon with which man 
 has ever armed himself for the fight against 
 ignorance and oppression. But it was not 
 free born. It was invented at a period when 
 all the functions of government were most 
 widely separated from the people, when se- 
 crecy, diplomacy, and intrigue were the chief 
 elements of statesmanship. 
 
 Address before the Ohio Editorial Association, July 11, 1878. 
 The Martyrs of the Press. 
 
 143. In the long, fierce struggle for free- 
 dom of opinion, the press, like the church, 
 counted its martyrs by thousands. ibid. 
 
 The First Duty of the Press. 
 
 144. I may not express the opinion of the 
 majority, but certainly it is my own, that the 
 first and greatest demand which the public 
 makes of editors is, that they shall obtain and 
 publish all the news, that they shall print a 
 veritable and intelligible record of important 
 current events. Rather than to weaken, neg- 
 lect, or falsify this, it were better that every 
 
HISTORY. 77 
 
 other feature of the newspapers should be 
 abandoned. ibid. 
 
 Free Criticism. 
 
 145. I hold it equally necessary to liberty 
 and good government that the press should 
 comment with the utmost freedom upon pub- 
 lic acts and opinions of all men who hold 
 positions of public trust. ibid. 
 
 Unjust Criticism. 
 
 146. Unjust criticism and false accusa- 
 tions, are, in the long run, more injurious to 
 the press than to its victims. ibid. 
 
 The Men of the Press. 
 
 147. It belongs to the honor of the press 
 to have developed within the past few years 
 as gallant a body of men, of as bright intelli- 
 gence as the world knows in any profession. 
 
 Ibid. 
 Independent Journalism. 
 
 148. If independent journalism means 
 freedom from the domination of patronage, 
 wealth, or corruption, freedom from party 
 dictation, all good men will applaud it. 
 
78 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Duty of the Journalist. 
 
 149. Let the journalist defend the doc- 
 trines of the party which he approves, let 
 him criticize and condemn the party which he 
 does not approve, reserving always his right 
 to applaud his opponents or censure his 
 friends, as the truth may require, and he will 
 be independent enough for a free country. 
 
 POWER. 
 
 The Exhibition of Power. 
 
 150. Power exhibits itself under two dis- 
 tinct forms — strength and force, — each pos- 
 sessing peculiar qualities and each perfect in 
 its own sphere. Strength is typified by the 
 oak, the rock, the mountain. Force embod- 
 ies itself in the cataract, the tempest, and 
 the thunder-bolt. 
 
 Great Powers. 
 
 151. The possession of great powers no 
 doubt carries with it a contempt for mere ex- 
 ternal Show. Oration on Miss Booth. 
 
TR UTH. — FREEDOM. 7 9 
 
 TRUTH. 
 
 The Universality of Truth. 
 
 152. Truth is so related and correlated 
 that no department of her realm is wholly 
 isolated. 
 
 The Food of the Spirit. 
 
 153. Truth is the food of the human spirit, 
 which could not grow in its majestic propor- 
 tions without clearer and more truthful views 
 of God and his universe. 
 
 FREEDOM. 
 
 The Safety of Liberty. 
 
 154. Liberty can be safe only when suf- 
 frage is illuminated by education. 
 
 Liberty's "Weakness. 
 
 155. For a man to feel that every impulse 
 for laudable ambition must be strangled at 
 its birth, that like fabled Enceladus he has 
 been rived by the thunder-bolt of power and 
 crushed beneath the mountain of its strength, 
 is more than this human nature of ours can 
 
80 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 endure. What wonder, then, that ever and 
 anon, when freedom turns the weary side — 
 the fires of devouring vengeance burst forth 
 and shake the fabrics of the old world, till 
 tyrants chatter on their gilded thrones in 
 idiotic terror. At such moments, freedom 
 may seem to have triumphed there, but when 
 the fury of the tempest is past, she lies bleed- 
 ing — Samson-like — beneath the ruin she has 
 wrought. 
 
 Freedom's Soul. 
 
 156. Equality, the informing soul of free- 
 dom ! 
 
 The Foundations of English Liberty. 
 
 157. English liberty to-day rests not so 
 much on the government as on those rights 
 which the people have wrested from the gov- 
 ernment. The rights of the Englishman out- 
 number the rights of the Englishman's king. 
 
 The Language of Freedom. 
 
 158. Poetry is the language of freedom. 
 
 Obstacles to Freedom. 
 
 159. Freedom can never yield its fullness 
 of blessings so long as the law or its admin- 
 
LA W AND ORDER. 81 
 
 istration places the smallest obstacle in the 
 pathway of any virtuous citizen. 
 
 What Freedom is. 
 
 160. Liberty is no negation. It is a sub- 
 stantive, tangible reality. 
 
 House of Representatives, Jan. 13, 1865. 
 
 LAW AND ORDER. 
 
 Order in the Universe. 
 
 161. Mankind have been slow to believe 
 that order reigns in the universe, that the 
 world is a Cosmos, not a chaos.. 
 
 The Reign of Law. 
 
 162. The assertion of the reign of law 
 has been stubbornly resisted at every step. 
 The divinities of heathen superstition still 
 linger in one form or another in the faith of 
 the ignorant ; and even many intelligent men 
 shrink from the contemplation of one su- 
 preme will acting regularly, not fatuitously, 
 through laws beautiful and simple, rather 
 than through a fitful and capricious Provi- 
 dence. 
 
 6 
 
82 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 RAILROADS. 
 
 Kailroads and the People. 
 
 163. The American people have done 
 much for the locomotive, and the locomotive 
 has done much for them. 
 
 Speech on the Raihvay Problem, June 20, 1874. 
 
 The Value of Kailroads. 
 
 164. Imagine if you can what would hap- 
 pen if to-morrow morning the railway loco- 
 motive and its corollary, the telegraph, 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. i bid . 
 
 The Law and the Locomotive. 
 
 165. The national Constitution and the 
 Constitutions of most of the States were formed 
 before the locomotive existed, and, of course, 
 no special provisions were made for its con- 
 trol. Are our institutions strong enough to 
 stand the shock and strain of this new force ? 
 I fail to believe that the genius and energy 
 that have developed these new and tremen- 
 dous forces will fail to make them not the 
 masters, but the faithful servants of society. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
RAILROADS. 83 
 
 The "Work of the Railroad. 
 
 166. The railroad has not only brought 
 our people and their industries together, but 
 it has carried civilization into the wilderness, 
 has built up the states and territories, which 
 but for its power would have remained deserts 
 for centuries to come. ibid. 
 
 A Force in Civilization. 
 
 167. The railroad has played a most im- 
 portant part in the recent movement for the 
 unification and preservation of nations, ibid. 
 
 The Coming Conflict. 
 
 168. It will be unworthy of our age and 
 of us if we make the discussion of this sub- 
 ject a mere warfare against men. ibid. 
 
 The "Value of a Solution. 
 
 169. Its solution will open the way to a 
 solution of a whole chapter of similar ques- 
 tions that relate to the conflict between capi- 
 tal and labor. ibid. 
 
84 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. 
 
 Industry. 
 
 170. Wherever a ship plows the sea, or 
 a plow furrows the field; wherever a mine 
 yields its treasure ; wherever a ship or a rail- 
 road 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. 
 
 Commerce. 
 
 171. Commerce links all mankind in one 
 common brotherhood 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. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 STATISTICS. 
 
 The Birth of Statistics. 
 
 172. The word "statistics" itself did not 
 exist until 1749, whence we date the begin- 
 ning of a new science on which modern legis- 
 
SCIENCE. 85 
 
 lation must be based, in order to be per- 
 manent. The treatise of Achenwall, the 
 German philosopher who originated the word, 
 laid the foundation of many of the greatest 
 reforms in modern legislation. 
 
 House of Representatives, April 6, 1869. 
 
 What Statistics are. 
 
 173. Statistics are State facts, facts for the 
 consideration of statesmen, such as they may 
 not neglect with safety. m*. 
 
 "What Statistics did. 
 
 174. Without the aid of statistics, that 
 most masterly chapter of human history, the 
 third of Macaulay's first volume, could never 
 have been written. 
 
 House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 The Scientific Spirit. 
 
 175. The scientific spirit has cast out the 
 demons and presented us with nature, clothed 
 in her right mind and living under the reign 
 of law. It has given us for the sorceries of 
 the alchemist, the beautiful laws of chemis- 
 
86 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 try ; for the dreams of the astrologer, the sub- 
 lime truths of astronomy ; for the wild visions 
 of cosmogony, the monumental records of ge- 
 ology ; for the anarchy of diabolism, the laws 
 
 of God. Ibid. 
 
 A Be solution. 
 
 176. We no longer attribute the untimely 
 deatli of infants to the sin of Adam, but to 
 bad nursing and ignorance. ibid. 
 
 Modern Predictions. 
 
 177. We no longer hope to predict the 
 career and destiny of a human being by study- 
 ing the conjunction of the planets that pre- 
 sided at his birth. We study rather the laws 
 of life within him and the elements and forces 
 of nature and society around him. ma. 
 
 The Science of Statistics. 
 
 178. The science of statistics is of recent 
 date, and like many of its sister sciences owes 
 its origin to the best and freest impulses of 
 modern civilization. 
 
 House of Representatives, Dec. 16, 1869. 
 
PART II. — WORDS PATRIOTIC. 
 
 The sentences that are included under this head bear, perhaps, 
 a closer relation to our institutions and our national glories than 
 do those that have preceded them. 
 
 THE POWER OF ELOQUENCE. 
 
 One of the most celebrated sayings of the 
 late President was uttered in the first hours 
 of the wild fever that followed the death of 
 President Lincoln. Fifty thousand . excited 
 men crowded around the Exchange Building 
 in Wall Street to hear how the President 
 died. So wrought up were the listeners that 
 two men who ventured to say that Lincoln 
 ought to have been shot, lay bleeding, dying 
 upon the pavement. This fired the vengeance 
 of the crowd. Suddenly a shout arose, " The 
 World ! " " The office of the World ! " and 
 ten thousand men faced in the direction of 
 that office. It was a critical moment. To 
 what lengths of destructiveness the crowd 
 might go, no one could foresee. Police and 
 
88 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 military would have availed little or arrived 
 too late. Just at this juncture a man stepped 
 forward with a small flag in his hand, and 
 beckoned to the crowd. " Another telegram 
 from Washington," and the crowd hushed 
 into eager silence. Then, in the awful still- 
 ness of the crisis, taking advantage of the 
 hesitation of the half-mad men, a right arm 
 was lifted skyward, and a voice, clear and 
 steady, loud and distinct, uttered these words 
 — which instantly hushed the angry human 
 sea, and brought men face to face again with 
 their reasons: — 
 
 179. Fellow-citizens! Clouds and dark- 
 ness 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 be- 
 fore His face ! Fellow-citizens ! God reigns, 
 and the Government at Washington still 
 lives ! 
 
 The Golden Thread of Progress. 
 
 180. Throughout the whole web of na- 
 tional existence we trace the golden thread of 
 human progress toward a higher and better 
 estate. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 89 
 
 Heroes. 
 
 181. Heroes did not make our liberties, 
 they but reflected and illustrated them. 
 
 Supreme Law. 
 
 182. If the Supreme Court of Hercula- 
 neum or Pompeii had been in session when 
 the fiery rain overwhelmed those cities, its au- 
 thority would have been suddenly usurped and 
 overthrown, but I question the propriety of 
 calling that lata which, in its very nature, is a 
 destruction or suspension of all law. 
 
 Supreme Court, L. P. Milligan Case 
 Our Legacy. 
 
 183. Let us seek liberty and peace under 
 the law ; and, following the pathway of our 
 fathers, preserve the great legacy they havo 
 committed to our keeping. 
 
 The Right of Private Judgment. 
 
 184. The right of private judgment is 
 absolute in every American citizen. 
 
 Warren, Sept. 19, 1874. 
 
 Our People. 
 
 185. If our people are not educated in tho 
 school of virtue and integrity they will be 
 
90 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 educated in the school of vice and iniquity. 
 We are therefore afloat on the sweeping cur- 
 rent : if we make no effort we go down with 
 it to the saddest of destinies. 
 
 House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
 National Advancement. 
 
 186. It is only by persistent effort that we 
 make headway and advancement in civiliza- 
 tion. Ibid. 
 
 Rights of the American People. 
 
 187. It is the right of the American peo- 
 ple to know the necessities of the republic 
 when they are called upon to make sacrifices 
 for it. 
 
 The Farmer. 
 
 188. Is it not of more consequence to do 
 something for the farmer of the future than 
 for the farm of to-day ? 
 
 The Servant of his Country. 
 
 189. The man who wants to serve his coun- 
 try must put himself in the line of the leading 
 thought, and that is the restoration of busi- 
 ness, trade, commerce, industry, science, polit- 
 ical economy, hard money, and honest pay- 
 
HERE AND THERE. 91 
 
 ment of all obligations ; and the man who can 
 add anything in the direction of the accom- 
 plishment of any of these purposes is a public 
 benefactor. 
 
 The Laws. 
 
 190. Here is the volume of our laws. 
 More sacred than the twelve tables of Rome. 
 This rock of the law rises in monumental 
 grandeur alike above the people and the Pres- 
 ident, above the courts, above Congress, com- 
 manding everywhere reverence and obedience 
 to its supreme authority. 
 
 Voluntary Enterprise. 
 
 191. There is another force even greater 
 than that of the State and the local govern- 
 ments. 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. 
 The Treasures of American Souls. 
 
 192. I love to believe that no heroic sacri- 
 fice is ever lost ; that the characters of men are 
 
92 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 moulded and inspired by what their fathers 
 have done ; that, treasured up in American 
 souls are all the unconscious influences of the 
 great deeds of the Anglo-Saxon race, from 
 Agin court to Bunker Hill. 
 
 American Honor. 
 
 193. Let no one tarnish his well-earned 
 honor by any act unworthy an American sol- 
 dier. 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. 
 
 Proclamation to the Soldiers after the Battle of Middle Creek, 1861. 
 The Perils of a Nation. 
 
 194. A brave nation, like a brave man, 
 desires to see and measure the perils which 
 
 threaten it. House of Representatives, June 21, 1864. 
 
 National Bravery. 
 
 195. The people of this country have 
 shown, by the highest proofs human nature 
 can give, that wherever the path of duty and 
 honor may lead, however steep and rugged it 
 may be, they are ready to walk in it. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 
 
 93 
 
 National Passion. 
 
 196. There is passion enough in the coun- 
 try to run a steam-engine in every village, 
 and a spirit of proscription which keeps pace 
 with the passion. 
 
 The Labor of the People. 
 
 197. The best thing in Pat/erson, and the 
 best thing in this republic next to liberty, 
 is the labor of our people. 
 
 Speech at Patterson, Aug. 7, 1880. 
 
 Our Inheritance. 
 
 198. Shall we regard with indifference 
 the great inheritance which cost our sires 
 their blood, because we find in their gift an 
 admixture of imperfection and evil ? Surely 
 there is good enough, in the contemplation 
 of which every patriotic heart may say, " God 
 bless my own, my native land. 
 
 The Atlantic. 
 
 199. The Atlantic is still the great his- 
 toric sea. Even in its sunken wrecks might 
 be read the record of modern nations. Who 
 shall say that the Pacific will not yet be- 
 come the great historic sea of the future — 
 the vast amphitheatre around which shall sit 
 
94 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 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 wave- 
 less calm. It would be the stagnation of 
 death, the ocean grave of individual liberty. 
 
 National Discipline. 
 
 200. 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. 
 
 National Perpetuity. 
 
 201. The hope of our national perpetuity 
 rests upon that perfect individual freedom 
 which shall forever keep up the circuit of per- 
 petual change. 
 
 Our Duty. 
 
 202. It is the high privilege and sacred 
 duty of those now living to educate their suc- 
 cessors and fit them by intelligence and vir- 
 tue for the inheritance which awaits them. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 95 
 
 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 thern," for our 
 little children will soon control the destinies 
 
 Of the Republic. Inaugural Address. 
 
 The Final Keconciliation. 
 
 203. We may hasten, or we may retard, 
 but we cannot prevent the final reconciliation. 
 Is it not possible for us now to make a truce 
 with time by anticipating and accepting its 
 inevitable verdict ? Enterprises of the high- 
 est importance to our moral and material well- 
 being invite us and offer ample scope for the 
 employment of our best powers. Let all our 
 people, leaving behind them the battle-fields of 
 dead issues, move forward, and in the strength 
 of liberty and the restored Union, win the 
 grander victories of peace. ibid. 
 
 Campaign Discipline. 
 
 204. The campaign has been fruitful to 
 me in the discipline that comes from endur- 
 ance and patience. • I hope defeat will not 
 sour me, nor success disturb the poise which 
 I have sought to gain by the experiences of 
 
96 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 life. From this edge of the conflict I give you 
 my hand and heart, as in all the other days of 
 
 OUr friendship. Private Letter, Nov. 1, 1880. 
 
 A Great Age. 
 
 205. This is really a great time to live in, 
 if any of us can only catch the cue of it. 
 
 Private Letter, Feb. 16, 1861. 
 The Need of the Hour. 
 
 206. We want a man who, standing on a 
 mountain height, sees all the achievements of 
 our past history, and carries in his heart the 
 memory of all its glorious deeds, and who, 
 looking forward, prepares to meet the labor 
 and the dangers to come. 
 
 Speech Nominating Hon. John Sherman. 
 Useful Powers. 
 
 207. We should enlist both the pride and 
 the selfishness of the people on the side of 
 good order and peace. 
 
 Dishonor too Costly for the People. 
 
 208. The people of the United States can 
 afford to make any sacrifice for their country, 
 and the history of the last war is proof of 
 their willingness ; but the humblest citizen 
 
HERE AND THERE. 97 
 
 cannot afford to do a mean or a dishonorable 
 thing to save even this glorious Republic. 
 
 Speech, on the Currency, July 15, 1868. 
 Citizenship. 
 
 209. Shall we enlarge the boundaries of 
 citizenship and make no provision to increase 
 the intelligence of the citizen ? 
 
 Bureau of Education Speech, July 8, 1866. 
 National Industries. 
 
 210. When we recognize the fact that 
 artisans and their products are essential to the 
 well-being of our country, it follows that there 
 is no dweller in the humblest cottage on our 
 remotest frontier who has not a deep personal 
 interest in the legislation that shall promote 
 these great national industries. 
 
 Liberty and Peace. 
 
 211. Let us seek liberty and peace, under 
 the law ; and, following the pathway of our 
 fathers, preserve the great legacy they have 
 committed to our keeping. 
 
 Native Talent. 
 
 212. For every village, state, and nation, 
 there is an aggregate of native talent which 
 
98 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 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 his- 
 tory, and though but one of the windows were 
 unfurnished, like that of the Arabian palace, 
 yet all the powers of earth could never com- 
 plete it without the aid of the Divine Ar- 
 chitect. 
 
 The Mississippi. 
 
 213. I believe the time will come when 
 the liberal-minded statesmanship of this coun- 
 try will devise a wise and comprehensive sys- 
 tem, that will harness the powers of this great 
 river to the material interests of America, so 
 that not only all the people who live on its 
 banks and the banks of its confluents, but all 
 the citizens of the Republic, whether dwellers 
 in the central valley or on the slope of either 
 ocean, will recognize the importance of pre- 
 serving and perfecting this great natural and 
 material bond of national union between the 
 
OUR FOREFATHERS. 99 
 
 North and the South, — a bond to be so 
 strengthened by commerce and intercourse 
 that it can never be severed. 
 
 Mississippi River Bill, June 21, 1879. 
 Sovereignty. 
 
 214. I believe that no man will ever be 
 able to chronicle all the evils that have re- 
 sulted to this nation from the abuse of the 
 words "sovereign" and "sovereignty." 
 
 Speech against the Camden and Amboy Railroad, March 31, 1864. 
 
 OUR FOREFATHERS. 
 
 The Patrimony of the Colonists. 
 
 215. In their struggle with the forces of 
 nature, the ability to labor was the richest 
 patrimony of the colonists, 
 
 The Sacrifice for Self-government. 
 
 216. 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. Inaugural Address. 
 
100 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 A Great Quality. 
 
 217. If I were to state to-day the single 
 quality that appears to me most admirable 
 among the fathers of the Revolution, I should 
 say it was this: that amidst all the passions 
 of war, 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 ob- 
 serve 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 Admns. 
 
 Samuel Adams. 
 
 218. I doubt if any man equaled Samuel 
 Adams in formulating and uttering the tierce, 
 clear, and inexorable logic of the Revolution. 
 
 219. The men who pointed out the path* 
 wa} r to freedom by the light of religion as well 
 as of law, were the foremost promoters of 
 American Independence. And of these, Ad- 
 ams was unquestionably chief. « 
 
OUR FOREFATHERS. 101 
 
 George "Washington. 
 
 220. Eternity alone will reveal to the 
 human race its debt of gratitude to the peer- 
 less and immortal name of Washington. 
 
 221. Hamilton was the master of a bril- 
 liant style, clear and bold in conception, and 
 decisive in execution. Jefferson was pro- 
 foundly 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 that pe- 
 riod added their great and valuable contribu- 
 tions 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 
 iiulinnent of Washino-ton. It was that all- 
 embracing sense, that calmness of solid judg- 
 ment that made him easily chief. Not only 
 the first of his age, but foremost " in the 
 foremost files of time." 
 
 The Declaration of Independence. 
 
 222. The great doctrines of the Declara- 
 tion germinated in the hearts of our fathers, 
 and were developed under the new influences 
 of this wilderness world, by the same subtlo 
 
102 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 mystery which brings forth the rose from the 
 germ of the rose-tree. Unconsciously to 
 themselves the great truths were growing 
 under the new conditions, until, like the cen- 
 tury-plant, they blossomed into the matchless 
 beauty of the Declaration of Independence, 
 whose fruitage increased and increasing we 
 enjoy to-day. 
 
 THE GERMS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The Common Defense. 
 
 223. We provide for the common defense 
 by a system which promotes the general wel- 
 fare. House of Representatives, April 1, 1870. 
 
 The Light and Life of the Nation. 
 
 224. The life and light of a nation are 
 inseparable. 
 
 The Union and Congress. 
 
 225. The Union and the Congress must 
 share the same fate. They must rise or fall 
 together. 
 
 The Germ of our Institutions. 
 
 226. The germ of our political institu- 
 
THE GERMS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 103 
 
 tions, the primary cell from which they were 
 evolved, was in the New England town, and 
 the vital force, the informing soul of the town, 
 was the town meeting, which for all local con- 
 cerns was king, lords, and commons in one. 
 
 The Covenant. 
 
 227. While the Mayflower was passing 
 Cape Cod and seeking an anchorage, in the 
 midst of the storm, her brave passengers sat 
 down in the little cabin and drafted and 
 signed a covenant which contains the germ of 
 American liberty. How familiar to the Amer- 
 ican habit of mind are these declarations of 
 the Pilgrim covenant of 1620. 
 
 House of Representatives, Bee. 17, 1876. 
 Virginia and Massachusetts. 
 
 228. Virginia and Massachusetts were 
 the two focal centres from which sprang the 
 life-forces of this Republic. They were, in 
 many ways, complements of each other, each 
 supplying what the other lacked, and both 
 uniting to endow the Republic with its noblest 
 and most enduring qualities. ibid. 
 
 The "Will of the Majority. 
 
 229. Peace, liberty, and personal security 
 
104 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 are blessings as common and universal as sun- 
 shine and showers and fruitful seasons ; and 
 all sprang from a single source, — the princi- 
 ple declared in the Pilgrim covenant of 1G20, 
 — that all owed due submission and obedi- 
 ence to the lawfully expressed will of the 
 majority. This is not one of the doctrines of 
 our political system, it is the system itself. It 
 is our political firmament, in which all other 
 truths are set, as stars in heaven. It is the 
 encasing air, the breath of the nation's life. 
 
 Our Theory of Law. 
 
 230. 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 consent 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. Extra Session, March 29, 1879. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 The Idea of the Constitution. 
 
 231. The men who created this Constitu- 
 tion also set it in operation, and developed 
 
OUR INSTITUTIONS. 105 
 
 their own idea of its character. That idea, 
 was unlike any other that then prevailed upon 
 the earth. Tlicy made the general welfare of 
 the people the great source and foundation of 
 the common defense. 
 
 Absolute Power. 
 
 232. 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. 
 
 Boundaries of Freedom. 
 
 233. Under this Constitution boundaries 
 of freedom have been enlarged, the founda- 
 tions of order and peace have been strength- 
 ened, and the growth of our people in ad the 
 better elements of national life has vindicated 
 the wisdom of the founders and given new 
 
 hope to their descendants. Inaugural Address. 
 
 OUR INSTITUTIONS. 
 
 National Institutions. 
 
 234. It matters little what may be the 
 forms of national institutions, if the life, free- 
 dom, and growth of society are secured. 
 
106 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 An Empire. 
 
 235. The last eight decades have wit- 
 nessed an empire spring up in the full pan- 
 oply of lusty life, from a trackless wilderness. 
 
 Understanding our Institutions. 
 
 236. No man who has not lived among 
 us can understand one thing about our in- 
 stitutions; no man who has been born and 
 reared under monarchical governments can 
 understand the vast difference between theirs 
 and ours. 
 
 Society. 
 
 237. There is no horizontal stratification 
 of society in this country like the rocks in the 
 earth, that hold one class down below forever- 
 more, and let another come to the surface to 
 stay there forever. Our stratification is like 
 the ocean, where every individual drop is free 
 to move, and where from the sternest depths 
 of the mighty deep any drop may come up to 
 glitter on the highest wave that rolls. 
 
 An Army of Artisans. 
 
 238. It was the manifest intention of the 
 founders of the government to provide for 
 the common defense, not by standing armies 
 
OUR INSTITUTIONS. 107 
 
 alone, but by raising among the people a 
 greater army of artisans, whose intelligence 
 and skill should powerfully contribute to the 
 safety and glory of the nation. 
 
 Letter of Acceptance. 
 Our Duties. 
 
 239. We should do nothing inconsistent 
 with the spirit and genius of our institutions. 
 We should do nothing for revenge, but every- 
 thing for security ; nothing for the past ; ev- 
 erything for the present and the future. 
 
 Difficult Problems. 
 
 240. The intelligence and national spirit 
 of our people exhibit their capacity for deal- 
 ing with difficult problems. Those who saw 
 the terrible elements of destruction that burst 
 upon us twelve years ago in the fury of the 
 civil war, would have been called dreamers 
 and enthusiasts had they predicted that 1873 
 would witness the conflict ended, its cause an- 
 nihilated, the bitterness and hatred it occa- 
 sioned nearly gone, and the nation with union 
 and unity restored, smiling again over half a 
 million soldiers' graves ! 
 
 The Glory of our Institutions. 
 
 241. Individuals may wear for a time the 
 
108 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 glory of our institutions, but they carry it not 
 to the grave with them. Like rain-drops from 
 heaven, they m;iy 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 spans the sky and shines 
 gloriously on. 
 
 A Cause of Alarm. 
 
 242. The most alarming feature of our 
 situation is the fact that so many citizens of 
 high character and solid judgment pay but 
 little attention to the sources of political 
 power, to the selection of those who shall 
 make their laws. The clergy, the faculties of 
 colleges, and many of the leading business 
 men of the community, never attend the town- 
 ship caucus, the city primaries, or the county 
 conventions; but they allow the less intelli- 
 gent and the more selfish and corrupt mem- 
 bers 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 
 return of that mythical period called the 
 "better and purer days of the Republic." 
 
 "A Century in Congress,'' Atlantic Monthly, July, 1877. 
 
0*772 INSTITUTIONS. 109 
 
 Industrial Feudalism. 
 
 243. The consolidation of our great indus- 
 trial and commercial companies, the power 
 they wield, and the relations they sustain to 
 the Shite 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 mili- 
 tary prototypes, own our greatest highways, 
 levy tribute at will upon all our vast in- 
 dustries. And, as the old feudalism was 
 finally controlled and subordinated only by 
 the combined efforts of the kings and the 
 people of the free cities and towns, so our 
 modern feudalism can be subordinated to the 
 public good only by the great body of the 
 people, acting through their governments by 
 wise and just laws. 
 
 Speech on the Railroad Problem, June 22, 1874. 
 
 Our Success. 
 
 244. Reviewing the whole period, we 
 have the right to say that the wisdom of our 
 institutions has been vindicated, and our con- 
 fidence in their stability has been strength- 
 ened. Legislation has been directed more 
 and more to the enlargement of private rights 
 and the promotion of the interests of labor. 
 
110 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 It has been devoted not to the glory of a dy- 
 nasty, but to the welfare of a people. Slav- 
 ery, with the aristocracy of caste which it 
 engendered, and the degradation of labor 
 which it produced, has disappeared. With- 
 out undue exultation we may declare that 
 the bells of the new year 
 
 "Ring out a slowly dying cause, 
 
 And ancient forms of party strife; 
 Ring in the nobler modes of life, 
 With sweeter manners, purer laws." 
 
 We have learned the great lesson, applicable 
 alike to nations and to men : — 
 
 "Self-knowledge, self-reverence, self-control — 
 These three alone lead on to sovereign power." 
 
 Resumption, Speech, Jan. 2, 1879- 
 
 TOE REPUBLIC. 
 
 The Stability of the Republic. 
 
 245. A republic can wield the vast en- 
 ginery of war without breaking down the 
 safeguards of liberty ; can suppress insurrec- 
 tion and put down rebellion, however formi- 
 dable, without destroying the bulwarks of law ; 
 can, by the might of its armed millions, pre- 
 serve and defend both nationality and liberty. 
 
■ THE REPUBLIC. Ill 
 
 The Origin of the Republic. 
 
 246. 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 establishments of modern Germany, 
 freedom was of the city and not of the people. 
 The burghers were the only freemen, 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 fields of the country, 
 among the hardy tillers of the soil. 
 
 Ravenna, July 4, 1S60. 
 Monarchy vs. Republic. 
 
 247. A monarchy is more easily over- 
 thrown than a republic, because its sover- 
 
112 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 eignty is concentrated, and a single blow, if 
 it be powerful enough, will crush it. 
 
 Private Letter, Feb. 1C, 1SG1. 
 
 The Power of the Citizen. 
 
 248. Iu the Old World, under the despot- 
 ism of Europe, the masses of ignorant men, 
 mere inert misses, are moved upon and eon- 
 trolled by the intelligent and cultivated aris- 
 tocracy. But in this Republic, where the 
 government rests upon the will of the people, 
 every man has an active power for good and 
 evil, and the great question is, will he think 
 rightly or wrongly ? 
 
 House of Representatives, June S, 1S66. 
 
 The Dogma of Divine Richt. 
 
 249 We have happily escaped the dogma 
 of the divine right of kings. Let us not fall 
 into the equally pernicious error that multi- 
 tude is divine because it is a multitude. 
 
 Vox Populi Vox Dei. 
 
 250. It is only when the people speak 
 truth and justice that their voice can be called 
 "the voice of God." 
 
 Personal Ambition. 
 
 251. To all our means of culture is added 
 
TEE NATION. 113 
 
 that powerful incentive to personal ambition 
 which springs from the genius of our govern- 
 ment. 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 
 cherished 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 firmament. 
 
 THE NATION. 
 The Nation's Life. 
 
 252. The nation has a life of its own as 
 distinctly defined as the life of an individual. 
 The signs of its growth and the periods of its 
 development make the issues declare them- 
 selves; and the man or the political party 
 that does not discover them, has not learned 
 the character of the nation's life. 
 
 Fanueil Hall, 1873. 
 The Nation's Purpose. 
 
 253. Methods and details of management 
 are of slight importance in comparison with 
 the central purpose of the nation. 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb., 1876. 
 8 
 
114 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Nation's History. 
 
 254. It is well to know the history of 
 those magnificent nations whose origin is lost 
 in fable, and whose epitaphs were written a 
 thousand years ago; but if we cannot know 
 both, it is far better to study the history of 
 our own nation, whose origin we can trace 
 to the freest and noblest aspirations of the 
 human heart. 
 
 Territory. 
 
 255. After all, territory is but the body of 
 a nation. The people who inhabit its hills 
 and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In 
 them dwells its hope of immortality. Among 
 them, if anywhere, are to be found its chief 
 elements of destruction. 
 
 Repression and Expression. 
 
 256. There are two classes of forces whose 
 action and reaction determine the condition of 
 a nation : the forces of repression and ex- 
 pression. The one acts from without, limits, 
 curbs, restrains. The other acts from within, 
 expands, enlarges, propels. Constitutional 
 forms, statutory limitations, conservative cus- 
 toms, belong to the first. The free play of 
 individual life, opinion and action, belong to 
 the seeond. If these forces be happily bal- 
 
THE NATION. 115 
 
 anced, if there be a wise conservation and 
 correlation of both, a nation may enjoy the 
 double blessing of progress and permanence. 
 
 The Supremacy of the Nation. 
 
 257. The supremacy of the nation and its 
 laws should be no longer a subject of debate. 
 That discussion, which for -half a century 
 threatened the existence of the Union, was 
 closed at last in the high court of war, by a 
 decree from which there is no appeal : that 
 the Constitution and the laws made in pursu- 
 ance thereof are and shall continue to be the 
 supreme law of the land, binding alike upon 
 
 the States and the people. Inaugural Address. 
 
 Facing to the Front. 
 
 258. It is manifest that the nation is 
 resolutely facing to the front, resolved to 
 employ its best energies in developing the 
 great possibilities of the future. Sacredly 
 preserving whatever lias been gained to lib- 
 erty 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. 
 
 x Ibid 
 
110 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Fountains of our Strength. 
 
 259. The fountain of our strength as a 
 nation springs from the private life and the 
 voluntary efforts of forty-five millions of peo- 
 ple. Each for himself confronts the problem 
 of life and amid its varied conditions develops 
 the forces with which God has endowed him. 
 Meantime the nation moves on in its great 
 orbit with a life and destiny of its own, each 
 year calling to its aid those qualities and 
 forces which are needed for its preservation 
 and its glory. Now it needs the prudence of 
 the counselor, now the wisdom of the law- 
 giver, and now the shield of the warrior to 
 cover its heart in battle. And when the 
 hour and the man have met, and the needed 
 work has been done, the nation crowns her 
 heroes and makes them her own forever. 
 
 Oration on the Death of O. P. Morton. 
 The Behavior of the Nation. 
 
 260. The behavior of a great nation in 
 the administration of its laws at a critical mo- 
 ment, is more important than the fate of any 
 one man or party. We have reached the place 
 where the road is marked by no footprint, and 
 we must make a direct line to be fit to follow 
 after we are dead. It is only at such times 
 
THE NATION. 117 
 
 that the domain of law is enlarged and the 
 safeguard of liberty is increased. I confess 
 to yon that I do not feel adequate to the task ; 
 but I shall do my best to point out a worthy 
 way to the light and the right. 
 
 Private Letter, Jan. 4., 1877. 
 
 The People of the Republic. 
 
 261. The people of a republic like ours 
 are peculiarly like a single great individual 
 man, full of passions — prejudices often, — 
 but with a great heart, despising anything 
 like show or pretense, and always striving for- 
 ward in a general right direction. 
 
 From a Private Letter. 
 
 Society. 
 
 262. Here society is a restless and surging 
 sea. The roar of the billows, the dash of the 
 wave, is forever in our ears. Even the angry 
 hoarseness of breakers is not unheard. But 
 there is an understratum of deep, calm sea, 
 which the breath of the wildest tempest can 
 never reach. There is, deep down in the 
 hearts of the American people, a strong and 
 abiding love of our country and its liberty, 
 which no surface-storms of passion can ever 
 shake. That kind cf instability which arises 
 
118 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 from a free movement and interchange of po- 
 sition among the members of society, which 
 brings one drop up to glisten for a time in the 
 crest of the highest wave, and then give place 
 to another, while it goes down to mingle again 
 with the millions below ; such instability is 
 the surest pledge of permanence. On such 
 instability the eternal fixedness of the universe 
 is based. Each planet, in its circling orbit, 
 returns to the goal of its departure, and on 
 the balance of these wildly-rolling spheres 
 God has planted the broad base of His mighty 
 works. So the hope of our national perpe- 
 tuity rests upon that perfect individual free- 
 dom which shall forever keep up the circuit 
 
 Of perpetual Change. Ravenna, July 4, 1860. 
 
 THE COHESION OF THE REPUBLIC. 
 
 Deciding the Election. 
 
 263. Not here, in this brilliant circle 
 where fifteen thousand men and women are 
 assembled, is the destiny of the Republic to 
 be decreed ; not here, where I see the en- 
 thusiastic faces of seven hundred and fift3 7 -six 
 delegates waiting to cast their votes into the 
 
THE COHESION OF THE REPUBLIC. 119 
 
 urn and determine the choice of their party ; 
 but by four million Republican firesides, where 
 the thoughtful fathers, with wives and chil- 
 dren about them, with the calm thoughts in- 
 spired by love of home and love of country, 
 with the history of the past, the hopes of the 
 future, and the knowledge of the great men 
 who have adorned and blessed our nation in 
 days gone by — there Cxod prepares the ver- 
 dict that shall determine the wisdom of our 
 work to-night. Not in Chicago in the heat of 
 June, but in the sober quiet that comes be- 
 tween now and November, in the silence of 
 deliberate judgment, will this great question 
 
 be Settled. Speech Nominating Hon. John Sherman. 
 
 The American Citizen. 
 
 264. It was said in a welcome to one who 
 came to England to be a part of her glory — 
 and all the nation spoke when it was said, — 
 
 "Normans and Saxons and Danes are we, 
 But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee." 
 
 And we say to-night, of all nations, of all the 
 people, soldiers, and civilians, there is one 
 name that welds us all into one. It is the 
 name of American citizen, under the union 
 and under the glory of the flag that led us 
 to victory and to peace. 
 
 Washington, November, lSbU. 
 
120 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 THE SUFFRAGE. 
 
 Suffrage and Safety. 
 
 265. Suffrage and Safety, like Liberty 
 and Union, are one and inseparable. 
 
 Ravenna, July 4, 1860. 
 Violation of the Suffrage. 
 
 266. To violate the freedom and sanctity 
 of the suffrage is more than an evil ; it is a 
 crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the 
 government itself. Suicide is not a remedy. 
 If in other lands it be high treason to com- 
 pass the death of a king, it should be counted 
 no less a crime here to strangle our sovereign 
 
 power and Stifle itS VOice. Inaugural Address. 
 
 Unsettled Questions. 
 
 267. It has been said that unsettled ques- 
 tions have 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 each State 
 within its own jurisdiction makes and keeps 
 the ballot free and pure by the strong sanc- 
 tions of the law. lbid - 
 
 Ignorance in the Voter. 
 
 268. The danger which arises from ig- 
 norance in the voter cannot be denied. ibid. 
 
THE SUFFRAGE. 121 
 
 The Disaster of Vice. 
 
 269. 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. ibid. 
 
 The Voters of the Union. 
 
 270. 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 succes- 
 sor save the coming generation of voters, who 
 are the sole heirs of sovereign power. If that 
 generation comes to its inheritance blinded 
 by ignorance and corrupted by vice, the fall 
 of the Republic will be certain and remedi- 
 less. lbid - 
 
 Disfranchised Peasantry. 
 
 271. There can be no permanent disfran- 
 chised peasantry in the United States. ibid. 
 
 Our National Safety. 
 
 272. In a word, our national safety de- 
 mands that the fountains of political power 
 shall be made pure by intelligence and kept 
 pure by vigilance. 
 
122 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Our Sovereign's Danger. 
 
 273. The source of our sovereign's su- 
 preme danger, the point where his life is vul- 
 nerable, is at the ballot-box where his will is 
 declared ; and if he cannot stand by that cra- 
 dle of our sovereign's heir-apparent and pro- 
 tect it to the uttermost against all assassins 
 and assailants, we have no government and 
 no safety for the future. 
 
 The Dangers of Suffrage. 
 
 274. We confront the dangers of suffrage 
 by the blessings of universal education. 
 
 THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 
 What They Teach. 
 
 * 275. What does the monument mean? 
 and, What will the monument teach ? Let 
 me try and ask you for a moment to help 
 me answer, what does the monument mean. 
 Oh ! the monument means a world of mem- 
 ories, a world of deeds, and a world of tears, 
 and a world of glories. You know, thousands 
 know, what it is to offer up your life to the 
 country, and that is no small thing, as every 
 soldier knows. Let me put the question to 
 
THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 123 
 
 you : For a moment, suppose your country in 
 the awfully embodied form of majestic law 
 should stand above you and say, " I want 
 your life. Come up here on the platform and 
 offer it." How many would walk up before 
 that majestic presence and say, " Here I am, 
 take this life and use it for your great needs.' , 
 And yet almost two millions of men made 
 that answer, and a monument stands yonder 
 to commemorate their answer. That is one 
 of its meanings. But, my friends, let me try 
 you a little further. To give up life is much, 
 for it is to give up wife, and home, and child, 
 and ambition. But let me test you this way 
 further. Suppose this awfully majestic form 
 should call out to you, and say, " I ask you 
 to give up health and drag yourself, not dead, 
 but half alive, through a miserable existence 
 for long years, until you perish and die in 
 your crippled and hopeless condition. I ask 
 you to volunteer to do that," and it calls for 
 a higher reach of patriotism and self-sacrifice, 
 but hundreds of thousands of you soldiers did 
 that. That is what the monument means 
 also. But let me ask you to go one step fur- 
 ther. Suppose your country should say, 
 "Come here, on this platform, and in my 
 name, and for my sake, consent to be idiots, 
 
1 1*24 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 — consent that your very brain and intellect 
 shall be broken clown into hopeless idiocy for 
 my sake." How many could be found to 
 make that venture ? And yet there are thou- 
 sands, and that with their eyes wide open to 
 the horrible consequences, obeyed that call. 
 
 And let me tell how one hundred thousand 
 of our soldiers were prisoners of war, and to 
 many of them when death was stalking near, 
 when famine was climbing up into their hearts, 
 and idiocy was threatening all that was left 
 of their intellects, the gates of their prison 
 stood open every day, if they would quit, de- 
 sert their flag and enlist under the flag of the 
 enemy, and out of one hundred and eighty 
 thousand not two per cent, ever received the 
 liberation from death, starvation, and all that 
 might come to them ; but they took all these 
 horrors and all these sufferings in preference 
 to going back upon the flag of their country 
 and the glory of its truth. Great God ! was 
 ever such measure- of patriotism reached by 
 any man on this earth before. That is what 
 your monument means. By the subtle chem- 
 istry that no man knows, all the blood that 
 was shed by our brethren, — all the lives that 
 were devoted, all the grief that was felt, — at 
 last crystallized itself into granite, rendered 
 
THE LESSON OF THE MONUMENTS. 125 
 
 immortal the great truth for which they died, 
 and it stands there to-day, and that is what 
 your monument means. 
 
 Oration at Fainesville, O., 1880, Dedication oj a botuieis Monu- 
 ment. 
 
 A Story of Greece. 
 
 276. Now what does it teach? What 
 will it teach? Why, I remember the story 
 of one of the old conquerors of Greece, who, 
 when he had traveled in his boyhood over tho 
 battle-fields where Miltiades had won victo- 
 ries and set up trophies, returning ho said: 
 " These trophies of Miltiades will never let 
 me sleep." Why, something had taught him 
 from the chiseled stone a lesson that he could 
 never forget, and, fellow-citizens, that silent 
 sentinel, that crowned granite column, will 
 look down upon the boys that will walk these 
 streets for generations to come, and will not 
 let them sleep when their country calls them. 
 
 The Lesson of Endurance. 
 
 277. That is its lesson, and it is the les- 
 son of endurance for what we believe, and ifc 
 is the lesson of sacrifices for what we think — 
 the lesson of heroism for what we mean to 
 sustain — and that lesson cannot be lost to a 
 
126 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 people like this. It is not a lesson of revenge, 
 it is not a lesson of wrath, it is the grand, 
 sweet, broad lesson of the immortality of the 
 truth that we hope will soon cover, as with 
 the grand Shekinah of light and glory, all 
 parts of this Republic, from the lakes to the 
 gulf. Mid. 
 
PART III. — WORDS POLITICAL. 
 
 Such selections as are included under this head relate more 
 particularly to politics, parties, political, financial, and trade 
 questions, and the government, than what have been collected in 
 Parts I. and II. 
 
 Emigration. 
 
 278. Emigration follows the path of lib- 
 erty. 
 
 Secession. 
 
 279. Secession is the tocsin of eternal 
 war. 
 
 The "Way We Legislate. 
 
 280. 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 intelligent and better paid than his for- 
 eign competitor. Our country cannot be inde- 
 pendent unless its people, with their abundant 
 natural resources, possess the requisite skill at 
 any time to clothe, arm, and equip themselves 
 
128 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 for war, and in time of peace to produce all 
 the necessary implements of labor. 
 
 Letter of Acceptance. 
 The Duty of Good Men. 
 
 281. It is as much the duty of all good 
 men to protect and defend the reputation of 
 worthy public servants as to detect public 
 rascals. 
 
 Coercion. 
 
 282. Coercion is the basis of every law in 
 the universe, — human or divine. A law is 
 no law without coercion behind it. 
 
 The Judgment of Leaders. 
 
 283. The general judgment of all men 
 who deserve to be called the leaders of Amer- 
 ican thought, ought to be considered worth 
 something in an American House of Repre- 
 sentatives on the discussion of a great topic. 
 
 Speech on the Finances, Nov. 16, 1877. 
 
 The Movement of the Republic. 
 
 284. Over this vast horizon of interests, 
 North and South, above all party prejudices 
 and personal wrong-doing, above our battle 
 hosts and our victorious cause, above all that 
 we hoped for and won, or you hoped for and 
 
HERE AND THERE. 129 
 
 lost, is the grand onward movement of the 
 Republic to perpetuate its glory, to save lib- 
 erty alive, to preserve exact and equal justice 
 to all, to protect and foster all these priceless 
 principles until they shall have crystallized 
 into the form of enduring law and become in- 
 wrought into the life and habits of our peo- 
 ple. 
 
 Our Theory of Government. 
 
 285. Our theory of government is based 
 upon the belief that the suffrage carries with 
 it individual responsibility, stimulates the ac- 
 tivity, and promotes the intelligence and self- 
 respect of the voter. 
 
 North American Review, March, 1879. 
 
 The Vicarious Atonement. 
 
 286. Whatever we may believe theolog- 
 ically, I do not believe in the doctrine of vi- 
 carious atonement in politics. 
 
 House of Representatives, June 12, 1876. 
 
 The Lessons of Charity. 
 
 287. To those most noble men, Democrats 
 and Republicans, who together fought for the 
 Union, I commend all the lessons of charity 
 that the wisest and most beneficent men have 
 taught. lbia ' 
 
 9 
 
130 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Political Training. 
 
 288. Probably no American youth, unless 
 we except John Quincy Adams, was ever 
 trained with special reference to the political 
 service of his country. 
 
 Oration on the Death of O. P. Morton 
 
 The Third House. 
 
 289. In coming hither these living repre- 
 sentatives have passed under the dome and 
 through that beautiful and venerable hall 
 which on another occasion I have ventured to 
 call the Third House of American Represen- 
 tatives, that silent assembly whose members 
 have received their high credentials at the im- 
 partial hand of history. Year by year we see 
 the circle of its immortal membership enlarg- 
 ing ; year by year we see the elect of their 
 country in eloquent silence taking their places 
 in this American Pantheon, bringing within 
 its sacred precincts the wealth of those immor- 
 tal memories which made their lives illustri- 
 ous ; and year by year that august assembly is 
 teaching deeper and grander lessons to those 
 who serve in these more ephemeral houses of 
 Congress. 
 
 Speech on accepting Carpenter's Picture of the Sign- 
 ing the Emancipation Proclamation. 
 
HERE AND THERE. \^\ 
 
 A Picker-up of Bird-seed. 
 
 290. It does not answer my proposition to 
 ramble over the speech and pick up a morsel 
 here and there; to leave the line of debate 
 and become what the Grecians called a mere 
 sperma-logos, a picker-np of bird-seed, a snap- 
 per-up of unconsidered trifles. 
 
 House of Representatives, March 6, 1878. 
 
 Military Science. 
 
 291. It would be interesting to trace the 
 changes through which military science has 
 passed during the last century. We should 
 find, especially during the last half century, 
 that at the end of each great war some lead- 
 ing implement was mustered out of service 
 and replaced by a better one ; and every such 
 improvement has required a corresponding 
 change in the prevailing methods of warfare. 
 
 North American Review, March, 1878. 
 Female Suffrage. 
 
 ^ 292. Laugh as we may, put it aside as 
 a jest if we will, keep it out of Congress or 
 polirical 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 be/ore Washington Business College. 
 
132 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Political Catch-words. 
 
 293. We are apt to be deluded into false 
 security by political catch-words, devised to 
 flatter rather than instruct. 
 
 Address before the Literary Societies of Hudson College. 
 
 The Dollar. 
 
 294. The dollar is the gauge that measures 
 every blow of the hammer, 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb., 1876. 
 An Ideal Census. 
 
 295. If we had the power to photograph 
 the American people in one second all in one 
 picture, and get the conditions that the in- 
 quiries of the census could give us all at once, 
 as through a telephone, and have it all re- 
 corded, it would be the ideal perfect census. 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb. 18, 1879. 
 
 Church and State. 
 
 296. The division between Church and 
 State ought to be so absolute that no church 
 property anywhere in the state or nation 
 should be exempt from taxation ; for if you 
 exempt the property of any church organiza- 
 tion, to that extent you impose a church tax 
 upon the whole community. 
 
 House of Representatives, June, 1S74. 
 
HERE AND THERE. 133 
 
 The Democratic Principle. 
 
 297. Our faith in the democratic princi- 
 ple vests upon the belief that intelligent men 
 will see that their highest political good is in 
 liberty, regulated by just and equal laws ; and 
 that in the distribution of political power it 
 is safe to follow the maxim, " Each for all, 
 and all for each." 
 
 The Lights of Practical Science. 
 
 298. 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 lights of practical science and ex- 
 perience. Inaugural Address. 
 
 The Duty of Congress. 
 
 299. In my judgment it is the duty of 
 Congress, while respecting to the uttermost 
 the conscientious convictions and religious 
 scruples of every citizen, to prohibit within 
 its jurisdiction all criminal practices, and es- 
 pecially of that class which destroy the family 
 relations and. endanger social order. Nor can 
 any ecclesiastical organization be safely per- 
 mitted to usurp, in the smallest degree, the 
 functions and powers of the national govern- 
 ment. Ibid. 
 
134 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 THE FEELINGS OF A STATESMAN. 
 
 The Life Behind. 
 
 300. Behind this public life lies a world 
 of history, of quiet, beautiful, home-life, within 
 whi*ch the religious opinions and sentiments 
 are manifested — a world of affection, the 
 features of which are rarely brought out in 
 
 tlllS IOriim. Oration, Death of Congressman Starkweather. 
 
 The Isolation of Congress. 
 
 301. I have often been saddened with 
 the thought that in no place where my life 
 has been cast have I seen so much necessary 
 isolation as here. ibid. 
 
 An Isolated Place. 
 
 302. In some respects this hall is the 
 coldest, the most isolated place in which the 
 human heart can find a temporary residence. 
 
 ibid. 
 
 The Final Departure. 
 
 303. On many accounts my transfer to 
 the Senate brings sad recollections. Do you 
 remember the boy " Joe " in one of Dickens' 
 novels, who said that everybody was always 
 telling him to " move on," that, whenever he 
 stopped to look in at a window to long for 
 
THE FEELINGS OF A STATESMAN. 135 
 
 gingerbread, or catch a glimpse of the pictures, 
 the voice of the inexorable policeman made 
 him " move on ? " I have felt something of 
 this in the order that sends me away from the 
 house. It is a final departure. 
 
 Private Letter, Jan. 30, 1880. 
 The World's Wrath. 
 
 304. For twenty-two years, with the ex- 
 ception 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 as- 
 sume new responsibilities, and on the day 
 after the broadside of the world's wrath will 
 strike. It will strike hard. I know it, and 
 you will know it. 
 
 Class Dinner, Washington, March 3, 1S81. 
 The Presidential Fever. 
 
 305. This honor comes to me unsought. 
 I have never had the Presidential fever ; not 
 even for a day ; nor have I it to-night. I 
 have no feeling of elation in view of the posi- 
 tion I am called upon to fill. I would thank 
 God were I to-day a free lance in the House 
 or the Senate. But it is not to be, and I will 
 go forward to meet the responsibilities and 
 discharge the duties that are before me with 
 all the firmness and ability I can command. 
 
136 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 The Birth of Parties. 
 
 306. Political parties, like poets, are 
 born, not made. No act of political mechanics, 
 however wise, can manufacture to order and 
 make a platform, and put a party on it which 
 will live and flourish. 
 
 Immortal Ideas. 
 
 307. Every great political party that has 
 done this country any good has given to it 
 some immortal ideas that have outlived all 
 the members of that party. 
 
 Speech on the Death of Lincoln. 
 
 The Death of Parties and Liberty. 
 
 308. Organizations may change or dis- 
 solve, but when parties cease to exist liberty 
 
 will perish. Address on the Death of O. P. Morton. 
 
 The Federalists. 
 
 309. Whatever opinion we may now en- 
 tertain of the Federalists as a party, it is 
 unquestionably true that we are indebted to 
 them for the strong points of the Constitution, 
 and for the stable government they founded 
 and strengthened during the administration 
 of Washington and Adams. 
 
POLITICAL PARTIES. 137 
 
 Party Record. 
 
 310. While it is true that no party can 
 stand upon its past record alone, yet it is also 
 true that its past shows the spirit and charac- 
 ter of the organization, and enables us to judge 
 what it will probably do in the future. 
 
 The Life of Parties. 
 
 311. Parties have an organic life and 
 spirit of their own — an individuality and 
 character which outlive the men who com- 
 pose them ; and the spirit and traditions of 
 a party should be considered in determining 
 their fitness for managing the affairs of the 
 
 nation. House of Representatives, 1830. 
 
 The Control of Parties. 
 
 312. The thing most desired is not how 
 to avoid the existence of parties, but how to 
 keep them within proper bounds. 
 
 House of Representatives, Oct. 22, 1877. 
 
 The Republican Party. 
 
 313. The Republican party gave to the 
 country a currency as national as its flag, 
 based upon the sacred faith of the people. 
 
 Speech Nominating Hon. John Sherman. 
 
138 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 Democratic and Republican Parties. 
 
 314. The Democratic and Republican par- 
 ties are examples of a genuine and natural 
 method of organizing political parties. The 
 Democratic party in its earlier and better 
 days represented the genuine aspirations and 
 grand ideas of the American people, and no 
 man can say it was ever manufactured at any 
 particular time by any particular set of men. 
 The Republican party also was a growth 
 springing from the hostility of the American 
 people to slavery, and they rallied around 
 that central idea, an idea broad enough to 
 reach all the ramifications of our whole insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 PARTY QUESTIONS. 
 
 Party Governments. 
 
 315. All free governments are party gov- 
 ernments. Address on the Death of 0. P. Morton. 
 
 Partisanship. 
 
 316. Partisanship is opinion crystallized, 
 — party organizations are the scaffoldings 
 whereon citizens stand while they build up 
 the wall of their national temple. ibid. 
 
PARTY QUESTIONS 139 
 
 Party Amenities. 
 
 317. The flowers that bloom over the gar- 
 den wall of party politics are the sweetest and 
 most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of 
 this world. 
 
 Political Issues. 
 
 318. Real political issues cannot be manu- 
 factured by the leaders of political parties, 
 and real ones cannot be evaded by political 
 
 parties. Fanueil Hall, 1878. 
 
 Permanent Political Doctrines. 
 
 319. I should like to adopt political doc- 
 trines that would live longer than my dog. 
 
 Cleveland, October 11, 1879. 
 
 320. It is a very awkward thing indeed 
 to adopt a political opinion and trust to it, 
 and find that it will not live overnight. It 
 would be an exceedingly awkward thing to 
 go to bed alone with your political doctrine, 
 trusting and believing in it, thinking it is 
 true, and wake up in the morning and find it 
 a corpse in your arms. lbid - 
 
140 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 STATESMANSHIP. 
 
 The Qualities of Statesmanship. 
 
 321. Statesmanship consists rather in re- 
 moving causes than in punishing or evading 
 results. Statistical science is indispensable to 
 modern statesmanship. In legislation, as in 
 physical science, it is beginning to be under- 
 stood that we 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. 
 
 The Demagogue. 
 
 322. Perhaps it is true that the dema- 
 gogue will succeed when honorable statesman- 
 ship will fail. If so, public life is the hollo w- 
 
 est Of all Shams. Private Letter, Ajril i, 1S73. 
 
 Special Training. 
 
 323. For all the great professions known 
 among Americans special training - schools 
 have been established or encouraged by law 
 except for that of statesmanship. And yet 
 no profession requires for its successful pur- 
 suit a wider range of general and special 
 knowledge in a more thorough and varied cul- 
 ture. Death of O. P. Morton, Jan. 18, 1878. 
 
LEGISLATION. 141 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 Terrestrial Forces. 
 
 324 In legislation, as in physical science, 
 it is beginning to be understood that we can 
 control terrestrial forces only by obeying their 
 laws. 
 
 A Measure of Value. 
 
 325. Legislation cannot make that a meas- 
 ure of value which neither possesses nor rep- 
 resents any definitely ascertained value. 
 
 The Minority. 
 
 326. As a general rule, long service in a 
 legislative minority unfits men for the duties 
 that devolve upon a majority. The business 
 of one is to attack, of the other to defend ; of 
 the one to tear down, of the other to build up. 
 
 The Legislator and Statistics. 
 
 327. The legislator without statistics is 
 like the mariner at sea without the compass. 
 
 A Legislator's Study. 
 
 328. The legislator must study society 
 rather than black-letter learning. 
 
 House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
142 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Proportion in Governments. 
 
 329. A government made for the king- 
 dom of Lilliput might fail to handle the forces 
 of Brobdignag. 
 
 An Artificial Giant. 
 
 330. A government is an artificial giant, 
 and the power that moves it is money — 
 money raised by taxation and distributed to 
 the various parts of the body politic, accord- 
 ing to the discretion of the legislative power. 
 
 The Powers of Government. 
 
 331. We are accustomed to hear it said 
 that the great powers of government in this 
 country are divided into two classes: national 
 powers and state powders. That is an incom- 
 plete classification. Our fathers carefully di- 
 vided all governmental powers into three 
 classes : one they gave to the states, another 
 to the nation ; but the third great class, com- 
 prising the most precious of all powers, they 
 refused to confer on the state or nation, but 
 reserved to themselves. This third class of 
 powers has been almost uniformly overlooked 
 by men .who have written and discussed the 
 American system. 
 
CONGRESS. 143 
 
 The Management of Governments. 
 
 332. All free governments are managed 
 by the combined wisdom and . folly of the 
 
 people. Private Letter, April 21, 1880. 
 
 Despotism. 
 
 333. Perhaps, as a mere matter of gov- 
 ernment, a good despot would make a better 
 government ; but for the education of the 
 people governed, a good despotism is worse 
 than freedom with its admixture of folly. 
 
 CONGRESS. 
 The Vote of Congress. 
 
 334. In the name of common sense and 
 sanity, let us take some account of the flood, 
 that a deluge means something, and try if we 
 can get our bearings before we undertake to 
 settle the affairs of all mankind by a vote of 
 this House. 
 
 A Safe Rule in Legislation. 
 
 335. It is a safe and wise rule to follow, 
 in all legislation, that whatever the people can 
 do without legislation will be better done 
 than by the intervention of the State or na- 
 tion. 
 
144 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 "What Congress Is. 
 
 336. Congress has always been and must 
 always be the theatre of contending opinions; 
 the forum where the opposing forces of po- 
 litical philosophy meet to measure their 
 strength ; where the public good must meet 
 the assaults of local and sectional interests ; 
 in a word, the appointed place where the na- 
 tion seeks to utter its thought and register 
 its will. 
 
 337. Congress must always be the expo- 
 nent of the political character and culture of 
 the people, and if the next centennial does 
 not find us a great nation with a great and 
 worthy Congress, it will be because those who 
 represent the enterprise, the culture, and the 
 morality of the nation do not aid in control- 
 ling the political forces, which are employed 
 to select the men who shall occupy the great 
 places of trust and power. 
 
 "A Century in Congress,' 1 ' 1 Atlantic Monthly, Aug., 1876. 
 
 338. I admit most freely that Congress 
 may regulate the act of opening the certifi- 
 cates and may regulate the work of counting, 
 but it cannot push its power to regulate be- 
 yond the meaning of the words that describe 
 
CONGRESS. 145 
 
 the thing to be done. It cannot ingraft a ju- 
 diciary system upon the word "open." It 
 cannot evolve a court-martial from the word 
 " count." It cannot erect a star chamber 
 upon either or both of these words. It can- 
 not plant the seeds of despotism between the 
 lines or words of the Constitution. 
 
 Speech on Counting the Electoral Vote. 
 Sound Words. 
 
 339. During tho many calm years of the 
 century our pilots have grown careless of the 
 course. The master of a vessel sailing down 
 Lake Ontario has the whole breadth of that 
 beautful inland sea for his pathway. But 
 when his ship arrives at the chute of the La- 
 chine there is but one pathway of safety. 
 With a steady hand, a clear eye, and a brave 
 heart he points his prow to the well-fixed 
 landmarks on the shore and, with death on 
 either hand, makes the plunge and shoots the 
 rapids in safety. We too are approaching 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 steer our course by the Con- 
 stitution of our fathers, and we shall neither 
 sink in the rapids, nor compel our children 
 
 10 
 
146 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 to shoot Niagara and perish in the whirl- 
 pool. lbid - 
 
 A Menace. 
 
 340. When yon tell me that civil war is 
 threatened by any party or State in this Re- 
 public, you have given me a supreme reason 
 why an American Congress should refuse, 
 with unutterable scorn, to listen to those who 
 threaten, or to do any act whatever under the 
 coercion of threats by any power on earth. 
 With all my soul I despise your threat of 
 civil war, come from what quarter or party it 
 may. Brave men, certainly a brave nation, 
 will do nothing under compulsion. We are 
 intrusted with the work of obeying and de- 
 fending the Constitution, I will not be de- 
 terred from obeying it because somebody 
 threatens to destroy it. I dismiss all that 
 
 class of motives as unworthy of Americans. 
 
 ibid. 
 
 FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 
 A Valuable Book. 
 
 341. The log-book of this voyage cannot 
 be read too often. 
 
 "The Currency Conflict," Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 1S76. 
 
FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 147 
 
 Tne Fate of a Paper Currency. 
 
 342. I for one am unwilling that my 
 name shall be linked to the fate of a paper 
 currency. I believe that any party which 
 commits itself to paper money will go down 
 amid the general disaster, covered with the 
 curses of a ruined people. 
 
 Public Debts and Specie Payments, March 16, 1866. 
 Sleight-of-Hand Finance. 
 
 343. I believe they will, after a full hear- 
 ing, discard all methods of paying their debts 
 by sleight-of-hand, or by any scheme which 
 crooked wisdom may devise. If public mo- 
 rality did not protest against any such plan, 
 enlightened public selfishness would refuse its 
 
 Sanction. House of Representatives, July 15, 1868- 
 
 The Future of Finance. 
 
 344. Let us be true to our trust a few 
 years longer, and the next generation will be 
 here with its seventy-five millions of popula- 
 tion and its sixty billions of wealth. To them 
 the debt that then remains will be a light 
 burden. They will pay the last bond accord- 
 ing to the letter and spirit of the contract, 
 with the same sense of grateful duty with 
 which they will pay the pensions of the few 
 
148 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 surviving soldiers of the great war for the 
 Union. ibid. 
 
 Debt Questions. 
 
 345. All the questions which spring out of 
 the public debt, such as loans, bonds, tariffs, 
 internal taxation, banking and currency, pre- 
 sent greater difficulties than usually come 
 within the scope of American politics. They 
 cannot be settled by force of numbers nor car- 
 ried by assault, as an army storms the works 
 of an enemy. Patient examination of facts, 
 careful study of principles which do not al- 
 ways appear on the surface, and which in- 
 volve the most difficult problems of political 
 economy, are the weapons of this warfare. 
 
 Speech on Finance, May 15, 18G8. 
 
 The "Way to Legislate. 
 
 346. It would be dishonorable for Con- 
 gress to legislate either for the debtor class or 
 for the creditor class alone. We ought to 
 legislate for the whole country. 
 
 Speech Against Repealing the Resumption Act. 
 
 The Perfidy of A Nation. 
 
 347. The perfidy of one man, or of a mil- 
 lion of men, is as nothing compared with the 
 perfidy of a nation. 
 
 House of Representatives, Feb., 1876. 
 
FJ NANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 149 
 Financial Subjects. 
 
 343. Men's first opinions are almost al- 
 ways wrong in regard to them, as they are in 
 regard to astronomy, and he who reads the 
 truths that lie deepest, is in imminent danger 
 of being tabooed for a madman. 
 
 Private Letter, Dec. 15, 1867. 
 
 349. Financial subjects are nuts and clo- 
 ver for demagogues. ibid. 
 
 Inflationists. 
 
 350. In 1862, there may have been follow- 
 ers of William Loundes and John Law among 
 our people, and here and there a philosopher 
 who dreamed of an ideal standard of value 
 stripped of all the grossness of so coarse and 
 vulgar a substance as gold. But they dwelt 
 apart in silence, and their opinions made 
 scarce a ripple on the current of public 
 
 thought. Speech on the Currency, Feb., 1876. 
 
 Revenue Laws as Sign-Posts. 
 
 351. If our Republic were blotted from 
 the earth and from the memory of mankind, 
 and if no record of its history survived, ex- 
 cept a copy of our revenue laws and our ap- 
 propriation bills for a single year, the political 
 
150 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 philosopher would be able from these mate- 
 rials alone to reconstruct a large part of our 
 history, and sketch with considerable accuracy 
 the character and spirit of our revolutions. 
 
 North American Review, June, 1877. 
 
 An Uncertain Currency. 
 
 352. An uncertain currency that goes up 
 and down, hits the laborer, and hits him hard. 
 It helps him last and hurts him first. 
 
 Finance and Public Opinion. 
 
 353. That man makes a vital mistake 
 who judges truth in relation to financial af- 
 fairs from the changing phases of public 
 opinion. He might as well stand on the 
 shore of the Bay of Funcly, 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 gen- 
 eral 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. 
 
FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 151 
 
 An Uncertain Standard. 
 
 354. An uncertain and fluctuating stand- 
 ard is an evil whose magnitude is too vast for 
 measurement. 
 
 The Gold Exchange. 
 
 355. The Gold Exchange and the Gold 
 Clearing-House, of New York, will be remem- 
 bered in history as the Germans remember 
 the robber castles of the Rhine, whence the 
 brigand chiefs levied black-mail upon every 
 passer-by. 
 
 Successful Resumption. 
 
 356. Successful resumption will greatly 
 aid in bringing into the murky sky of our 
 politics, what the Signal Service people call 
 " clearing weather." 
 
 Bad Faith. 
 
 357. Bad faith on the part of an individ- 
 ual, a city, or even a State, is a small evil 
 in comparison with the calamities which fol- 
 low bad faith on the part of a sovereign gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Confidence in Promises. 
 
 358. In the complex and delicately-ad- 
 
152 GARFIELD- S WORDS. 
 
 justed relations of modern society, confidence 
 in promises lawfully made is the life-blood of 
 trade and commerce. It is the vital air labor 
 breathes. It is the light which shines on the 
 pathway of prosperity. 
 
 Bad Faith. 
 
 359. An act of bad faith on the part of a 
 State or municipal corporation, like poison in 
 the blood, will transmit its curse to succeeding 
 generations. 
 
 Three Reasons for Resumption. 
 
 360. We are bound by three great reasons 
 to maintain the resumption of specie pay- 
 ments : First, because the sanctity of the pub- 
 lic faith requires it ; second, bee mse the ma- 
 terial prosperity of the country demands it; 
 and third, because our future prosperity in- 
 sists that agitation shall cease, and that the 
 country shall find a safe and permanent basis 
 of financial peace. 
 
 The Men of 1862. 
 
 361. The men of 1862 knew the dangers 
 from sad experience in our history ; and, like 
 Ulysses, lashed themselves to the mast of 
 public credit when they embarked upon the 
 
FINANCE AND THE PUBLIC CREDIT. 153 
 
 stormy and boisterous sea of inflated paper 
 money, that they might not be beguiled by 
 the siren-song that would be sung to them 
 when they were afloat on the wild waves. 
 
 Financial Literature. 
 
 362. Let the wild swarm of financial 
 literature that has sprung into life within the 
 last twelve years witness how widely and how 
 far we have drifted. We have lost our old 
 moorings, have thrown overboard our old 
 compass; we sail by alien stars looking not 
 for the haven, but are afloat on a harborless 
 sea. 
 
 Equality of Dollars. 
 
 363. Let us have equality of dollars be- 
 fore the law, so that the trinity of our polit- 
 ical creed shall be equal states, equal men, 
 and equal dollars throughout the Union. 
 When these three are realized we shall have 
 achieved the complete pacification of our 
 country. 
 
154 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 REVENUE. 
 
 Kevenue, a Motive Power. 
 
 364. Revenue is not the friction of a gov- 
 ernment, but rather its motive power. 
 
 The Expenditure of Revenue. 
 
 365. The expenditure of revenue forms 
 the grand level from which all heights and 
 depths of legislative action are measured. 
 
 Corruption and Cash. 
 
 366. There is scarcely a conceivable form 
 of corruption or public wrong that does not 
 at last present itself at the cashier's desk and 
 demand money. The legislature, therefore, 
 that stands at the cashier's desk and watches 
 with its Argus eyes the demands for payment 
 over the counter is most certain to see all the 
 forms of public rascality. 
 
 Financial Health. 
 
 367. A steady and constant revenue 
 dawn from sources that represent the pros- 
 perity of the nation — a revenue that grows 
 with the growth of national wealth and is so 
 adjusted to the expenditures that a constant 
 
TRADE AND BUSINESS. 155 
 
 and considerable surplus is annually left in 
 the treasury above all the necessary current 
 demands, a surplus that keeps the treasury 
 strong, that holds it above the fear of sudden 
 panic, that makes it impregnable against all 
 private combinations, that makes it a terror 
 to all stock jobbing and gold gambling — this 
 is financial health. 
 
 TRADE AND BUSINESS. 
 The Wants of Trade. 
 
 368. Is there any man in America wise 
 enough to measure the wants of trade and 
 tell just how much currency is needed ? Who 
 forgets the infinite difficulty to find a man 
 with brain enough and resource enough to 
 feed an army and to clothe it and to house 
 it ? Its house is of the rudest — only a piece 
 of cloth ; its clothing is of the simplest, and 
 its food is a definitely -prescribed ration. But 
 it is considered worthy of the glory of one 
 glorious life to be able to feed and clothe 
 and house an army of a hundred thousand 
 men. Now, fellow-citizens, suppose somebody 
 should offer to take the contract of feeding, 
 clothing, and housing Boston and its suburbs, 
 
156 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 including half a million of men. Remember 
 that all nations are placed under contribution 
 to supply the city of Boston : every clime 
 sends its supplies ; every portion of our land, 
 all our roads of transportation are looked to 
 to supply the tables, houses, and the cloth- 
 ing of this community. Do you suppose any 
 man in the world is wise enough, is skillful 
 enough to supply the wants of this popula- 
 tion, in a circle of twenty miles around Bos- 
 ton ? Now multiply that by a hundred, and 
 get the population of the United States. Is 
 there any man in this world wise enough, is 
 there any congress in the world wise enough, 
 to measure the wants of forty-rive millions of 
 people and tell just what is needed for their 
 supplies? No, fellow-citizens; but there is 
 something behind legislation that does — does 
 all so quietly and so perfectly. Every man 
 seeking his own interest, millions of men act- 
 ing for themselves, acting under the great 
 law of supply and demand, the laws of trade, 
 feed Boston, feed the United States, clothe, 
 house, and transport the nation and carry on 
 all its mighty works in perfect harmony and 
 with ease, because the higher law above legis- 
 lation, — the law of demand and supply, — 
 pervading and covering all, settles that great 
 
STATES RIGHTS. 157 
 
 question, far above the wisdom of one man, 
 or a thousand men to determine it. 
 
 FanueU Hull, 1873. 
 
 The Business of the Country. 
 
 369. The business of the country is like 
 the level of the ocean, from which all meas- 
 urements are made of heights and depths. 
 Though tides and currents may for a time 
 disturb, and tempests vex and toss its sur- 
 face, still, through calm and storm the grand 
 level rules all its waves and lays its measur- 
 ing lines on every shore. So the business of 
 the country, which, in the aggregated de- 
 mands 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 vol- 
 ume of our currency can be determined. 
 
 House of Representatives, January 7, 1870. 
 
 STATES RIGHTS. 
 The Powers of Government. 
 
 370. No more beautiful thought was em- 
 bodied in the structure of our Republic than 
 
158 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 this : that our fathers did so distribute the 
 powers of government that no one power 
 should be able to swallow, absorb, or destroy 
 the others. 
 
 The Character of the Republic. 
 
 371. Nothing more aptly describes the 
 character of our Republic than the solar sys- 
 tem, launched into space by the hand of the 
 Creator where the central sun is the great 
 power around which revolve all the planets 
 in their .appointed orbits. But while the sun 
 holds in the grasp of its attractive power the 
 whole system and imparts its light and heat 
 to all, yet each individual planet is under the 
 sway of laws peculiar to itself. 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 The Remission of Slavery. 
 
 372. I am inclined to believe that the sin 
 of slavery is one of which it may be said that 
 without the shedding of blood there is no re- 
 
 mission. Private Letter on the Outbreak of the War. 
 
 An Alarming Truth. 
 
 373. In the very crisis of our fate God 
 
SLAVERY. 159 
 
 brought us face to face with the alarming 
 truth, that we must lose our own freedom or 
 grant it to the slave. 
 
 House of Representatives, January 13, 1865. 
 
 The Death of Slavery. 
 
 374. We shall never know why slavery 
 dies so hard in this Republic and in this hall 
 till we know why sin has such longevity and 
 Satan is immortal. With marvelous tenacity 
 of existence, it has outlived the expectations 
 of its friends and the hopes of its enemies. It 
 has been declared here and elsewhere to be in 
 all the several stages of mortality, wounded, 
 moribund, dead. The question was raised by 
 my colleague [Mr. Cox] yesterda}^, whether it 
 was indeed dead, or only in a troubled sleep. 
 I know of no better illustration of its condi- 
 tion than is found in Sallust's admirable his- 
 tory of the great conspirator Catiline, 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 fe- 
 rocity of spirit which had characterized his 
 life. So, sir, this body of slavery lies before 
 us among the dead enemies of the republic, 
 
160 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 mortally wounded, impotent in its fiendish. 
 wickedness, but with its old ferocity of look, 
 bearing tho unmistakable marks of its infer- 
 mil origin. 
 
 House of Representatives. Constitutional Amendment to abolish 
 Slavery, Jan. 13, 1865. 
 
 Tho Victims of Slavery. 
 
 375. All along the coast of our political 
 sea these victims of slavery lie like stranded 
 wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom. 
 
 Ibid. 
 A Great Political Change. 
 
 376. 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 Consti- 
 tution of 1787. No thoughtful man can fail 
 to appreciate its beneficent effect upon our in- 
 stitutions and people. It has freed us from 
 the perpetual danger of war and dissolution. 
 It has added immensely to the moral and in- 
 dividual forces of our people. It has liberated 
 the master as well as the slave from a relation 
 which wronged and enfeebled both. It has 
 surrendered to their own guardianship the 
 manhood of more than 5,000,000 people, and 
 has opened to each one of them a career of 
 freedom and usefulness. It has given new in- 
 
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 161 
 
 spiration to the power of self-help in both 
 races by making labor more honorable to the 
 one and more necessary to the other. The 
 influence of this force will grow greater and 
 bear rich fruit with the coming: years. 
 
 Inaugural Address. 
 
 THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 
 The Soldier's Death. 
 
 377. If silence is ever golden, it must be 
 here, beside the graves of fifteen thousand 
 men, whose lives were more significant than 
 speech, and whose death was a poem, the 
 music of which can never be sung. 
 
 Decoration Day Oration, Arlington, May 30, 1868. 
 The Character of the Change. 
 
 378. It will not do to speak of the gigan- 
 tic revolution through which we have lately 
 passed as a thing to be adjusted and settled 
 by a change in administration. It was cycli- 
 cal, epochal, century-wide, and to be studied 
 in its broad and grand perspective, a revolu- 
 tion of even wider scope, so far as time is con* 
 cerned, than the Revolution of 1776. 
 
 11 
 
l62 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 The Strength of Men in Revolution. 
 
 379. In such a revolution, men are like 
 insects, that fret and toss in the storm, but 
 are swept onward by the resistless movements 
 of elements beyond their control. 
 
 How it Should be Studied. 
 
 380. I speak of this revolution not to 
 praise the men who aided it, or to censure the 
 men who resisted it, but as a force to be stud- 
 ied, as a mandate to be obeyed. 
 
 The Need of Vigilance. 
 
 381. Those who carried the war for the 
 Union and equal and universal freedom to a 
 victorious issue can never safely relax their 
 vigilance until the ideas for which they fought 
 have become embodied in the enduring forms 
 of individual and national life. 
 
 The Peace to Be. 
 
 382. Peace from the shock of battle, the 
 higher Peace of our streets, our homes, of our 
 equal rights we must secure by making the 
 conquering ideas of the War everywhere dom- 
 inant and permanent. 
 
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. 163 
 
 The Spirit of the War. 
 
 383. Think of the great elevating spirit 
 of the war itself. We gathered the boys from 
 all our farms, and shops, and stores, and 
 schools, and homes, from all over the republic, 
 and they went forth unknown to fame, but 
 returned enrolled on the roster of immortal 
 heroes. 
 
 Speech before the Boys in Blue, New York, Aug. 6, 1880. 
 Our Temple. 
 
 384. This arena of rebellion and slavery 
 is a scene of violence and crime no longer ! 
 This will be forever the sacred mountain of our 
 Capital. Here is our temple ; its pavemenl 
 is the sepulchre of heroic hearts ; its dome, 
 the bending heaven; its altar candles, the 
 watching stars. 
 
 Decoration Lay, Arlington, May 30, 1868 
 A Lost Opportunity. 
 
 385. A tenth of our national debt ex 
 pended in public education fifty years ago 
 would have saved us the blood and treasure of 
 
 the late War. House of Representatives, June 8, 1866. 
 
 Our Future. 
 
 386. I once entered a house in old Massa- 
 
164 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 chnsetts where over its doors were two crossed 
 swords. One was the sword carried by the 
 grandfather of its owner on the field of Ban- 
 ker Hill ; and the other was the sword car- 
 ried by the English grandsire of the wife on 
 the same field, and on the other side of the 
 conflict. Under those crossed swords, in the 
 restored harmony of domestic peace, lived a 
 happy and contented and free family, under 
 the light of our Republican liberties. I trust 
 the time is not far distant when, under the 
 crossed swords and the locked shields of 
 Americans, north and south, our people shall 
 sleep in peace and rise in liberty, love, and 
 harmony, under the union of our flag of the 
 stars and stripes. Painesdiie, o., July 4, 1880. 
 
 A Great Hope. 
 
 387. I hope to see in all those states the 
 men who fought and suffered for the truth, 
 tilling the fields on which they pitched their 
 tents. I hope to see them, like old Kaspar of 
 Blenheim, on the summer evenings, with their 
 children upon their knees, and pointing out 
 the spot where brave men fell, and marble 
 commemorating it. 
 
 House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1864. 
 
WAR. 165 
 
 WAR. 
 
 War's Answer. 
 
 388. The reply to war is not words but 
 swords. 
 
 The End of War. 
 
 389. Battles are never the end of war ; 
 for the dead must be buried and the cost of 
 the conflict must be paid. 
 
 Wars without Ideas. 
 
 390. Ideas are the great warriors of the 
 world, and a war that has no ideas behind it 
 is simply brutality. 
 
 An Idea of a Battle. 
 
 391. To him a battle was neither an 
 earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of 
 brave men and frantic horses involved in vast 
 explosions of gunpowder. It was rather a 
 calm, rational combination of force against 
 
 foi'Ce. Oration on Geo. H. Thomas. 
 
 The Power of War. 
 
 392. After the fire and blood of the bat- 
 tle-fields have disappeared, nowhere does war 
 show its destroying power so certainly and^so 
 
106 GARFIELD'S WORDS. 
 
 relentlessly as in the columns which repre- 
 sent the taxes and expenditures of the nation. 
 
 A Weakness in Human "Wisdom. 
 
 393. 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 war, and from war back 
 to peace, without hardship and loss. 
 
 Speech on the Pendleton Inflation Bill. 
 
 How forcible are right words. 
 
 Job vi. 24. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 232 105 
 
 ABSOLUTE power 8 s'. '.'.'. .53 
 
 Achievement g9 &6 
 
 Achievement, the graduate's 2 i8 '219. ' ' -100 
 
 Adams, Samuel. .. ' lg( / ' ' 9Q 
 
 Advancement, national 45 
 
 Advancement, poverty no obstacle to ^ ^ 
 
 Advantages of communication, the — • • ■ -^ 
 
 Age, a great 373. '.'.'.158 
 
 Alarming truth, an 112 
 
 Ambition, personal ' ' ' ' 11Q 
 
 American citizen, the 
 American honor 
 
 Battle of history, the. 
 
 Battle, an idea of a 
 
 Beginning, the, of education. 
 
 193 92 
 
 187 90 
 
 .47 34 
 
 American people, fights of the 
 
 Americans, intelligent "388 "...165 
 
 Answer, war's 
 
 Architects of the future, the 
 
 117 63 
 
 238.... 106 
 
 Army of artisans, an ^ 
 
 Art " •' 41 
 
 Art, the spirit of 41 
 
 Art, true ' ' ' ' U2 
 
 Artificial giant, an.. . "'/.aS'.'.'.'.lW 
 
 .199 93 
 
 Artisans, an army of. 
 
 Atlantic, the "*• ' '"~ 
 
 Atonement, the vicarious *°° 
 
 -run fcSrt. 357.... 152 
 
 B A P3 lth ; :;;;"••;.*; 133 73 
 
 .391.... 165 
 ..95 55 
 
168 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SAYING. PAGB 
 
 Behavior of the nation, the 260. . . .116 
 
 Bestowal of the wreath, the 82 52 
 
 Bird-seed, a picker-up of 290 131 
 
 Birth of parties 306. . . .136 
 
 Birth of statistics 172 84 
 
 Book, a valuable 341. . . .146 
 
 Books 129. ... 68 
 
 Booth, Miss Almeda A 70 46 
 
 Boundaries of freedom 233 105 
 
 Boys, reverence for 3 29 
 
 Bravery, national 195 92 
 
 Bulwark of opposition, a 8 31 
 
 Burns, Robert 74 48 
 
 Business of the country, the 369 157 
 
 /"1ALM, the deception of 37 38 
 
 Campaign discipline 204 95 
 
 Cause of alarm, a 242. ... 108 
 
 Catch-words, political 293. . . .132 
 
 Cash, corruption and 366. .. .154 
 
 Chance of the Republic, the 85 52 
 
 Chance, the doctrine of 29 36 
 
 Change, a great political 376 160 
 
 Change, the character of the 378 161 
 
 Chandler, Zachariah 72 47 
 
 Character 41 
 
 Character, early influences on 62 45 
 
 Character, formation of strong 59 43 
 
 Character, foundation of, the 56 42 
 
 Character, knowledge of, the 55 42 
 
 Character, influence of, the 57 43 
 
 Character, Lincoln's 69 46 
 
 Character, moment, discovery of, the 63 45 
 
 Character of the Republic 371 158 
 
 Character, problems of, the 54 41 
 
 Character, production of, the 52. .... 41 
 
 Character, rare gift of, a 58 43 
 
 Characters, great > 45 
 
 Charity, lessons of 287. . . .129 
 
INDEX. 169 
 
 NO. OP SAYING. PAGE 
 
 Children's education 112 61 
 
 Christianity, the mandate of 24 34 
 
 Christian's reply, a 14 32 
 
 Church and state 296 132 
 
 Citizen, the American .264 119 
 
 Citizen, the power of the 248 112 
 
 Citizenship 209 97 
 
 Civilization, a force in 167 83 
 
 Civilization, a weapon of 142 76 
 
 Coercion 282 128 
 
 Cohesion of the Republic 118 
 
 Colonists, the patrimony of the 215 99 
 
 Coming conflict, the 168 83 
 
 Commanders, the 86 52 
 
 Commerce 171 84 
 
 Commerce and industry 84 
 
 Commodity, the laborer's 38 38 
 
 Common defense, the 223 102 
 
 Communication, the advantages of 25 35 
 
 Communists 18 33 
 
 Conflict, the coming 168 83 
 
 Confidence in promises 358 151 
 
 Congressman Starkweather 73 48 
 
 Congress, the duty of 299 133 
 
 Congress, the isolation of 301 134 
 
 Congress, the Union and 225 102 
 
 Congress, the vote of 334 143 
 
 Congress, what Congress is 336, 337, 338 144 
 
 Constitution, the 104 
 
 Constitution, the idea of 231 104 
 
 Corner-stone, the, of Garfield's creed 1 29 
 
 Corruption and cash 366 .... 154 
 
 Country, business of the 369 157 
 
 Country, the servant of his 189 90 
 
 Course, the student's 100 50 
 
 Covenant, the 227 103 
 
 Creed, Garfield's, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 29 
 
 Crime, treatment of 23 34 
 
 Criticism, free 145 77 
 
170 INDEX: 
 
 NO. OP SAYING. PAGg 
 
 Criticism, unjust 146 77 
 
 Currency, an uncertain 352 150 
 
 J) ANGER 16 33 
 
 Danger, a, in education 101 57 
 
 Danger, our safeguard from 120 64 
 
 Danger, our sovereign's 273 122 
 
 Dangers of suffrage, the 274 122 
 
 Dead, the 27 35 
 
 Death of parties and liberty 368 137 
 
 Death of slavery 374. . . .159 
 
 Death, a soldier's 377 161 
 
 Debt questions 345 148 
 
 Deception of calm, the 37 38 
 
 Declaration of Independence 222 101 
 
 Defense, the common 223 102 
 
 Demagogue, the 322 140 
 
 Democratic principle, the 297 133 
 
 Democratic and Republican parties, the 314 138 
 
 Descendants of great men 77 51 
 
 Desire of men, the 39 38 
 
 Despotism 333. . . .143 
 
 Difficult problems 240. . . .107 
 
 Disaster of vice, the 269 121 
 
 Discipline, campaign 204 95 
 
 Discipline, national 200 94 
 
 Discovery, the moment of 63 45 
 
 Discovery, methods of 33 37 
 
 Disfranchised peasantry 271. . . .121 
 
 Dishonor, too costly for the people 208 96 
 
 Doctrine of chance, the 29 36 
 
 Doctrine, permanent political 319 139 
 
 Dogma of divine right, the 249. . . .112 
 
 Dollar, the 294. ... 132 
 
 Dollars, equality of 363. . . .153 
 
 Dread, Garfield's 10 31 
 
 Duty of Congress 299. . . .133 
 
 Duty, our 202 94 
 
 Duty, the first, of the press 144 76 
 
INDEX. 171 
 
 NO. OP SATING. PAGE 
 
 Duty of the journalist, the 149 78 
 
 Duties, our.. 239.. ..107 
 
 ■pDUCATION 55 
 
 Education, a danger in 101 57 
 
 Education, a finished 110 60 
 
 Education, and industry nl 61 
 
 Education, a principle of • • ••93 55 
 
 Education, beginning of, the 95 55 
 
 Education, best system of, the 105 59 
 
 Education, graduates, their achievements in 99 56 
 
 Education, the importance of 106 59 
 
 Education, the mind in X.104 58 
 
 Education, new necessities of 97 55 
 
 Education, outrages of 94 55 
 
 Education, the student's course in 100 56 
 
 Education, the, of women H* 62 
 
 Education, wrongly directed effort in 96 55 
 
 Effort in public life, Garfield's • • -6 30 
 
 Eloquence, a spray of 131 70 
 
 Eloquence, the power of 87 
 
 Emigration 278 127 
 
 Empire, an 235. ... 106 
 
 End of war, the 389 . ... 165 
 
 Equality of dollars 363 153 
 
 Ethics, the principle of 42 39 
 
 Exchange, the Gold 355 151 
 
 Expenditure of revenue, the 365. .. .154 
 
 TRACING to the front 258.... 115 
 
 X Faith, bad 357.... 151 
 
 Fame of the Fisherman, the 45 40 
 
 Farmer, the 188 90 
 
 Fate of a paper currency, the 342 147 
 
 Fault of modern literature, a 124 65 
 
 Federalists, the 309 136 
 
 Feelings of a statesman, the 134 
 
 Fellowship of the virtues, the 34 37 
 
 Female suffrage 292. . . .131 
 
172 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Feudalism, industrial 243 109 
 
 Fight against gloom, the 11 31 
 
 Final departure, the 303 ... . 134 
 
 Final reconciliation, the 203 95 
 
 Finance and the public credit 146 
 
 Finance and public opinion 353 150 
 
 Finance, sleight-of-hand 343 147 
 
 Financial health 367 154 
 
 Financial literature 362 153 
 
 Financial subjects 348, 349 149 
 
 Finished education, a 110 60 
 
 Fisherman, the fame of the 45 40 
 
 Forced work in literature 127 67 
 
 Forces, terrestrial 324 .... 141 
 
 Fools, the 30 36 
 
 Foundation of character, the 57 43 
 
 Formation of strong character 59 60 
 
 Fountains of our strength 259 116 
 
 Free criticism 145 77 
 
 Freedom 79 
 
 Freedom's soul 156 80 
 
 Freedom, the language of 158 80 
 
 Freedom, obstacles to 159 80 
 
 Freedom, what it is 160 81 
 
 Front, facing to the 258 115 
 
 Fruits of occasion, the 32 37 
 
 Future, our 386 163 
 
 Future, the architects of the 117 63 
 
 Q.EORGE H. THOMAS 65, 66, 67, 39.. 45, 36 
 
 George Washington 220, 221 101 
 
 Germs of the Constitution, the 102 
 
 Germs of our institutions 226. . . .102 
 
 Giving, the idea of 102 57 
 
 Gloom, safety from 12 32 
 
 Gloom, the fight against. , 11 31 
 
 Glory of manhood, the 92. ... 54 
 
 Glory of our institutions 240 107 
 
 God in history 138 74 
 
INDEX. 173 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 God, men and their 40 38 
 
 Gold Exchange, the 305. .. .151 
 
 Golden thread of progress 180 88 
 
 Good symbol, a 17 33 
 
 Governments, the management of 332. . , .143 
 
 Government, duty of, in education 115 62 
 
 Government, our theory of 285. . . .129 
 
 Government, powers of 331. . . . 142 
 
 Governments, proportion in 329. . . . 142 
 
 Governments and man 22 34 
 
 Graduate's achievements, the 99 56 
 
 Graduation, a condition of 113 61 
 
 Great age, a 205 96 
 
 Great ideas : 122 65 
 
 Great men 50 
 
 Great men, descendants of fc 77 50 
 
 Great hope, a 387 164 
 
 Great political change, a 376 .... 160 
 
 Great powers 151 78 
 
 Great quality, a 217 100 
 
 Greece, a story of 276 125 
 
 Greek 98 56 
 
 Growth 81 51 
 
 JJAPPINESS, our 44 40 
 
 Health, financial 367 154 
 
 Heroes 181 89 
 
 History 73 
 
 History, God in 138 74 
 
 History, the battle of 133 73 
 
 History, the lesson of 137 74 
 
 History, the lights of 139 75 
 
 History, the rewriting of 135 73 
 
 History, truth in 140 75 
 
 H istory, what it is 134 73 
 
 Historian's work, the 141 75 
 
 Honor, American 193 92 
 
 Honors 76 50 
 
 Hope, a great 387 164 
 
174 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Horace, an Ode from 130 68 
 
 Hour, the need of the 206 96 
 
 House, the third 289.... 130 
 
 How to study 107, 108 59 
 
 Human wisdom, a weakness in 393 166 
 
 TDEA of a battle 391 165 
 
 Idea of giving, the 102 57 
 
 Ideal census, an 295. . . .132 
 
 Ideas 65 
 
 Ideas, great 122 65 
 
 Ideas, immortal 307 136 
 
 Ideas, the life of 121 65 
 
 Ignorance in the voter 268 120 
 
 Importance of education 106 59 
 
 Independence, the Declaration of 222. . . .101 
 
 Independence in journalism 148 77 
 
 Industrial feudalism 243 109 
 
 Industries, national 210 97 
 
 Industry 170 84 
 
 Industry, commerce and 84 
 
 Industry, education and Ill 61 
 
 Inflationists 350. . . .149 
 
 Influences of character 57 43 
 
 Influences, the early 62 45 
 
 Inheritance, our 198 93 
 
 Institutions, national 234. .. .105 
 
 Institutions, our 105 
 
 Institutions, the glory of our 241. . . . 107 
 
 Institutions, understanding our 236 106 
 
 Intelligent Americans 47 40 
 
 Intercourse , 26 35 
 
 Isolation of Congress, the 301. . . .134 
 
 Isolated place, an 302. ... 134 
 
 JOHN STUART MILL 71 47 
 
 Journalism, independent 148 77 
 
 Journalist, the duty of the 149. ... 78 
 
 Judgment of leaders 283. . . . 128 
 
INDEX. 
 
 175 
 
 NO. OF SAVING. PAGE 
 87 53 
 
 tt-NOWLEDGE "' '£ 
 
 XY - Knowledge of character °° 
 
 38 
 
 T ABORER'S commodity, the •« 
 
 •^ Labor of the people, the -^ J g * 
 
 Language of freedom gl 
 
 Law and order 182 " ". .89 
 
 Law, supreme 162 " .81 
 
 Law, the reign of g2 
 
 Law, the, and the locomotive ^ "^ 
 
 Law, our theory of lflo!!!'..91 
 
 Laws, the. • • • mm ' m ' ' ' ' 128 
 
 Leaders, the judgment ot ^ gg 
 
 Legacy, our .141 
 
 Legislation ^ ' ' ' -^ 
 
 Legislator and statistics, the • " " ul 
 
 Legislator's study, a o 80 ' " 127 
 
 Legislate, the way we " 61 u 
 
 Leisure, the value of 122 
 
 Lesson of the monuments, the 287 129 
 
 Lessons of charity, the * " " 12g 
 
 Lessons of endurance, the 137 " 71 
 
 Lessons of history, the 2U Q7 
 
 Liberty and peace 155 7Q 
 
 Liberty's weakness ?9 
 
 Liberty, the safety of 
 
 Liberty, the foundations of English £>| ^ 
 
 Liberties, a monument of ig4 
 
 Life behind, the 121 ' 65 
 
 Life of ideas, the 137 
 
 Life of parties, the ^ 
 
 Life of the nation, the light and 252*' "ll3 
 
 Life, the nation's ° 5l 
 
 Life, success in * ' ^ 
 
 Light 92 j iq2 
 
 Light and life of the nation, the JJJ" " * 75 
 
 Lights of history, the * " * ^33 
 
 Lights of practical science, the ' ' "^ 
 
 Lincoln's character 
 
176 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGK 
 
 Lincoln's place 08 46 
 
 Literature 65 
 
 Literature, financial 362 153 
 
 Literature, forced work in 127 57 
 
 Literature, modern, a fault of 124 65 
 
 Literature, the real spirit of 125 66 
 
 Literature, the relations of art to 123 65 
 
 Lost opportunity, a 385 163 
 
 Luck 79 51 
 
 Lying 21 34 
 
 ]\ JAJORITY, the will of the 229 103 
 
 Management of governments, the 332. . . .143 
 
 Mandate of Christianity, the 24 34 
 
 Man, government and 22 34 
 
 Man men love, the 83 52 
 
 Man, the portion of 41 39 
 
 Manhood, the glory of 92 54 
 
 Martyrs of the press, the 143 76 
 
 Massachusetts, Virginia and 228 103 
 
 Measure of value, a 325. . . .141 
 
 Memoir 7 
 
 Menace, a 340 146 
 
 Men and their God 40 38 
 
 Men, great 50 
 
 Men of 1862, the 361.... 152 
 
 Men in Revolution, the strength of 379 162 
 
 Men, the desire of 39 38 
 
 Men, towering 75 50 
 
 Men who succeed , 78 51 
 
 Methods of discovery 33 37 
 
 Military science 291 131 
 
 Millennium, a missent 48 40 
 
 Mill, John Stuart 71 47 
 
 Mind, the, in education 104 58 
 
 Minority, the 326 141 
 
 Miss Booth 70 46 
 
 Modern predictions 177 86 
 
 Moment of discovery, the 63 45 
 
INDEX. 177 
 
 NO. 0? SAYING. PAGE 
 
 Monarchy vs. Republic 247 111 
 
 Monument of our liberties, a 131 .70 
 
 Monuments, the lesson of the 122 
 
 Monuments, what they teach 275 122 
 
 Most interesting object in the world, the.. 60 44 
 
 Mystery of sorrow, a 36 37 
 
 RATION, the 113 
 
 Nation, the behavior of the 260 116 
 
 Nation, the history of the 254 114 
 
 Nation, the perils of a 194 92 
 
 Nation, purpose of the 253 .... 113 
 
 Nation, the supremacy of the 257 115 
 
 Nation's life, the 252 113 
 
 National advancement 186 90 
 
 National bravery 195 92 
 
 National discipline 2U0 94 
 
 National industries 210 97 
 
 National institutions 234 105 
 
 National passions 196 93 
 
 National perpetuity 201 94 
 
 National talent 212 97 
 
 Necessities, the new, in education 97 55 
 
 Need of the hour, the 206 92 
 
 Need of vigilance, the 381 166 
 
 QBJECT, the most interesting in the world 60 44 
 
 Obstacles to freedom 159 80 
 
 Occasion, the fruits of 32 37 
 
 Ode from Horace, an 130 68 
 
 Opinion, the kingdom of 35 37 
 
 Opportunity, a lost 385 163 
 
 Opposition, a bulwark of 8 31 
 
 Order of the universe 161 81 
 
 Origin of the Republic, the 246 111 
 
 Our duty 202 94 
 
 Our future 386 163 
 
 Our happiness 44 40 
 
 Our iuhoritauce 198 93 
 
 12 
 
178 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATTJfG". PAGE 
 
 Our institutions 105 
 
 Our legacy 183 89 
 
 Our national safety 272. ...121 
 
 Our people 185 89 
 
 Our success 244 .... 109 
 
 Our temple 384 103 
 
 Our theory of government 285. . . .129 
 
 Our theory of law 230 10-4 
 
 Outrages of education, the 94 55 
 
 pAPER currency, the fate of a 342 ...147 
 
 Partisanship 3 IG. ... 138 
 
 Party amenities 317 139 
 
 Party governments 315. .. .138 
 
 Party record 310 ... 137 
 
 Party, the Republican 313 137 
 
 Parties, Democratic and Republican 314 138 
 
 Parties, the birth of 30G 136 
 
 Parties, the control of 312. .. .137 
 
 Parties, the death of, and liberty 308 136 
 
 Parties, the life of 311. .. .137 
 
 Passion, national 196 93 
 
 Patrimony of the colonists, the 215 99 
 
 Peace, liberty and 211 97 
 
 Peace to be, the 382 1G2 
 
 Peasantry, disfranchised, a 271 121 
 
 People, dishonor too costly for the 208 96 
 
 People of the Republic, the 2G1 117 
 
 People, our 185 89 
 
 People, railways and the 103 82 
 
 People, the labor of the 197 93 
 
 Perfidy of a nation, the 347. .. .148 
 
 Perils of a nation, the 194 ?r2 
 
 Permanent political doctrines 319, 320. . . .139 
 
 Perpetuity, national 201 94 
 
 Personal ambition 251. . . .112 
 
 Perversions of education, the 109. 59 
 
 Picker-up of bird-seed, a 290. . . .131 
 
 Place, an isolated 302. . . .134 
 
INDEX. 179 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Pluck 84 52 
 
 Political catch-words f,l" "]t 
 
 Political issues 318. . . . lo9 
 
 Political training J!"™ 
 
 Portion of man, the * x *| 
 
 t> .. 80 51 
 
 Poverty 
 
 Poverty no ohstacle to success 64 4 J> 
 
 p ° wer ;;; " " i L 
 
 Power, absolute m" M 
 
 Power as a soldier 67 4b 
 
 Power, in the speech, the M jj° 
 
 Power of eloquence, the • • • * • ■ • -J* 
 
 Power of war S* ' 5 
 
 Power,, great iS"""i2 
 
 Powers of government dtil *•* 
 
 Powers of intellect, the ™*- ■ ■ ■ • JJ 
 
 Powers of the citizen, the i tn " ?« 
 
 Powers, the exhibition of lot) ™ 
 
 Powers, useful 207 96 
 
 Predictions, modern J"- • • • •« 
 
 Presidential fever, the dU5 - ■• •*« 
 
 Press, the ;•' ™ 
 
 Press, the first duty of the J -** «j 
 
 Press, the martyrs of the 143 '» 
 
 Press, the men of the 147 'J 
 
 Principle, a, of education 93 55 
 
 Principle of Garfield's creed iqq 
 
 Principle, the democratic 297. • • •*« 
 
 Principles of ethics, the 42 3 * 
 
 Privileges of youth, the • • j|* 
 
 Privileges, two o!n "l07 
 
 Problems, difficult / " Jl 
 
 Problems of character 54 ** 
 
 Progress, the golden thread of 180 88 
 
 Promises, confidence in 358 ... .151 
 
 Proportion 4J"'"i2 
 
 Proportion in governments <>-j «* 
 
 Purpose of literary production, the 128 ^67 
 
 Purpose, the nation's 253 - • ■ ,113 
 
180 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SAYING. PAGB 
 
 QUALITY, a great 217. . . .100 
 Qualities of statesmanship, the 321 140 
 
 Question of weight, a 110 02 
 
 Questions, unsettled 207 120 
 
 T> ADICAL, a, not a fool 7 31 
 
 JX Railroads 82 
 
 Railroads and the people 103 82 
 
 Railroads, the work of the 100 83 
 
 Railroads, value of 104 82 
 
 Rare gift of character, a 58 43 
 
 Real spirit of literature, the 125 06 
 
 Reconciliation, the final 203 95 
 
 Reign of the law, the 102 8L 
 
 Relations of art and literature, the 123 05 
 
 Remission of slavery, the 372 158 
 
 Reply, a Christian's 14 32 
 
 Repression and expression 250 114 
 
 Republic vs. Monarchy 247 111 
 
 Republic, character of 371 15S 
 
 Republic, cohesion of the H8 
 
 Republic, movement of the 284 1 23 
 
 Republic, the chance of the 85 52 
 
 Republic, the origin of the 246 111 
 
 Republic, the stability of the 245 110 
 
 Republican party, the 313 1 37 
 
 Resolution, a I 76 86 
 
 Resumption, successful 356 151 
 
 Resumption, three reasons for 360 152 
 
 Revenue l u * 
 
 Revenue, a motive power 364 154 
 
 Revenue, the expenditure of 365 154 
 
 Rewriting of history, the 135 73 
 
 Right of private judgment, the 184 89 
 
 Right of the American people 187 90 
 
 Robert Burns 74 48 
 
 SACRIFICE for self-government, the 216 99 
 
 Safeguard from danger, our 120 64 
 
INDEX. 181 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Safety from gloom 32 32 
 
 Safety of liberty, the 154 79 
 
 Safety, our national , 272 121 
 
 Safety, suffrage and , 265 120 
 
 Scholarship, theological 40 40 
 
 Science of statistics, the 178 86 
 
 Scientific spirit, the 175 85 
 
 Secession 279 127 
 
 Self-government, the sacrifice for 216 99 
 
 Servant of his country, the 189 90 
 
 Shallowness of words, the 19 33 
 
 Shores of life, the 9 31 
 
 Shriveled time of life, the 4 30 
 
 Sign-posts, revenue laws as , . . .351 149 
 
 Simplicity of character, Geo. H. Thomas' GG 46 
 
 Slavery 158 
 
 Slavery, the death of 374 159 
 
 Slavery, the remission of 372 158 
 
 Slavery, the victims of 375 160 
 
 Sleight-of-hand finance 343 147 
 
 Society 237, 262. . 106, 117 
 
 Soldier's death, the 377 161 
 
 Solution, the value of a 1G9 83 
 
 Soul, Freedom's 156 80 
 
 Sound words 339 145 
 
 Sovereignty 214 99 
 
 Sovereign's danger, our 273 122 
 
 Sovereign's power 20 34 
 
 Spirit of art, the 51 41 
 
 Spirit of the war, the 383 163 
 
 Spirit, the food of the. 153 79 
 
 Spirit, the scientific 175 85 
 
 Spray of eloquence, a 70 
 
 Stability of the Republic, the 245 110 
 
 Standard, an uncertain 354 151 
 
 Starkweather, Congressman 73 48 
 
 States' rights 157 
 
 State, church and 296 132 
 
 Statesmanship 140 
 
182 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Statesmanship, special training for 323. .. .140 
 
 Statesmanship, the qualities of 321 140 
 
 Statistics 81 
 
 Statistics, the birth of 172 81 
 
 Statistics, what they are 173 85 
 
 Statistics, what they did 171 85 
 
 Statistics, the legislature and 327 111 
 
 Statistics, the science of 178 86 
 
 Story of Greece, a 276 125 
 
 Strength, the fountains of our 259. ... 1 16 
 
 Study, a legislator's 328 HI 
 
 Study, how to 107, 108 59 
 
 Student's studies, the 118 63 
 
 Succeed, the men who 78 51 
 
 Success in life 51 
 
 Success, our 211 109 
 
 Successful resumption 356. . . .151 
 
 Suffrage and safety 255 120 
 
 Suffrage, female 292. ... 131 
 
 Suffrage, the 12) 
 
 Suffrage, violation of (he 266 120 
 
 Supremacy of the nation, the 257. . . .115 
 
 Supreme law 182 89 
 
 Symbol, a good 17 33 
 
 Sj-stem, the best, of education 105 59 
 
 'P ALENT, native 212 97 
 
 Talent's substitute 31 37 
 
 Temple, our 381 163 
 
 Tent, the, where to pitch it 53 41 
 
 Terrestrial forces 321 111 
 
 Territory 255 111 
 
 Theory of government, our 285 129 
 
 The press 76 
 
 Third house, the 283.... 130 
 
 Thomas, George H 65, 66, 67 15 
 
 Three reasons for resumption 360 152 
 
 Towering men 75 50 
 
 Trade and business 155 
 
INDEX. 183 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGE 
 
 Trade, the wants of 368 155 
 
 Training, political 288 ... .130 
 
 Training, special, for statesmen 323. . . .140 
 
 Translation of an ode from Horace 130 G8 
 
 Treasures of American souls 192 91 
 
 Treatment of crime 23 34 
 
 True art 50 41 
 
 True literary man, the 126. ... 66 
 
 Trust, the right 90 53 
 
 Truth 79 
 
 Truth, an alarming 373 . . .158 
 
 Truth in history 140 75 
 
 Truth, the universality of 152 79 
 
 T JNCERTAIN currency, an 352. .. .150 
 
 Uncertain standard, an 354. . . .151 
 
 Understanding our institutions 236 . . . .106 
 
 Union and Congress, the 225 102 
 
 Union, voters of the 270 121 
 
 Universality of truth, the 152 79 
 
 Universe, order in the 161 81 
 
 Unsettled questions 267. . . .120 
 
 Uprightness 5 30 
 
 y ALUE, a measure of 325 .... 141 
 
 Value of leisure, the 61 44 
 
 Value of railroads, the 164 82 
 
 Value of victory, the 43 39 
 
 Vicarious atonement, the 286. . . .129 
 
 Vice, the disaster of 269 121 
 
 Victims of slavery, the 375 ...160 
 
 Vigilance, the need of 381. . . .162 
 
 Virginia and Massachusetts 228 103 
 
 Voluntary enterprise 191 91 
 
 Voter, ignorance in the 268. . . .120 
 
 Voters of the Union, the 270 121 
 
 Voxpopuli, vox Dei , 250 112 
 
 WANTS of trade, the 368. ...155 
 
 War, how it should be studied 380. ...162 
 
184 INDEX. 
 
 NO. OF SATING. PAGB 
 
 War, the end of 389 .... 165 
 
 War, the power of 392 105 
 
 War ol the rebellion, the * 1G1 
 
 War, the spirit of the 383. . . .103 
 
 War's answer 388. .. .165 
 
 War without ideas 390 105 
 
 Washington, George 220, 221 ... .101 
 
 Way to legislate, the 346 .... 143 
 
 Way we legislate, the 280. . . .127 
 
 Weakness in human wisdom, a 393. . . .166 
 
 Weakness, liberty's 155 79 
 
 Weapon of civilization, a 142 76 
 
 Weight, a question of .116 62 
 
 What Congress is 336, 337, 338. ... 144 
 
 What freedom is 160 81 
 
 What history is 134 73 
 
 What statistics are 173 85 
 
 What statistics did 174 85 
 
 Will of the majority, the 229 103 
 
 Women, the education of 114 62 
 
 Words, the shallowness of 19 33 
 
 Work, the historian's 141 75 
 
 136 74 
 
 World's history, the 
 
 World's wrath", the 304 • • - 135 
 
 Wreath, the bestowal of the 82 52 
 
 Wrinkles 15. ... .33 
 
 Wrongly directed effort in education 96. 55 
 
 yOUTH, the privileges of 54 
 
 2 ACHAEIAH CHANDLER 72 47