ClaSS F 2o3 Book .G*»_Kj=_ <£> V ORATION "V .1. WARREN KEIFER RT THE UNVEILING OF THE STATUE OF JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD, WASHINGTON, D. C, (May 12th, 188?.) Mr. President, Comrades, Countrymen : On this spot, in the shadow of the National Capitol, and hard by the memorials of our illus- trious dead, it is fitting that this enduring statue of James Abram Garfield should stand. The statue we unveil to-day, silently to take its place among the many others here, is not alone in honor of a citizen distinguished for good qual- ities of head and heart ; nor alone to a scholar eminent for his attainments ; nor alone to a sol- dier renowned for bravery and successful high command ; nor alone to a statesman and politician as wise and prudent as he was outspoken and bold ; nor yet alone to a Chief Magistrate who wielded the scepter of power in the interests of the citizen ; but to one who combined within himself all these various characters and illustrated all these qualities in a single life. This statue is mainly a tribute from General Garfield's immediate companions of the Army of the Cumberland with which he served, and in which as Chief of Staff, he bore so conspicuous a part. But though love, born of camp, bivouac and battle, prompted its erection, yet, in a larger sense it is the nation's tribute to the memory of a citizen, educator, soldier, statesman and ruler. The artist (J. Q. A. Ward, of New York) typ- ifies and symbolizes General Garfield's character- istics on the base of this monument in three principal phases of his life — those of student, warrior and statesman. Recognizing that Garfield, at an early age, as in all after life, was a student, the artist, by the figure of a youth in primitive dress and in a thoughtful, studious attitude poring over some problem written on a piece of bark, represents him as struggling with obstacles which he is yet determined to overcome. The soldier phase of Garfield's life — when the appeal was made from eloquence and argument to the sword and when he stood forth to repel force with force — the sculptor symbolizes by the muscular figure of a warrior in ancient German costume, who, roused by the trumpet's call, grasps his sword for action. The costume points the -3" observer to the vigorous Saxon origin of Gar- field's ancestry, and suggests force. The third figure on the base represents him as a statesman in repose, suggestive of the "calm majesty of the law " — unswerving integrity ; wis- dom to frame just laws and courage to support them. This figure is draped in costume, more refined and classic, indicating an intellectual domination. In these figures the pliant sensibility of youth, the force of manhood, and the calm repose of knowledge and power, are singularly exemplified. These qualities were retained in the character of General Garfield to the close of his life. The principal statue represents him in the act of public speaking — delivering his inaugural ad- dress as President of the United States ; but not confined alone to this particular occasion or inci- dent. The attitude and gesture given the figure are intended to be characteristic of the moment when he would close an emphatic period in any public speech. The artist has expressed much of the force, firmness and strong convictions of the man who intelligently and enthusiastically labored for his country and who felt the weight of his responsi- bility for the trusts assumed by him. —4— The eye of the learned in art will readily dis- cover in the monument many other suggestions of the natural qualities possessed by General Garfield. This heroic figure is not an idol to be worshiped, but a model of perfect manhood ; not physical alone, but with all the outward semblance that man, in the sublime image of his Creator, pre- sents, of the God-like intellect and the immortal soul within. It is in the similitude of the " tem- ple of God in man." There is represented the strong arm of power ; the swift foot of freedom ; the heaving breast of majesty ; the towering brow of independence. Signifying so much, the statue is worthy to stand here through the cycles of time, exemplify- ing the virtues of a great life and pointing out to the sons and daughters of the Republic the high- way to happiness and success. To enable us to decide what manner of man President Garfield was, he must be tried by the standards of greatness of his own day. All is relative in this world. To be great or to achieve greatness in his time required higher moral and mental qualities than were requisite in any other era of the world's history. To be es- m teemed a worthy citizen in the time and of the —5— country in which he lived, a man must be pos- sessed of more fulness of life, more generosity of soul and more love for his fellowmen than was accounted necessary to good citizenship in past generations. Citizenship in our country includes sovereignty and power, or capacity to command or direct the affairs of state. More is expected, more is required and more is essential to make a good citizen of our consti- tutional free government than is or was ever ex- pected and required or is or ever was essential to constitute a good citizen or subject of any other government on earth. A citizen of our country must be filled with the philanthropy incident to the perfected civilization, grown up over the grave of the barbarism of the dead past. He must also, in his life, exemplify the teachings of the Christian religion as it has shone with increased resplendency upon the world through nineteen centuries. To be an educator, equal to the age in which Garfield lived, a man must drink deeper of the fountains of knowledge than was necessary for others, distinguished for knowledge, who lived before him. He must explore all the fields of science, history and literature to become a learned man of his day. — 6— To be a soldier capable of meeting the require- ments of this epoch in the world's progress, mere natural genius to command will not suffice. The warrior must know the science and art of war as it has developed abreast of all the inventions in arms, armor, projectiles and materials of war. What was strategy or grand tactics in the days of Alexander the Great, the Caesars and even in the more recent time of Napoleon and Welling- ton, would count for little in a modern campaign or on a modern field of battle. It must not be forgotten that our recent war was waged with ferocity and fatality far in excess of most other wars. The dead lists prove this. A single battle of the rebellion resulted fre- quently in more casualties, in either contending army, than in all the campaigns of some former prolonged wars. The killed and wounded in a single brigade, during the war, frequently out- numbered the American killed and wounded in the seven years of the Revolution. Many of the comrades now before me saw more of the terrors of bloody conflict in a single day, than were witnessed in the whole military life of General Washington. The wise and worthy statesman of this Union, in the afternoon of this century, besides being —7— possessed of all the estimable qualities of useful citizenship, must be equipped with a political knowledge coextensive with the history of gov- ernments, ancient and modern, both republican and monarchical in form. The citizen-sovereigns of the United States, being individually capable of self-government, are, as a consequence, exacting of those, who, for the time being, are at the head of affairs. The people of this purified Union being imbued with a spirit of personal integrity, demand of the statesman, freedom from corruption, and an ex- alted policy in keeping with their own lofty character. The ideal statesman must be scrupulously careful of the peoples personal and property rights and privileges, broad and philanthropic enough to promote universal education and the arts and sciences; and with heart enough to amply provide for the comfort of the unfortunate through public charitable institutions. Under our constitutional form of government the defined functions of the President would seem to limit his power for evil or for good. This may be true, in a certain sense, yet our Chief Magistrate, for the duration of his term, impresses upon the whole country much of his individual character, and, if so disposed, he could oppress the people and render them unhappy. Besides being the Chief Executive officer and Commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, he is, through the veto power, given by the constitution, a factor in national legislation equivalent to one-sixth of each House of Congress. Garfield lived in an age and country where pure patriotism stamped the citizen with the majesty of greatness more than in any other age or government. A nation without battle-fields would be devoid of patriotism — and a nation without patriotism in the people's breasts, is a feeble one and is doomed to a short life. Art and letters may satisfy restless genius, but physical heroism is necessary to inspire patriotism. The history of the empires of the world, that have risen and passed away, affords many exam- ples where national decay, precursor to ultimate overthrow, dates from the time when painting, music, sculpture, the fine arts and letters were preferred to the pursuits of war. The flag of the Union and the integrity of the nation were saved by the blood of a heroic peo- ple at a cost of untold treasure. The times and —9— __ institutions of the Government demanded a high type of patriotic manhood. Humanly speaking-, President Garfield was morally, mentally and physically a perfect man ; and, if in his nature he had faults, they only served to demonstrate his predominating good qualities. He was born November 19, 1831, and died September 19th, 1881. Almost fifty years, taken from the middle part of this eventful century, were covered by his life. How singularly momentous were these years when contemplated in the light of this nation's material growth, and the world's advancement ! Discoveries of science, profundity of learning, progress in government, inventions, explorations, growth in civilization, and in moral and mental stature, advancement in civil and religious liberty, all marked the period covered. Born to no high title, he was trammeled by no expectancy. He won his titles of nobility upon life's battle- fields. He had no superiority thrust upon him, save such as is incident to the sovereignty of freedom, and hence he had the glory of person- ally achieving everything for himself. His birthright was freedom, and right loyally he clung to it to the end. — IO — He was born of parents, who gave to him the heritage of a sound body, a sound brain, together with zeal and energy to use both, and a lauda- ble spirit to be distinguished among the good and illustrious through true merit. He had also the supreme advantage of being reared by a pious mother in the seclusion and quiet of the country, free from the enfeebling conditions of city life. The frequent solitude of the country boy compels him to think, and if of fair natural aptitude, to become an independent and accurate thinker. He grew to manhood in far from affluent cir- cumstances, acquiring habits of industry and economy, and, by mingling with the people, be- came familiar with their wants and needs. Thus his early experience made him wise and strong in the vocations of after-life. General Garfield early developed a natural in- clination for learning and investigation. The physical labor performed by him in early life crystallized him into perfect physical man- hood. His head was east in a large moid, like Daniel Webster's, with a breadth of brow and a weight of brain resembling Michael Angelo's. In the transition from humble birth to the 1 1 highest position in life, he singularly exemplified his own beauriful description of the inestimable advantages of our institutions : Our society, (said he) resembles rather the waves of the ocean, whose every drop may move freely among its billows, and may rise toward the light until it Hashes on the crest of the highest wave. As a teacher of the young his clearness of com- prehension and logical reasoning, his enthusiasm in pursuit of knowledge, together with his won- derful descriptive powers, insured his success. These qualities characterized him through life, and when called on to instruct, convince and sway the multitudes in turbulent times, or to control legislative bodies on momentous occa- sions, he was master of the situation. He did not refuse to ascend the pulpit, and as a devout follower of his Divine Master become a preacher of our holy religion. I lad he not matured at a time when a great crisis was imminent in our government and especially had not the great moral problem growing out of human slavery been ripe for solu- tion by legislation and war, there is good reason to believe that Garfield would have contented himself with permanently devoting his life to education, literature or the pulpit. In a letter to a friend at the opening of the war, Garfield gives the state of his mind while he 12 — was being metamorphosed from a citizen into a soldier: I have, (he says) had a curious interest in watching the process in my own mind, by which the frabic of my mind is being demol- ished and reconstructed to meet the new condition of affairs. One by one my old plans and aims, modes of thought and feeling, are- found to be inconsistent with present duty, and are set aside to give place to the new structure ot military life. It is not without a re- gret, almost tearful at times, that I look upon the ruins. But if, as the result of the broken plans and shattered individual lives of thousands of American citizens, we can see, on the ruins of our national errors, a new and enduring fabric arise, based on larger freedom and higher justice, it will be a small sacrifice indeed. For myself I am contented with such a prospect, and regarding my life as given to the country, am only anxious to make as much of it as possible before the mortgage upon it is foreclosed. He promptly took a stand among the anti- slavery men. This led him into politics early in life. Immediately preceding the war — (i860 and 1 861) he held a seat in the Ohio Senate and there grave evidence of his future greatness as a statesman. When the torch of treason lighted up this land the voice of the statesman was drowned amid the tumult of war. Concession and compromise had been tried in vain to perpetuate the Union and at the same time preserve a wrong against God and humanity. Seventy years of constitutional goverment had more than sufficed to prove the impossibility of living, under one rule, half slave and half free. Slavery, in efforts to foster itself, was neces- sarily aggressive. Wrong always is aggressive, —13— and so long as it dominates, it must even, in a sense, be progressive. The timid of the North and South stood aghast over the prospect of a dissolved Union; the thoughtless brave precipitated the crisis ; the thoughtful lovers of liberty and country, filled with faith in God's immutable justice, paused, then passed at once from peaceful citizens to warriors. General Garfield, with no military education or training, with thoughts and aspirations thitherto directed to natural science and the arts of peace, now found himself impelled by zeal for his coun- try's safety to take up the science and art of war. He was commissioned Colonel of the 42d Ohio Volunteer Infantry, to rank from August 14th, 1 86 1. His regiment was not completely mus- tered into service until November 27th, 1 86 1 . Twenty days after, in midwinter, it was moving to active service. On the 20th of December, 1861, he assumed command of a brigade and entered upon a cam- paign in Eastern Kentucky against General Humphrey Marshall, an officer of experience in more than one war, who held a position, with 5,000 men, on the Big Sandy River. With the skill and celerity of a veteran of many campaigns, —14— Colonel Garfield hurled his small, undrilled com- mand upon his adversary, passing over bad roads, through a strange and unfriendly country, and on the 8th and ioth of January, 1862, at Paintville and Prestonburg, respectively, attacked and defeated the enemy, and thus within twenty days after his command was organized, closed a campaign of much immediate importance ; the first of a series of brilliant triumphs that carried our arms to the Cumberland and the Tennessee. For this he was commissioned by the President Brigadier General of Volunteers to rank from January ioth, 1862. This incident in the military life of General Garfield demonstrates his soldierly qualities and shows his ready adaptation to great emergencies, and illustrates the facility with which the free citizen may be transformed into a good soldier. War, notwithstanding its barbaric scenes; has always brought out the better, stronger and higher characteristics and talents in man. The higher the types of civilization a country can boast, the more readily it can adapt itself to a state of war. If not renowned as a leader of a great and successful army, General Garfield was a citizen soldier superior to his opportunities in a supreme emergency. —15— He was transferred from the scenes of his first military triumph, in March, 1862, to the main army of the Ohio, and participated in the second day's battle at Shiloh. He took part in the eventful campaigns in the spring and summer of 1862, and performed, that year, much military service. In January, 1863, becoming Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, he at once became charged with military duties upon a more ex- tended scale. In this capacity he served through all the campaigns of that army till October, 1863. "For distinguished and gallant services in the battle of Chickamauga," he was, by President Lincoln made a Major-General, to rank from September 19th, 1863. He resigned this commission December 5th, 1863, to enter upon the duties of Representative in the 38th Congress, to which he had been elected, in 1862. From General Garfield himself I have this in- cident : Regretting his election to Congress, and the consequent necessity of withdrawing from the army, he went in person to President Lincoln and so informed him, and expressed to the Pres- ident his purpose not to resign his Major Gener- al's commission, and asked to be a<»ain assigned i6- to duty in the field. The President listened at- tentively to his statement, then kindly took him by the hand and said : " I can make another Major General, but I cannot make another Rep- resentative, and at this juncture the goverment stands in need of heroic statesmen as well as brave soldiers." The President then added that he could not be spared from Congress. The Presidents wish changed the General's deter- mination, and his resignation from the army was at once tendered and accepted. Brilliant and promising as his army service was, he was about to enter upon a higher career of usefulness in which he was, in the years to come, to be ranked among the foremost states- men of his own or any other country. When Garfield first stood upon the floor of the House of Representatives he was but thirty- two years of age. In that House were many trained parliamentarians and educated statesmen of long experience. With these he was at once to cope. In keeping with his army experience, he opened his legislative career both valiantly and well. During the almost two years of war, slavery still held its citadel. President Lincoln was just then poising his pen to write the Proc- lamation of Emancipation, war's decree of liberty. — n— General Garfield's history as a statesman can only be referred to here. His speeches and re- ports, touching all the living" leading questions of the day, may be mainly found in the public rec- ords covering a period of eighteen consecutive years of congressional labor. These were years of marvelous industry for General Garfield, who was ambitious, and zealous in the discharge of duty. During most of these years he bore the heat and burden of legislative rencounter, in debate, and did toilsome work at the head of principal committees. He flew from his arduous legislative duties to the people and on all the momentous issues of the day, with that mighty power of oratory possessed by him, per- suaded them to uphold the hands of the govern- ment through each recurring crisis. He early favored the amendment to the Con- stitution of the United States abolishing slavery. Slavery in its day, especially here in this beauti- ful Capital City, exhibited itself in its worst, most defiant and dangerous form. Within the limit of the sound of my voice, was to be seen, when the war began, the slave auctioneers pen and block, wherein and whereon the bodies and souls of men, women and children, bearing the image of God, were bought and sold. — 18— Here, on this consecrated ground, where now only notes of freedom are heard, there was then heard the agonizing wail of the slave-mother weeping for her children. Here, not long before the war, Daniel Drayton was tried in a Court of Justice (?) and convicted of larceny, his crime consisting in setting men and women free. Here, in pulpit and forum, priests and states- men argued that slavery was of divine right. Holy writ w r as invoked to deny a law- of the human soul. The Bible was quoted to prove it a Book of Death ; not a Book of Life. Even the originally designed Statue of Liberty crowning yonder dome of the Capitol did not escape the desecrating hand of one of slavery's votaries. The then Secretary of War* (1856), ordered struck from the sculptor Crawford's model of that statue, the " liberty cap," because that cap, in art, had an " established origin in its use, as a badge of the freed slave." Slavery, jealously watching to suppress even the sem- blance of the emblems of liberty, feared that the "liberty cap," a symbol of freedom in art, though in bronze, would point the slave to freedom. A nondescript-hood, meaningless in art or nature, was, under official orders, reluctantly substituted "Jefferson Davis. — 19— by the artist. General Garfield's appeal in Con- gress to the lovers of slavery, to surrender their idol, while the amendment to abolish it was under consideration, is filled with sublimity. On Jan- uary 13th, 1865, in closing his last speech on that question, he said : To me it is a matter of great surprise that gentlemen on the other side should wish to delay the death of slavery. I can only account for it on the ground of long continued familiarity and friendship. I should be glad to hear them say of slavery, their be- loved, as did the jealous Moor — "yet she must die, else shell betray more men." Has she not betrayed and slain men enough ? Is not the Moloch already gorged with the bloody feast ? Its best friends know that its final hour is fast approaching. The avenging gods are on its track. Their feet are not now, as of old, shod with wool, nor slow and stately stepping, but winged like Mercury's to bear the swift message of vengeance. No human power can avert the final catastrophe. How true and prophetic these words were ! With Lincoln, Stevens and others, long since registered with the immortal dead, Garfield wit- nessed the death of slavery. He supported the 14th amendment, secur- ing citizenship to all; also the 15th, giving uni- versal suffrage. His voice and vote were for all the important measures of reconstruction. They were for the unity of the Republic ; for universal amnesty ; for equal rights ; for equal laws ; for protection to the lowly and for the elevation of the human race. Next to these things he favored legislation looking to the prosperity of the nation financially. In any crisis in Congress or before — 2( the people his voice was to be heard appealing for justice to the oppressed, and for the preserva- tion of the nation's honor. If he were absent in an impending danger to his country, his friends would cry as the host of Clan Alpine at the battle of Beal an Duine : " One blast upon his bugle horn were worth a thousand men." We are yet too near the events of the war, and the immediately succeeding reconstruction meas- ures, to judge them and their fruits according to their importance; likewise we are too near our hero and others of his day to do him and them and their deeds complete justice. They were great among the great things and events of their day, and consummately great in comparison with great men of other days. Men ealled great in earlier times often won their claim to fame by deeds that would be insignificant in this age. As a public debater Garfield excelled. He was a splendid scholar, a fine rhetorician; as a writer he had rare powers, but it was his singular good fortune to be able to think and come up to his supremest intellectual strength on his feet, under the excitement of public speech, rather than with his pen when in his seat. His speeches 21 were not distinguished for florid rhetorieal dis- play, but rather for strong", eoncise statements which in themselves were better than ordinary arguments. Facts well summarized he knew the value of and therefore used them as the basis of all his oratorical powers. Often his best friends appealed to him not to correct the notes of his speeches, lest in his desire to conform his lang- uage to the highest standard of refined rhetoric and purest diction, he would leave them shorn of some portion of their power and strength. Garfield was by nature left-handed, and some- times on great occasions when he rose to speak, he at first seemed awkward. This all disappeared as his genius flashed out in his fervid, masterly treatment of his subject. He then appeared an oratorical giant — a superb human machine in action, delightful to behold. His gestures were mainly with his open uplifted left hand, and made emphatic by striking it down, sometimes clenched, into his open upturned right hand. He had a magnificent voice, resonant, well modulated, full, under complete control, capable on occasions of great vehemence, yet always pleasant to the ear. He was not fitful or uncertain in his speeches. He commanded attention always, and by reason 22 of careful preparation and versatility of learning, never spoke without impressing' his hearers with new ideas. I lis whole soul was aflame and concentrated in his oratory; and though a most frequent par- ticipant in debate, his mind lit up uniformly, and made him always seem at his best. He was never dull and prosy; but always spoke with en- thusiasm and generally with vehemence. He loved legislative and parliamentary con- troversy, but he loved still more, by his great persuasive power of oratory, to sway the masses. His speeches every where attest his greatness. They are argumentative, full of facts, persuasive, captivating, sympathetic and instructive. His antagonists fell by the precision of his blows and from the weight of his metal. His orations over the dead in the Halls of Congress are numerous. He ranged the whole field of personal eulogies and gleaned the choicest gems to bestow as tributes to the memory of his dead friends. It was his custom to refer to the old Hall of the House of Representatives in the Capitol, which contains so many marble statues of America's illustrious men, as t( The third House wherein the dead spake." In due time, as this nation grows older, the —23— forest of statues of the distinguished dead — lie was elected to the United States Senate before his nomination to the Presidency, but on being elected President, he resigned as Senator and never took his seat in that body. March 4th, 1881, he was inaugurated President of the United States. His intimate know ledge of all departments of the government and his ripe manhood qualified him for this high office, but in the four months, during which he exercised the functions of President, he had not time to deal with many of the graver affairs of State. The Con- gress was not in session during his rule. On July 2d, 1881, the bullet of the assassin laid him low. The joys of life of a still strongman; the most brilliant expectations of a man of singularly buoyant spirit ; the most exalted aspirations of a man who had ascended through his own effort to the highest governmental office in the world, all, ended with that fatal shot. His wound was mortal ; yet hope reigned so strongly within him and his will power was so great that he almost de- feated cruel fate. He was told he had one chance in a thousand for life. Buoyantly and almost cheerfully he said: u I will take that one chance." While his wound was yet bleeding, I had, in company with General Sherman, a last interview —3i— with him. The pallor of death was on his brow. His thoughts ran back to the House of Represen- tatives in which he had so long" served. His final request to me was :