^Ho, v"^-**/ V'^-\/ %*^'V .. %' •% • 4 :\ \. •^0^ >^°- %• «.^^ -•w* .^^^-i. °"".0«^ v^^"/ ^.'^--y *<^,-^i^\/ ^ *- A* .>W/k» "^^ -*' •o, ♦'7V«' 4^ ^'^ •*♦ ^/ .^^^ .4^^ ''^.i? ,-'*.-;^^-. V «^"..!^ •e,.rS % FROM THE FARM -TO- THE PRESIDENTIAL CHAIR, BEING I /^ AN ACCURATE AND COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNT "^f'^ -OF- THE miFE mHB FUBMO SEBiri©ES -OF— Gen. JAMES A. GARFIELD, THE OHIO FARMER-BOY AND BOATMAN, THE SUCCESSFUL UNION GENERAL AND BRILLIANT STATESMAN. TO WHICH IS ADDED The Life of Gen. Chester A. Arthur. By JAMES L"). AIcOABE, Author of •'Thb Pictorial H.istorv op tie Wokld," " Pathways of the Holy Land," ■*Th8 Centennial History of the United States," etc.. etc. EMBELLISHED WITH FINE STEEL PORTRAITS OF GARFIELD AND ARTHUR. AND NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD. PUBLISHED BYr ] 3 SO THE NATIONAL PUBLISHING CO,, Philadelphia, Pa., Chicago, III., St. Louis, Mo., ^ND Atlanta. Ga. lilntered accordiDg to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by J. R. JONES, In tlia Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. ii^'' ^ Preface. IT is the pride and boast of America, that this is a country of self-made men. However humble may be the position of a man, it is within his power, in this land of equality and Republican Institutions, to attain the highest honors within the gift of his fellow-citizens. Our history is full of the names of men who, without friends or fortune to aid them, have risen by the force of their own abilities to the proudest position in the Repub- lic — Washington, Jefferson, Marshall, Clay, Lincoln and their glorious compeers, were all self-made men, and carved out their great successes by their own unaided efforts. Their example shines out brightly to encourage and cheer others who are struggling onward in the road by which they climbed to greatness. No career in all our history furnishes a more brilliant example of this than that of General James A. Garfield. Starting as a poor farmer boy, without money, position, or influence, compelled to struggle against poverty and ignorance, he has raised himself by his own unaided efforts to the highest pinnacle of fame. The poor boy that drove the mule team of a canal boat is now the leader of the Republican party in one of its most critical PREFACE. struggles. Thanks to the glorious institutions founded by our fathers, it has been possible for the genuine merit and true ability of the man to win this great success. It is natural, therefore, that his countrymen should desire to know not only the measure of the success that has been won by him, but also the means by which these great achievements were accomplished. To meet this demand the author has prepared this volume, which relates the story of the life of this great man. It is the story of unconquerable determination and sublime self- reliance, of lofty purpose and inflexible resolve, of incor- ruptible integrity and moral courage of the highest type, of noble effort and magnificent achievement, of prolonged and determined struggle, crowned by the most brilliant triumphs. The work abounds in copious extracts from the speeches and writings of General Garfield, for it is only by an intimate acquaintance with his views as set forth in these utterances that he can be fairly judged, or intel- ligently appreciated. His record is presented here clearly and without partiality, that all men may see that his life has been free from stain, his services honorable and dis- tinguished, and that his claims to the highest place within the gift of the American people, rest upon a solid foundation of genuine merit and faithful service honor- ably performed. The work also embraces a concisely written sketch of the Life of General Chester A. Arthur, the Republican candidate for the Vice-Presidency of the United States. Philadelphia, August 10th, 1880. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. Birth and Parentage — Rev. Hosea Balloa— Death of James Garfield's Father — A Western Widow — Jules Garfield resolves to keep the Family to- gether — Boyhood of James Garfield — Brought up to Hard Work — An Industrious Boy — James determines to obtain an Education — A Poor Boy's Struggles — The Village School — James makes an excellent lis- tener — Becomes a Boatman on the Ohio Canal — Is Promoted— Wishes to be a Sailor — A Fortunate Illness — James Garfield makes the Ac- quaintance of Samuel D. Bates — Resolves to go to School — At the Academy — A Struggle for an Education — Garfield at the Carpenter's Bench — Becomes a School Teacher — Leaves the Academy — Finds a Friend who helps him to enter College— His Reasons for Selecting Williams College — His Career there — Graduates with distinction. CHAPTER n. PRESIDENT OF A COLLEGE AND STATE SENATOR. Mr. Garfield joins the Church of the Disciples — Statement of the Religious Belief of this Church — Reckless Attacks of Political Enemies upon Mr. Garfield's Religious Views — The true state of the Case^Mr. Garfield becomes a Professor of Hiram Eclectic Institute — Is made President of the College — His life in this capacity — Preaches the Gospel — Growing Popularity — Marriage of Mr. Garfield — His Wife — Buys a House — Mr. Garfield enters Political Life — Joins the Free Soil Party — Is Elected to the State Senate — Services in the Senate — The Secession Troubles — Mr. Garfield becomes a Prominent L'nion Leader — Hj^ Position in the Senate — A Rising Man — Supports the War Preparations of Ohio— Denounces Secession — Ohio's Situation at the Commencement of the Rebellion — How the State was Armed and Prepared for the War — Growth of the State Militia — Outbreak of the War — Rapid offers of Volunteers — Enthusiasm of the People — Services of Mr. Garfield to the State — Sup- ports Governor Dennison's War Measures — Is sent to Illinois to Buy Arms — Determines to take part in the War. (5) b CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. THE CTOLLEGE PRESIDENT BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. Mr. Garfield organizes a Military Company among his Students— Is made Lieutenant-Colonel — Is Promoted to be Colonel of the Forty-second Ohio Infantry — Organization and History of the Regiment — A Noble Record — The Forty-second ordered to the field — Joins General Buell's Army in Ktntucky — Garfield is placed in Command of a Brigade — State of affairs in the West — Garfield's first Campaign— An Important Trust — The March up the Sandy Valley— The First Blow struck — Rout of the Rebel Cavalry — Colonel Garfield wins a handsome Victory over Humphrey Marshall at Middle Creek — Flight of Marshall's Forces — Garfield sets the Ball of Victory in motion — A true estimate of the Victory of Middle Creek — A New Dodge — Out of Supplies — The Flood in the Big Sandy — Garfield forces a Steamboat to ascend the River — Garfield at the Wheel — A Thrilling Incident — Garfield wins another Victory — Drives the Rebels from Pound Gap — Is ordered to Louisville — Is congratulated by General Buell in General Orders — Value of his Operations. CHAPTER IV. FROM SHILOH TO CHICKAMAUGA. General Garfield given a Brigade in the Army of the Cumberland— Joina Buell on the march— Battle of Pittsburgh Landing— General Garfield's share in this fight— Takes part in the Pursuit— The Siege of Corinth— Garfield's Brigade one of the first to enter the town— Is ordered to re- pair the Memphis and Charleston Railroad— Successful performance of this duty— Garfield at Huntsville— Detailed for Court-martial duty— A severe illness— Ordered to Cumberland Gap— Placed on the Fitz John Porter Court martial— Ordered to South Carolina— Battle of Stone River— Garfield is appointed Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans— Hia duties and serviced in this position— General Rosecrans' quarrels with the War Department— Garfield endeavors to harmonize these difBcultiea —Rosecrans' delay at Murfreesboro— Reasons for it— Garfield's views respecting it— A stinging letter from Rosecrans to Halleck— Garfield's advice respecting the Reorganization of the Army— It is disregarded- He urges Rosecrans to advance— A Model Military Report— The Army moves off— The Tullahoma Campaign— A brilliant success— It was jiiiiii, ,,=,;!f!iliii|(^ "Ml*''' >.ai,i';i»"'"" ra CONTENTS. < really due to Garfield— Advance upon Chattanooga— Retreat of Bragg— Battle of Cbickamauga— Garfield's share in it— He is promoted to be Major-General of Volunteers for his conduct at Chickamauga. CHAPTER V. GENERAL GARFIELD ENTERS CONGRESS. General Garfield Elected to Congress from the Western Reserve District — Desires to Remain in the Army— His Reasons for Resigning his Com mission and Entering Congress— Character of his District- Reasons for his Election— Decides to Leave the Army— Enters Congress— Takes a Commanding Position in the House — Appointed to the Military Com- mittee—Estimate of him as one of the Leaders of the Republican Party —His Habits of Industry— His Mode of Rest— Mr. Long, of Ohio, pro poses to Recognize the Southern Confederacy— A Brilliant Invective — An Impressive Scene in the House— Delight of the Republicans over Garfield's Reply— It Ensures his Success in the House— Mr. Garfield in Demand as a Speaker— The Inconvenience of being Too Ready an Orator —General Garfield's Account of Congress- Its History— Its Great Ser- vices-Its Intimate Connection with the People— How it has become the National Mouthpiece and Defender— Congress and the Constitutioa— Congress and the President— Congress and the People— A Statesman's Views. CHAPTER VI. GENERAL GARFIELD's CONGRESSIONAL CAREER. The Wade-Davis Manifesto- General Garfield before the Convention — Moral Courage wins the Day— Triumphant Nomination and Election ol General Garfield— Is appointed a Member of the Committee of Ways and Means — Speech on the Constitutional Amendment- A Grand De- DMuciation of Slavery — Speech on the Reconstruction of the Southern Biates- Speech on Confiscation — A Reminiscence of the War— Gradual Rise of the Negro— How Garfield refused to surrender a Fugitive Slave —Speech on State Sovereignty— General Garfield as a Temperance Worker— How he shut up a Beer Brewery — A Good Speculation— Gen- eral Garfield's Tariff Record— Views of the Iron and Steel Bulletin- General Garfield's Course Satisfactory— To the Protectionists— His Real CONTENTS. Position oa this Question — Re-election of General Garfield to Congress — Is made Chairman of the Military Committee — Successive re-elections to Congress — Is made Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations — Debate on the Civil Appropriation Bill of 1873— General Garfield's mode of conducting Public Business — The Salary Grab— General Garfield's Course respecting it — Letter to a Friend— Garfield successfully Vindi- dicates his Course — A Silly Rumor Refuted — General Garfield urges the Repeal of the Salary Bill. CHAPTER VIL 3ENERAL GARFIELD LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION 13 ELECTED TO THE SENATE. Efforts to defeat General Garfield for Congress— His triumphant Re-election — The Democrats have a Majority in the House— Garfield loses his Chair- manship—One of the Republican Leaders— A sharp Arraignment of the Democratic Party — The Democratic Graveyard— Ohio goes Republican — General Garfield nominated for United States Senator- Is the Republi- can Candidate for Speaker of the House — A Member of two important Committees — Becomes the Republican Leader in the House— Garfield pours a Broadside into the Democratic Ranks— A Withering Denunciation of Democratic Policy— Reply to Mr, Tucker, of Virginia— Garfield breaks the Democratic Line— Delight of the Republicans in the House— Com- ments of the New York Herald— Appea] in behalf of the Loyal Men of the South— Speech on the Judicial Expenses Bill— Speech at Madison Wisconsin— Speech at the Andersonville Reunion — Plain Talking on a Sad Subject— General Garfield is Elected to the United States Senate — His Arrival at Columbus— Reception at the Capital— His Remarks— Ad. dress of President Hinsdale on Garfield's Election— Speech of General Garfield on Democratic Nullification. CHAPTER VIIL GENERAL GARFIELD's FINANCIAL RECORD. General Garfield's Appointment to the Committee on Banking and Currency — His Efforts in Congress in behalf of Honest Money— A Formal State- ment of his Views on the Money Question— The Currency Doctrine of 1863 — Definition of Money — Money as an Instrument of Exchange — CONTENTS. y Coin as an Instrument of Universal Credit — Statutes cannot Repeal the Laws of Value — Paper Money as an Instrument of Credit — Necessity of Resumption — A Powerful Argument — General Garfield's Speech on the Weaver Resolutions. CHAPTER IX. THE CREDIT MOBILIER AND DE GOLYER CHANGES GENERAL Garfield's triumphant vindication. History of the Credit Mobilier Scheme— The Pacific Railway— Government Aid extended to H. Oakes Ames' Connection with the Road — Congress Investigates the Credit Mobilier— General Garfield's sworn Testimony before the Committee — He denies all Improper Connection with the Scheme— Publishes a Review of the Case— An Exhaustive Discussion of the Case— Testimony in the Matter— General Garfield's Response to the Charges of 1873— Mr. Ames' Testimony Analyzed— Mr. Ames' Memoranda— The Check on the Sergeant-at-Arms- General Garfield's In- terviews with Mr. Ames during the Investigation — Conclusions — Trium- phant Vindication of General Garfield— All the Charges against him — Letter of Judge Poland— General Garfield Unanimously Acquitted of Wrong-doing — The De Golyer Pavement Company — Charges against General Garfield— His Triumphant Vindication of hia Course— The Truth established at last. CHAPTER X. THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. GENERAL GARFIELD NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The Chicago Convention — Description of the Hall — General Garfield a Del- egate from Ohio — Cordial Reception by the Convention— Opening of the Proceedings— The First Day's Work — Events of the Second Day— The Struggle between Grant and Blaine— Parliamentary Skirmishing — Proceedings of the Third Day — Report of the Committee on Credentials — The Evening Session— The Fight over Illinois — The Fourth Day's Session — The Grant Lmes show Signs of Weakness — Garfield's Mas- terly Management of the Ohio Delegation— Nomination of Candidates — Blaine and Grant Presented — General Garfield Nominates John Sher- 10 CONTENTS. man— A Noble Speech— The Fifth Day's Session— Balloting for the Presidential Candidates— A Stubborn Fight— A Detailed Statement of the Ballots— The Sixth and Last Day— Wisconsin Votes for Garfield— The General endeavors to Stop the Movement in his Favor — He is un- successful—The Break to Garfield— The Thirty-sixth Ballot— Garfield Nominated for the Presidency— Exciting Scenes in the Convention— The Nomination Made Unanimous— Nomination of Vice-President— How Garfield's Nomination was brought about— Platform of the Re- publican Party for 1880. CHAPTER XI. GENERAL GARFIELD SINCE THE CHICAGO CONVENTION. The Nomination unsought by General Garfield— Congratulatory Telegrams — How the News was received in Congress — Scene in the House — Gen- eral Garfield notified of his Nomination— His Reply— Returns Home — Reception at Cleveland — General Garfield presides at the Reunion of Hiram College— His Speech on that Occasion — A Glance at the Past — Reception at Mentor — Visit to Painesville — General Garfield addresses his Neighbors— Sunday at Home- General Garfield returns to Wash- ington City — His Journey — A Serenade at Washington — Speech of Gen- eral Garfield — Adjournment of Congress— Fourth of July Speech at Painesville- General Garfield's Letter accepting the Nomination for the Presidency — Personal Characteristics— General Garfield's Washington Home— The Farm at Mentor — The Garfield Family. CHAPTER, XII. Birth and Parentage — College Life — Teaches a Country School — Studies Law — Admitted to Practice — Settles in New York — Marries the Daugh- ter of a Hero — Defends two Fugitive Slaves — Carries his Case to a Tri- umphant Issue — Appointed Engineer-in-Chief of Governor Morgan's StafiF— An Honorable Record — Refuses to accept Presents for his Public Services — His Record on Civil Service Reform — Made Collector of tha Port of New York — Puts a stop to Frauds upon the Government — At- tempts to fasten Charges of Fraud upon Him are Unsuccessful — Re- moved from Office by President Hayes — Offered the post of Consul General to Paris — Refuses it — Personal Appearance — Nominated for Vice-President — His Letter of Acceptance, • ^^.^ llllllllffl ^liiiiiM^^^^^^ iiiiiiiii THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF JAMES A. GARFIELD. CHAPTER I. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. Birth and Parentage — Rev. Hosea Ballou — Death of James Garfield's Father — A Western Widow— Jules Garfield resolves to keep the Family to- gether — Boyhood of James Garfield — Brought up to Hard Work — An Industrious Boy — James determines to obtain an Education — A Poor Boy's Struggles — The Village School — James makes an excellent lis- tener — Becomes a Boatman on the Ohio Canal — Is Promoted— Wishes to be a Sailor — A Fortunate Illness — James Garfield makes the Ac- quaintance of Samuel D. Bates — Resolves to go to School — At the Academy — A Struggle for an Education — Garfield at the Carpenter's Bench — Becomes a School Teacher — Leaves the Academy — Finds a Friend who helps him to enter College — His Reasons for Selecting Williams College — His Career there — Graduates with distinction. James Abraham Garfield was born in the village of Orange, in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, about twelve miles from Cleveland, on the 19th of November, 1831. His parents were both of New England extraction. His father was Abraham Garfield, a native of Otsego County, New York, but the ancestors of Abraham Garfield had 2 18 JAMES A. GARFIELD. resided in Massachusetts for generations. Ilis mother's maiden name was Eliza Ballou. She was a native of New Hampshire, and was a niece of the Rev. Hosea Bal- lou, one of the most distinguished Universalist divines of his day.* James Garfield was the youngest of four .sons. When he was scarcely two years old his father died, in 1833, leaving his family in straitened circumstances. The * As tlie connection between General Garfield and his distingnislied great uncle is exceedingly interesting, we quote here the following briet biography of the latter : " Hosea Ballou. — An American clergyman, born at Eichmoud, N. H., April ?,0, 1771, died at Boston, June 7, 1853. He was the son of a Baptist cler- gyman, who was conscientiously opposed to receiving any remuneration for his professional services, and consequently he had so few advantages of education, that in learning to write he was obliged to use birch bark instead of paper, and charcoal instead of pen and ink. At the age of nineteen he joined the Baptist church under his father's care, but, having declared his belief in the final salvation of all men, he was excommunicated. He began to preach at the age of twenty-one, and in 1794 was settled at Dana, Mass. In 1801 he removed to Barnard, Vermont, while in 1804 he wrote his ' Notes on the Parables' and ' Treatise on the Atonement.' In 1807 he became pastor of the Universalist church in Portsmouth, N. H. In 1815 be removed to Salem, Mass., and in 1817 to Boston, where he became pastor of the Second Universalist church, in which location he continued for thirty- five years. In 1819 he commenced the ' Universalist Magazine,' which he conducted alone for several years, and afterwards in conjunction with the Kev. Tlxomas Whitemore. In 1831, aided by his grand-nephew, Hosea Bal- lou, he commenced the ' Universalist Expositor,' a quarterly publication, to which he continued to contribute until his death. Among his published works, besides those mentioned, are 26 ' Lecture Sermons,' 20 ' Select Ser- mons,' an ' Examination of the Poctrine of Future Retribution (1846), and a volume of poems, mostly hymns, many of which are embodied in the ' Uni- versalist Colleciion' edited by Adams and Chapin. He preached more than ten thousand sermons, none of which were written till after their delivery. Two of his brothers, Benjamin and David, also became Universalist preach- ers. Two memoirs of him have been published, one by his son, M. M. Bal- ' ou, the other by Thomas Whitemore (1854)." — The American Encyclo- pedia, Vol. II. p. 34o. CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 19 support of the family devolved entirely upon Mrs. Gar- field, but fortunately for her boys she was a vroman of rare energy and excellent business qualities. The friends of General Garfield are unanimous in declaring that it is from his mother that he inherits his capacity for work, and the patience and perseverance he dispLiys in the ac- complishment of his ends. Mrs. Garfield was determined from the moment of her husband's death that the family should not be separated, but should be kept together as when the father was living. To accomplish this re- quired a hard struggle, but she was a woman of strong faith and courage, and with the aid of her three elder boys managed to gain a frugal support from the little farm left to her by her husband. Young as he was, James was obliged to do what he could in the work of the farm, and in this way learned the habits of indus- try which have distinguished his manhood, and laid the foundation of his strong and vigorous constitution. He worked with a will, for he liked it, and even as a child detested idleness. When but a little fellow, it was said of him by the neighbors, that he had " not a lazy hair in his head." The farm was poor, and it required constant and hard work from all the family to get a living out of it. From his earliest years, James was anxious to obtain a good education ; but the prospect before him was dis- couraging. He was a poor boy, and without friends who could assist him. Whatever he accomplished in life must be by his own exertions. This conviction became im- planted in his mind at a very early day, and gave to him an earnestness of character and resoluteness of purpose 20 JAMES A. GARFIELD. remarkable in one so young. During the summer months he worked on the little farm, and in the winter he worked at the carpenter's bench, his friends thinking it best that a poor boy with his way to make in the world, should be master of some good useful trade. When he had suf- ficientl}^ mastered the rudiments of this trade, the neigh- bors employed him in such simple jobs as he was capable of performing, and in this way he was able to earn a little money. All this while he could neither read nor write, yet he was by no means an ignorant boy. There was in Orange a so-called village school, where the villagers met in the evening during the long winters, to read and discuss such books as they possessed and the newspapers that came to them by the mail. Young Garfield was a constant attendant and an eager listener, and in this ca- pacity picked up considerable useful information. No one would have dreamed that the illiterate boy who drank in so eagerly the prosy sentences of the county paper, would one day be the brilliant and accomplished leader of a great party, and a candidate for the highest honors in the gift of his countrymen. What a lesson of hope and encouragement does such a life hold out to the young and struggling men of America. The same means by which this man rose to fame, are open to every one who will use them as faithfully and honorably as he did. This constant attendance upon the village school but increased the desire of young Garfield to obtain an edu- cation. But to obtain this money was indispensable, and the boy had none. Naturally he began to look about him for some avocation which would enable him to earn MAP SHOWING THE COUNTRY FROM CHATTANOOGA TO CHICKAMAUGA— THE SCENE OF ONE OF GENERAI, GARFIELD'S CAMPAIGNS, CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 21 money, and so obtain the knowledge he craved. The Ohio Canal passed within a short distance of the Garfield farm, and the lad made many acquaintances among the boatmen. From these he learned that the wages paid the canal men amounted to more than he could earn by his labor on the farm or by carpentering, and that they were paid promptly and in cash. He therefore deter- mined to become a boatman, and when but seventeen years old succeeded in obtaining employment as driver of one of the boats. Though his position was humble in the extreme, he displayed such fidelity and diligence in the discharge of his duties that he attracted the attention of his superiors, who promoted him to the post of steersman, a position which brought him an increase of wages. He held this position for about eighteen months, working hard, and laying by as much as he could of his small earnings. In the fall of 1848, being dissatisfied with canal life, he resolved to take a step forward and ship as a sailor on one of the vessels plying on Lake Erie. Be- fore he could carry out this resolution, however, he was seized with a severe attack of ague and fever, which com- pelled him to leave the canal and return to his mother's house an invalid. This sickness proved the turning-point in his life, and as a result of it, James A. Garfield, in- stead of burying himself in the forecastle of a ship, be- came one of the leading statesmen of the American Republic. Young Garfield's illness lasted three months, and during this time he became acquainted with Samuel D. Bates, a young man engaged in teaching the district school that winter. Bates had recently been a pupil at 22 JAMES A. GARFIELD. the " Geauga Seminary," in an adjoining county, and his conversation aroused in the invalid all the old desire to obtain an education, which had almost died out under the influence of his canal-boat associates. The plan of be- coming a sailor was abandoned, and the young man re- solved to give all his energies now to the acquirement of knowledge. He had managed with the aid of some friends to learn to read, and could do simple examples in arith- metic, but this was the sole basis upon which he proposed to build up the structure of knowledge he meant to rear. It was enough, however, for one so ambitious and deter- mined. His mother entered fully into his plans and hopes, and moreover was able to aid him with a little money which she had saved by the most pinching econ- omy. With this small capital he started, in March, 1849, for the " Geauga Academy," an obscure institution located at Chester, a small country village not far from Orange. He was accompanied by a cousin and another young man from his village. The young men were too poor to pay one dollar and fifty cents a week for board, in addition to the cost of their tuition, and so they took with them frying-pans, dishes, and other cooking utensils. Upon reaching Chester they rented a room in an old unpainted frame building, not far from the academy, and during their stay there " kept house" for themselves. From this day James A. Garfield earned his own living, and to his credit be it said never possessed a dollar that he had not gained by honest and faithful toil. He applied him- self with ardor to his studies, for his heart was in his work, and failure had become among the impossibilities with him. His industry enabled him to distance his com- CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 23 petitors, and he soon took rank as the most promising pupil in the academy. During all this while he earned his own living. He found work with the carpenters of Chester, and his mornings and evenings and Saturdays were spent in working in the shop. He earned fair wages, and was thus enabled to pay his way as he went. As may be imagined, he had few leisure moments ; but work with him was a pleasure, and he had the happiness and encouragement of feeling that he was surely prepar- ing himself for a man's part in the great struggle of life. When the summer vacation came, he devoted himself steadily to work, and by laying aside his earnings pro- vided a fund for the expenses of the fall and spring terms at school. During the winter he taught a district school, and so added to his income. Thus he kept on for several years, teaching in the winter, working at the bench in the summer, and attending the academy during the fall and spring terms. He practised the most rigid economy, laying aside all he could of his earnings, for the purpose of paying for a collegiate course, upon which he was now resolved to enter. He had the fortune to enjoy excellent health during this time. He was a tall, muscular, fair- haired country lad in those days, looking a good doal like a German in spite of his pure Yankee blood. Healthy in mind and body, he was also genial in temper and ever ready to oblige a friend. He was a good wrestler and ball player as well as a good student, and was a great favorite with his classmates and teachers. In 1854, Mr. Garfield determined to leave the acad- emy, as he felt that he had exhausted its capacity for imparting knowledge. He was now twenty-three years 24 JAMES A. GARFIELD. old, and it was important that he should lose no time in entering college, if he meant to do so at all. During the five years he had passed at the academy and at work, he had laid by a considerable sum of money for the expenses of his collegiate course, and he was confident that his hard studies had fitted him to enter the junior class at college. But even this would require a two years' course at college, and his savings were several hundred dollars short of the amount necessary to defray his expenses. How was he to raise the balance ? For awhile this troubled him greatly ; but friends now came to his assistance, and he began to reap in part the reward of the good life he had led. His course at the academy had established for him a reputation for honesty and per- sistency of purpose, which now stood him in good stead. A gentleman who had watched his career with great in- terest, agreed to advance him the necessary money, taking }is security a life-insurance policy, which Mr. Garfield, being in excellent health, had no difficulty in securing. This loan placed him in possession of sufficient funds to carry out his plan. The next step was to determine upon a college. After canvassing the merits of various institutions, JMr. Garfield chose Williams College, at Wil- liamstown, Mass., as the one most suited to his needs. Before leaving home, he placed his policy of life insur- ance in the hands of his kind friend, as security for the loan. " If I live," he said, " I will pay you. If I die, you will suffer no loss." The debt was paid soon after his graduation, and the creditor has ever since been one of Mr. Garfield's closest and most devoted friends, reaping a rich reward in the brilliant career of the young CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 25 man he helped to reach fame and honors. Mr. Garfield had originally intended to attend Bethany College, the institution sustained by the church of which he was a member, and presided over by Alexander Campbell, the man above all others whom he had been taught to admire and revere. But as study and experience had enlarged his vision, he had come to see that there were better institutions outside the limits of his peculiar sect. A familiar letter of his, written about that time, from which a fortunate accident enables us to quote, shall tell us how he reasoned and acted. "There are three reasons why I have decided not to go to Bethany : 1st. The course of study is not so extensive or thorough as in the Eastern colleges. 2d. Bethany leans too heavily toward slavery. 3d. I am the son of Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but little acquaintance with people of other views ; and, having always lived in the West, I think it will make me' more liberal, both in my religious and general views and sentiments, to go into a new circle where I shall be under new influences. These considerations led me to conclude to go to some New England college. I therefore wrote to the Presidents of Brown University, Yale, and Wil- liams, setting forth the amount of study I had done, and asking how long it would t-ike me to finish their course. " Their answers are now before me. All tell me I can graduate in two years. They are all brief, business notes, but President Hopkins concludes with this sen- tence : ' If you come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence, which seems to be a kind of friendly grasp 26 JAMES A. GARFIELD. of the hand, has settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next week." Some points in this letter of a young man about to start away from home to college will strike the reader as remarkable. Nothing could show more mature judgment about the matter in hand than the wise anxiety to get out from the Disciples' influence, and see something of other men and other opinions. It was notable that one trained to look upon Alexander Campbell as the master intellect of the churches of the day, should revolt against studying in his college because it leaned too strongly to slavery. And in the final turning of the decision upon the little friendly commonplace that closed one of the letters, we catch a glimpse of the warm sympathetic nature of the man, which much and wide experience of the world in after years has never hardened. Repairing to Williams College, in the fall of 1854, Mr. Garfield was admitted to the junior class, his private studies having enabled him to master the freshman and sophomore courses. His life at Williams opened a new experience to him. He was now thrown into the society of polished young students, who looked somewhat con- temptuously on the rough Western carpenter and farmer who had dropped among them. His experience from a social point of view was far from pleasant, and he was the subject of many rude remarks and much ruder treat- ment. He bore all this with patience, though his high spirit inwardly chafed at it. He had come to college for a fixed purpose, and that purpose he kept steadily in view, allowing nothing to swerve him from it. Disregard- ing the slights he constantly received, he applied himself CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YEARS. 27 with energy to his studies, and made a reputation that not even those who affected to look down upon him could afford to despise. In 1856, two years after his admis- sion, he was graduated, bearing off the honors of his class in metaphysics, 'a distinction which is regarded as among the highest within the gift of the institution to its gradu- ating members. This high honor was an ample reward to him for all the slights he had endured while struggling for it. How his classmates would have smiled had they been told that the man they affected to despise was one day to become a leader whom they would gladly and en- thusiastically follow in one of the greatest contests that ever marked the history of the country ! CHAPTER 11. PRESIDENT OF A COLLEGE AND STATE SENATOR. Mr. Garfield joins the Church of the Disciples— Statement of the Religious Belief of this Church— Reckless Attacks of Political Enemies upon Mr, Garfield's Religious Views— The true state of the Case— Mr. Garfield becomes a Professor of Hiram Eclectic Institute— Is made President of the College— His life in this capacity— Preaches the Gospel— Growing Popularity— Marriage of Mr. Garfield— His Wife— Buys a House— Mr. Garfield eaters Political Life — Joins the Free-Soil Party— Is Elected to the State Senate — Services in the Senate— The Secession Troubles — Mr. Garfield becomes a Prominent Union Leader — His Position in the Senate — A Rising Man — Supports the War Preparations of Ohio — Denounces Secession — Ohio's Situation at the Commencement of the Rebellion — How the State was Armed and Prepared for the War — Growth of the State Militia— Outbreak of the War— Rapid offers of Volunteers- Enthusiasm of the People— Services of Mr. Garfield to the State — Sup- ports Governor Dennison's War Measures — Is sent to Illinois to Buy Arms — Determines to take part in the War. While attending the Geauga Academy, Mr. Garfield made a profession of religion, and joined the Disciples' Church, a new sect which had spread with great rapidity in Ohio, under the influence of the eloquent preaching of its founder, Alexander Campbell. The religious belief of the Disciples is thus stated by the Rev. Irving A. Searles, pastor of the South Side Christian Church, Chi- cago : — 1. We call ourselves Christians or Disciples. The term " Campbellite " is a nickname that others have ap- GENERAL JAMES A. GARFIELD. PRESIDENT OF A COLLEGE AND STATE SENATOR. 29 plied to us, as the early Methodists were called " Rant- ers." Good taste forbids the use of nicknames. 2. We believe in God the Father. 3. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our only Saviour. We regard the divinity of Christ as the fundamental truth in the Chris- tian system. 4. We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to its agency in confession and as an indweller in the heart of the Christian. 5. We accept both the Old and New Testament Scriptures as the inspired word of God. 6. We believe in the future punishment of the wicked, and the future reward of the righteous. 7. We believe the Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God. 8. We observe the institution of the Lord's Supper on every Lord's Day. To this table it is our practice neither to invite nor debar. We say it is the Lord's Supper for all the Lord's children. 9. We plead for the union of all God's people upon the Bible and the Bible alone. 10. We maintain that all the ordinances of the Gos- pel should be observed as they were in the days of the Apostles. 11. The Bible is our only creed. The Christian Church numbers about 500,000 com- municants in the United States. Since the nomination of General Garfield for the Presidency, some of the more reckless of his political op- ^ poneuts have endeavored to show that he has no religious 30 JAMES A. GARFIELD. belief. Commenting upon this, the Philadelphia Times, a journal unfavorable to the Chicago nominations, said re- cently : " Some of the more reckless organs have assailed General Garfield as a religious heretic. While the theory of our government is that the religious belief should not hinder or promote individual advancement in public trust, it is none the less true that this is a Christian govern- ment, and that no man could reach the Presidency who was not what is commonly accepted as orthodox in his faith ; and because General Garfield is not an adherent of one of the several leading religious organizations, he has been accused of unbelief. Such a charge against him is wholly without foundation in fact, and without even plausible ground to give the semblance of sustaining it. " General Garfield is a religious follower of Alexander Campbell, as are a number of prominent men of all politi- cal convictions in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio. Campbell emigrated to this country from Ireland, in 1809, and located in Wash- ington county, Pennsylvania, near Bethany, West Vir- ginia, which subsequently became his home, and where he founded a college over which he presided until his death at an advanced age. He was a Presbyterian minister, but in 1810 he and his father seceded from the Presbyterian Church and organized a new society at Brush Run, Penn- sylvania, called " Disciples of Christ." They have been popularly known as " Campbellites," because of the name of their distinguished founder, who was one of the ablest theological disputants of his time. The first point of dis- pute raised with the Presbyterian Church by Campbell MAP SHOWING THE COUNTRY OF THE TULLAHOMA CAMPAIGN— IN WHICH GENERAL GARFIELD FIGURED CONSPICUOUSLY. PRESIDENT OF A COLLEGE AND STATE SENATOR. 31 was in rejecting tlie entire Confession of Faith, and declaring that the Bible should be the sole creed of the new church. Subsequently the Disciples accepted bap- tism by immersion, and that, with the free interpreta- tion of the Scriptures as members shall choose for them- ' selves, sums up the whole faith of the followers of Alex- ander Campbell. " The Disciples of Christ now number nearly or quite half a million of people, and they command the respect of all religious denominations by the simplicity and liber- ality of their faith. They have no ordained ministry, but, like the Quakers, all teach when so moved by the Spirit. So far from being unbelievers, they cherish and teach the utmost sanctity for both the Old and New Testaments as the inspired word of God, and the divinity of Christ is one of the fundamental truths of their religious system. They simply accept the Bible as their creed, rejecting all the creeds of men, and allow the widest latitude of belief in the interpretation of the Holy Word. They adminis- ter the Sacrament on every Lord's Day, and exhibit their opposition to bigotry and intolerance by permitting us to join them, as none are invited and none debarred. To assume that the believer of such a religious faith is at war with the Christian religion, is to make bigotry one of the cardinal attributes of Christianity ; and those who assail General Garfield because of the choice he has made of his church will harm only themselves." Mr. Garfield was now twenty-five years old, and was about to begin the world for himself in a newer sense. As the result of twenty years of hard work he had his collegiate education, his diploma, his books, his clothes, 32 JAMES A. GARFIELD. good health, a clear conscience, and a debt of four hun- dred and fifty dollars. His task now was to find some employment that would support him, and enable him to discharge his debt. To go back to the carpenter's bench was not to be thought of. He had qualified himself for a higher place in life, and must now take it. His con- nection with the Disciples' Church now shaped his destiny as much as did his own inclinations. All his family were members of that church, which had a very large following in Ohio. In the county of Portage, not far from where the Garfields lived, the Disciples had a struggling college, called Hiram Eclectic Institute, which undertook to fur- nish education and religious training at the lowest possible price. It was natural that the young talented Disciple, who had just been graduated with distinction in an east- ern college, should be attracted to this struggling school. He went to Hiram, and was made Professor of Latin and Greek. It was no easy place into which he had Mien. The college was poor, the professors were poor, the stu- dents were poor, and the salaries paid were small, as were the tuition fees received. Plain living and high thinking was the order of the day at the institute; and there was much hard labor to be done on the part of the new pro- fessor. It was done with characteristic energy, and from the first told well upon the success of the college. At the close of his first year Professor Garfield was made president of the coUegej and his field of labor was thus widened. In this capacity he not only taught and lec- tured, but preached also. According to the creed of the Disciples, any person having the power, was entitled to preach, and the presi- i'''i'(, PRESIDENT OF A COLLEGE AND STATE SENATOR. 33 dent of the college was expected to deliver a sermon every Sunday as a part of his official duty. President Garfield preached with great eloquence and effect, and his fame spread through the Canipbellite settlement. It was this fact that gave rise to the story that he had been a minister, a story which he has taken occasion to deny publicly on several occasions. Garfield's purpose was to be a lawyer, and he had not swerved from it at the time he used to talk of religion and a future life to the little congregations in the Disciples' meeting house in Northern Ohio. The new president was only twenty six years old, probably the youngest man that ever held such a posi- tion. He carried into his new office the remarkable energy and vigor and good sense which are the main- springs of his character. He soon doubled the attend- ance at the school, raised its standard of scholarship, strengthened its faculty, and inspired everybody con- nected with it with something of his own zeal and enthusiasm. At the same time he diligently prosecuted the study of the law, the profession he had marked out for himself, but which he has never been called on to practise to any extent. He was also an omnivorous reader of general literature, and his remarkable memory enabled him to retain what he read. The life at Hiram was peaceful and pleasant to the hard-working president. Hiram is a lonesome village, three miles from a railroad. It lies on a high hiU, and overlooks twenty miles of cheese-making country to the southward. It contains fifty or sixty houses clustered around the green, in the centre of which stands the homely red brick college structure. The people were very proud of their college 3 84 JAMES A. GARFIELD. president, and lie soon became well known throughont Northern Ohio. He was frequently called upon for pub- lic speeches, and these added greatly to his reputation and popuLirity. I Mr. Garfield's place in life now seemed won, and he felt at liberty to marry. During his attendance at the Geauga Academy, he made the acquaintance of Miss Lucretia Rudolph, a pupil, and the daughter of a farmer in the neighborhood. The acquaintance ripened into af- fection, and the young people entered into an engage- ment to be married as soon as the lover should be able to assume the responsibility of such a step. In 1857 Mr. Garfield and Miss Rudolph were married. The mar- riage was one purely of love, and the choice was a wise one. Miss Ru 1861 Dec. 14, .R6t •7. " 14, 19. " " '4, *' 20, " " 14, " 32, " '4, " Promoted to Major. Resigned Jan. 28, 1S63. Honorably dis'd Mar. 6, 1864. Honorablv dis'd Jan. 3, 1864. Resigned'March 3, 1863. Revoked. Killed May i, 1863. Nrustered out Sept. 30, 1865. Mustered out Sept. 30, 1865. Mustered out. Mustered out. Tranferred to and mustered out with 96th O. V. L Mustered out Sept. 30, 1864. Honorably dis'd Apr. 30, 1864. Mustered out. Musti red out. Resigned Sept. 24, 1864. Mustered out. Promoted to Captain. App. A. Q. M. of vols.; mus- tered out Nov. 13. i86j. Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Captain. Resigned March 27, i86a. Resijjned April 3, 1862. Resigned Jan. 31, 1862. Resigned F"eb. 8, 1862. Promoted to Captain. Transferred to colored reg't. Resigned June 11, 1S62. Resigned June 5, 1862. Resigned June 6, 1S63. Promoted to regular army. Revoked. romoted to Captain. App. Cap. A. A. G.May 15, '63 Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Capiain. Resigned Oct. 23, 1863, Promoted to Captain. Promoted to Captain. Resigned Aug. 5, 1863. Resigned June 29, 1864. Mustered out. Resigned Sept. 24, 1864. Resigned as 2d Lieut. Mustered out. Mustered out. Mustered out. Mustered out. Mustered out. Mustered out Sept. 30, 1864, Resigned Sept. 24, 1864. Mustered out. Mustered out. Mustered out. Prom, to ist Lt. June 11, i86a. Promoted to 1st Lieut. Died. Promoted to ist Lieut. Resigned July 5. 1862. Promoted to :st Lieut. Resigned May 9, 1863. BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 63 RANK. 2d Lieut Melvin H. Renhatn Oct. lo, i86i Dec. 14, 1861 Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . Edwin C. Leach Nov. J, " " 14, " Resigned June 5. 1862. Do. . P.-rter H. Foskett " 22, " " Ml " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . Marion Knif):ht " 26, " " 14. " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . Wm. L. Steward Feb. 28, 1862 Mar. 20, 1862 Resigned Nov. 13, 1S62. Do. . Kdward B. CampbeU.. Mar. 30, " " 20, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . Henry C. Jennings " 9. " Apr. 14, " Resigned. Do. . Charles P. Goodwin... " a?. " " 14, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . J S. Ross June 6, " July s. ;; May 7. " June 24, Do. . John F. Robinson Transferred to colored reg't. Do. . Peter Miller Sept. 8, " Oct. 6, " Promoted to ist Lieut, Declined. Do. . Calvin C. Marquis Do. . Charles E. Henry " a5> " " 6, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. . Charles B. Howk June n, " " 6, '• Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. James T. Henry " 6, " Promoted to 1st Lieut. Do. .. James S. Bowlby " Si " " 6, " Resigned Jan. g. 1864. Do. .. Georjje K. Pardee Oct. 22, " N0V.17, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. Joseph D. Moodv July 25, " " 17. " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. Augustus B. Hubbell.. Nov. 13, " De(?. 24, " Promoted to 1st Lieut. Do. .. Albert L. Bowman Jan. 28, 1863 Apr. 2, 1863 Promoted to 1st Lieut. Do. .. Henry Howard Mar. 3. " " 22, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. John Flynn Apr. I, " July 20, " Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. Matthew Rodecker.... May I, " June 10, " Promoted to i^t Lieut. Do. .. Calvin Pierce " 28, " " lOt '' Promoted to ist Lieut. Do. .. Horace S- Clark " 25.1864 May 25,1864 Promoted to ist Lieut. " The Forty-second Ohio was organized at Camp Chase, near Columbus, Ohio. Companies A, B, C, and D were mustered into the service September 25, 1861; company E, October 30th ; company F, November 12th ; and companies G, H, I, and K, November 26th, at which time the organization was completed. " On the 14th of December orders were received to take the field, and on the following day it moved by rail- road to Cincinnati, and thence by steamer up the Ohio River to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, where it arrived the morning of December 17th. The regiment, together with the Fourteenth Kentucky Infantry and McLaugh- lin's squadron of Ohio cavalry, proceeded to Louisa, Ken- tucky, and moved forward to Green Creek. The whole command advanced December 31st, and by the night of January 7, 1862, encamped within three miles of Paints- ville, and the next morning five companies, under com- 64 JAMES A. GARFIELD. mand of Lieutenant-Colonel Sheldon, took possession of the village. On the evening of the same day Garfield took the Forty-second and two companies of the Four- teenth Kentucky, and advanced against Marshall's for- tified position, about three miles south of the village of Paintsville. The infantry reached the works about nine o'clock p. M., found them evacuated, and everything valu- able either carried away or destroyed ; and after an all- night march, returned to Paintsville a little after daylight. " About noon on the 9th, Colonel Garfield, with eleven hundred infantry from the Forty-second Ohio and other regiments, and about six hundred cavalry, started in pursuit of Marshall, and about nine o'clock in the even- ing the advance was fired upon by Marshall's pickets, on the summit of Abbott's Hill. Garfield took posses- sion of the hill, bivouacked for the night, and the next morning continued the pursuit, overtaking' the enemy at the forks of Middle Creek, three miles south-west of Prestonburgh. Marshall's force consisted of about three thousand five hundred men, infantry and cavalry, with three pieces of artillery. Major Pardee, with four hun- dred men, was sent across Middle Creek to attack Mar- shall directly in front, and Lieutenant-Colonel Monroe (Twenty-second Kentucky) was directed to attack on Marshall's right flank. The fight at once opened with considerable spirit, and Pardee and Monroe became hotly engaged with a force four times as large as their own. They held their ground with great obstinacy and bravery until re-enforcements reached the field, when the enemy commenced to fall back. The national forces slept upon their arms, and at early dawn a reconnoissance disclosed BECOMES A ERIGADIER-GENERAL. DO the fact that Marshall had burned his stores and had fled, leaving a portion of his dead upon the field. " On the 11th the command took possession of Pres- tonburgh, Kentucky, and on the 12th returned to Paints- ville, and went into camp until the first of February, when the force moved by boats up the Big Sandy to Pikeville. On the 14th of March the regiment, with other troops, took possession of Pound Gap and de- stroyed the enemy's camp and stores. The regiment was engaged in several other expeditions against the gue- rillas. The arduous nature of the campaign, the exceed- ingly disagreeable weather, and the want of supplies, were disastrous to the health of the troops, and some eighty-five of the Forty-second died of disease. *' On the 18th of March the regiment received orders to proceed to Louisville, where it arrived and went into camp on the 29th. The Forty-second was attached to Brigadier-General George W. Morgan's command, and moved by rail to Lexington, Kentucky, and from there marched to Cumberland Ford, with three hundred and fourteen men for duty. At Cumberland Ford the regi- ment was brigaded with the Sixteenth Ohio, the Four- teenth and Twenty-second Kentucky, Colonel John F. De Courcey (Sixteenth Ohio) commanding. On the 15th of May the brigade crossed the Cumberland River and encamped at the junction of the roads leading to Cumberland Gap and Rogers' Gap. On the 5th of June Morgan's entire command took up the line of march to cross the mountains into the rear of Cumberland Gap. Moving by way of Rogers' Gap into Powell's Valle}', the advance was unopposed until it reached Rogers' 6 66 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Gap. When a series of skirmishes ensued, nearly all of them between the Forty-second and the enemy. At one o'clock A. M., June 18th, Morgan moved against a force at Big Spring, the Forty-second leading; but the enemy fled, and Morgan moved toward Cumberland Gap, reach- ing it at five p. m., and found it had been evacuated a few hours before. The Forty-second at once moved into the Gap, and was the first regiment to plant its flag on this stronghold. The regiment camped on the extreme right, near Yellow Creek, performing heavy picket duty, and being frequently on expeditions. It skirmished at Baptist's Gap, at Tazewell, and on the 5th of August en- gaged and held back the advance of the army with which Kirby Smith invaded Kentucky. " On the morning of the 6th a heavy force attacked the brigade two miles beyond Tazewell, and it fell back leisurely to Cumberland Gap. Company E, of the Forty- second, escorted a forage train, and was nearly sur- rounded, but by shrewdness and gallantry it saved the train and escaped without loss. The Gap was finally evacuated, and the forces fell back through Manchester, crossed the Kentucky River at Proctor, and crossed the Ohio at Greenupsburg. The regiment acted as rear guard during the march. When the Forty-second left the Gap it numbered seven hundred and fifty men, and while on the march there were issued to it two hundred and seventy-fi^ve pounds of flour, four hundred pounds of bacon, and two rations of fresh pork ; the rest of the food consisted of corn, grated down on tin plates and cooked upon them. The distance marched was two hundred and fifty miles j the weather was very dry, and the men suf- BEC05IES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 67 fered for water. They were without shoes, and their clothing was ragged and filthy. The Forty-second lost but one man on the retreat from all causes, and it was the only regiment that brought through its knapsacj^s and blankets. These proved of great service, as the men were compelled to camp at Portland, Jackson County, Ohio, two weeks before clothing, camp, and garrison equi- page could be furnished them. "On the 21st of October the regiment proceeded to Gallipolis, and thence up the Kanawha to Charlestown, Virginia. It returned to the Ohio, November 10th, and embarked for Cincinnati, and moved from there down to Memphis, encamping near the city on the 28th. While at Portland, Ohio, the regiment received one hundred and three recruits, and at Memphis it received sixty-five more. It had from time to time obtained a few, so that the whole number reached two hundred or more, and the regiment could turn out on parade nearly nine hundred men. General Morgan's division was reorganized, and was denominated the Ninth Division, Thirteenth Army Corps. " On the 20th of December, the Forty-second, with other troops, under General W. T. Sherman, embarked at Memphis, and proceeding down the river, landed at Johnston's plantation on the Yazoo. The Forty- second led the advance against the defenses of Vicks- burg on the 27th of December, and skirmished with the enemy until dark. The next morning the regiment re- sumed the attack against the enemy thrown out beyond their works, and protected in front by timber and lagoon. The regiment continued to advance, without driving the 68 JAMES A. GARFIELD. enemy, until Colonel Pardee ordered a charge, which was made with great spirit, and resulted in gaining possession of the woods and driving the rebels into their works. About nine o'clock a. m. on the 29th, a charge was made, the Forty-second being on the extreme right of the assaulting column. The storm of shot and shell was ter- rific, but the regiment maintained its organization, and came off the field in good order. During the remainder of the engagement the regiment held its position in line. The army finally retired, re-embarked, and moved to Milliken's Bend. " On the 4th of January, 1863, the fleet steamed up the river to White River, and up it through a "cut-oif" into the Arkansas, and up it to Arkansas Post, where the troops disembarked and invested Fort Hindman, De Courcey's brigade being held in reserve. After four hours of severe cannonading the infantry advanced, and, several unsuccessful charges having been made, De Cour- cey's brigade was ordered to join Sheldon's brigade in assaulting Fort Hindman. The Forty-second led the advance, and, soon after getting fairly under fire, the enemy surrendered. Seven thousand prisoners, all the guns and small arms, and a large quantity of stores were captured. " In a few days the troops re-embarked, and on the 24 th of January landed at Young's Point. Here the Forty-second was allotted its proportion of the work on the canal, and was allowed four days to perform it ; but, so vigorous was the regiment in the discharge of its duties, that it accomplished its work in seventeen hours. On the loth of March the division moved to Milliken's Bend, BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 69 where it was soon joined bj the remainder of the corps. Here supplies were received, and four weeks were spent in drilling and fitting for the coming campaign. " The Ninth Division took the advance in the move- ment toward the rear of Vicksburg. . The troops moved to Richmond, Madison Parish, Louisiana, and embarked about thirtj miles below Vicksburg, on transports which had run the batteries, and moved down to Grand Gulf. Here they debarked, crossed the point, again took trans- ports, moved down to Bruinsburg, and debarked on the Mississippi side of the river. The division advanced against Port Gibson, and at twelve o'clock at night had a slight engagement with the enemy. The whole corps moved up and bivouacked near Magnolia Church. At daybreak the troops were under arms and advancing. The Ninth Division, taking the left of the line, speedily engaged the enemy, and continued in action until four o'clock p. M. The Forty-second was placed under a heavy fire of artillery at seven o'clock a. m., and con- tiued there until nine o'clock a. m., when it was advanced to the centre of the division line and ordered to charge. The order was obeyed with spirit and courage, but, meet- ing with unexpected obstacles, the division commander ordered it to retire. It continued skirmishing until twelve o'clock, when it joined the Sixteenth Ohio and Twenty-second Kentucky, and charged a strong position held by the rebels, but, after a brave effort, failed to dislodge them, and was again ordered to retire. It was moved to the right, and about three o'clock p. m. made a third charge, and in conjunction with the Forty-ninth Indiana and One Hundred and Fourteenth Ohio, carried 70 JAMES A. GARFIELD. the enemy's position. In this engagement the regiment sustained a heavier loss than any other one in the corps. " On the 2d of May the corps advanced and took possession of Port Gibson, and moved on by way of Champion Hills and Big Black Bridge to the rear of Vicksburg. The regiment was engaged both at Cham- pion Hills and Big Black, but the loss was comparatively slight. It participated in the charges on the works at Vicksburg on the 19th and 22d of May, the Ninth Divis- ion holding an advanced position in the Thirteenth Corps. In these assaults the regiment lost heavily, especially on the 22d. On the 10th of June the Forty-second was moved toward the right in support of some batteries, where it remained until June 27th, when it moved to Big Black Bridge. After the surrender of Vicksburg the regiment marched to Jackson and participated in the reduction of that place, and then returned to Vicksburg, where it remained until ordered to the Department of the Gulf. " The regiment arrived at Carrollton, near New Or- leans, August 15th, and on the 6th of September started on the Western Louisiana campaign. At Brashear city the Ninth and Twelfth Divisions of the Thirteenth Corps were consolidated, and Brigadier-General Lawler was assigned to the command of the brigade. The brigade moved up to Vermilion Bayou, and from there to Ope- lousas, where it remained a few days, and returned with the corps to Berwick Bay. On the 18th of November the brigade crossed to Brashear city, with the intention of*going into Texas, but the following night it was ordered to Thibodeaux, and proceeded thence by way of Donald- BECX)MES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 71 sonville to Plaquemine, arriving November 21st. The regiment remained here during the winter, and on the 24th of March, 1864, moved to Baton Rouge, and was detailed as provost-guard for the city. On the 1st of May the Forty-second, with other troops, marched on an expedition toward Clinton, Louisiana, engaged an equal force of the enemy for seven hours, and at last drove the rebels five miles through canebrakes and over the Comite River. On this expedition the infantry marched fifty- four miles in eighteen hours. The regiment embarked on boats, May 16th, and reported to General Canby at the mouth of Red River, and moved up to Simmsport, on the Atchafalaya River, where a provisional brigade was formed, comprising the Seventh Kentucky, Twenty- second and Twenty-third Iowa, Thirty-seventh Illinois, and Forty-second Ohio, Colonel Sheldon commanding. Meeting General Banks' army here, the regiment marched to Morganza, Louisiana, with it. The regiment was on several expeditions and in one slight skirmish. Here the Forty-second was attached to the First Brigade, Third Division, Nineteenth Corps. Here, also, a test- drill was held in the Nineteenth Corps, and company E of the Forty-second Ohio, won the first prize. " The brigade moved up the Mississippi, July 15th, and landed at the mouth of White River. While lying here a detachment of the regiment crossed into Mississippi, marched fifteen miles, captured two small parties of rebels, and returned within ten hours. The brigade moved up to St. Charles, on White River, and after working ten days on the fortifications, made an expedition of some sixty miles into the country. On the 6th of August the 72 JAMES A. GARFIELD. brigade returned to Morganza, and on the 6th of Septem- ber moved to the mouth of White Ptiver again. Com- panies A, B, C, and D were ordered to Camp Chase, Ohio, September 15th, and were mustered out September 30th. The remaining six companies were ordered to Duvall's Bluff, Arkansas. Companies E and F were mustered out November 25th, and the other four com- panies were mustered out December 2, 1864. One hundred and one men remained, whose term of service had not expired, and they were organized into a com- pany and assigned to the Ninety-sixth Ohio. " The regiment bears upon its banners the names of eleven battles, in which it lost one officer and twenty men killed, and eighteen officers and three hundred and twenty-five men wounded." On the 14th of December the Forty-second Ohio re- ceived orders to take the field. The regiment was or- dered to Catlettsburg, Kentucky, and Colonel Garfield was directed to report in person to General Buell, of whose army his command was to form a part. lie did so promptly, and was cordially received by General Buell, who, though holding opinions diametrically opposed to those of Colonel Garfield, was a true soldier, and at once recognized that his young subordinate was made of the right kind of material. On the 17th of December, Garfield was assigned by General Buell to the command of the Seventeenth Bri- gade, which consisted of the Fortieth and Forty-second Ohio, the Fourteenth and Twenty-second Kentucky In- fantry, six companies of the First Kentucky Cavalry, and two companies of McLaughlin's Ohio Cavalry. BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 73 The first duty to which Colonel Garfield was ordered, was the task of driving Humphrey Marshall's confederate forces out of the Sandy Valley in Eastern Kentucky. Up to this time the interest of the war had been confined mainly to the country east of the Alleghanies, and but little had been attempted in the Ohio Valley. The prin- cipal engagement, that of Belmont, had been unsuccess- ful, and even in the east the disasters at Bull Run and Ball's Bluff had spread a gloom over the loyal States. General Buell was collecting a strong force in Kentucky, for the purpose of advancing upon the Confederate posi- tion at Bowling Green, but his movements were ham- pered by the presence of two co-operating forces skilfully planted on their striking distance of his flank. These were the command of General ZoUicofTer, who was mov- ing from Cumberland Gap toward Mill Spring, and the forces of General Humphrey Marshall, who was leisurely moving down the Sandy Valley and threatening to over- run Eastern Kentucky. These forces were a serious menace to General Buell, and until they could be driven back an advance upon Bowling Green would be hazard- ous in the extreme, if not impossible. Brigadier-General George H. Thomas was ordered to drive ZoUicofTer back, and Colonel Garfield was directed to force Marshall out of Kentucky. The fjite of the whole campaign depended upon the success of these movements. Some persons were inclined to think that the choice of Garfield for this delicate and important service was rash. He had never seen a gun fired in battle, or exer- cised the command of troops save on parade, or in camp, or on the march. But he now found himself at the head 74 JAMES A. GARFIELD. " of four regiments of infantry and eight companies of cav- alry, and was sent upon a service the success or failure of which would aid or defeat the entire plan of campaign on the part of General Buell. Opposed to him was one of the most trusted and accomplished of the Southern com- manders, and a veteran who had won high distinction as the colonel of the heroic Kentucky regiment at Buena Vista, in the war with Mexico. He had under him nearly five thousand men, with artillery and cavalry, and was strongly posted at the village of Paintsville, sixty miles up the Sandy Valley. Marshall was ordered by the Confederate Government to advance to Lexington, unite there with ZoUicoffer, and establish the authority of the Confederacy over Kentucky. It did indeed seem that Garfield was overmatched ; but Buell had measured his man, and was satisfied that if success could be won, the young Ohio colonel would win it ; and he was content to await the issue. Upon receipt of his orders, Colonel Garfield at once joined the bulk of his brigade which was stationed at the mouth of the Big Sandy River. He at once broke up camp, and advanced up the valley, sending orders to the rest of his forces at Paris, to move across the country and join him a short distance below Paintsville. The force with which he began the movement up the valley was about twenty-two hundred strong. Marshall was promptly informed of Garfield's move- ments by the Southern sympathizers of the valley. He left a small force of cavalry to hold his old position, to act as an escort and protect his trains, and with the rest of his forces fell back to a stronger position near Preston- BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 75 burgh, where he awaited attack. On the 7th of January, 1862, while pressing his advance up the valley. Colonel Garfield was informed of the position of Marshall's cav- alry, and at onee sent a detachment of his own mounted men to attack it, while with the rest of his command he pushed on to make a reconnoissance in force of the posi- tion he still "supposed Marshall's main body to occupy. To his surprise he found the Confederate forces had retreated. Being anxious to capture the cavalry left behind by Marshall, he sent orders to the officer com- manding the troops he had dispatched to attack it, direct- ing him not to bring on the action until the main body had seized the Confederate line of retreat. The courier who bore this order was detained, and the Union cavalry in the meantime attacked the Confederate cavalry and drove it back in confusion after a short but sharp en- counter. In the meantime Garfield pushed on with speed towards the road by which the Confederates must retreat. Upon reaching it, he found it strewn with over- coats, blankets, arms, and cavalry equipments, which showed that the Union attack had been successfully made, and that the Confederates had already retreated over the road, and in great confusion. He at once threw forward the cavalry with him in hot pursuit, and con- tinued the chase until the outposts of Marshall's new position were reached. A brief reconnoissance was made, and then Colonel Garfield drew back his whole force, and encamped at Paintsville. The next morning he was joined by the detachment that had marched over- land from Paris. This brought his whole force to about three thousand four hundred men, but he was without 76 JAMES A. GARFIELD. artillery. The troops remained in camp throughout the 8th, waiting for rations, which were obtained with the greatest difficulty. On the 9th of January, Colonel Garfield advanced upon Marshall's new position near Prestonburgh. He was obliged to leave about one thousand of his men at Paints- ville to secure rations for them, but with the rest of his force he made a vigorous attempt to develop the enemy's position, and by nightfall had driven in the Southern pickets and completed his dispositions for an attack. He now ordered up the rest of his command from Paintsville, and prepared to open the attack the next morning. That night the troops bivouacked on their arms, and in the midst of a heavy rain. By four o'clock on the morning of January 10, 1862, the Union forces were in motion. Marshall was believed to be stationed on Abbott's Creek. Garfield's plan, there- fore, was to get over upon Middle Creek, and so plant himself in the enemy's rear. But in fact, Marshall's force was upon the heights of Middle Creek itself, only two miles west of Prestonburgh. So, when Garfield, advancing cautiously westward up the Creek, had con- sumed some hours in these movements, he came upon a semicircular hill, scarcely one thousand yards in front of which was Marshall's position, between the forks of the Creek. The expected re-enforcements from Paints- ville had not arrived ; and conscious of his comparative weakness, Colonel Garfield determined first to develop the enemy's position more carefully. A small body of picked men sent dashing up the road, drew a fire from both the head of the gorge through which the road led, BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 77 and from the heights on its left. Two columns were then moved forward, one on either side of the creek, and the rebels speedily opened upon them with musketry and artillery. The fight became somewhat severe at times, but was, on the whole, desultory. Garfield re-en- forced both his columns, but the action soon developed itself mainly on the left, where Marshall speedily con- centrated his whole force. Meantime Garfield's reserve was now also under fire from the commanding position held by the enemy's artillery. He was entirely without artillery to reply ; but the men stationed themselves be- hind trees and rocks, and kept up a brisk though irregu- lar fusillade. "At last, about four o'clock in the afternoon, the re- enforcements from Paintsville arrived. As we now know, these still left Marshall's strength superior to his young assailant, but the troops looked upon their opportune ar- rival as settling the contest. Unbounded enthusiasm was aroused, and the approaching column was received with prolonged cheering. Garfield now promptly formed his whole reserve for attacking the enemy's right, and carry- ing his guns. The troops were moving rapidly up in the fast gathering darkness, when Marshall hastily abandoned his position, fired his camp equipages and stores, and be- gan a retreat that was not ended until he had reached Abingdon, Virginia. Night checked the pursuit. Next day it was continued for some distance, and some pris- oners were taken, but a farther advance in that direction was quite impossible without more transportation, and in- deed would have been foreign to the purpose for which General Buell had ordered the expedition." 78 JAMES A. GARFIELD. This brilliant success was won by the Union forces with the loss of but one man killed and seven wounded. Two of these were members of Colonel Garfield's own regiment, and died of their wounds shortly after the action. Thus was the first campaign of the young Ohio colonel a handsome success. Speaking of the battle of Middle Creek, sometime afterwards when he had learned more of war, Garfield modestly said, "It was a very rash and imprudent affair on my part. If I had been an officer of more experience, I probably should not have made the attack. As it was, having gone into the army with the notion that fighting was our business, I did not know any better." Captain F. H. Manton, in his his- tory of the Forty-second Ohio Regiment, furnishes us with a juster view of this battle than the modesty of the Union commander allowed him to indulge in. He says : " The battle of Middle Creek, skirmish though it may be considered in comparison with later contests, was the first substantial victory won for the Union cause. At Big Bethel, Bull Run, in Missouri, and at various points at which the Union and Confederate forces had come in contact, the latter had been uniformly victorious. The people of the North, giving freely of their men and their substance in response to each successive call of the Gov- ernment had long and anxiously watched and waited for a little gleam of victory to show that Northern valor was a match for Southern impetuosity in the field. They had waited in vain since the disaster at Bull Run during the previous summer, and hope had almost yielded to despair. The story of Garfield's success at Middle Creek came, therefore, like a benediction to the Union cause. BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 79 Though won at trifling cost it was decisive so far as con- cerned the purposes of that immediate campaign. Mar- shall's force was driven from Kentucky and made no fur- ther attempt to occupy the Sandy Valley. The impor- tant victories at Mill Spring, Forts Donelson and Henry, and the repulse at Shiloh followed. The victory at Middle Creek proved the first wave of a returning tide." " But though they had defeated the enemy, a very serious peril threatened the Union forces. An unusually violent storm broke out. The mountain gorges were all flooded, and the Sandy rose to such a height that steam- boatmen pronounced it impossible to ascend the stream with supplies. The troops were almost out of rations and the rough mountainous country was incapable of sup- porting them. Colonel Garfield had gone down the river to its mouth. He ordered the " Sandy Valley," a small steamer, which had been in the quartermaster's service, to take on a load of supplies and start up. The cap- tain declared it was impossible, Efforts were made to get other vessels, but without success. " Finally, Colonel Garfield ordered the captain and crew on board, stationed a competent army officer on deck to see that the captain did his duty, and himself took the wheel. The captain protested that no boat could possibly stem the raging current, but Garfield turned her head up the stream and began the perilous trip. The water in the usually shallow river was sixty feet deep, and the tree-tops along the banks were almost submerged. The little vessel trembled from stem to stern at every motion of the engines ; the waters whirled her about as if she were a skiff; and the utmost speed that 80 JAMES A. GARFIELD. steam could give her was three miles an hour. When night fell the captain of the boat begged permission to tie up. To attempt ascending that flood in the dark he declared was madness. But Colonel Garfield kept his place at the wheel. Finally, in one of the sudden bends of the river, they drove, with a full head of steam, into the quicksand of the bank. Every effort to back off was in vain. Mattocks were procured and excavations were made around the imbedded bow. Still she stuck. Gar- field at last ordered a boat to be lowered to take a line across to the opposite bank. The crew protested against venturing out in the fl -^d. The colonel leaped into the boat himself and steered it over. The force of the cur- rent carried them far below the point they sought to reach; but they finally succeeded in making fast to a tree and rigging a windlass with rails sufficiently power- ful to draw the vessel off and get her once more afloat. " It was on Saturday that the boat left the mouth of the Sandy. All night, all day Sunday, and all through Sunday night they kept up their struggle with the cur- rent, Garfield leaving the wheel only eight hours out of the whole time, and that during the day. By nine o'clock Monday morning they reached the camp, and were re- ceived with tumultuous cheering. Garfield himself could scarcely escape being borne to headquarters on the shoul- ders of the delighted men." The months of January, February, and March, 1862, were comparatively uneventful. Colonel Garfield con- tinued to hold the Sandy Valley with his forces. A number of encounters took place between his troops and the Confederate guerilla bands. The Union forces were BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GENERAL. 81 generally successful, and the Confederates were gradually driven from the State. In spite of these successes, however, Humphrey Mar- shall managed to maintain a post of observation in the rugged pass through the mountains known as Pound Gap situated just on the border between Virginia and Ken- tucky. This post was held by a force of about five hun- dred men. Garfield determined to break it up, and ac- cordingly set out on the 14th of March with about five hundred infantry and two hundred cavalry, to carry this purpose into effect. He had to march forty miles over a road that was scarcely passable for a single horseman, but he pushed on with energy, and by the evening of the 15th he reached the foot of the mountain two miles north of the Gap. On the morning of the 16th he moved forward to attack the post, sending his cavalry directly up the road through the Gap, to divert the enemy's at. tention from his real attack, while with the infantry he moved by an unfrequented footpath up the side of the mountain, his march being concealed by a heavy snow- storm. The movements of the cavalry so completely ab- sorbed the enemy's attention that Garfield Avas enabled to advance his infantry to a point within a quarter of a mile of the Southern position without being perceived. Having gained this point in safety he hurled his men like a thunderbolt upon the enemy, who, unsuspicious of an attack from that quarter were taken by surprise and were soon thrown into confusion by it. A few volleys were exchanged, and then the Confederates retreated in dis- order down the mountain side, followed by the cavalry, who pursued them for several miles into Virginia. The 82 JAMES A. GARFIELD. inftmtry at once occupied the captured position and secured a considerable quantity of stores. The entire Union force passed the night in the comfortable log huts of the enemy. The next morning all the structures con- nected with the post were set on fire, together with the stores that Colonel Garfield was unable to carry away, and the Union forces returned to their camp in the Sandy Valley, well satisfied with the success they had won. On the 23d of March, Garfield received orders from Buell to leave a small force at Piketon and hasten with the rest of his command to Louisville. He was now to take part in the more important operations of the war. The Kentucky campaign of Colonel Garfield was en- tirely satisfactory to his official superiors and to the country at large. General Buell was so well pleased with the victory of Middle Creek, that he issued a thrill- ing congratulatory order, in which he expressed his ap- preciation of the skill and good generalship displayed by Garfield, in terms of unusual warmth. The full text of the order was as follows : "Headquarters, Department of the Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Jan., 20, 1862. " General Orders, No. 40. " The general commanding takes occasion to thank General Garfield and his troops for their successful cam- paign against the rebel force under General Marshall on the Big Sandy, and their gallant conduct in battle. They have overcome formidable difficulties in the char- acter of the country, the condition of the roads, and the inclemency of the season ; and, without artillery, have BECOMES A BRIGADIER-GEx\ERAL. 83 in several engagements, terminating in the battle on Middle Creek, on the 10th instant, driven the enemy from his intrenched positions and forced him back info the mountains with the loss of a large amount of ba-gage and stores, and many of his men killed or captured. '' These services have called into action the highest qualities of a soldier— fortitude, perseverance, courage." " For his services in this campaign Colonel Garfield was promoted by the President to the grade of brigadier- general of volunteers, his commission dating from the 10th of January, 1862, the day of the battle of Middle Creek. The promotion gave great satisfaction to both the people of Ohio and the troops in the field, and all felt that a brilliant future was open to the young general. " Later criticism," says Mr. Reid, " will confirm the general verdict then passed on the Sandy Valley cam- paign. It was the first of the series of brilliant suc- cesses that made the spring of 1862 so memorable. Mill Springs, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Nashville, Island No. 10, Memphis, followed in quick succession; but it was Garfield's honor that he opened this season of vic- tories. His plans, as we have seen, were based on sound military principles; the energy which he threw into their execution was thoroughly admirable, and his management of the raw volunteers was such that they acquired the fullest confidence in their commander, and endured the hardships of the campaign with a fortitude not often shown in the first field service of new troops. But the operations were on a small scale, and their chief significance lay in the capacity they developed rather than in their intrinsic importance." CHAPTER IV. FROM SHILOH TO CHICKAMAUGA. General Garfield given a Brigade in the Army of the Cumberland— Joins Buell on the march — Battle of Pittsburgh Landing — General Garfield's share in this fight— Takes part in the Pursuit— The Siege of Corinth— Garfield's Brigade one of the first to enter the town— Is ordered to re- pair the Memphis and Charleston Railroad— Successful performance of this duty— Garfield at Huntsville— Detailed for Court-martial duty— A severe illness— Ordered to Cumberland Gap — Placed on the Fitz-John Porter Court-martial- Ordered to South Carolina— Battle of Stone River— Garfield is appointed Chief of Staff to General Rosecrans— His duties and services in this position — General Rosecrans' quarrels with the War Department — Garfield endeavors to harmonize these difficulties — Rosecrans' delay at Murfreesboro— Reasons for it— Garfield's views respecting it — A stinging letter from Rosecrans to Halleck — Garfield's ad • 250 JAMES A. GARFIELD. erous appeal in behalf of the men of the South who were loyal to the Union during the rebellion. He said : " The general doctrine of belligerents is, of course, ac- cepted by everybody to cover as enemies technically all the inhabitants of the belligerent territory. That general doctrine is recognized by all lawyers everywhere. But nobody has ever denied, except the gentleman from Wis- consin, that during our late war, and since the Supreme Court has repeatedly determined that in cases before it the question of loyalty cannot be raised where the party has been granted a pardon. It was stated in the last Congress that ninety-nine per cent, of all the people of the seceded States were what we would call disloyal, and that every man in those States that amounted to anything belonged to that category, I desire to traverse that prop- osition by some facts. Do gentlemen know that, leaving out all the border States, there were fifty regiments and seven companies of white men in our army fighting for the Union from the States that went into rebellion ? Do they know that from the single State of Kentucky more Union soldiers fought under our flag than Napoleon took into the battle of Waterloo — more than Wellington took with all the allied armies against Napoleon ? Do they remember that 186,000 colored men fought under our flag against the rebellion and for the Union, and that of that number 90,000 were from the States which went into rebellion? To say that they were enemies, that they had no rights, and that when we came out of the war we should not pay them and their families for all the proper losses that they suff'ered in aid of our Govern- ment, is what I had hoped no man on either side of the LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 251 House would say. I am glad to know that the gentlemen who fought against us do not say it — not one of them. It remained for one of our own soldiers to say that nothing ought to be paid to any man, however loyal, if he came from the South. In my judgment, that is in the highest degree inequitable and unjust. Let the Southern Claims Commission go on until it has acted in cases before it, and then let it be mustered out. Let us not enlarge that business, but let us complete it. Most of all, let us not turn it over to a court where the distinction between loyalty and disloyalty is not retained." On the 19th of June, 1879, Mr. McMahon (Dem.), of Ohio, submitted to conference report upon the judi- cial expenses bill. The report recommends that the House recede from its disagreement to amendment 1 and agree to the same, with an amendment striking out the words inserted by the Senate and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "Under any of the provisions of title 26 of the Revised Statutes of the United States authorizing the appointment or payment of _general or special deputy marshals for services in connection with elections or on election day." " Mr. McMahon proceeded to explain the report. If adopted it would prohibit any officer of the Government from making any contract or incurring any liability under any of the provisions of title 26 of the Revised Statutes. It would be seen that supervisors were not mentioned in the section. There was no doubt that all supervisors, ordinary and chief, were paid out of a perma- nent annual appropriation fund. The limitation was con- fined to marshals, and if Democrats surrendered that limi- 252 JAMES A. GARFIELD. tation, they would be base and worthless representatives of the people, and would no longer deserve the confidence of their constituents. Whatever might be thought of supervisors of elections the course of the Republican party in regard to special deputy marshals had been one of the grossest outrages on decent and fair elections that had ever been committed. THE EEPUBLICAN ATTITUDE. " Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, opposed the report, and laid down the position occupied by the Republican side on this question. The bill went beyond making appropriations and proposed to prevent the executive authority of the Government from enforcing the law. The issue was nar- rowed down to this point — the majority avowed its de- termination that marshals, deputy marshals, and assistant marshals shall not be appointed to execute the laws as embodied in title 26 of the Revised Statutes, and con- fessed that the clause in the conference report was in- tended and devised for that purpose. That made a square issue, which everybody could understand. The other side did not like the law, but it should have proposed to amend it so as to correct the abuses complained of The Republican side of the House was willing to offer or to accept an amendment placing the appointment of deputy marshals and assistant marshals (where that of the super- visors is) in the courts. That would be in the direction of legislation to cure the evil complained of. The other side, for want of a two-thirds majority, could not con- stitutionally repeal the law and therefore, not being able to repeal it, it wished to prevent the execution of the LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 253 law. It was necessary that the courts should be open to all suitors, that justice should be done in every district, that prisoners should have a speedy trial. And so the other side segregated from all the other appropriations of the year that for the judicial expenses of the Government, and it held out the bill for judicial expenses in one hand and said, not to the minority alone but to all the offi- cers of the nation, * Take this money ; but you can only have it on condition that we shall be permitted to couple with it a provision that certain laws, which we cannot repeal, shall not be enforced ; that for the coming year they shaU be nullified. POSITION OF THE PKESIDENT. " See the attitude in which this bill puts the Presi- dent of the United States. It puts him absolutely be- tween two fires — the fire of your law on the one side, and the fire of heaven and his oath on the other. " Mr. McMahon, of Ohio.— How is the President at all interfered with. "Mr. Garfield. — The President has taken an oath that he shall see to it that the laws be faithfully executed. You do not repeal this law, but you make it impossible for him to execute it without his running in danger, on the one hand, of your impeaching him, or, on the other hand, without neglecting his duty and violating his oath. Now, I take it that no President of the United States can allow himself to be put in that attitude. The wisdom of the old writer of Proverbs, ' Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird,' is quite likely to apply in this case. I do not see that there is the sliofhtest 254 JAMES A. GARFIELD. probability that you can catch the President in this net, or that he will allow himself to be put in a position where he will be compelled to decide between obeying his oath and the constitution on the one hand, and obeying this entangling law on the other hand. During the summer and fall of 1879, General Garfield delivered a number of speeches in the West. At the twenty-fifth reunion of the Western Republicans, held at Madison, in July, 1879, he spoke as follows : "This vast assembly must have richly enjoyed the review of the party's history presented here and cele- brated here to-day, and not only a review of the past, but the hopeful promises made for the future of that great party. The Republican party, organized a quar- ter of a century ago, was made a necessity to carry out the pledges of the fathers that this should be a land of liberty. " There was in the early days of the Republic, a Re- publican party that dedicated this very territory, and all our vast territory, to freedom ; that promised much for schools ; that abolished imprisonment for debt, and that instituted many wise reforms. But there were many conservatives in those days, whose measures degenerated into treason ; and the Republican party of to-day was but the revival of the Republican party of seventy years ago, under new and broader conditions of usefulness. " It is well to remember and honor the greatest names of the Republican party. One of these is Joshua 1\. Giddings, who for twenty ycears was freedom's cham- pion in Congress, and, from a feeble minority of two, lived to see a Republican Speaker elected, and himself to LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 255 conduct him to the chair. Another is Abrahara Lincoln, the man raised up by God for a great mission. No man ever had a truer appreciation of the principles of the Dec- laration of Independence, that great charter which it was the mission of the Republican party to enforce. " There was a fitness in the first platform of the Wis- consin Republicans that they based themselves upon the Declaration of Independence. While the Republicans, from the first, have been true to their principles, perfect- ing all they promised, as proved to-day by the whole record, the Democrats, on the other hand, steadily wrong, have been forced from one bad position to another. " Can any Democrat point with pride to his party platforms of 1854, or find in them any living issue ? The issues they then presented led us into war and involved us in a great national debt. Looking for the cause of that debt, I say that the Democratic party caused it. " We are, as a nation, emerging from difficulties, and the Republican party alone can probably claim that the brightest pnge of our country's history has been written by the true friends of freedom and progress. The Re- publican party has yet work to do. We are confronted to-day in Congress by nearly the same spirit that pre- vailed in the years just before the war. " They tell us that the National Government is but the servant of the States ; that we shall not interpose, as a nation, to guard an honest election in a State ; that if we will interpose they will deny appropriations. Is this less dangerous than their position in 1861 ? Have we no interest except in local elections, no power to guard the ballot box and protect ourselves against outrages 256 JAMES A. GARFIELD. upon it ? Why does the South make this issue ? I an- swer : They have a solid South, and only used to carry Ohio and New York to elect the President, and they trust to carry these States by the means they best know how to use. " There are sentimentalists and optimists who may see no danger in this. There had been sentimentnlist.s and optimists in the Republican party, but to-day all were stalwarts. President Hayes, when he came into office, was an optimist, but he saw all his hopes, concil- iation frustrated, and all his advances met with scorn. "We all now stand together on the issue as one." At the Andersonville Reunion, at Toledo, Ohio, on the 3d of October, 1879, General Garfield said : " My Comrades, Ladies and Gentlemen : I have ad- dressed a great many audiences, but I never before stood in the presence of one that I felt so wholly unworthy to speak to. A man who came through the war without being shot or made prisoner is almost out of place in such an assemblage as this. " While I have listened to you this evening, I have remembered the words of the distinguished Englishman who once said, ' that he was willing to die for his coun- try.' Now, to say that a man is willing to die for his country is a good deal, but these men who sit before us have said a great deal more than that. I would like to know where the man is that would calmly step out on the platform and say, ' I am ready to starve to death for my country.' That is an enormous thing to say, but there is a harder thing than that. Find a man, if you can, who will walk out before this audience and LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 257 say, * I am willing to become an idiot for my country.' How many men could you find who would volunteer to become idiots for their country ? , " Now, let me make this statement to you, fellow- citizens : One hundred and eighty-eight thousand such men as this were captured by the rebels who were fight- ing our Government. One hundred and eighty-eight thousand ! How many is that. They tell me there are 4,500 men and women in this building to-night ! Mul- tiply this mighty audience by forty and you will have about 188,000. Forty times this great audience were prisoners of war to the enemies of our country. And to every man of that enormous company there stood open night and day the offer : * If you will join the rebel army, and lift up your hand against your flag^ you are free.' "A voice. — ' That's so.' " General Garfield. — ' And you shall have food, and you shall have clothing, and you shall see wife, and mother, and child.' " A voice. — ' We didn't do it, though.' " General. — And do you know that out of that 188,000 there were less than 3,000 who accepted the offer ? And of those 3,G00, perhaps nine-tenths of them did it with the mental reservation that they would desert at the first hour — the first moment there was an opportunity. "Voices.— 'That's so.' " General Garfield.— But 185,000 out of the 188,000 said : ' No ! not to see wife again ; not to see child again ; not to avoid starvation ; not to avoid idiocy ; not 258 JAMES A. GARFIELD. to avoid the most loathsome of deaths, will I lift this hand against my country forever.' Now, we praise the ladies for their patriotism ; we praise our good citizens at home for their patriotism ; we praise the gallant sol- diers who fought and fell. But what were all these things compared with that yonder? I bow in rever- ence. I would stand with unsandaled feet in the pres- ence of such heroism and such suffering; and I would say to you, fellow-citizens, such an assemblage as this has never yet before met on this great earth. " Who have reunions ? I will not trench upon for- bidden ground, but let me say this : Nothing on the earth and under the sky can call men together for re- unions except ideas that have immortal truth and im- mortal life in them. Tiie animals fight. Lions and tigers fight as ferociously as did you. Wild beasts tear to the death, but they never have reunions. Why? Because wild beasts do not fight for ideas. They merely fight for blood. " All these men, and all their comrades went out inspired by two immortal ideas. " First, that liberty shall be universal in America. " And, second, that this old flag is the flag of a Nation, and not of a State ; that the Nation is supreme over all people and all corporations. " Call it a State ; call it a section ; call it a South ; call it a North; call it anything you wish, and yet, armed with the nationality that God gave us, this is a Nation against all State sovereignty and secession what- ever. It is the immortaHty of that truth that makes these reunions, and that makes this one. You believed LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 259 it on the battle-field, you believed it in the hell of An- dersonville, and you believe it to-day, thank God ; and you will believe it to the last gasp. " Voices — ' Yes, we will,' ' That's so,' etc. " General Garfield. — Well, now, fellow-citizens and fellow-soldiers — but I am not worthy to be your fellow in this work, — I thank you for having asked me to speak to you. [Cries of * Go on !'' Go on ! ' ' Talk to us more, etc.] " I want to say simply that I have had one oppor- tunity only to do you any service. I did hear a man who stood by my side in the halls of the legislation — the man that offered on the floor of Congress the resolution that any man who commanded colored troops should be treated as a pirate and not as a soldier ; as a slave-stealer and not as a soldier — I heard that man calmly say, with his head up in the light, in the presence of this American people, that the Union soldiers were as well treated, and as kindly treated in all the Southern prisons as were the rebel soldiers in all the Northern prisons. " Voices. — ^ Liar !' ' Liar !' ' He was a liar !' " General Garfield. — I heard him declare that no kinder men ever lived than General Winder and his Com- mander-in-Chief, Jeff. Davis. [Yells of derision, hisses, etc.] And I took it upon myself to overwhelm him with the proof [a roll of applause begins], with the proof of the tortures you suffered, the wrongs done to you, were suffered and done with the knowledge of the Confederate authorities from Jefferson Davis down — [great applause, waving of hats, veterans standing in their chairs and cheering] — that it was a part of their policy to make you 260 JAMES A. GARFIELD. idiots and skeletons, and to exchange your broken and shattered bodies and dethroned minds for strong, robust, well-fed rebel prisoners. That policy, I affirm, has never had its parallel for atrocity in the civilized world." « Voice.—' That's so.' " General Garfield. — It was never heard of in any land since the dark ages closed upon the earth. While history lives men have memories. We can forgive and forget all other things before we can forgive and forget this. " Finally, and in conclusion, I am willing, for one — and I think I speak for thousands of others — I am will- ing to see all the bitterness of the late war buried in the grave of our dead. I would be willing that we should imitate the condescending, loving-kindness of him who planted the green grass on the battle-fields and let the fresh flowers bloom on all the graves alike. I would clasp hands with those who fought against us, make them my brethren, and forgive all the past, only on one su- preme condition : that it be admitted in practice, acknowl- edged in theory, that the cause for which we fought, and you sufl'ered, was and is, and for evermore will be right, eternally right." [Unbounded enthusiasm.] " Voices.—' That's it,' ' That's so,' etc. " General Garfield.— That the cause for which they fought was, and forever will be, the cause of treason and wrong. [Prolonged applause.] Until that is acknowl- edged my hand shall never grasp any rebel's hand across any chasm, however small." [Great applause and cheers ] General Garfield took an active part in the campaign in Ohio in the fall of 1879, which returned a Republican LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 261 legislature, and ensured the electipn of a United States senator of the same political faith. The new Legislature of Ohio assembled in January, 1880, and at once proceeded to the election of a United States senator to succeed Allen G. Thurman, whose term would expire on the 3d of March, 1881. General Gar- field was placed in nomination by his friends. Ex-Sen- ator Stanley Matthews, ex-Attorney-General Alphonso Taft, and ex-Governor William Denison had also entered into a canvass for the place, but by the time the caucus met the general sentiment of the State was so earnest and enthusiastic in favor of Garfield that his three com- petitors withdrew without waiting for a ballot, and he was nominated unanimously by a rising vote. On the 15th of January he was elected United States Senator by a majority of 22 in the Assembly, and 7 in the Senate. On the same day General Garfield arrived in Colum- bus from Washington, and in the evening a reception was given to him in the hall of the House of Representatives, in the State capitol. He was introduced by Governor Foster, and after some hand-shaking, spoke as follows : " Fellow-citizens : I should be a great deal more than a man, or a great deal less than a man, if I were not ex- tremely gratified by the many marks of kindness you have shown me in recent days. I did not expect any such meeting as this. I knew there was a greeting awaiting me, but did not expect so cordial, generous, and general : a greeting, without distinction of party, without distinc- tion of interests, as I have received to-night. And you will allow me, in a moment or two, to speak of the mem- ories this chamber awakens. 262 JAMES A. GARFIELD. " Twenty years ago this last week I first entered this chamber and entered upon the duties of public life, in which I have been every hour since that time in some capacity or other. I left this chamber eighteen years ago, and I believe I have never entered it since that time. But the place is familiar, though it was not peopled with the faces that I see before me here to-night alone, but with the faces of hundreds of people that I knew here twenty years ago, a large number of whom are gone from earth. " It was here in this chamber that the word was first brought of the firing on Fort Sumter. I remember dis- tinctly a gentleman from Lancaster, the late Senator Schleigh — General Schleigh, who died not very long ago — I remember distinctly as he came down this aisle, with all the look of agony and anxiety in his face, informing us that the guns had opened upon Sumter. I remember that one week after that time, on motion of a leading Demo- cratic senator, who occupied a seat not far from that po- sition (pointing to the Democratic side of the chamber), that we surrendered this chamber to several companies of soldiers who had come to Columbus to tender their ser- vices to the imperilled Government. They slept on its carpets and on these sofas, and quartered for two or three nights in this chamber while waiting for other quarters outside the capitol. " All the early scenes of the war are associated with this place in my mind. Here were the musterings — here was the centre, the nerve centre, of anxiety and agony. Here over 80,000 Ohio citizens tendered their services in the course of three weeks to the imperilled nation. Here, where we had been fighting our political battles with sharp LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 263 and severe partisanship, there disappeared, almost as if by magic, all party lines ; and from both sides of the cham- ber men went out to take their places on the field of bat- tle. I can see now, as I look out over the various seats, where sat men who afterward became distinguished in the service in high rank, and nobly served their constituen- cies and honored themselves. " We now come to this place, while so many are gone ; but we meet here to-night with the war so far back in the distance that it is an almost half-forgotten memory. We meet here to-night with a nation redeemed. We meet here to-night under the flag we fought for. We meet with a glorious, a great and growing Republic, made greater and more glorious by the sacrifices through which the country has passed. And coming here as I do to- night, brings the two ends of twenty years together, ^j^ith all the visions of the terrible and glorious, the touching and cheerful, that have occurred during that time. " I came here to-night, fellow-citizens, to thank this General Assembly for their great act of confidence and compliment to me. I do not undervalue the office that you have tendered to me yesterday and to-day ; but I say, I think, without any mental reservation, that the manner in which it was tendered to me is far higher to me, far more desirable, than the thing itself. That it has been a voluntary gift of the General Assembly of Ohio, without solicitation, tendered to me because of their confidence, is as touching and as high a tribute as one man can receive from his fellow-citizens, and in the name of all my friends, for myself, I give you my thanks. 264 JAMES A. GARFIELD. " I recognize the importance of the place to which you have elected me ; and I should be base if I did not also recognize the great man whom you have elected me to succeed. I say for him, Ohio has had few larger- minded, broader-minded men in the records of our his- tory than that of Allen G. Thurman. Differing widely from him as I have done in politics, and do, I recog- nize him as a man high in character and great in intel- lect ; and I take this occasion to refer to what I have never before referred to in public : that many years ago, in the storm of party fighting, when the air was filled with all sorts of missies aimed at the character and reputation of public men, when it was even for his party interest to join the general clamor against me and my associates. Senator Thurman said in public, in the campaign, on the stump — when men are as likely to say unkind things as at any place in the world — a most generous and earnest word of defence and kindness for me, which I shall never forget so long as I live. I say, moreover, that the flowers that bloom over the garden- wall of party politics are the sweetest and most fragrant that bloom in the gardens of this world ; and where we can fairly pluck them and enjoy their fragrance, it is manly and delightful to do so. " And now, gentlemen of the General Assembly, without distinction of party, ^ recognize this tribute and compliment paid to me to-night. Whatever my own course may be in the future, a large share of the in- spiration of my future public life will be drawn from this occasion and these surroundings, and I shall feel anew the sense of obligation that I feel to the State of LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 265 Ohio. Let me venture to point a single sentence in regard to that work. During the twenty years that I have been in public life, almost eighteen of it in the Congress of the United States, I have tried to do one thing. Whether I was mistaken or otherwise, it has been the plan of my life to follow my conviction at whatever personal cost to myself. "I have represented for many years a district in Congress, whosfe approbation I greatly desired ; but though it may seem, perhaps, a little egotistical to say it, I yet desired still more the approbation of one person, and his name was Garfield. He is the only man that I am compelled to sleep with, and eat witli, and live with, and die with ; and if I could not have his approbation I should have bad companionship. And in this larger constituency which has called me to rep- resent them now, I can only do what is true to my best self, applying the same rule. " And if I should be so unfortunate as to lose the confidence of this larger constituency, I must do what every other fair-minded man has to do — carry his polit- ical life in his hand and would take the consequences. But I must follow what seems to me to be the only safe rule of my life ; and with that view of the case, and with that much personal reference, I leave that subject. "Thanking you again, fellow-citizens, members of the General Assembly, Republicans as well as Demo- crats — all party men as I am — thanking you both for what you have done and for this cordial and manly greeting, I bid you good-night." On the day of General Garfield's election to the Sen- 266 JAMES A. GARFIELD. ate, President Hinsdale, of Hiram College, made the fol- lowing announcement to the students of that institu- tion: " To-day a man will be elected to the United States Senate in Columbus, who, when a boy, was once the bell- ringer in this school and afterward its president. Feeling this, we ought, in some way, to recognize this step in his history. I will to-morrow morning call your attention to some of the more notable and worthy features of General Garfield's history and character." . The address which President Hinsdale delivered on the occasion is as follows : " Young Ladies and Gentlemen : I am not going to attempt a formal address on the life and character of General Garfield. There is now no call for such an at- tempt, and I have made no adequate preparations for such a task. My object is far humbler : simply to hold up to your minds some points in his history, and some features in his character that young men and women may study with interest and profit. " I shall begin by destroying history, or what is commonly held to be history. The popularly accepted account of General Garfield's history and character is largely fabulous. We are not to suppose that the ages of myth and legend are gone ; under proper conditions such growths spring up now, and I know of no man in public life around whom they have sprung up more rankly than around the subject of my remarks. " No doubt you have seen some of the stories con- cerning him and his family that appear ever and anon in the newspapers ; 'that his mother chopped cord wood; that LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 267 she fought wolves with fire to keep them from devour- ing her children, her distinguished son being one of the group ; that the circumstances of the family were most pinching ; that Garfield himself could not read at the age of twenty-one; that he was peculiarly reckless in his early life ; that, when he had become a man, he went down from the pulpit to thrash a bully who interrupted him in his sermon on the patience of Job. " These stories, and others like them, are all false and all harmful. They fail of accomplishing the very purpose for which they were professedly told — the stimulation of youth. To make the lives of the great distorted and monstrous is not to make them fruitful as lessons. " If a life be anomalous and outlandish, it is, for that reason, the poorer example. It is all in the wrong direc- tion. It makes the impression that, in human history, there is no cause and no effect ; no antecedent and no consequent ; that everything is capricious and fitful ; and suggests that the best thing to do is to abandon one's self to the currents of life, trusting that some beneficent gulf- stream will seize you and bear you to some happy shore. No, young people, do not heed such instruction as this. " The best lives for them to study are those that are natural and symmetrical ; those in which the relation be- tween cause and effect is so close and apparent that the dullest can see it ; and that preach in the plainest terms the sermon on the text : ' Whatever a man soweth that shall he also reap.' " Irregular and abnormal lives will do for ' studies,' but healthy, normal, harmonious lives should be chosen for example. And General Garfield's life from the first 268 JAMES A. GARFIELD. has been eminently healthy, normal, and well-propor tioned. " He was horn in the woods of Orange, Cuyahoga County, in 1831. His father died when the son was a year and a half old. Abram Garfield's circumstances were those of his neighbors. Measured by our standard they were all poor ; they lived on small farms, for which they had gone in debt, hoping to clear and pay for them by their toil. Garfield dying, left his wife and four young children in the condition that any one of his neigh- bors would have done in like circumstances — poor. The family life before had been close and hard enough ; now it became closer and harder. " Grandma Garfield, as some of us familiarly call her, was a woman of unusual energy, faith, and courage. She said the children should not be separated, but kept them together; and that the home should be maintained, as when its head was living. The battle was a hard one, and she won it. All honor to her, but let us not make her ridiculous by inventing impossible stories. " To external appearance, young Garfield's life did not differ materially from the lives of the neighbors' boys. " He chopped wood, and so did they ; he mowed, and so did they ; he carried butter to the store in a little pail, and so did they. Other famihes that had not lost their heads naturally shot ahead of the Garfields in property ; but such diff'erences counted far less then than they do now. The traits of his maturer character appeared early ; studiousness, truthfulness, generosity of nature, and men- tal power. So far was he from being reckless, that he was almost seriouS; reverent, and thoughtful. So far was LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 269 he from being unable to read at twenty-one, that he was a teacher in the district schools before he was eighteen. " He was the farthest removed from being a pugilist, though he had great physical strength and courage, cool- ness of mind, was left-handed withal, and was both able and disposed to defend himself and all his rights, and did so on due occasion. " His three months' service on the canal has been the source of numerous fables and morals. The morals are as false as the fables, and more misleading. All I have to say about it is : James A. Garfield has not risen to the position of a United States Senator because he * ran on a canal.' Nor is it because he chopped more wood than the neighbors' boys. Many a man has run longer on the canal, and chopped more wood, and never became a senator. " General Garfield once rang the school bell when a student here. That did not make him the man he is. Convince me that it did, and I will hang up a bell in every tree in the campus, and set you all to ringing. Thomas Cor win, when a boy, drove a wagon, and became the head of the Treasury ; Thomas Ewing boiled salt, and became a senator ; Henry Clay rode a horse to mill from the ' Slashes,' and he became the great commoner of the West. But it was not the wagon, the salt, and horse that made these men great. " These are interesting facts in the lives of these illustrious men ; they show, that in our country it has been, and still is possible for young men of ability, en- ergy, and determined purpose to rise above a lowly con- dition, and win places of usefulness and honor. Poverty 270 JAMES A. GARFIELD. may be a good school ; straitened circumstances may develop power and character; but the principal con- ditions of success are in the man, and not in his sur- roundings. " Garfield is the man he is because nature gave him a noble endowment of faculties that he has nobly handled. We must look within, and not without, for the secret of destiny. The thing to look at in a man's life are his aspirations, his energy, his courage, his strength of will, and not the wood he may have chopped, or the salt he may have boiled. How a man works, and not what he does, is the test of worth. " His success did not lie in his technical scholarship, or his ability as a drill-master. Teachers are plenty who much surpass him in these particulars. He had great ability to grasp a subject, to organize a body of intel- lectual materials, to amass facts and work out striking generalizations, and therefore he excelled in rhetorical exposition. An old pupil who has often heard him on the stump, once told me, ' The General succeeds best when talking to the people just as he did to his class.' He imparted to his pupils largeness of view, enthusiasm, and called out of them unbounded devotion to himself. " This devotion was not owing to any plan or trick, but to the qualities of the man. Mr. H. M. Jones, of the Cleveland schools, an old Hiram scholar, speaking of the old Hiram days before Garfield went to college, once wrote me : * There began to grow up in me an admira- tion and love for Garfield that has never abated, and the like of which I have never known. A bow of recognition, or a simple word from him, was to me an inspiration.' LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 271 "Probably all were not equally susceptible, but all the boys who were long under his charge (save perhaps, a few ' sticks'), would speak in the same strain. He had great power to energize young men. General Garfield has carried the same qualities into public life. He has commanded success. His ability, knowledge, mastery of questions, generosity of nature, devotion to the public good, and honesty of purpose, have done the work. He has never had a political ' machine.' He has never for- gotten the day of small things. He has never made per- sonal enemies. "It is difficult to see how a political triumph could be more complete or more gratifying than his election to the Senate. No * bar-bains,' no * slate,' no * grocery' at Columbus. He did not even go to the capital city. Such things are inspiring to those who think politics in a broad way. He is a man of positive convictions, freely uttered. Politically he may be called a * man-of-war ; ' and yet few men, or none, begrudge him his triumph. Democrats vied with Republicans the other day in Wash- ington in snowing him under with congratulations ; some of them were as anxious for his election as any Repub- lican could be. " It is said that he will go to the Senate without an enemy on either side of the chamber. These things are honorable to all parties. They show that manhood is more than party. The Senator is honored, Ohio is hon- ored, and so is the school in Hiram, with which he was connected so many years. The whole • story abounds in interest, and I hope I have so told it as to bring out some of its best points, and to give you stimulus and cheer." 272 JAMES A. GARFIELD. General Garfield took an active part in the regular session of the forty-sixth Congress, which met in Decem- ber, 1879, and on the 17th of March, 1880, delivered one of his most powerful speeches. The Civil Appropriation Bill was under discussion, and the Democratic majority was endeavoring to force the Government into removing the United States marshals from the polls at elections, by refusing the appropriation for the pay of those officers. General Garfield said : " The discussion of this bill has concentrated upon two topics — the public printing and the election laws. On the subject of the public printing I shall take no time, except to say this : After one of the saddest histories in the experience of this Government with the old contract system, which broke down by the weight of its own cor- ruption, it was developed and proved beyond any contro- versy that in the four years preceding the administration of Abraham Lincoln, out of the private profits on the public printing and binding, the sum of $100,000 was contributed by the public printer for political purposes, mainly to carry the Democratic elections in Pennsyl- vania; and that vast contribution did not exhaust the profits of the public printer out of the Government. This exposure destroyed the wretched contract system, and thereafter the Government itself assumed the responsi- bility of the work. At first the Senate or the House of Representatives elected a Printer, as they had a manifest right to do under the clause of the Constitution which gives each House the power to elect its own officers. But when, by and by, the office grew into a great national establishment, in which all the printing and binding for LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 273 all departments of the Government was done, it became manifest that the Senate was exercising a power of ap- pointment unwarranted by the Constitution ; and in the year 1874, on motion of Mr. Hale, of New York, a reso- lution was adopted by a two-thirds vote suspending the rules of the House and making in order on a sundry civil service appropriation bill an amendment to change the law and make the Printer an officer of the United States, to be appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. I had charge of that bill and voted for the amendment, as did nearly all my associates, and it was adopted by the almost unanimous vote of this House, both parties uniting in declaring that the old law was un- constitutional, and that experience had proved it unwise ; Republicans taking their share of responsibility for their own blunders and mistakes ; all agreeing that the law ought to conform to the Constitution. "When the Democratic party came into power in 1876, they amended that law by making it take effect immediately. We made it take effect when a vacancy should occur in the office of Public Printer. In 1876 the law was so changed as to make it take effect immediately. And that passed by the general consent of both parties. The proposition now is, to go back, and in the face of our past experience, make a change in this law which will not affect in any way the question of economy, which will not change one iota of the machinery of the management of the public printing, and does not pretend to be in the direction of economy ; but merely abolishes a constitu- tional office and creates an unconstitutional one, takes the appointing power out of the hands of the President and 18 274 JAMES A. GARFIELD. unlawfully places it in the hands of this House, merely to get some Democrat into office. This is to be done for no public good, to satisfy the demands of party hunger. I have no doubt that this amendment will be, as it cer- tainly ought to be, ruled out of order, and I will waste no further words in discussing it. CONTEMNINa THE SUPEEME COURT DECISION. " I will now call attention, during the short time left me, to what I consider a matter of far greater moment. My colleague [Mr. McMahon], in his speech opening the discussion upon this bill, made the announcement in substance, and it remains uncontradicted and not pro- tested against by anyone on this side of the House, first, that * we have not hitherto made, do not in this bill, and will not in any future bill, make any appropriation what- ever for supervisors or special deputy marshals, so far as they have to do with congressional elections.' He asserts that it was not proper for any officer of the Government to appoint special deputy marshals when no appropriation had been made for that specific pur- pose. " Then, further on, he declares — I quote from his printed speech : " ' And I desire to say that because the Supreme Court of the United States has decided that the election law is constitutional by a sort of eight-by-seven decision — and I mean by that a division apparently according to party lines (without impugning the good faith of any member of the Supreme Court, but to show how differently a legal LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 275 question may appear to persons who have been educated in different political schools) — that although that court has decided the constitutionality of the law, that when we come, as legislators, to appropriate money, it is our duty to say, is this law constitutional? or, if constitu- tional, is it a good law, and are we bound to appropriate money for it ? ' " He undertakes, as will be seen, to throw contempt on that decision by styling it * a sort of eight-by-seven decision/ I remind him that it is a seven-to-two de- cision, having been adopted by a larger number of the members of the court than the majority of the decisions of that tribunal. It is a decision of a broad, sweeping character, and declares that Congress may take the' whole control of congressional elections, or a partial control, as they choose ; that the election law as it stands on the national statute-book is the supreme law of the land on that subject. "More than that: the Supreme Court, not only in this case but in another recent case, has made a declara- tion which ought to be engraven upon the minds and hearts of all the people of this country. And this is its substance : " ' That a law of Congress interpenetrates and be- comes a part of every law of every State of this Union to which its subject matter is applicable, and is binding upon all people on every foot of our soil. This is the voice of the Constitution.' " Now, therefore, under this decision the election laws of the United States are the laws of every State of this Union. No judge of election, no State otiicer or other 276 JAMES A. GARFIELD. . persons connected with any congressional election, no elector who offers his ballot at any such election, can with impunity lift his hand or do any act against any of the provisions of these laws. They rest down upon congres- sional elections upon every State like the ' casing air,' broad and general, protecting with their dignity every act, and penetrating with their authority every function of congressional elections. They are the supreme law of the land on that subject. " But now a Representative, speaking for the Demo- cratic party in this House, rises, not with the plea which he could have made with some show of plausibility last year, that the law is unconstitutional, and that therefore they would not enforce it — but with a constitutional law, declared so by the Supreme Court, covering him and fill- ing the Republic from end to end, reaching everywhere and covering every foot of our soil where a congressional election can be held — he rises in his place and declares that the Democratic party will not execute that law nor permit it to be obeyed. *' We who are the sworn law-makers of the nation, and ought to be examples of respect for and obedience to the law — we who before we took our first step in legis- lation swore before God and our country that we would support the supreme law of the land — we are now in- vited to become conspicuous leaders in the violation of the law. My colleague announces his purpose to break the law, and invites Congress to follow him in his assault upon it. " ;Mr. Chairman, by far the most formidable danger that threatens the Republic to-day is the spirit of law- LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 277 breaking which shows itself in many turbulent and alarming manifestations. The people of the Pacific Coast, after two years of wrestling with the spirit of com- munism in the city of San Francisco, have finally grap- pled with this lawless spirit, and the leader of it was yesterday sentenced to penal servitude as a violator of the law. But what can we say to Dennis Kearney and his associates if to-day we announce ourselves the fore- most law-breakers of the country and set an example to all the turbulent and vicious elements of disorder to follow us ? THE ELECTION LAWS MANDATORY. "My colleague [Mr. McMahon] tries to shield his violation of the law behind a section of the statutes which provides that no disbursing or other officer shall make any contract involving the expenditure of money beyond what is appropriated for the purpose. I answer that I hold in my hand a later law, a later statute, which governs the restrictive law of which he speaks, which governs him and governs the courts. It is the election law itself. I invite attention briefly to its substance. Sections 2011 and 2012 of the Revised Statutes provide that upon the application of any two citizens of any city of more than twenty thousand inhabitants to have the election guarded and scrutinized, the judge of the circuit court of the United States shall hold his court open during the ten days preceding the election. The law commands the judge of the court to so do. " In the open court from day to day, and from time to time, the judge shall appoint, and, under the seal of 1578 JAMES A. GARFIELD. the court, shall commission two citizens of different politi- cal parties who are voters within the precinct where they reside, to be supervisors of the election. That law is mandatory upon the judge. Should he refuse to obey he can be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office. He must not stop to inquire whether an appro- priation has been made to pay these supervisors. The rights of citizens are involved ; upon their application the judge must act. But what then ? " Again, section 2021 provides that on the applica- tion of two citizens the marshal of the United States shall appoint special deputy marshals to protect the su- pervisors in the execution of their duty. And the law is mandatory upon the marshal. He must obey it under the pains and penalties of the law. What then ? When the supervisors and special deputy marshals have been appointed they find their duties plainly prescribed in the law. And then section 5521 provides that if they neg- lect or refuse to perform fully all these duties enjoined upon them, they are liable to fine and imprisonment. They cannot excuse their neglect by saying, 'We will not act because Congress has not appropriated the money to pay us.' "All these officers are confronted by the imperial com- mand of the law — first to the judge and marshal to ap- point, then to the supervisor and deputy marshal to act, and to act under the pains and penalties of fine and im- prisonment. Impeachment enforces the obedience of the judge ; fine and imprisonment the obedience of the super- visors and deputy marshals. " Now comes one other mandatory order : in the last LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 279 section of this long chapter of legislation the majestic command of the law is addressed both to Congress and the Treasury. It declares that there ^ shall be paid ' out of the treasury five dollars per day to these officers as compensation for their services. Here, too, the law is equally imperious and mandatory ; it addresses itself to the conscience of every member of this House, with only this difference : we cannot be impeached for disobedi- ence ; we cannot be fined or locked up in the penitentiary for voting ' no,' and refusing the appropriation ; we can- not be fined or imprisoned if we refuse to do our duty. And so, shielded by the immunity of his privilege as a representative, my colleague sets the example to all offi- cers and all people of deliberately and with clear-sighted purpose violating the law of the land. " Thus he seeks to nullify the law. Thus he hopes to thwart the nation's * collected will.' Does my col- league reflect that in doing this he runs the risk of viti- ating every national election ? Suppose his lead be fol- lowed, and the demand of citizens for supervisors and marshals is made and refused because an appropriation has not been voted. Does he not see the possibility of vitiating every election held where fraud and violence are not suppressed and the law has not been complied with ? Yet he would risk the validity of all the con- gressional elections of the United States; rather than abandon his party's purpose he would make Congress the chief of the law breakers of the land. " Mr. Chairman, when I took my seat as a member of this House, I took it with all the responsibilities which the place brought upon me ; and among others was my 280 JAMES A. GARFIELD. duty to keep the obligations of the law. Where the law speaks in mandatory terms to everybody else and then to me, I should deem it cowardly and dishonorable if I should skulk behind my legislative privilege for the pur- pose of disobeying and breaking the supreme law of the land. [Applause.] THE PKESENT ISSUE. "The issue now made is somewhat different from that of the last session, but, in my judgment, it is not less significant and dangerous. I would gladly waive any party advantage which this controversy might give for the sake of that calm and settled peace which would reign in this hall if we all obeyed the law. But if the leaders on the other side are still determined to rush upon their fate by forcing upon the country this last issue — that because the Democratic party happen not to like a law they will not obey it — because they hap- pen not to approve of the spirit and character of a law they will not let it be executed — I say to gentlemen on the other side, if you are determined to make such an issue, it is high time that the American people should know it. " Here is the volume of our laws. More sacred than the twelve tables of Rome, this rock of the law rises in monumental grandeur alike above the people and the President, above the courts, above Congress, command- ing everywhere reverence and obedience to its supreme authority. Yet the dominant party in this House virtu- ally declares that ' any part of this volume that we do LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 281 not like and cannot repeal we will disobey. We have tried to repeal these election laws ; we have failed be- cause we had not the constitutional power to destroy them. The Constitution says they shall stand in their authority and power ; but we, the Democratic party in defiance of the Constitution, declare that if we can- not destroy them outright by the repeal, they shall be left to crumble into ruin by wanton and lawless neg- lect.' " Mr. Chairman. — I ask gentlemen on the other side whether they wish to maintain this attitude in regard to the legislation of this country ? Are they willing to start on a hunt through the statutes and determine for them- selves what they will obey and what they will disobey ? That is the meaning of my colleague's speech. If it means anything it means that. He is not an old Bran- denburg elector, but an elector in this novel and mod- ern sense, that he will elect what laws he will obey and what he will disobey, and in so far as his power can go, he will infect with his spirit of disobedience all the good people of this country who trust him. THE DANGER OF EXAMPLE OF DISOBEDIENCE. " I ask, gentlemen, whether this is a time when it is safe to disregard and weaken the authority of law. In all quarters the civil society of this country is becoming honey-combed through and through by disintegrating forces — in some States by the violation of contracts and the repudiation of debts ; in others by open resistance and defiance ; in still others by the reckless overturning of con- 282 JAMES A. GARFIELD. stitutions and letting * the red fool-fury of the Seine ' run riot among our people and build its blazing altars to the strange gods of ruin and misrule. All these things are shaking the good order of society and threatening the foundations of our government and our peace. In a time like this, more than ever before, this country needs a body of law-givers clothed and in their right minds, who have laid their hands upon the altar of the law as its defenders, not its destroyers. And yet now, in the name of party, for some supposed party advantage, my colleague from Ohio announces, and no one on his side has said him nay, that they not only have not in the past obeyed, but in the future they will not obey this law of the land which the Supreme Court has just crowned with the authority of its sanction. If my colleague chooses to meet that issue, if he chooses to go to the country with that plea, I shall regret it deeply for my country's sake ; but if I looked only to my party's interest, it would" give me joy to en- gage in such a struggle. " The contest of last autumn made the people under- stand the tendencies of gentlemen on the other side. Now, this cool, calm, deliberate assassination of the law will not be tolerated. We have had a winter to freeze out our passion, we have had a summer to thaw out our indifference, we have had the changing circles of the year to bring us around to order and calmness, and yet all the fiery courses of the stars seem to have shed their influ- ence on my colleague to fire him with a more desperate madness and drive his party on to a still sadder fate. [Applause on the Republican side.] " I trust and believe that we may yet find some re- LEADS THE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION. 283 sponse from the other side of the House that will pre- vent this course of procedure. If we do, I will gladly give away any party advantage for the sake of strength- ening the foundations of law and good order. And I therefore appeal to gentlemen on the other side to pre- vent a disaster which their party leaders are preparing, not for themselves alone, but for our common country. I hope before this day is over we may see such a vote in this chamber upon this bill as will put an end to this miserable business, and cast out of these halls the dregs of that unfortunate and crazy extra session." [Applause on the Republican side.] CHAPTER yilL GENERAL GARFIELD's FINANCIAL RECORD. General Garfield's Appointment to the Committee on Banking and Currency — His Efforts in Congress in behalf of Honest Money— A Formal State- ment of his Views on the Money Question— The Currency Doctrine of 1862 — Definition of Money — Money as an Instrument of Exchange — Coin as an Instrument of Universal Credit — Statutes cannot Repeal the Laws of Value — Paper Money as an Instrument of Credit — Necessity of Resumption — A Powerful Argument — General Garfield's Speech on the Weaver Resolutions. In 1868, General Garfield was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Banking and Currency, and during the same Congress did most of the hard work on the Ninth Census. His financial views, always sound, and based on the firm foundation of honest money and unsullied national honor, had now become strengthened by his studies and investigations, and he was recognized as the best authority in the House on the great subjects of the debt and the currency. His record in the legislation concerning these subjects is without a flaw. No man in Congress made a more consistent and unwavering fight against the paper money delusions that flourished dur- ing the decade following the war, and in favor of specie payments and the strict fulfilment of the nation's obliga- tions to its creditors. His speeches became the financial gospel of the Republican party. No man gave more ar- FINANCIAL RECORD. 285 dent and useful support to the policy of resuming specie payments, and no man in Congress contributed more in bringing it about. One of the most carefully prepared expressions of his views on the financial question was contributed by him to The Atlantic Monthly^ in February, 1876. It is a paper of the highest importance, and we give it in full. He styles it " The Currency Conflict," and says : " In the autumn of 1862, I spent several weeks with Secretary Chase, and was permitted to share his studies of the financial questions which were then en- grossing his attention. He was preparing to submit to Congress his matured plans for a system of banking and currency to meet the necessities of the war, and this sub- ject formed the chief theme of his conversation. He was specially anxious to work out in his own mind the prob- able relations of greenbacks to gold, to the five-twenty bonds, to the proposed national bank notes, and to the business of the country. " One evening the conversation turned on some ques- tion relating to the laws of motion, and Mr. Chase asked for a definition of motion. Some one answered ' Matter is inert, spirit alone can move j therefore motion is the Spirit of God made manifest in matter.' The Secretary said, ' If that is a good definition, then legal tender notes must be the devil made manifest in paper ; for no man can foresee what mischief they may do when they are once let loose.' He gravely doubted whether that war-born spirit, summoned to serve us in a dreadful emergency, would be mustered out of service with honor when the conflict should end, or, at the return of peace, would cap- 286 JAMES A. GARFIELD : ture public opinion and enslave the nation it had served. To what extent his fears were well founded may be ascer- tained b}'' comparing the present state of the public mind in regard to the principles of monetary science with that which prevailed when our existing financial machinery was set up. " More than a million votes will be cast at the next Presidential election by men who were school-boys in their primers when the great financial measures of 1862 were adopted ; and they do not realize how fast or how far the public mind has drifted. The log-book of this extraordinary voyage cannot be read too often. Let it be constantly borne in mind that fourteen years ago the American people considered themselves weU instructed in the leading doctrines of monetary science. They had enjoyed, or rather suffered, an extraordinary experience. There was hardly an experiment in banking and currency that they or their fathers had not fully tested. THE CURRENCY DOCTRINES OF 1862. " The statesmen of that period, the leaders of public thought, and the people of all political parties were sub- stantially unanimous in the opinion that the only safe in- strument of exchange known among men was standard coin, or paper convertible into coin at the will of the holder. " I will not affirm that this opinion was absolutely unanimous ; for doubtless there was here and there a dreamer who looked upon paper money as a sort of fetich, and was ready to crown it as a god. There are always a HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 287 few who believe in the quadrature of the circle and the perpetual motion. I recently met a cultivated American who is a firm believer in Buddha, and rejoices in the hope of attaining Nirvdna beyond the grave. The gods of Greece were discrowned and disowned by the civilized world a thousand years ago ; yet within the last genera- tion an eminent English scholar attested his love for clas- sical learning and his devotion to the Greek mythology by actually sacrificing a bull to Jupiter, in the back par- lor of his house, in London. So, in 1862, there may have been followers of William Lowndes and of 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. " No one can read the history of that year without observing the great reluctance, the apprehension, the pos- itive dread with which the statesmen and people of that day ventured upon the experiment of making treasury notes a legal tender for private debts. They did it under the pressure of an overmastering necessity, to meet the immediate demands of the war, and with a most deter- mined purpose to return to the old standard at the ear- liest possible moment. Indeed, the very act that made the greenbacks a legal tender provided the effective means for retiring them. "Distressing as was the crisis, urgent as was the need, a large number of the best and most patriotic men in Congress voted against the act. The ground of their opposition was well expressed by Owen Lovejoy, of lUi- 288 JAMES A. GARFIELD : nois, who, after acknowledging the unparalleled difficul- ties and dangers of the situation, said, ' There is no precipice, there is no chasm, there is no possible bottom- less, yawning gulf before the nation so appalling, so ruinous, as this same bill that is before us.' " Of those who supported the measure, not one de- fended it as a permanent policy. All declared that they did not abate a jot of their faith in the soundness of the old doctrines. " Thaddeus Stevens said, ' This bill is a measure of necessity, not of choice. No one would willingly issue paper currency not redeemable on demand, and make it a legal tender. It is never desirable to depart from the circulating medium which, by the common consent of civilized nations, forms the standard of value.' " In the Senate the legal-tender clause was adopted by only five majority. The senators who supported it were keenly alive to its dangerous character. Mr. Fes- Benden, chairman of the committee of finance, said of the bill, * It proposes something utterly unknown in this government from its foundation : a resort to a measure of doubtful constitutionality, to say the least of it, which has always been denounced as ruinous to the credit of any government which has recourse to it ; ... a meas- ure which, when it has been tried by other countries, as it often has been, has always proved a disastrous failure.' " With extreme reluctance he supported the bill, but said the committee was bound * that an assurance should be given to the country that it was to be resorted to only as a j^olicy ; that it was what it professed to be, but a temporary measure. I have not heard any man ex- HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 289 press a contrary opinion, or, at least, any man who has spoken on the subject in Congress. ... All the gen- tlemen who have written on the subject, except some wild speculators on currency, have declared that as a policy it would be ruinous to any people ; ajid it has been defended, as I have stated, simply and soMy upon the ground that it is to he a single measure standiny alone, and not to he repeated. ... It is put upon the ground of absolute, overwhelming necessity. "Mr. Sumner, who supported the bill, said: 'Surely we must all be against paper money, we must insist upon maintaining the integrity of the Government, and we must all set our faces against any proposition like the present except as a temporary expedient, rendered im- perative by the exigency of the hour. ... A remedy which at another moment you would reject is now pro- posed. • Whatever may be the national resources, they are not now in reach except by summary process. Re- luctantly, painfully, I consent that the process should issue. And yet I cannot give such a vote without warning the Government against the dangers from such an experiment. The medicine of the constitution must not become its daily bread.' " Such was the unanimous sentiment which animated Congress in making its solemn pledge to return to the old path as soon as the immediate danger should pass. The close of the war revealed some change of opinion, but the purpose of 1862 was still maintained. December 14, 1865, the House of Representatives re- solved — " That the House cordially concurs in the views of 290 JAMES A. GARFIELD : the Secretary of the Treasury in relation to the neces- sity of a contraction of the currency with a view to as early a resumption of specie payments as the business interest of the country will permit; and we hereby pledge co-operative action to this end as speedily as practicable. " This resolution was adopted on a call of the ayes and noes, by the decisive vote of one hundred and forty-four to six. " The last ten years have witnessed such a change of sentiment as seldom occurs in one generation. Dur- ing that time, we have had a Babel of conflicting theo- ries. Every exploded financial dogma of the last two hundred years has been revived and advocated. Con- gresses and political parties have been agitated and con- vulsed by the discussion of old and new schemes to escape from the control of the universal laws of value, and to reach prosperity and wealth without treading the time-worn path of honest industry and sohd values. All this recalls Mr. Chase's definition of irredeemable paper money. " The gr^at conflict of opinion resulting from this change of sentiment finds expression in the cries of ' hard money ' and ' soft money ' which have been so constantly echoed from State to State during the last six months. Following these, as rallying-cries, the people are assembled in hostile political camps, from which they will soon march out to fight the Presidential battle of 1876. " The recently invented term ^ soft money ' does not convey a very precise notion of the doctrine it is in- HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 291 tended to describe. In fact, it is applied to the doc- trines of several distinct groups of theorists, who differ widely among themselves, but who all agree in opposing a return to specie as the basis of our monetary system. " The scope of these opinions will be seen in the declarations which recent public discussions have broupht forth. (1.) Most of the advocates of soft money deny that political economy is a universal science. They insist that each nation should have a political economy of its own. In pursuance of this opinion, they affirm that our country should have a standard of value peculiar to itself, and a circulating medium which other nations will not use ; in short, a non-exportable currency. Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, it [our greenback currency] fortunately is not money ; but, sir, when have we had such an unbroken career of prosperity in busi- ness as since we adopted this non-exportable currency ? ' —(Hon. W. D. Kelley.) "^ Money should be a thing of or belonging to a country, not of the world. An exportable commodity is not fitted to be money.'— (Quoted as a motto by Henry Carey Baird.) "'I desire the dollar to be made of such material that it shall never be exported or desirable to carry it out of the country.'— (Hon. B. F. Butler, Cooper In- stitute, October 15, 1875.) "'The venerable Henry C. Carey, under date of August 15, 1875, addressed a long letter to the chair- man of the Detroit Greenback Convention, in which he argues that this country ought to maintain permanently 292 JAMES A. GARFIELD : a non-exportable circulation.' He says, ' This important idea was first promulgated by Mr. Rauget, thirty-six years ago.' " I will quote one other financial authority, which shows that the honor of this discovery does not belong to Rauget, nor to the present century. In his work en- titled ' Money and Trade Considered : with a Proposal for Supplying the Nation with Money,' published at Edin- burgh, 1705, John Law says : " ' If a money be established that has no intrinsic value, and its extrinsic value be such as it will not be exported, nor will not be less than the demand for it within the country, wealth and power will be attained, and will be less precarious. . . . The paper money herein proposed being always equal in quantity to the demand, the people will be employed, the country improved, manufacture advanced, trade — domestic and foreign — carried on, and wealth and power attained ; and [it] not being liable to be exported, the people will not be set idle, etc., and wealth and power will be less precarious.' " The subsequent experiments of Law are fitting commentaries. " (2.) They propose to abandon altogether the use of gold and silver as standards of value or instruments of exchange, and hold that the stamp of the government, not the value of the material on which it is impressed, constitutes money; " ' I want the dollar stamped on some convenient and cheap material, of the least possible intrinsic value, ... and I desire that the dollar so issued shall never be redeemed.' — (Hon. B. F. Butler, Cooper Institute.) HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 293 " ' A piece of pig-metal is just as much money as a piece of gold, until the public authority has stamped it and said that it shall be taken for so much. . . . Sup- pose, then, that instead of taking a bar of silver or a bar of pig-metal, the government of the United States takes a piece of paper, called a greenback, and says that this shall pass for a legal tender in the receipt and expendi- ture of government dues, and in all the transactions of the people. Suppose this government to be a govern- ment of good standing, of sound credit, and responsible for its paper. This dollar thus stamped, instead of a piece of metal being stamped, is to all intents and pur- poses equivalent to a silver dollar when it has been made such by the government of the United States.' — (Cam- paign speech of Governor Allen, Gallipolis, Ohio, July 21, 1875.) " * The use of gold or other merchandise as money is a barbarism unworthy of the age.' — (Wallace P. Groom, New York.) " ' The pretense of redemption in gold and silver is of necessity a delusion and an absurdity.' — (Britton A. Hill, Missouri.) " ' The government can make money of any material and of any shape and value it pleases.' — (Hon. 0. S. Halstead, New Jersey.) " (3.) They are not agreed among themselves as to what this new soft money shall be. They do agree, however, that the national banking system shall be abol- ished, and that whatever currency may be adopted shall be issued directly from the treasury, as the only money of the nation. Three forms are proposed : — 294 JAMES A. GARFIELD : " First. The legal tenders we now have, their vol- ume to be increased and their redemption indefinitely postponed. The advocates of this form are the infla- tionists proper, who care more for the volume than the character of the currency. " Second. ' Absolute money ;' that is, printed pieces of paper, called dollars, to be the only standard of value, the only legal tender for all debts, public and private, the only circulating medium. The advocates of this kind of ' money,' though few in number, claim the highest place as philosophers. " The ablest defence of this doctrine will be found in a brochure of one hundred and eighteen pages, by Britton A. Hill, published in St. Louis during the present year and entitled ' Absolute Money.' The author says (page 53): " * If such national legal-tender money is not of itself sovereign and absolute, but must be convertible into some other substance or thing, before it can command universal circulation, what matters it whether that other substance or thing be interest-bearing bonds or gold or silver coin ? . . . The coin despotism cannot be broken by substi- tuting in its place the despotism of interest-bearing bonds.' " Third. A legal-tender note not redeemable, but exchangeable, at the will of the holder, for a bond of the United States bearing 3.65 per cent, interest, which bond shall in turn be exchangeable, at the will of the holder, for legal-tender notes. In order that this cur- rency shall be wholly emancipated from the tyranny and barbarism of gold and silver, most of its advocates insist HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 295 that the interest on the bonds shall be paid in the pro- posed paper money. This financial perpetual motion is regarded as. the great discovery of our era, and there are numerous claimants for the honor of being the first to discover it. " Mr. Wallace P. Groom, of New York, has charac- terized this currency in a paragraph which has been so frequently quoted, that it may be fairly called their creed. It is in these words : " ' In the interchangeability (at the option of the holder) of national paper money with government bonds bearing a fixed rate of interest, there is a subtle princi- ple that will regulate the movements of finance and com- merce as accurately as the motion of the steam-engine is regulated by its governor. Such Paper Money Tokens would be much nearer perfect measures of value than gold or silver ever have been or ever can be. The use of gold or other merchandise as money is a barbarism unworthy of the age.' " (4.) The paper money men are unanimous in the opinion that the financial crisis of 1873 was caused by an insufficient supply of currency, and that a large in- crease will stimulate industry, restore prosperity, and largely augment the wealth of this country. *' Hon. Alexander Campbell, of Illinois, a leading writer of the soft money school, thinks there should now be in circulation not less than $1,290,000,000 of legal- tender notes. (^North- Western Review, November, 187-3, page 152.) " John G. Drew, another prominent writer, insists that ' as England is an old and settled country, and we 296 JAMES A. GARFIELD : are just building ours,' we ought to have at least $60 per capita, or an aggregate of $2,500,000,000. — (' Our Currency : What it is and what it should be/) " No doubt the very large vote in Ohio and Pennsyl- vania in favor of soft money resulted, in great measure, from the depressed state of industry and trade, and a vague hope that the adoption of these doctrines would bring relief. The discussion in both States was able ; and toward the close of the campaign, it was manifest that sound principles were every day gaining ground. Important as was the victory in those States, it is a great mistake to suppose that the struggle is ended. TKe ad- vocates of soft money are determined and aggressive, and they confidently believe they will be able to triumph in 1876. " It ought to be observed, as an interesting fact of current history, that the soft money men are making and collecting a literature which cannot fail to delight the antiquarian and the reader of curiosities of literature. They are ransacking old libraries to find any " Quaint and curious Volume of forgotten lore " which may give support to their opinions. In a recent pamphlet, Henry Carey Baird refers to Andrew Yarran- ton 'as the father of English political economy.' The forgotten treatise which is now enrolled among the pa- tristic books of the new school was published in London in 1677, and is entitled, ' Enghmd's Improvement by Sea and Land. To outdo the Dutch without Fighting, to pay Debts without Moneys, and to set at work all the Poor of England with the Growth of our own Lands.' HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 297 " The author proposes a public bank, based on the registered value of houses and lands, ' the credit whereof making paper go in trade equal with ready money, yea better, in many parts of the world than money.' He was perhaps the first Englishman who suggested a currency based on land. On pages 30-33 of his book may be found his draft of a proposed law, which provides ' that all bonds or bills issued on such registered houses may be transfer- able, and shall pass and be good from man to man in the nature of bills of exchange.' " The writings of John Law are also finding vigorous defenders. Britton A. Hill, in the pamphlet alreadj^ quoted, devotes a chapter to his memory, compares him favorably with Leibnitz and Newton, and says, ^ John Law is justly regarded as one of the most profound think- ers of his age, in that he originated the first fundamental principle of this proposed absolute money.' The admirers of ' father' Yarranton should see to it that the outdoer of the Dutch is not robbed of his honors by the great Scotsman. "English history is being hunted through to find some comfort for the new doctrines in the writings of that small minority who resisted the Bullion Report of 1810 and the resumption of cash payments in 1819, and continued to denounce them afterwards. History must be rewritten. We must learn that Mathias Attwood (who ?), not Lord Liverpool, Huskisson, or Peel, was the fountain of financial wisdom. Doubleday, whom no English writer has thought it worth while to answer, is much quoted by the new school, and they have lately come to feel the profoundest respect for Sir Archibald 298 JAMES A. GARFIELD: Alison, because of his extravagant assault upon the Re- sumption Act of 1819. Alison holds a place in English literature chiefly because he wrote a work which fills a gap in English history not otherwise filled. "In 1845 he wrote a pamphlet entitled * England in 1815 and 1845; or, a Sufficient and Contracted Cur- rency/ which the subsequent financial and commercial events in his country have so fully refuted that it has slept for a generation in the limbo of things forgotten. It is now unearthed, and finds an honored place in the new literature. "As a specimen of Alison's financial wisdom, we quote the following (pages 2, 3) : ' The eighteen years of war between 1797 and 1815 were, as all the world knows, the most glorious and, taken as a whole, the most pros- perous that Great Britain has ever known. . . . Never has a prosperity so universal and unheard-of pervaded every department of the empire.' He then enumerates the evidences of this prosperity, and prominent among them is this : ' While the revenue raised by taxation was but £21,000,000 in 1796, it had reached £72,000,000 in 1815 ; and the total expenditures from taxes and loans had reached £117,000,000 in 1815.' Happy people, whose burdens of taxation were quadrupled in eighteen years, and whose expenses, consumed in war, exceeded their revenues by the sum of $225,000,000 in gold ! " The inflationists have not been so fortunate in aug- menting their literary store from the writings and speeches of our early American statesmen. Still, they have made vigorous efforts to draft into their service any isolated paragraph that can be made useful for their pur- HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 299 pose. So far as I have seen, they have found no comfort in this search except in very short extracts from three of the great leaders of public thought. The first is from a juvenile essay in defence of paper money, written by Benjamin Franklin in 1729, when he was twenty-two years of age. This has been frequently quoted during the last four years. They are not so fond of quoting Franklin, the statesman and philosopher, who after a life- long experience wrote, in 1783, these memorable words : " 1 lament with you the many mischiefs, the injustice, the corruption of manners, etc., that attend a depreciated currency. It is some consolation to me that I washed my hands of that evil by predicting it in Congress, and proposing means that would have been effectual to pre- vent it if they had been adopted. Subsequent operations that 1 have executed demonstrate that my plan was practicable but it was unfortunately rejected.' — (Works, X. 9.) " A serious attempt has been made to capture Thomas Jefferson and bring him into the service. The following passage from one of his letters to John W. Eppes (Works, vi. 140) has been paraded through this discussion with all the emphasis of italics, thus : " ' Bank paper must he suppressed, and the circulating medium must be restored to the nation to tohom it belongs. It is the only fund on which they can rely for loans ; it is the only resource which can never fail them, and it is an abundant one for every necessary purpose. Treasury hills bottomed on taxes, bearing or not bearing interest, as may be found necessary, thrown into circulation, will take the place of so much gold or silver^ which last, when 300 JAMES A. GARFIELD : crowded, will find an efflux into other countries, and thus keep the quantum of medium at its salutary level.' " This pnssage was quoted as a strong point for the soft-money men in their campaign documents in Ohio, last fall. They did not find it convenient to quote the great Virginian more fully. When this letter was writ- ten, the United States was at war with England, with no friendly nation from whom to obtain loans. The demand for revenue was urgent, and the treasury was empty. Mr. Jefferson had long been opposed to the state banks, and he saw that by suppressing them and issuing treas- ury notes, with or without interest, the government could accomplish two things : destroy state bank currency, and obtain a forced loan, in the form of circulating notes. In enforcing this view, he wrote from Monticello to Mr. Eppes, June 24, 1813 : *I am sorry to see our loans be- gin at so exorbitant an interest. And yet, even at that, you will soon be at the bottom of the loan-bag. Ours is an agricultural nation. ... In such a nation there is one and only one resource for loans, sufficient to carry them through the expense of a war ; and that will always be sufficient, and in the power of an honest government, punctual in the preservation of its faith. The fund I mean is the mass of circulating coin. Every one knows that, although not literally, it is nearly true that every paper dollar emitted banishes a silver one from the cir- culation. A nation, therefore, making its purchases and payments with bills fitted for circulation, thrusts an equal sum of coin out of circulation. This is equivalent to bor- rowing that sum ; and yet the vendor, receiving payment in a medium as effectual as coin for his purchases or pay- HIS FINxVNCIAL RECORD. 301 ments, has no claim to interest. ... In this way I am not without a hope that this great, this sole resource for loans in an agricultural country might yet be recovered for the use of the nation during war ; and, if obtained in perpetuum, it would always be sufficient to carry us through any war, provided that in the interval between war and war all the outstanding paper should be called in, coin be permitted to flow in again, and to hold the field of circulation until another war should require its yielding place again to the national medium.' " From this it appears that Jefferson favored the issue of treasury notes to help us through a war; but he in- sisted that they should be wholly retired on the return of peace. His three long letters to Eppes are full of power- ful and eloquent denunciations of paper money. The soft money men appeal to Jefferson. We answer them in his own words : ' The truth is that capital may be pro- duced by industry, and accumulated by economy ; but jugglers only will propose to create it by legerdemain tricks of paper money.' — (Letter to Eppes, Works, vi. 239.) " Their third attempt to elect some eminent states- man as an honorary member of the new school affords a striking illustration of a method too often adopted in our politics. It was very confidently stated by several ad- vocates of soft money that John C. Calhoun had sug- gested that a paper money, issued directly by the gov- ernaient and made receivable for all public dues, would be as good a currency as gold and silver. Mr. Hill finally claimed Calhoun's authority in support ^f his ab- solute money, and printed on pages 56, 57 of his pam- 302 JAMES A. GARFIELD : phlet a passage from a speech of Calhoun's. This extract was used in the Ohio campaign with much effect, until it was shown that there had been omitted from the passage quoted these important words : * leaviny its creditors to take it [treasury note circulation] or gold and silver at their option! After this exposure, the great nuUifier was left out of the canvass. " Thus far we have attempted no more than to ex- hibit the state of public opinion in regard to the cur- rency in 1861-62, the changes that have since occurred, and the leading doctrines now held by the soft money men. " Most of these dogmas are old, and have long ago been exploded. All are directly opposed to principles as well established as the theorems of Euclid. THE DOCTRINE OF HARD MONEY. " Believing that this generation of Americans is not willing to ignore all past experience, and to decide so great an iss-ue as though it were now raised for the first time, we shall attempt to state, in brief compass, the grounds on which the doctrine of hard money rests. "Hard money is not to be understood as implying a currency consisting of coin alone (though many have held, with Benton, that no other is safe), but that coin of ascertained weight and fineness, duly stamped and authenticated by the government, is the only safe stand- ard of money ; and that no form of credit-currency is safe unless it be convertible into coin at the will of the holder. HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 303 MONEY AS AN INSTRUMENT OF EXCHANGE. " As preliminary to this discussion, it is necessary to determine the functions which money performs as an in- strument of exchange. As barter was the oldest form of exchange, so it was and still is the ultimate object and result of all exchanges. For example : I wish to ex- change my commodities or services for commodities or services of a different kind. I find no one at hand who has what I want, and wants what I have. I therefore exchange, or, as we say, sell, my commodities for money, which I hold until I find some one who wishes to sell what I want to buy. I then make the purchase. The two transactions have, in fact, resulted in a barter. It amounts to the same thing as though, at the start, I had found a man who wanted my commodities, and was will- ing to give me in exchange the commodities I desired. By a sale and a purchase I have accomplished my object. Money was the instrument by which the transactions were made. The great French economist, J. B. Say, has justly described a sale as half a barter, for we see, in the case above stated, that two sales were equivalent, in effect, to one act of simple barter. But some time may elapse between my sale and the subsequent purchase. How are my rights of property secured during the inter- val ? That which I sold carried its value in itself as an exchangeable commodity ; when I had exchanged it for money, and was waiting to make my purchase, the secu- rity for my property rested wholly in the money result- ing from the sale. If that money be a perfect instrument of exchange, it must not only be the lawful measure of 304 JAMES A. GARFIELD : that which I sold, but it must, of itself, be the actual equivalent in value. If its value depends upon the arbi- trary acts of government or of individuals, the results of my transaction depend not upon the value of that which I sold nor of that which I bought, nor upon my prudence and skill, but upon an element wholly beyond my control — a medium of exchange which varies in value from day to day. " Such being the nature of exchanges, we should ex- pect to find that so soon as man begins to emerge from the most primitive condition of society and the narrow- est circle of family life, he will seek a measure and an in- strument of exchange among his first necessities. And in fact it is a matter of history that in the hunting state skins were used as money, because they were the product of chief value. In the pastoral state — the next advance in civilization — sheep and cattle, being the most valuable and negotiable form of property, were used as money. This appears in the earliest literature. In the Homeric poems oxen are repeatedl^^ mentioned as the standard by which wealth was measured. The arms of Diomed were declared to be worth nine oxen, as compared with those of Glaucos, worth one hundred. A tripod, the first prize for wrestlers, in the twenty-third book of the Iliad was valued at twelve oxen, and a female captive, skilled in industry, at four.* " In many languages the name for money is identical with that for some kind of cattle. Even our word ^ fee ' is said to be the Anglo-Saxon ' feoh,' meaning both money and cattle. Sir H. S. Maine, speaking of the primitive * Jevon'a " Money and the Mechanism of Exchange," page 21. HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 305 state of society, says : ' Being counted by the head, the kine Avas called capitale, whence the economic term cajyi- tal, the law term chattel, and our common name cattle. " In the agricultural and manufacturing stage of civi- lization, many forms of vegetable and manufactured pro- ducts were used as money, such as corn, wheat, tobacco, cacao-nuts, cubes of tea, colored feathers, shells, nails, etc, "All these species of wealth were made instruments of exchange because they w^ere easily transferable, and their value was the best known and least fluctuating. But the use of each as money was not universal ; in fact, was but little known beyond the bounds of a single na- tion. Most of them were non-exportable; and though that fact would have commended them to the favor of some of our modern economists, yet the mass of mankind have entertained a different opinion, and have sought to find a medium whose value and fitness to be used as money would be universally acknowledged. " It is not possible to ascertain when and by whom the precious metals were first adopted as money ; but for more than three thousand years they have been acknowl- edged as the forms of material wealth best fitted to be the measure and instrument of exchange. Each nation and tribe, as it has emerged from barbarism, has aban- doned its local, non-exportable medium, and adopted what is justly called ' the money of the world.' " Coinage was a later device, employed for the sole purpose of fat^hioning into a convenient shape the metal to be used as money, and of ascertaining and certifying officially the weight and fineness of each piece. " And here has arisen the chief error in reference to 306 JAMES A. GARFIELD : the nature of Inone3^ Because the government coins it, names its denomination, and declares its value, many have been led to imagine that the government creates it, that its value is a gift of the law. " The analogy of other standards will aid us at this point. Our constitution empowers Congress to fix the standard of weights and measures, as well as of values. But Congress cannot create extension, or weight, or value. It can measure that which has extension ; it can weigh that which is ponderable ; it can declare and subdivide and name a standard ; but it cannot make length of that which has no length ; it cannot make weight of that which is imponderable ; it cannot make value of that which has no value. Ex nihilo nihil fit. The power of Congress to make anything it pleases receivable for taxes is a matter wholly distinct from the subject now under discussion. Legislation cannot make that a measure of value which neither possesses nor represents any definitely ascertained value. COIN AN INSTRUMENT OF UNIVERSAL CREDIT. " Now apply to the operations of exchange a given coin, whose weight and fineness are certified by public authority. We cannot do this better than by borrowing the language of Frederic Bastiat, found in his treatise en- titled * Maudit Argent.' He says : " * You have a crown. What does it signify in your hands ? It is the testimony and the proof that you have at some time performed a work ; and, instead of profiting by it yourself, you have allowed the community to enjoy it, in the person of your client. This crown is the evi- HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 307 dence that you have rendered a service to society ; and it states the value of that service. Moreover, it is the evidence that you have not drawn from the community the real equivalent, as was your right. In order to ena- ble you to exercise that right when and as you please, society, by the hand of your client, has given you a recog- nition, a title, a bond of the commonwealth, a token, in short a crotvn, which differs from other fiduciary titles only in this, that it carries its value in itself; and if you can read with the eyes of the mind the inscription which it bears, you will distinctly decipher these words : ^Render to the hearer a se?'vice equivalent to that which he has rendered to socieiy ; a value received, stated, proved, and measured hy that which is in me.' ... If you now give that crown to me as the price of a service, this is the result : your ac- count with society for real services is found regular, is balanced and closed, . . . and I am justly in the position where you were before.' " Edmund Burke expressed the same opinion when he said, ' Gold and silver are the two great, recognized species that represent the lasting, conventional credit of mankind.' " Three thousand years of experience have proved that the precious metals are the best materials of which to make the standard of value, the instrument of ex- change. They are themselves a store of value ; they are durable, divisible, easily transported, and more constant in value than any other known substances. In the form of dust and bars, as merchandise, their value is precisely equal to their declared value as money, less the very small cost of coinage. Coin made of these metals meas- 308 JAMES A. GARFIELD : ures wealth, because it represents wealtli in itself, just as the yard-stick measures length, and the standard pound measures weight, because each has, in itself, that which it represents. " Again, the precious metals are products of labor, and their value, like that of all other merchandise, de- pends upon the cost of production. A coin represents and measures the labor required to produce it ; it may be called an embodiment of labor. Of course this statement refers to the average cost of production throughout the world, and that average has varied but little for many centuries. It is a flat absurdity to assert that such a re- ality as labor can be measured and really represented by that which costs little or no labor. For these reasons the precious metals have been adopted by the common law of the world as the best materials in which to embody the unit of money. STATUTES CANNOT REPEAL THE LAWS OF VALUE. " The oldest and perhaps the most dangerous delusion in reference to money is the notion that it is a creation of law ; that its value can be fixed and maintained by au- thority. Yet no error has been more frequently refuted by experience. Every debasement of the coin, and every attempt to force its circulation at a higher rate than the market value of the metal it contains, has been punished by the inevitable disasters that always follow the viola- tion of economic laws. " The great parliamentary debate of 1695, on the re- coinage of English money, affords an absolute demonstra- tion of the truth that legislatures cannot repeal the laws HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 309 of value. Mr. Lowndes, the secretary of the treasury, though he held that a debasement of the coinage should be rejected as ^dangerous and dishonorable,' really be- lieved, as did a large number of members of Parliament, that if, by law, they raised the name of the coin, they would raise its value as money. As Macaulay puts it, * He was not in the least aware that a piece of metal with the king's head on it was a commodity of which the price was governed by the same law which governs the price of a piece of metal fashioned into a spooa or a buckle ; and that it was no more in the power of Parliament to make the kingdom richer by calling a crown a pound than to make the kingdom larger by calling a furlong a mile. He seriously believed, incredible as it may seem, that if the ounce of silver were divided into seven shillings instead of five, foreign nations would sell us their wines and their silks for a smaller number of ounces. He had a consider- able following, composed partly of dull men who really believed what he told them, and partly of shrewd men who were perfectly willing to be authorized by law to pay a hundred pounds with eighty.' — (History of Eng- land, chapter xxi.) "It was this debate that called forth those masterly essays of John Locke on the nature of money and coin, which still remain as a monument to his genius and an unanswerable demonstration that money obeys the laws of value and is not the creature of arbitrary edicts. At the same time. Sir Isaac Newton was called from those sublime discoveries in science which made his name im- mortal, to aid the king and Parliament in ascertaining the true basis of money. After the most thorough examiua- 310 JAMES A. GARFIELD : tion, this great thinker reached the same conclusions. The genius of these two men, aided by the enlightened statesmanship of Montague and Somers, gave the victory to honest money, and preserved the commercial honor of England for a century. PAPER MONEY AN INSTRUMENT OF CREDIT. " In discussing the use of paper as a representative of actual money, we enter a new branch of political sci- ence, namely, the general theory of credit. We shall go astray at once if we fail to perceive the character of this element. Credit is not capital. It is the permission given to one man to use the capital of another. It is not an increase of capital ; for the same property cannot be used as capital by both the owner and the borrower of it, at the same time. But credit if not abused, is a great and beneficent power. By its use the productiveness of capital is greatly increased. A large amount of capital is owned by people who do not desire to employ it in the actual production of wealth. There are many others who are ready and willing to engage in productive enter- prise, but have not the necessary capital. Now, if the owners of unemployed capital have confidence in the hon- esty and skill of the latter class, they lend their capital at a fair rate of interest, and thus the production of wealth will be greatly increased. Frequently, however, the capital loaned is not actually transferred to the bor- rower, but a written evidence of his title to it is given in- stead. If this title is transferable it may be used as a substitute for money ; for, within certain limits, it has the same purchasing power. When these 'evidences of credit HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 311 are in the form of checks and drafts, bills of exchange and promissory notes, they are largely used as substitutes for money, and very greatly facilitate exchanges. But all are based upon confidence, upon the belief that they represent truly what they profess to represent — actual capital, measured by real money, to be delivered on de- mand. " These evidences of credit have become in modern times the chief instruments of exchange. The bank has become as indispensable to the exchange of values as the railroad is to the transportation of merchandise. It is the institution of credit by means of which these various substitutes for money are made available. It has been shown that not less than ninety per cent, of all the ex- changes in the United States are accomplished by means of bank credits. The per cent, in England is not less than ninety-five. Money is now the small change of commerce. It is perhaps owing to this fact that many are so dazzled by the brilliant achievements of credit as to forget that it is the shadow of capital, not its sub- stance ; that it is the sign, the brilliant sign, but not the thing signified. Let it be constantly borne in mind that the check, the draft, the bill of exchange, the promissory note, are all evidences of debt, of money to be paid. If not, they are fictitious and fraudulent. If the real capital on which they are based be destroyed, they fall with it, and become utterly worthless. If confidence in their prompt payment be impaired, they immediately depre- ciate in proportion to the distrust. " We have mentioned among these instruments of credit the promissory note. Its character as an evidence 312 JAMES A. GARFIELD : of debt is not changed when it comes to us illuminated by the art and mystery of plate-printing. Name it national bank-note, greenback, Bank of England note, or what you will ; let it be signed by banker, president, or king, it is none the less an evidence of debt, a promise to pay. It is not money, and no power on earth can make it money. But it is a title to money, a deed for money, and can be made equal to money only when the debtor performs the promise — delivers the property which the deed calls for, pays the debt. When that is done, and when the com- munity knows, by actual test, that it will continue to be done, then, and not till then, this credit-currency will in fact be the honest equivalent of money. Then it will, in large measure, be used in preference to coin, because of its greater convenience, and because the cost of is- suing new notes in place of those which are worn and mutilated is much less than the loss which the community suffers by abrasion of the coin. To the extent, therefore, that paper will circulate in place of coin, as a substitute and an equivalent, such circulation is safe, convenient, and economical. And what is the limit of such safe cir- culation? Economic science has demonstrated, and the uniform experience of nations has proved, that the term which marks that limit, the sole and supreme test of safety, is the exchangeability of such paper for coin, dollar for dollar, at the will of the holder. The smallest increase in volume beyond that limit produces deprecia- tion in the value of each paper dollar. It then requires more of such depreciated dollars to purchase a given quantity of gold or merchandise than it did before depre- ciation began. In other words, prices rise in comparison HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 313 with such currency. The fact that it is made a . legal tender for taxes and private debts does not free it from the inexorable law that increase of volume decreases the value of every part. " It is equally true that an increase of the precious metals, coined or uncoined, decreases their value in com- parison with other commodities ; but these metals are of such universal currency, on account of their intrinsic value, that they flow to all parts of the civilized world, and the increase is so widely distributed that it produces but a small increase of prices in any one country. Not so with an inconvertible paper money. It is not of uni- versal currency. It is national, not international. It is non-exportable. The whole effect of its depreciation is felt at home. The level of Salt Lake has risen ten feet during the last thirty years, because it has lio outlet. But all the floods of the world have made no perceptible change in the general level of the sea. " The character of inconvertible paper money, the re- lation of its quantity to its value, and its inevitable depre- ciation by an increase of volume, were demonstrated in the Bullion Report of 1810 by facts and arguments whose force and conclusiveness have never been shaken. In the great debate that followed, in Parliament and through the press, may be found the counterpart of almost every doctrine and argument which has been advanced in our own country since the suspension of specie payments. Then, as now, there were statesmen, doctrinaires, and business men who insisted that the bank-notes were not depreciated, but that gold had risen in value ; who de- nied that gold coin was any longer the standard of value, 314 JAMES A. GARFIELD : and declared that a bank-note was * abstract currency.' Castlereagh announced in the House of Commons that the money standard was ' a sense of value, in reference to currency as compared with commodities.' Another soft money man of that day said : ^ The standard is neither gold nor silver, but something set up in the imagination, to be regulated hy public opinion.'' Though the doctrines of the Bullion Report were at first voted down in Parlia- ment, they could not be suppressed. With the dogged persistency which characterizes our British neighbors, the debate was kept up for ten years. Every propo- sition and counter proposition was sifted, the intelli- gence and conscience of the nation were invoked; the soft money men were driven from every position they occupied in 1811, and at last the ancient standard was restored. When the bank redeemed its notes, the dif- ference between the mint price and the market price of bullion disappeared, and the volume of paper money was reduced in the ratio of its former depreciation. During the last half century few Englishmen have risked their reputation for intelligence by denying the doctrines thus established. *' These lessons of history cannot be wholly forgotten. It is too late to set up again the doctrines of Lowndes and Vansittart. They may disturb and distract public opinion, but can never again triumph before an intelligent tribunal. I commend to the soft money men of our time the study of this great debate and that of 1695. When they have overturned the doctrines of Locke and Newton and of the Bullion Report, it will be time for them to in- vite us to follow their new theories. HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 315 « *' But we need not go abroad to obtain illustrations of the truth that the only cure for depreciation of the cur- rency is convertibility into coin. Our American colonies, our Continental Congress, and our State and national gov- ernments have demonstrated its truth by repeated and calamitous experiments. The fathers who drafted our constitution believed they had ' shut and bolted the door against irredeemable paper money ; ' and, since then, no president, no secretary of the treasury, has proposed or sanctioned a paper currency, in time of peace, not re- deemable in coin at the will of the holder. Search our records from 1787 to 1861, and select from any decade twenty of our most illustrious statesmen, and it will be found that not less than nineteen of them have left on record, in the most energetic language, their solemn pro- test and warning against the very doctrines w^e are op- posing. '' The limits of this article will allow only the briefest statement of the evils that flow from a depreciated cur- rency, evils both to the government and to the people, which overbalance, a thousand to one, all its real or sup- posed benefits. The word * dollar' is the substantive word, the fundamental condition of every contract, of every sale, of every payment, whether at the treasury or at the stand of the apple-woman in the street. The dol- lar is the gauge that measure every blow of the hammer, every article of merchandise, every exchange of property. Forced by the necessities of war, we substituted for the this dollar the printed promise of the Government to pay a dollar. That promise we have not kept. We have suspended payment, and have compelled the citizen to 316 JAMES A. GARFIELD : receive dishonored paper in place of money. The repre- sentative value of that paper has passed, by thousands of fluctuations, from one hundred cents down to thirty-eight, and back again to ninety. At every change, millions of men have suffered loss. In the midst of war, with rising prices and enormous gains, these losses were tolerable. But now, when we are slowly and painfully making our way back to the level of peace — now, when the pressure of hard times is upon us, and industry and trade depend for their gains upon small margins of profit, the uncertainty is an intolerable evil. That uncertainty is increased by doubts as to what Congress will do. Men hesitate to invest their capital in business, when a vote in Congress may shrink it by half its value. Still more striking are the evils of such a currency in its effects upon international com- merce. Our purchases from and sales to foreign nations amount in the aggregate to one billion two hundred mil- lion dollars per annum, every dollar of which is measured in coin. Those who export our products buy with paper and sell for gold. Our importers buy with gold and sell for paper. Thus the aggregate value of our international exchanges is measured, successfully, by the two stand- ards. The loss occasioned by the fluctuation of these currencies in reference to each other falls wholly on us. We, alone, use paper as a standard. And who, among us, bears the loss ? The importer, knowing the risk he runs, adds to his prices a sufficient per cent, to insure himself against loss. This addition is charged over from importer to jobber, from jobber to retailer, until its dead weight falls, at last, upon the laborer who consumes the goods. In the same way, the exporter insures himself against HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 317 loss by marking down the prices he will pay for products to be sent abroad. In all such transactions capital is usually able to take care of itself. The laborer has but one commodity for sale, his day's work. It is his sole reliance. He must sell it to-day or it is lost forever. What he buys must be bought to-day. He cannot wait till prices fall. He is at the mercy of the market. Buy- ing or selling, the waves of its fluctuations beat against him. Daniel Webster never uttered a more striking truth than when he said : ' Of all the contrivances for cheating the laboring classes of mankind, none has been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money. This is the most effectual of inventions to fertil- ize the rich man's field by the sweat of the poor man s face.' " But here we are met by the interconvertible-bond- and-currency men, who offer to emancipate us from the tyranny of gold and secure a more perfect standard than coin has ever been. Let us see. Our five per cent, bonds are now on a par with gold. Any actuary will testify that in the same market a 3.65 bond, payable, principal and interest, in gold, and having the same time to run, is worth but seventy -five cents in gold ; that is, thirteen cents less than the present greenback. How much less the bond will be worth if its interest be made payable in the proposed inconvertible currency, no mortal can calculate. It is proposed, then, to make the new currency equivalent to a bond which, at its birth, is thir- teen cents below the greenback of to-day. We are to take a long leap downward at the first bound. But * in- terconvertibility ' is the charm, the ' subtle principle,' the 318 JAMES A. GARFIELD : great 'regulator of finance/ which will adjust everything. The alternate ebb and flow of bond into paper dollar, and paper dollar into bond, will preserve an equilibrium, an equipoise ; and this level of equipose is the base line that will measure the new standard of value. The lad who sold his two-dollar dog for fifty dollars, and took his pay in pups at ten dollars each, never doubted that he had made a profit of forty-eight dollars until he found how small a sum the whole litter would sell for in the market. " Undoubtedly the beam will lie level that is weight- ed with the bond at one end and the paper money at the other. But what will be the relation of that level to the level of real values ? Both the bond and the cur- rency are instruments of credit, evidences of debt They cannot escape the dominion of those universal laws that regulate prices. If made by law the only le- gal tender, such a currency wouUi doubtless occupy the field. But what would be the result ? To a certain ex- tent the bonds themselves would be used as currency. The clearing-house banks of New York would doubtless be glad to get interest-bearing bonds instead of the government certificates of indebtedness, bearing no in- terest, which, for convenience, they now use in the settlement of their balances. The reserves of public and private banks, which now amount to more than two hundred million dollars, would largely be held in these interest-bearing bonds. Thus the first step would result in compelling the government to pay interest on a large portion of the reserves of all the banks, public, and private. It will hardly be claimed, however, that anybody will part with his property for bonds of this HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 319 description, to hold as ca permanent investment. Capi- tal in this country is worth more than 3.65 per cent. How, then, will the new currency be set afloat? The treasury can pay it out only in exchange for the new bonds or in payment of public dues. Shall we violate public faith by paying the gold bonds already oustand- ing in this new and greatly depreciated paper ? Or shall we, as some of the soft money men have proposed, enter upon a vast system of public works in order to put the new currency in circulation ? No doubt means would be found to push it into circulation, so long as enterprise or speculation should offer a hope of greater profits than 3.65 per cent. Once out, it would inevita- bly prove a repetition of the old story: an artificial stimulation of business and of speculation ; large issues of currency; inflation of prices, depreciation of paper, delirium, prostration ; * up like a rocket, then down like a stick.' They tell us that this cannot happen, because as the volume of paper increases, the rate of interest will fall, and when it reaches 3.65 per cent, the currency will be exchanged for bonds. But all experience is against them. Inflation has never brought down the rate of interest. In fact, the rate is always highest in countries afllicted with irredeemable paper money. For all practical purposes, the proposed currency would be unredeemed and irredeemable ; and this is what its ad- vocates desire. General Butler sees ' no more reason for redeeming the measure of value than for redeeming the yardstick or the quart-pot.' This shows the utmost confusion of ideas. We do not redeem the yardstick or the quart-pot. They are, in reality, what they profess 320 JAMES A. GARFIELD : to be. There is nothing better for measuring yards than a yardstick. But, in regard to the yardstick, we do what is strictly analogous to redemption when applied to currency. We preserve our yardstick undiminished and unchanged ; and, by the solemn sanction of penal law, we require that it shall be applied to the purchase and sale of all commodities that can be measured by the standard of length. The citizen who buys by a longer yardstick or sells by a shorter one than our standard, is punished as a felon. Common honesty requires that we restore, and with equal care preserve from diminution or change, our standard of value. " It has been already shown that the soft money men desire a vast increase of currency above the present volume. The assumed necessity for such an increase was a leading topic in the debates that preceded the late elections. " The argument, often repeated, ran substantially thus : " Fellow-citizens ! You are in great distress. The smoke of your furnaces no longer ascends to the sky ; the clang of your mills and workshops is no longer heard. Your workers in metal and miners in coal are out of employment. Stagnation of trade, depression of busi- ness, and public distress are seen on every hand. What has caused these disasters ? Manifestly, a lack of money. Is there any man among you who has money enough ? If there be, let him stand forth and declare it. Is there one wJio does not need more money to carry on his business ? [Cries of No I No !] The hard money men have brought you to this distress, by contracting the HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 321 volume of the currency, by destroying the people's money, your money. And they propose to complete your ruin by forcing th^ country to resume specie pay- ments. We come to save you from this ruin. We in- sist that you shall have more mone}^, not less. We are resolved to make and keep the volume of currency ' equal to the wants of trade.' "These assumptions were answered by undeniable facts. It was shown that our large volume of paper cur- rency had helped to bring on the crisis of 1873, and had greatly aggravated its effects ; but that the main cause was speculation, over-trading, and, in some branches of business, an over-production beyond the demands of the market. " A striking illustration of the effect of over-produc tion was drawn from the history of one of the interior counties of Northern Ohio. In the midst of a wilder- ness, far away from the centres of trade, the pioneers commenced the settlement of the county at the beginning of the present century. Year by year their number was augmented. Each new settler was compelled to buy provisions for his family until he could raise his first crop. For several years this demand afforded a ready market, at good prices, for all the products of the farm. But in 1818, the supply greatly exceeded the demand. The wheat market was so glutted that twenty bushels were frequently offered for one pound of tea, and often refused, because tea could be bought only for money, and wheat could hardly be sold at all. " If the soft money men of our time had been among those farmers, they would have insisted that more 21 322 JAMES A. GARFIELD : money would raise the price of their wheat and set the ploughboys at work. But the pioneers knew that until the stock on hand was reduced, the production of another bushel to be sold would be labor wasted. The cry for more currency shows that soft money men have confounded credit with capital, and vaguely imagine that if more paper dollars were printed they could be bor- rowed without security. " In whatever form the new currency be proposed, whether in the so-called absolute money or in the 'in- terconvertible paper money tokens,' as a relief from dis- tress, it is a delusion and a snare. All these schemes are reckless attempts to cut loose from real money — the money known and recognized throughout the world — and to adopt for our standard that which a great gold gambler of Wall Street aptly called 'phantom gold.' Their authors propose a radical and dangerous innova- tion in our political system. They desire to make the National Treasury a bank of issue, and to place in the control of Congress the vast money power of the nation, to be handled as the whim, the caprice, the necessities of political parties m:iy dictate. Federalist as Hamilton was,, he held that such a power was too great to be cen- tralized in the hands of one body. This goes a hundred leagues beyond any measure of centralization that has yet been adopted or suggested. "In view of the doctrines herein advocated, what shall be said of the present condition of our currency ? It is depreciated. Its purchasing power is less than that of real money, by about fourteen per cent. Our notes are at a discount j not because the ability of the nation HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 323 to redeem them is questioned, but partly because its good faith is doubted, and partly because the volume of these notes is too great to circulate at par. What that volume ought to be, no man can tell. Convertibility into coin is a perfect test, and is the only test. NECESSITY OF RESUMPTION. " The duty of the government to make its currency equal to real money is undeniable and imperative. First, because the public faith is most solemnly pledged, and this alone is a conclusive and unanswerable reason why it should be done. The perfidy of one man, or of a million men, is as nothing compared with the perfidy of u nation. The public faith was the talisman that brought to the treasury thirty-five hundred million dollars in loans, to save the life of the nation, which was not worth saving if its honor be not also saved. The public faith is our only hope of safety from the dangers that may assail us in the future. The public faith was pledged to redeem these notes in the very act which created them, and the pledge was repeated when each additional issue was ordered. It was again repeated in the act of 1869, known as the ^ act to strengthen the public credit,' and yet again in the act of 1875, promising redemption in 1879. " Second. The government should make its currency equal to gold because the material prosperity of its peo- ple demands it. Honest dealing between man and man requires it. Just and equal legislation for the people, safety in trade, domestic and foreign, security in busi- 324 JAMES A. GARFIELD : ness, just distribution of the rewards of labor — none of these are possible until the present false and uncertain standard of value has given place to the real, the certain, the universal standard. Its restoration will hasten the revival of commercial confidence, which is the basis of all sound credit. " Third. Public morality demands the re-establish- ment of our ancient standard. The fever of speculation which our fluctuating currency has engendered cannot be allayed till its cause is destroyed. A majority of all the crimes relating to money, that have been committed in public and private life since the war, have grown out of the innumerable opportunities for sudden and inordinate gains which this fluctuation has offered. " The gold panic of 1869, which overwhelmed thou- sands of business men in ruin, and the desperate gamb- ling in gold which is to-day absorbing so many miUions of capital that ought to be employed in producing wealth, were made possible only by the difference between paper and gold. Resumption will destroy all that at a blow. It will enable all men to see the real situation of their affairs, and will do much toward dissipating those unreal and fascinating visions of wealth to be won without in- dustry, which have broken the fortunes and ruined the morals of so many active and brilliant citizens. " My limits will not allow a discussion of the hard- ship and evils which it is feared will accompany the res- toration of the old standard. Whatever they may be, they will be light and transient in comparison with those we shall endure if the doctrines of soft money prevail. I am not able to see why the approach to specie may not HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 325 be made so gradual that the fluctuation in any one month will be less than that which we have suffered from month to month since 1869. We have travelled more than half the distance which then separated us from the gold stand- ard. " A scale of appreciation like that by which England resumed in 1821 would greatly mitigate the hardships arising from the movement. Those who believe that the volume of our currency is but little above its normal level need not fear that there will be much contraction ; for, with free banking, they may be sure that all the paper which can be an actual substitute for money will remain in circulation. No other ought to circulate. " The advocates of soft money are loud in their de- nunciation of the English resumption act of 1819, and parade the distorted views of that small and malignant minority of English writers who have arraigned the act as the cause of the agricultural distress of 1822, and the financial crash which followed, in 1825. The charge is absolutely unjust and unfounded. In 1822 a committee of the House of Commons, having investigated the causes of the agricultural distress of that and the preceding year, found that it was due to the operation of the corn laws, and to the enormous wheat crops of the two preceding seasons. Their report makes no reference to the resump- tion act as a cause of the distress. In both that and the following year, a few of the old opponents of hard money offered resolutions in the House of Commons, declaring that the resumption act was one of the causes of the public distress. The resolution of 1822 was defeated by a vote of one hundred and forty-one to twenty-seven, and 326 JAMES A. GARFIELD : that of 1823 was defeated by the still more decisive vote of one hundred and ninety-two to thirty. An overwhelm- ing majority of intelligent Englishmen look back with pride and satisfaction upon the act of resumption as a just and beneficent measure. "But methods and details of management are of slight importance in comparison with the central purpose so often expressed by the nation. From that purpose there should be no retreat. To postpone its fulfilment beyond the day already fixed is botli dangerous and useless. It will make the task harder than ever. Re- sumption could have been accomplished in 1867 with less difficulty than it can be in 1879. It can be accom- plished more easily in 1879 than at any later date. It is said that we ought to wait until the vast mass of private debts can be adjusted. But when will that be done? Horace has told us of a rustic traveller who stood on the bank of a river, waiting for its waters to flow by, that he might cross over in safety. * At ille labitur et labetur in omne volubilis wvum,' The succession of debts and debt- ors will be as perpetual as the flow of the river. " We ought to be inspired by the recent brilliant ex- ample of France. Suffering unparalleled disasters, she was compelled to issue a vast volume of legal-tender notes in order to meet her obligations. But so soon as the great indemnity was paid, she addressed herself reso- lutely to the work of bringing her currency up to the standard of gold. During the last two years she has reduced her paper currency nearly seven hundred and fifty million francs; and now it is substantially at par. " Amidst all her disasters she has kept her financial HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 327 credit untarnished. And this has been her strength and her safety. To meet the great indemnity, she asked her people for a loan of three billion francs ; and twelve and a half times the amount was subscribed. In August, 1874, the American Minister at Paris said, in one of his despatches, ' Though immense amounts were taken abroad, yet it seems they are all coming back to France, and are now being absorbed in small sums by the com- mon people. The result will be, in the end, that almost the entire loan will be held in France. Every person in the wdiole country is wishing to invest a few hundred francs in the new loan, and it has reached a premium of four and one half to five per cent' " Our public faith is the symbol of our honor and the pledge of our future safety. By every consideration of national honor, of public justice, and of sound policy, let us stand fast in the resolution to restore our currency to the standard of gold." On the 5th of April, 1880, Mr. We;iver, the leader of the Greenback party in the House, arose and addressed the Speaker as follows : " I move to suspend the rules and adopt the resolu- tions which I send to the desk. " The Clerk read as follows : " ^Resolved, That it is the sense of this House that all currency, whether metallic or paper, necessary for the use and convenience of the people should be issued and its volume controlled by the Government, and not by or through the bank corporations of the country ; and when so issued should be a full legal tender in payment of all debts, public and private. 328 JAMES A. GARFIELD : " * 2. Resolved, That, in the judgment of this House, that portion of the interest-bearing debt of the United States which shall become redeemMble in the year 1881, or prior thereto, being in amount $782,000,000, should not be refunded beyond the power of the Government to call in said obligations and pay them at any time, but should be paid as rapidly as possible, and according to contract. To enable the Government to meet these obligations, the mints of the United States should be operated to their full capacity in the coinage of standard silver dollars, and such other coinage as the business interests of the country may require.' " As soon as the Clerk had finished reading the resolu- tions. General Garfield rose, and said : . " Mr. Speaker. — I never heard the provisions of this' resolution until it was read from the desk a few moments ago. It has, however, attained some historical importance by being talked about a good deal in the newspapers, and by blocking the other business of the House for some weeks. As I listened to its reading I noticed that it is one of those mixed propositions which has some good things in it which everybody would probably like and vote for if they were separated ; but the good things are used to sugar over what, in my judgment, is most pernicious. " There are three things in this resolution to which I wish to caU the attention of the House before they vote. The first is a proposition of the largest possible propor- tion, that all money, whether of coin or paper, that is to circulate in this country, ought to be manufactured and issued directly by the Government. I stop there. I want to say on that proposition to the majority in this House, HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 329 who are so strongly opposed to what they call centraliza- tion, that never was there a measure offered to the Con- gress of so vast and far-reaching centralism. It would convert the Treasury of the United States into a manu- factory of paper money. It makes the House of Repre- sentatives and Senate, or the caucus of the party which happens to be in the majority, the absolute dictator of the financial and business affairs of this country. This scheme surpasses all the centralism and all the Ctesarism that were ever charged upon the Republican party in the wildest days of the war, or in the events growing out of the war. " Now, I say, without fear of contradiction, that prior to 1862 the wildest dreamer in American finance was never wild enough to propose such a measure of central- ization as that single proposition implies. The Govern- ment should prescribe general laws in reference to the quality and character of our paper money, but should never become the direct manufacturer and issuer of it. " The second point involved in this resolution is that the Government of the United States shall pay all its pubhc debts in this manufactured money, manufactured to order at the Treasury factory. Notwithstanding the solemn and acknowledged pledge of the Government to pay the principal and interest of its public debt in coin, this resolution declares that in this legal-tender paper the public debt shall be payable. " The third point I wish to call attention to — " Mr. Ewing. — Will my colleague allow me to inter- rupt him for a moment ? "Mr. Garfield.— Certainly. 330 JAMES A. GARFIELD : " Mr. Ewing. — You certainly misunderstand the reso- lution. It declares that all public debts of the United States shall be paid in the money of the contract, and not in any coin or money the Government may choose to pay them in. " Mr. Garfield. — Any money the Government may issue is by this resolution declared to be lawful money, and, therefore, is to be made the money of the contract by the legislation proposed to-day. " Mr. Ewing. — That is a mere quibble based on a total misconstruction of the resolution. *' Mr. Garfield. — Answer in your own time. " Now, the third point in this resolution is that there shall be no refunding of the $782,000,000 to fall due this year and next, but all that shall be paid. How ? Out of the resources of the nation ? Yes ; but the money to be manufactured at the Treasury is to be called part of these resources. Print it to death — that is the way to dispose of the public debt, says this res- olution. " I have only to say that these three make the triple- headed monster of centralization, inflation, and repudia- tion combined. This monster is to be let loose on the country as the last spawn of the d^ing party that thought it had a little life in it a year ago. It is put out at this moment to test the courage of the two political parlies; it is offered at this point when the roar of the Presiden- tial contest comes to us from all quarters of the country. In a few moments we shall see what the political parties will do with this beast. All I have to say, for one, is, meet and throttle it; in the name of honesty, in the HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 331 name of the public peace and prosperity, in the name of the rights of individual citizens of this country against centralism, worse than we ever dreamed of, meet it and fight it like men. Let both parties show their courage by meeting boldly and putting an end to its power for mischief. Let the vote be taken." On the 10th of April, 1880, the House being in Committee of the Whole on the Appropriation Bill, the following debate occurred between General Garfield and Mr. McMahon, of Ohio : " Mr. McMahon (Dem.), of Ohio, submitted an amend- ment repealing the sections of the statutes providing for the biennial examination of pensioners, but leaving with the commissioner power to order special examinations when necessary and to increase or reduce pensions in accordance with right and justice, but no pension shall be reduced without notice to the pensioner. The amend- ment concludes as follows : " ' In order to provide for the payment of arrears of pensions the Secretary of the Treasury is directed to issue immediately in payment thereof, as they may be adjusted, the $10,000,000 in legal tender currency now in the United States Treasury, kept as a special fund for the redemption of fractional currency.' " Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, raised the point of order that the amendment Wits not germane to the bill, changed ex- isting law, and did not retrench expenditures. If the amendment could be ruled in order a proposition to break wholly through the whole resumption business could be also ruled in order." 332 JAMES A. GARFIELD : SPEECH OF MR McMAHON. " Mr. McMahon, of Ohio, in advocacy of that por- tion of the amendment providing for the reissue of the $10,000,000 in the Treasury, said that he had been asked to go farther in that direction than he proposed ; but he had offered a proposition which, he thought, would be entirely unobjectionable on the Republican side of the House. Why should this $10,000,000 of idle money be kept in the Treasury when it was clear that all of the fractional currency (for the redemption of which this money was ostensibly held) had been redeemed ? Why should the pensioners be told that there was a defi- ciency in the Treasury, and that, therefore, their arrear- ages of pensions could not be paid ? He had been sur- prised to hear the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Garfield) make a point of order against the pensioners of the coun- try, because he had supposed that that gentleman owed an allegiance to them which was superior to that which he owed to Wall Street.* He made use of that language advisedly, because there were no people interested in keeping that $10,000,000 in the Treasury except those who were in favor of contracting the currency. The Secretary of the Treasury was a good deal like his col- league (Mr. Garfield), and was always in favor of ac- tion in the interest of capital. As an illustration of Mr. Sherman's financial policy he said, that if that gentleman were dying his last words would be ' Borrow money on government bonds to put up a tombstone over me.' The Treasury was loaded down with a reserve of $330,000,- 000 in gold and currency, and yet the Secretary of the HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 333 Treasury told the people that there must be either addi- tional taxes or an additional issue of bonds. Here were $10,000,000 now in the Treasury, a part of the reserve authorized by law. The purpose for which it has been placed there has long since passed away, and it should now be put out to pay the arrears of pensions instead of issuing $10,000,000 of bonds of which the interest would amount to $400,000 a year." EEPLY OF MR. GARFIELD. " Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, said that the attempt of his colleague (Mr. McMahon) to set himself up as the cham- pion of the pensioners, was quite too thin a disguise to deceive anybody. The Republican side of the House had tried again and again to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to extend the sales of four per cent, bonds suffi- ciently to cover the matter of the payment of the arrears of pensions, and the House, at the last session had been brought to a vote on that subject at least twice, and but for the resistance on the Democratic side of the House that proposition would have prevailed and the pensioners would have been paid their arrearages. The responsi- bility for not paying them rested, therefore, on those who resisted that proposition, not on those who made it. No man could torture anything which he had said to-day on the point of order into an unwillingness that the pension- ers should have their pensions paid or that all remedial legislation should be adopted to make their payment easy. It was quite too late in the day for his colleague to intimate that there was objection on his (Mr. Gar- field's) part to have the pensioners paid. He had made 334 JAMES A. GARFIELD : the point of order simply because he looked upon the amendment as an entering wedge, the general purpose of which was to break down the system of reserves, on which the maintenance of resumption depended. His colleague, whose distinguished knowledge as a financier no one would question, had amazed him very much by saying that the subsidiary currency played no part in the general problem of resumption. Did not his colleague know perfectly well that a subsidiary currency went to make up the bulk of circulating medium, just as much as greenbacks did, and just as much as gold did ? The re- lations between himself and his colleague had never been such as to warrant either in using an impolite or indecent expression toward the other, and therefore his colleague had no more right to say, either as a matter of fact or as a matter of fair inference, that he (Mr. Garfield) owed his allegiance to Wall Street than he would have a right to say that his colleague owed his allegiance to the grog- geries and whiskey shops of Dayton. And as he (Mr. Garfield) would not say that, he did not think that his colleague was entitled to say the other. " Mr. McMahon stated that he was tolerably familiar with his colleague's public career, and he asked his col- league whether in all the discussions that had taken place in this country on the financial question his colleague could show one vote of his that was not based upon the idea of speedy resumption, no matter at what cost, even when his colleague's own party had separated from him on that point in the forty-third Congress ? " Mr. Garfield replied that, according to his own notions of proper legislative praise, his colleague could HIS FINANCIAL RECORD. 335 not coiinterpraise him any more than in stating that he (Mr. Garfield) had always cast his vote in favor of the resumption of specie payment. If he ever had cast a vote which was not against all schemes to delay that un- necessarily, or to prevent it, then he had cast a vote of which his conscience and his judgment disapproved. [Applause on the Republican side.] He had cast as many votes as any member on the floor against Wall Street and against the business of gold gambling, which had been destroyed by resumption — g^ld gambling that had locked up $10,000,000 from the business capital of the country for fifteen years, locked it up away from all profitable investment and converted Wall Street into a faro hell. (Applause.) *' Mr. Bright (Dem.), of Tennessee. — Has not Wall Street been simply transferred to the Treasury of the United States. "Mr. Garfield. — I hope that enough of the gold and silver of the country that has been hitherto locked up in Wall Street for gold gambling purposes has been trans- ferred to the Treasury of the United States to break down the bulls and bears of Wall Street permanently and to maintain honest money in the country. (Applause.) *' Mr. McMahon inquired if it was wrong to order the $10,000,000 to be reissued, when under the law they should be paid out in redemption of fractional currency. " Mr. Garfield replied that if his colleague would in- quire and find out how much of that $10,000,000 could be spared, leaving enough to meet all the obligations of |the reserve, he would be willing to vote that surplus for the purpose of paying arrears of pensions." CHAPTER IX. the credit mobilier and de golyer charges general Garfield's triumphant vindication. History of the Credit Mobilier Scheme — The Pacific Railway — Government Aid extended to H. Oakes Ames' Connectioa with the Road — Congress Investigates the Credit Mobilier — General Garfield's sworn Testimony before the Committee — He denies all Improper Connection with the Scheme — Publishes a Review of the Case — An Exhaustive Discussion of the Case — Testimony in the Matter — General Garfield's Response to the Charges of 1872 — Mr. Ames' Testimony Analyzed — Mr. Ames' Memoranda — The Check on the Sergeant-at-Arms — General Garfield's In- terviews with Mr. Ames during the Investigation— •Conclusions — Trium- phant Vindication of General Garfield — All the Charges against him — Letter of Judge Poland — General Garfield Unanimously Acquitted of Wrong-doing — The De Golyer Pavement Company — Charges against General Garfield — His Triumphant Vindication of hia Course — The Truth established at last. It could hardly be expected that one who had taken such an active and prominent part in our public affairs should escape the attacks of slander. General Garfield has ex- perienced the fate of most public men. He has been misjudged, and false charges have been brought against him. Inasmuch as these charges have been made, it seems but just that we should reproduce them here, and then present General Garfield's triumphant and masterly vindication of his course. It was charged that he was a sharer in the unjust CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 337 profits of the Credit Mohilier ring in Congress. To un- derstand this question thoroughly it will be necessary to relate the history of that iniquitous scheme. One of the great public works of the Union, of which the whole country is justly proud, is the Pacific Rail- road, extending from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. The early history of the great road is a story of constant struggles and disappointments. It seemed to the soundest capitalists a mere piece of fool-hardiness to undertake to build a railroad across the continent and over the Rocky Mountains, and, although Government aid was liberally pledged to the undertaking, it did not, for a long time, attract to it the capital it needed. At length, after many struggles, the doubt which had attended the enterprise was ended. Capital was found, and with it men ready to carry on the work. In Sep- tember, 1864, a contract was entered into between the Union Pacific Company and H. W. Hoxie, for the build- ing by said Hoxie of one hundred miles of the road from Omaha west. Mr. Hoxie at once assigned this contract to a company, as had been the understanding from the first. This company, then comparatively unknown, but since very famous, was known as the Credit Mobilier of America. The company had bought up an old charter that had been granted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania to another company in that State, but which had not been used by them. " In 1865 or 1866, Oakes Ames, then a member of Congress from the State of Massachusetts, and his brother Oliver Ames, became interested in the Union Pacific Company, and also in the Credit Mobilier Com- 22 338 JAMES A. GARFIELD. pany, as the agent for the construction of the road. The Messrs. Ames were men of very large capital, and of known character and integrity in business. By their ex- ample and credit and the personal efforts of Mr. Oakes Ames, many men of capital were induced to embark in the enterprise, and to take stock in the Union Pacific Company, and also in the Credit Mobilier Company. Among them were the firm of S. Hooper & Co., of Boston, the leading member of which (Mr. Samuel Hooper) was then and is now a member of the House ; Mr, John B. Alley, then a member of the House from Massachusetts, and Mr. Grimes, then a senator from the State of Iowa. Notwithstanding the vigorous efforts of Mr. Ames and others interested with him, great difficulty was expe- rienced in securing the required capital. "In the spring of 1867, the Credit Mobilier Company voted to add fifty per cent, to their capital stock, which was then $2,500,000 ; and to cause it to be readily taken, each subscriber to it was entitled to receive as a bonus an equal amount of first mortgage bonds of the Union Pacific Company. The old stockholders were entitled to take this increase, but even the favorable terms offered did not induce all the old stockholders to take it, and the stock of the Credit Mobilier Company was never considered worth its par value until after the execution of the Oakes Ames contract hereinafter mentioned. On the 16th day of August, 1867, a contract was executed between the Union Pacific Railroad and Oakes Ames, by which Mr. Ames contracted to build 667 miles of the Union Pacific Road at prices ranging from $42,000 to $96,000 per mile, amounting in the aggregate to CREDIT JIOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 339 $47,000,000. Before the contract was entered into, it was understood that Mr. Ames was to transfer it to seven trustees who were to execute it, and the. profits of the contract were to be divided among the stockholders in the Credit Mobilier Company, who should comply with certain conditions set out in the instrument transferring the contract to the trustees. Subsequently, all the stock- hohlers of the Credit Mobilier Company complied with the conditions named in the transfer, and thus became entitled to share in any profits said trustees might make in executing the contract. All the large stockholders in the Union Pacific were also stockholders in the Credit Mobilier, and the Ames contract and its transfer to trustees were ratified by the Union Pacific and received the assent of the great body of stockholders, but not of all. After the Ames contract had been executed, it was expected by those interested that, by reason of the enormous prices agreed to be paid for the work, very large profits would be derived from building the road, and very soon the stock of the Credit Mobilier was un- derstood id be worth much more than its par value. The stock was not in the market, and had no fixed market value, but the holders of it, in December, 1867, considered it worth at least double the par value, and in January or February, 1868, three or four times the par value ; but it does not appear that these facts were generally or publicly known, or that the holders of the stock desired they should be." As will be seen from the above statement, the stock- holders of the Credit Mobilier were also stockholders in the Union Pacific Company. 340 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Like all great corporations of the present day, the Union Pacific Road was largely dependent upon the aid furnished by the Government for its success. The man- agers of the company, being shrewd men, succeeded in placing all the burdens and risks of the enterprise upon the General Government, while they secured to them- selves all the profits to be derived from the undertaking. 'The Railroad Company was endowed by Act of Con- gress with twenty alternate sections of land per mile, and had Government-loans of $16,000 per mile for about 200 miles ; thence $32,000 per mile through the Alkali Desert, about 600 miles, and thence in the Rocky Moun- tains $48,000 per mile. The railroad company issued stock to the extent of about $10,000,000. This stock was received by stockholders on their payment of five per cent, of its face. When the Credit Mobilier came on the scene, all the assets of the Union Pacific were turned over to the new company in consideration of full paid shares of the new company's stock and its agreement to build the road. The Government, meanwhile, had al- lowed its claim for its loan of bonds to become a second instead of a first mortgage, and permitted the Union Pacific Road to issue first mortgage bonds, which took precedence as a lien on the road. The Government lien thus became almost worthless, as the new mortgage, which took precedence, amounted to all the value of the road. The proceeds of this extraordinary transaction went to swell the profits of the Credit Mobilier, which had nothing to pay out except for the mere cost of con- struction. This also explains why some of the dividends of the latter company were paid in Union Pacific bonds. CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 341 As a result of these processes, the bonded debts of the railroad exceeded its cost by at least $40,000,000." Mr. Ames was deeply interested in the scheme, be- ing, indeed, one of its principal managers. Being a mem- ber of Congress, he was peculiarly prepared to appre- ciate the value of Congressional assistance in behalf of the Credit Mobilier. It would seem that the object of the Credit Mobilier was to drain money from the Pacific road, and consequently from the Government, as long as possible. Any legislation on the part of Congress de- signed to protect the interests of the Government, would, as a matter of course, be unfavorable to the Credit Mo- bilier, and it was the aim of that corporation to prevent all such legislation. The price agreed upon for building the road was so exorbitant, and afforded such an iniqui- tous profit to the Credit Mobilier, that it was very cer- tain that some honest friend of the people would demand that Congress should protect the Treasury against such spoliation. It was accordingly determined to interest in the scheme enough members of Congress to prevent any protection of the national treasuiy at the expense of the unlawful gains of the Credit Mobilier. Mr. Oakes Ames, being in Congress, undertook to secure the desired hold upon his associates. The plan was simply to secure them by bribing them, and for this purpose a certain portion of the Cr.'-dit Mitbilier stock was placed in the hands of Mr. Ames, as trustee, to be used by him as he thought best for the interests of the company. Provided with this stock, Mr. Ames went to Wash- ington, in December, 1867, at the opening of the session of Congress. " During that month," say the Poland 342 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Committee in their report, " Mr. Ames entered into con- tracts with a considerable number of members of Con- gress, both senators and representatives, to let them have shares of stock in the Credit Mobilier Company at par, with interest thereon from the first day of the pre- vious July. It does not appear that in any instance he asked any of these persons to pay a higher price than the par value and interest, nor that Mr. Ames used any spe- cial effort or urgency to get these persons to take it. In all these negotiations Mr. Ames did not enter into aijy de- tails as to the value of the stock, or the amount of divi- dend that might be expected upon it, but stated generally that it would be good stock, and in several instances said he would guarantee that they should get at least ten per cent, on their money. Some of these gentlemen, in their conversations with Mr. Ames, raised the question whether becoming holders of this stock would bring them into any embarrassment as members of Congress in their legisla- tive action. Mr. Ames quieted such suggestions by say- ing it could not, for the Union Pacific had received from Congress all the grants and legislation it wanted, and they should ask for nothing more. In some instances those members who contracted for stock paid to Mr. Ames the money for the price of the stock, par and interest; in others, where they had not the money, Mr. Ames agreed to * carry ' the stock for them until they could get the money, or it should be met by the dividends. Mr. Ames was at this time a large stockholder in the Credit Mobilier, but he did not intend any of those transactions to be sales of his own stock, but intended to fulfil all these contracts from stock belonging to the company." CREDIT MOBILLER — TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 343 "It is very easy," says the New York Tribune, "to see that under these circumstances the stock of the Credit Mobilier was a very handsome investment, provided it could be purchased at par. Here was wherein Oakes Ames was such a profitiible friend to Congressmen and senators. He let them in, as he phrases it, on the ground floor. They got their stock at par, and the divi- dends which were ready to be paid were more than enough to pay for tlie stock. This is what is called in Wall Street parlance making one hand wash the other. The actual value of the stock thus sold at $100 a share would have been to anybody out of the circle of Oakes Ames' friends not purchasable for less than $300 or $400. But there was a film of decency thrown over the transactions by Mr. Ames, in charging several months' interest upon the stock at the time it was sold to the members of Congress. This interest had accrued while he Wits holding it to see where it could be placed to the best advantage." The motive of Mr. Ames in thus " placing," as he termed it, this immensely profitable stock among the members of Congress, is thus stated by the Poland Com- mittee : " In relation to the purpose and motive of Mr. Ames in contracting to let members of Congress have Credit Mobilier stock at par, which he and all other owners of it considered worth at least double that sum, the committee, upon the evidence taken by them and sub- mitted to the House, cannot entertain a doubt. When he said he did not suppose the Union Pacific Company would ask or need further legislation, he stated \.hat 344 JAMES A. GARFIELD. he believed to be trae, but he feared the interests of the ight suffer by adverse legi road might suffer by adverse legislation, and what he desired to accomplish was to enlist strength and friends in Congress who would resist any encroachment upon or interference with the rights and privileges already secured, and to that end wished to create in them an interest identical with his own. This purpose is clearly avowed in his letters to McComb, copied in the evi- dence, where he says he intends to place the stock ' where it will do the most good to us,' and again, ' We want more friends in this Congress.' In his letter to McComb, and also in his statement prepared by coun- sel, he gives the philosophy of his action, to wit : That he has found there is no difficulty in getting men to look after their own property. The committee are also satisfied that Mr. Ames entertained a fear that when the true relations between the Credit JMobilier Com- pany and the Union Pacific became generally known, and the means by which the great profits expected to be made were fully understood, there was danger that Congressional investigation and action would be in- voked. The members of Congress with whom he dealt were generally those who had been friendly and favor- able to a Pacific railroad, and Mr. Ames did not fear or expect to find them favorable to movements hostile to it, but he desired to stimulate their activity and watch- fulness in opposition to any unfavorable action, by giv- ing them a personal interest in the success of the enter- prise, especially so far as it affected the interest of the Credit Mobilier Company. - " Cn the 9th day of December, 1867, Mr. C. C. CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 345 Wiishburn, of Wisconsin, introduced in the House a bill to regulate by law the rates of transportation over the Pacific railroads. Mr. Ames, as well as others interested in the Union Pacific Road, were opposed to this, and desired to defeat it. Other measures ap- parently hostile to that company were subsequently introduced into the House, by Mr. Washburn, of Wis- consin, and Mr. Washburn, of Illinois. The committee believe that Mr. Ames, in his distribution of the stock had specially in mind the hostile efforts of the Messrs. Washburn, and desired to gain strength to secure their defeat. The reference in one of his letters, to Wash- burn's move makes this quite apparent." " The more recent legislation," says the New York Tribune, "which Ames' transactions with members of Congress had reference to, may be stated in a few words. Secretary Boutwell insisted that half the earn- ings of the road in carrying mails and troops for the Government should be applied to the payment of in- terest on the loans that the Government had made to the road. The legislation obtained overruled the Sec- retary and enabled the road to postpone payment of interest until the bonds fell due — some thirty years hence. To sum up, it may be briefly stated that the Union Pacific and Credit Mobilier together got the pro- ceeds of liberal United States land grants, of donations of communities near the road, and the entire subsidy of Government bonds, as a clear profit. The proceeds of the mortgage bonds which displaced the Government lien, were sufficient to have built the road. To the original stockholders in the Union Pacific, the profit 346 JAMES A. GARFIELD. was something almost incredible. A share bought for $5 subscription became $100 Credit Mobilier, which paid, as we have seen in the evidence concerning the legislators who received it, dividends that amounted to at least treble its nominal value. It is, of course, evident that all legislation which favored the Union Pacific Railroad swelled the profits of the legislators who became stockholders in the Credit Mobilier. The awkwardness of this position was vastly increased by the thin disguise of purchase being torn away, under which the profit-bearing stock had been really the gift of Oakes Ames. The denial of the facts converted the transaction into a criminal act." Reduced to phdn English, the story of the Credit Mobilier is simply this : The men entrusted with the management of the Pacific Eoad made a bargain with themselves to build the road for a sum equal to about twice its actual cost, and pocketed the profits, which have been estimated at about Thirty Millions of Dol- lars — this immense sum coming out of the pockets of the taxpayers of the United States. This contract was made in October, 1867. '' On June 17, 1868, the stockholders of the Credit Mobilier received 60 per cent, in cash, and 40 per cent, in stock of the Union Pacific Railroad; on the 2d of July, 1868, 80 per cent, first mortgage bonds of the Union Pacific Railroad, and 100 per cent, stock ; July 3, 1868, 75 per cent, stock, and 75 per cent, first mort- gage bonds; September 3, 1868, 100 per cent, stock, and 75 per cent, first mortgage bonds ; December 19, 1868, 200 per cent, stock ; while, before this contract CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 347 was made, the stockholders had received, on the 26th of April, 1866, a dividend of 100 per cent, in stock of the Union Pacific Railroad; on the 1st of Aj^ril, 1867, 50 per cent, of first mortgage bonds were dis- tributed; on the 1st of July, 1867, 100 per cent, in stock again." After offering this statement, it is hardly necessary to add that the vast property of the Pacific Road, which should have been used to meet its engagements, was soon swallowed up by the Credit Mobilier. This is the story of the Credit Mobilier, as far as the fiicts have been permitted to become known. We shall now see how it came to make such a noise in the world. Mr. Ames was not the only member of the company engaged in " placing " the stock where it would benefit the corporation. Dr. Durant, the President of the Pacific Railway, was engaged in securing his friends in the same way, and he received a portion of the stock to be used in this manner. Mr. Henry S. McComb, of Delaware, who was also interested in the scheme, now put in his claim for a part of the stock, which was being used as a cor- ruption fund, " for his friends." His claim involved him in a quarrel with Oakes Ames, and Colonel McComb had the mortification of seeing the stock he claimed assigned to Mr. Ames, for the use o^ his friends. In the summer of 1872, in the midst of the Presiden- tial campaign, the quarrel between Ames and McComb reached such a point, that it was impossible to keep it quiet. McComb made public the facts in the case, and published a list of the Congressmen with whom Ames had said he had *' placed " the stock, naming the number 348 JAMES A. GARFIELD. of shares sold to each. These were : — Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States; Henry Wilson, Sen- ator from Massachusetts ; James W. Patterson, Senator from New Hampshire ; John A. Logan, Senator from Illinois; James G. Blaine, Member of Congress from Maine, and Speaker of the House of Representatives; W. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania; James A. Garfield, of Ohio ; J.'imes Brooks, of New York ; John A. Bingham, of Ohio; Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts ; Glenui W. Scofiehl, of Pennsylvania, and one or two others, who were not at the time of the exposure members of Con- As may be supposed, the publication of the charges, and the list of names, created a storm of excitement throughout the country. The members implicated, as a rule, indignantly denied the charge of having purchased or owned Cr^jdit Mobilier stock. They declared them- selves incapable of holding such stock, as it would have been, they said, a high crime against morality and de- cency to be connected in any way with the Credit Mo- bilier. These denials were generally accepted. The per- sons making them had always borne high characters for veracity and integrity. Partisan orators and newspapers made the most of the charges, and made them so odious that the persons implicated repeated their denials with more earnestness. "When Congress assembled, in December, 1872, Mr. Blaine, the Speaker of the House, wishing to vindicate his character, which he declared had been unjustly as- sailed, asked the House of Representatives to appoint a committee to inquire into the charges of Ames and CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 349 McComb, and to report the result of their investigations. The committee was appointed, with Mr. Poland, of Ver- mont, as its chairman. An effort was made to conduct the investigation in secret ; but the indignant public de- manded and obtained an open trial. On the 18th of February, 1873, the committee reported to the House the result of its investigation. General Garfield was one of those charged with par- ticipating in the corrupt profits of the Credit Mohilier. He made public an emphatic denial of the charge, and cordially aided in the effort to have the charges investi- gated and the truth brought to light. Feeling that he had nothing to conceal, he was anxious that the most searching inquiry should be made into the matter. On the 14th of January, 1873, he appeared before the in- vestigating committee, and testified as follows, under oath : " The first I ever heard of the Credit Mobilier was sometime in 1866 or 1867 — I cannot fix the date — when George Francis Train called on me and said he was or- ganizing a company to be known as the Credit Mobilier of America, to be formed on the model of the Credit Mobilier of France ; that the object of the company was to purchase lands and build houses along the line of the Pacific Railroad at points where cities and villages were likely to spring up ; that he had no doubt that money thus invested would double or treble itself each year; that subscriptions were limited to $1,000 each, and he wished me to subscribe. He showed me a long list of subscribers, among them Mr. Oakes Ames, to whom he referred me for further information concerning the enter- 350 JAMES A. GARFIELD. prise. I answered that I had not the money to spare, and if I had I would not subscribe without knowing more about the proposed organization. Mr. Train left me, sajdng he would hold a place open for me, and hoped I would conclude to subscribe. The same day I asked Mr. Ames what he thought of the enterprise. He expressed the opinion that the investment would be safe and profit- able. " I heard nothing further on the subject for a year or more, and it was almost forgotten, when sometime, I should say during the long session of 18G8, Mr. Ames spoke of it again, said the company had organized, was doing well, and, he thought, would soon pay large divi- dends. He said that some of the stock was left, or was to be left, in his hands to sell, and I could take the amount which Mr. Train had offered me by paying the $1,000 and accrued interest. He said if I was not able to pay for it he would hold it for me until I could pay or until some of the dividends were payable. I told him I would consider the matter, but would not agree to take any stock until I knew, from an examination of the char- ter and the conditions of the subscription, the extent to which I would become pecuniarily liable. He said he was not sure, but thought a stockholder would only be liable for the par value of his stock ; that he had not the stock and papers with him, but would have them after awhile. From the case as presented I should probably have taken the stock if I had been satisfied in regard to the extent of pecuniary liability. Thus the matter rested, I think, until the following year. During that interval I under- stood that there were dividends due amounting to nearly' CREDIT MOBILIER— TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 351 fchree times the par value of the stock. But in the mean- time I had heard that the company was involved in some controversy with the Pacific Railroad and that Mr. Ames' right to sell the stock was denied. When I next saw Mr. Ames I told him I had concluded not to take the stock. There the matter ended, so far as I was con- cerned, and I had no further knowledge of the company's operations until the subject began to be discussed in the newspapers last fall (1872). Nothing was ever said to me by Mr. Train or Mr. Ames to indicate or imply that the Credit Mobilier was or could be in any way con- nected with the legislation of Congress for the Pacific Railroad or any other purpose. Mr. Ames never gave nor offered to give me any stock or other valuable thing as a gift. I once asked and obtained from him, and afterwards repaid to him, a loan of $300 ; that amount is the only valuable thing I ever received from or delivered to him. I never owned, received, or agreed to receive any stock of the Credit Mobilier or of the Union Pacific Railroad, nor any dividends or profits arising from either of them." Not content with denying the charges against him under oath, General Garfield, on the 3d of March, 1873, gave notice in the House that he should publish a review of the matter, and a full vindication of his course. In May, 1873, he published the following review. We reproduce it entire, notwithstanding its length, as it is of the greatest importance to those who would know the true history of the case. The old charges will be revived and used during the Presidential campaign by partisan enemies of the Republican candidate, and it is 352 JAMES A. GARFIELD. only right that every friend of General Garfield should have his masterly and unanswerable vindication at hand. The review was prefaced with the following note : " Since this review was written, the telegraph has announced the death of Mr. Ames. This circumstance may raise a question as to the propriety of publishing this paper ; but I gave notice in the House of Repre- sentatives, on the 3d of March last, that I should pub- lish such a review, and I then indicated its scope and character. Furthermore, justice to the living cannot wrong the memory of the dead. " In revising these pages, as they are passing through the press, I am glad to find no expressions, prompted by a spirit of bitterness, which the presence of death re- quires me to erase. " J. A. Garfield." "Washington, D. C, May 8, 1873." REVIEW OF THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE CREDIT MOBILIER COMPANY, / And an Examination of that Portion of the Testimony \ taken by the Committee of Investigation and reported to the House of Representatives at the last session of the forty-second Congress, which relates to Mr. Garfield. The events of the late winter recall forcibly a decla- ration made more than twenty-two centuries ago, by a man who possessed a profound knowledge of human na- ture and society. In answering a grave charge made CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 353 against his public conduct, he said he did not stand on equal ground with his accusers, for the reason that people listen to accusation more readily than to defence. This remark has sometimes been thought cynical and unjust ; but there is much in our recent history that gives it force. In no period of the political life of this country has the appetite for scandal been keener, or its exercise less restrained, than during the last year. One of our most brilliant and influential journalists, in an address delii'- ered a few days since to a convention of his professional brethren in Indiana, while speaking of the present tone of the press, used this emphatic language : The law presumes a man to be innocent until he is proved guilty. The press, not merely usurping the functions of the law in ar- raigning a man whom the constable has no warrant to arrest, goes still farther, and assumes him, prima facie, to be guilty. After many weeks, if the case of the accused comes to trial, he is ac- quitted ; the law makes him an honest man ; but there is the newspaper which has condemned him, and cannot, with a dozen retractions, erase the impression left and the damage done by a single paragraph. It might not be becoming in a layman, who feels in his own case the force of this paragraph, to volunteer such a declaration ; but it is quite proper for him to tes- tify to its truth when thus forcibly stated. This paragraph from the address of the journalist finds a striking illustration in the history of the subject now under review. In the autumn of 1872, during the excitement of the Presidential campaign, charges of the most serious 23 354 JAMES A. GARFIELD. character were made against ten or twelve persons who were then, or had recently been, senators and represen- tatives in Congress, to the effect that, five years ago, they had sold themselves for sundry amounts of stock of the Credit Mobilier Company and bonds of the Pacific Railroad Company. The price at which different mem- bers were alleged to have bartered away their personal honor and their official influence was definitely set down in the newspapers ; their guilt was assumed, and the public vengeance was invoked not only upon them, but also upon the party to which most of them belonged. CEEDIT MOBILIER INVESTIGATION. By a resolution of the House, introduced by one of the accused members, and adopted on the first day of the late session, an investigation of these charges was or- dered. The parties themselves and many other wit- nesses were examined ; the records of the Credit Mobi- lier Company and of the Pacific Railroad Company were produced ; and the results of the investigation were reported to the House on the 18th of February. The report, with the accompanying testimony, was brought up in the House for consideration on the 25th of Feb- ruary, and the discussion was continued until the sub- ject was finally disposed of, three days before the close of the session. The investigation was scarcely begun before it was manifest that the original charge, that stock was given to members as a consideration for their votes, was wholly abandoned, there being no proof whatever to support it. But the charge assumed a new form, namely : That CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 355 the stock bad been sokl to members, at a price known to be greatly below its actual value, for the purpose of se- curing their legislative influence in favor of those who were managing and manipulating the Pacific Railroad for their own private advantage and to the injury both of the trust and of the United States. Eight of those against whom charges had been made in the public press, myself among the number, were still members of the House of Representatives, and were specially men- tioned in the report. The committee recommended the adoption of resolutions for the expulsion of Messrs. Ames and Brooks, the latter on charges in no way con- nected with Mr. Ames or the other members mentioned. They recommended the expulsion of Mr. Ames for an attempt to influence the votes and decisions of mem- bers of Congress by interesting them in the stock of the Credit Mobilier, and through it in the stock of the Union Pacific Railroad. They found that though Mr. Ames in no case disclosed his purpose to these mem- bers, yet he hoped so to enlist their interest that they would be inclined to favor any legislation in aid of the Pacific Railroad and its interests, and that he declared to the managers of the Credit Mobilier Company at the time that he was thus using the stock which had been placed in his hands by the company. Concerning the members to whom he had sold, or offered to sell, the stock, the committee say that they " do not find that Mr. Ames, in his negotiations with the persons above named, entered into any detail of the relations between the Credit Mobilier Company and the Union Pacific Company, or gave them any specific in- 356 JAMES A. GARFIELD. formation as to the amount of dividends they would be likely to receive farther than has been already stated, [viz., that in some cases he had guaranteed a profit of ten per cent.] . . . They do not find as to the members of the present House above named, that they were aware of the object of Mr. Ames, or that they had any other purpose in taking this stock than to make a profitable investment. . . . They have not been able to find that any of these members of Congress have been afi'ected in their official action in consequence of interest in the Credit Mobilier stock. . . . They do not find that either of the above-named gentlemen in contracting with Mr. Ames had any corrupt motive or purpose himself or was aware Mr. Ames had any. Nor did either of them suppose he was guilty of any impropriety or even in- delicacy in becoming a purchaser of this stock." And finally, that "the committee find nothing in the con- duct or motives of either of these members in taking this stock, that calls for any recommendation by the committee of the House." (See pp. viii. ix. x.) In the case of each of the six members just referred to, the committee sum up the results of the testimony, and from that summary the conclusions above quoted are drawn. In regard to me, the committee find : That, in December, 1867, or January, 1868, I agreed to pur- chase ten shares of Credit Mobilier stock of Mr. Ames, for $1,U00, and the accrued interest from the previous July; that in June, 1868, Mr. Ames paid me a check on the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House for $329, as a balance of dividends on the stock, above the purchase- price and accrued interest; and that thereafter, there CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 357 were no pfiyments or other transactions between us, or any communication on the subject until the investigation began in December last. (See Report, p. vii.) I took the first opportunity offered by the completion of public business to call the attention of the House to the above summary of the testimony in reference to me. On the 3d of March I made the following remarks, in the House of Representatives, as recorded in the Con- gressional Globe for that day : Mr. Garfield, of Ohio. — I rise to a personal explanation. Dur- ing the late investigation by the committee of which the gentle- man from Vermont (Mr. Poland) was the chairman, I pursued what seemed to be the plain path of duty, to keep silence except when I was called upon to testify before the committee. When testimony was given which appeared to be in conflict with mine, I waited, expecting to be called again if anything was needed from me in reference to these discrepancies. I was not recalled ; and when the committee submitted their report to the House, a con- siderable portion of the testimony relating to me had not been printed. In the discussion which followed here I was prepared to sub- mit some additional facts and considerations in case my own con- duct came up for consideration in the House j but the whole sub- ject was concluded without any direct reference to myself, and since then the whole time of the House has been occupied with the public business. I now desii-e to make a single remark on this subject in the hearing of the House. Though the committee acquitted me of all charges of corruption in action or intent, yet there is in the report a summing up of the facts in relation to me which I respectfully protest is not warranted by the testimony. I say this with the utmost respect for the committee, and without intending any reflection upon them. I cannot now enter upon the discussion ; but I propose, before long, to make a statement to the public, setting forth more fully the grounds of my dissent from the summing up to which I have 358 JAMES A. GARFIELD. referred. I will only say now that the testimony which I gave before the committee is a si.atement of the facts in the case as I have understood them from the beginning. More than three years ago, on at least two occasions, I stated the case to two per- sonal friends substantially as I stated it before the committee, and I here add that nothing in my conduct or conversation has at any time been in conflict with my testimony. For the present I de- sire only to place on record this declaration and notice. In pursuance of this notice, I shall consider so much of the history of the Credit Mobilier Company as has any relation to myself. To render the discussion intel- ligible, I will first state briefly the offences which that corporation committed, as found by the committees of the House. HISTOEY OF THE CREDIT MOBILIER COMPANY. The Credit Mobilier Company is a corporation organ- ized under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, and authorized by its charter to purchase and sell various kinds of securities and to make advances of money and credit to railroad and other improvement companies. Its charter describes a class of business which, if honestly conducted, any citizen may properly engage in. On the 16th of August, 1867, Mr. Oakes Ames made a contract with the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany to build six hundred and sixty-seven miles of road, from the one hundredth meridian westv/ard, at rates rang- ing from $42,000 to $96,000 per mile. For executing this contract he was to receive in the aggregate $47,925,000, in cash or in the securities of the company. On the 15th of October, a triple contract was made between Mr. Ames of the first party seven persons as CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 359 trustees of the second part, and the Cr.'dit Mobilier Com- pany of the third part, by the terms of which the Credit Mobilier Company was to advance money to build the road, and to receive thereon seven per cent, interest and two and a half per cent, commission ; the seven trustees were to execute the Ames contract, and the profits there- on were to be divided among them, and such other stock- holders of the Credit Mobilier Company as should deliver to them an irrevocable proxy to vote the stock of the Union Pacific held by them. The principal stockholders of the Credit Mobilier Company were also holders of a majority of the stock of the Union Pacific Railroad. On the fiice of this agreement, the part to be per- formed by the Credit Mobilier Company as a corporation was simple and unobjectionable. It was to advance money to the contractors and to receive therefor about ten per cent, as interest and commission. This explains how it was that in a suit in the courts of Pennsylvania in 1870, to collect the State tax on the profits of the company, its managers swore that the company had never declared dividends to an aggregate of more than twelve present. The company proper did not receive the profits of the Oakes Ames contract. The profits were paid only to the seven trustees and to such stockholders of the Credit Mobilier as had delivered to them the proxies on their Pacific Railroad stock. In other words, a ring in- side the Credit Mobilier obtained the control both of that corporation and of the profits of the Ames contract. By a private agreement made in writing October 16, 1867, the day after the triple contract was signed, the seven trustees pledged themselves to each other so to 360 JAMES A. GARFIELD. vote all the Pacific Railroad stock which they held in their own right or by proxy, as to keep in power all the members of the then existing board of directors of the railroad company not appointed by the President of the United States, or such other persons as said board should nominate. By this agreement, the election of a majority of the directors was wholly within the power of the seven trustees. From all this it resulted that the Ames con- tract and the triple agreement made in October amounted in fact to a contract made by seven leading stockholders of the Pacific Railroad Company with themselves ; so that the men who fixed the price at which the road was to be built were the same men who would receive the profits of the contract. The wrong in this transaction consisted, first in the fact that the stockholding directors of the Pacific Rail- road, being the guardians of a great public trust, con- tracted with themselves; and, second, that they paid themselves an exorbitant price for the work to be done, a price which virtually brought into their own possession, as private individuals, almost all the property of the rail- road company. The six hundred and sixty-seven miles covered by the contract included one hundred and thirty- eight miles already completed, the profits on which inured to the benefit of the contractors. (See Report of Credit Mobilier Committee, No. 2, p. xiii.) The Credit Mobilier Company had already been en- gaged in various enterprises before the connection with the Ames contract. George Francis Train had once been the principal owner of its franchises, and it had owned some western lands (Wilson's Report, pp. 497, 8) ; but '^^ CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 361 its enterprises had not been very remunerative, and its stock had not been worth par. The triple contract of October, 1867, gave it at once considerable adilitional value. It should be borne in mind, however, that the relations of the Credit Mobilier Company to the seven trustees, to the Oakes Ames contract, and to the Pacific Railroad Company, were known to but few persons until long afterward, and that it was for the interest of the parties to keep them secret. Indeed, nothing was known of it to the general public until the facts were brought out in the recent investigations. In view of the facts above stated, it is evident that a purchaser of such shares of Credit Mobilier stock as were brought under the operation of the triple contract would be a sharer in the profits derived by that arrangement from tlie assets of the Pacific Railroad, a large part of which consisted of bonds and lands granted to the road by the United States. The holding of such stock by a member of Congress would depend for its moral qualities wholly upon the fact whether he did or did not know of the arrangement out of which the profits would come. If he knew of the fraudulent arrangement by which the bonds and lands of the United States delivered to the Union Pacific Railroad Company for the purpose of con- structing its road were to be paid out at enormously extravagant rates, and the proceeds to be paid out as dividends to a ring of stockholders made the Credit Mo- bilier Company, he could not with any propriety hold such stock, or agree to hold it, or any of its proceeds. And for a member of Congress, knowing the facts, to hold under advisement a proposition to buy tKis stock would 362 JAMES A. GARFIELD. be morally as wrong as to hold it and receive the profits upon it. If it was morally wrong to purchase it, it was morally wrong to hesitate whether to purchase it or not. I put the case on the highest ethical ground, and ask that this rule be applied in all its severity in judging of my relations on this subject. PROPOSITIONS TO BE DISCUSSED. The committee found, as already stated, that none of the six members to whom Mr. Ames sold, or proposed to sell, the stock, knew of this arrangement. I shall, how- ever, discuss the subject only in so far as relates to me, and shall undertake to establish three propositions : First. That I never purchased nor agreed to pur- chase the stock, nor received any of its dividends. Second. That though an offer was made, which I had some time under advisement, to sell me $1,000 worth of the stock, I did not then know, nor had I the means of knowing, the real conditions with which the stock was connected, or the method by which its profits were to be made. Third. That my testimony before the committee is a statement of the facts as I have always understood them ; and that neither before the committee nor elsewhere has there been, on my part, any prevarication or evasion on the subject. MR. GARFIELD'S TESTIMONY. My testimony was delivered before the investigating committee on the 14th of January. That portion which precedes the cross-examination, I had written out soon CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 363 after the committee was appointed. I quote from it, with the cross-examiaation, in full, as found recorded on pp. 128 to 131: Washington, D. C, January 14, 1875. J. A. Garfield, a member of the United States House of llepre- sentatives, from the State of Ohio, having been duly sworn, made the following statement : The first I ever heard of the Credit Mobilier was sometime in 1866 or 1867 — I cannot fix the date — when George Francis Train called on me and said he was organizing a company to be known as the Credit Mobilier of America, to be formed on the model of the Credit Mobilier of France ; that the object of the company was to purchase land and build houses along the line of the Pa- cific Railroad at points where cities and villages were likely to spring up ; that he had no doubt that money thus invested would double or treble itself each year ; that subscripcions were limited to $1,000 each, and he wished me to subscribe. He showed me a long list of subscribers, among them Mr. Oakes Ames, to whom he referred me for further information concerning the enterprise. I answered that I had not the money to spare, and if I had I would not subscribe without knowing more about the proposed organization. Mr. Train lefc me, saying he would hold a place open for me, and hoped I would yet conclude to subscribe. The same day I asked Mr. Ames what he thought of the enterprise. He expressed the opinion that the investment would be safe and profitable. 1 heard nothing further on the subject for a year or more, and it was almost forgotten, when sometime, I should say, during the long session of 1868, Mr. Ames spoke of it again ; said the com- pany had organized, was doing well, and he thought would soon pay large dividends. He said that some of the stock had been left or was to be left in his hands to sell, and I could take the amount which Mr. Train had offered me, by paying the $1,000 and the aiccrued interest. He said if I was not able to pay for it then, he would hold it for me till I could ^pay, or until some of the dividends were payable. I told him I would consider the 364 JAMES A. GARFIELD. matter ; but would not agree to take any stock until I knew, froni an examination of the character and the conditions of the sub- scription, the extent to which I should become pecuniarily liable. He said he was not sure, but thought a stockholder would be liable only for the par value of his stock ; that he had not the stock and papers with him, but would have them after a while. From the case, as presented, I should probably have taken the stock if I had been satisfied in regard to the extent of pecuniary liability. Thus the matter rested for some time, I think until the following year. During that interval I understood that there were dividends due amounting to nearly three times the par value of the stock. But in the meantime I had heard that the com- pany was involved in some controversy with the Pacific Railroad, and that Mr. Ames's right to sell the stock was denied. When I next saw Mr. Ames I told him I had concluded not to take the stock. There the matter ended, so far as I was concerned, and I had no further knowledge of the company's operations until the subject began to be discussed in the newspapers last fall. Nothing was ever said to me by Mr. Train or Mr. Ames to in- dicate or imply that the Credit Mobilier was or could be in any way connected with the legislation of Congress for the Pacific Railroad or for any other purpose. Mr. Ames never gave, nor offered to give, me any stock or other valuable thing as a gift. I once asked and obtained from him, and afterwards repaid to him, a loan of $300 ; that amount is the only valuable thing I ever re- ceived from or delivered to him. I never owned, received, or agreed to receive any stock of the Credit Mobilier or of the Union Pacific Railroad, nor any divi- dends or profits arising from either of them. By the Chairman : Question. Had this loan you speak of any connection in any way with your conversation in regard to the Credit Mobilier §tock ? Answer. No connection in any way except in regard to the time of payment. Mr. Ames stated to me that if I concluded to sub- scribe for the Credit Mobilier stock, I could allow the loan to re- CREDIT MOBILIER — TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 365 main until the payment on that was adjusted. I never regarded it as connected in any other way with the stock enterprise. Q. Do you remember the time of that transaction ? A. I do not remember it precisely. I should think it was in the session of 1868. I had been to Europe the fall before and was in debt, and borrowed several sums of money at different times and from dif- ferent persons. This loan from Mr. Ames was not at his instance. I made the request myself. I think I had asked one or two per- sons before him for the loan. Q. Have you any knowledge in reference to any dealings of Mr. Ames with any gentlemen in Congress in reference to the stock of the Credit Mobilier ? A. No, sir ; I have not. I had no knowledge that Mr. Ames had ever talked with anybody but myself. It was a subject I gave but little attention to ; in fact, many of the details had almost passed out of my mind until they were called up in the late campaign. By Mr. Black: Q. Did you say you refused to take the stock simply because there was a lawsuit about it ? A. No; not exactly that. I do not remember any other reason which I gave to Mr. Ames than that I did not wish to take stock in anything that would involve controversy. I think I gave him no other reason than that. Q. When you ascertained the relation that this company had with the Union Pacific Eailroad Company, and whence its profits were to be derived, would you have considered that a sufficient reason for declining it irrespective of other considerations ? A. It would have been as the case was afterwards stated. Q. At the time you talked with Mr. Ames, before you rejected the proposition, you did not know whence the profits of the com- pany were to be derived ? A. I did not. I do not know that Mr. Ames withheld, intentionally, from me any information. I had derived my original knowledge of the organization of the company from Mr. Train. He made quite an elaborate statement of its purposes, and I proceeded in subsequent conversations upon the supposition that the organization was unchanged. I ought to say for myself, as well as for Mr. Ames, that he never said any 366 JAMES A. GARFIELD. word to me that indicated the least desire to influence my legis- lative action in any way. If he had any such purpose, he cer- tainly never said anything to me which would indicate it. Q. You know now, and have known for a long time, that Mr. Ames was deeply interested in the legislation on this subject ? A. I supposed that he was largely interested in the Union Pacific Railroad. I have heard various statements to that effect. I can- not say I had any such information of my own knowledge. Q. You mean that he did not electioneer with you or solicit your vote ? A. Certainly not. None of the conversations I ever had with him had any reference to such legislation. By Mr. Merrick : Q. Have you any knowledge of any other member of Congress being concerned in the Credit Mobilier stock ? A. No, sir ; I have not. Q. Or any stock in the Union Pacific Railroad ? A. I have not. I can say to the committee that I never saw, I believe, in my life, a certificate of stock of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, and I never saw any certificate of stock of the Credit Mobilier, until Mr. Brooks exhibited one, a few days ago, in the House of Representatives. Q. Were any dividends ever tendered to you on the stock of the Credit Mobilier upon the supposition that you were to be a subscriber ? A. No, sir. Q. This loan of $300 you have repaid, if I understand you correctly ? A. Yes, sir. By Mr. McCrary : Q. You never examined the charter of the Credit Mobilier to see what were its objects ? A. No, sir ; I never saw it. Q. If I understood you, you did not know that the Credit Mo* bilier had any connection with the Union Pacific Railroad Com- pany ? A. I understood from the statement of Mr. Train that its objects were connected with the lands of the Union Pacific Rail- road Company and the development and settlements along that road ; but that it had any relation to the Union Pacific Railroad, CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 367 other than that, I did not know. I think I did hear also that tlie company was investing some of its earnings in the bonds of the road. Q. He stated it was for the purpose of purchasing land and building houses ? A. That was the statement of Mr. Train. I think he said in that connection that he had already been doing something of that kind at Omaha, or was going to do it. Q. You did not know that the object was to build the Union Pacific Railroad ? A. No, sir ; I did not. This is the case as I understand it, and as I have always understood it. In reviewing it, after all that has been said and written during the past winter, there are no substantial changes which I could now make, except to render a few points more definite. Few men can be certain that they give with absolute correctness the de- tails of conversations and transactions after a lapse of five years. Subject to this limitation I have no doubt of the accuracy of my remembrance concerning this transaction. From this testimony it will be seen that when Mr. Ames offered to sell me the stock in 1867-68, my only knowledge of the character and objects of the Credit Mo- bilier Company was obtained from Mr. Train, at least as early as the winter of 1866-67, long before the company had become a party to the construction contract. It has been said that I am mistaken in thinking it was the Credit Mobilier that Mr. Train offered me in 1866-67. I think I am not. Mr. Durant, in explaining his con- nection with the Credit Mobilier Company, says (pp. 169, 170) : I sent Mr. Train to Philadelphia. We wanted it (the Credit Mobilier) for a stock operation, but we could not agree what was 368 JAMES A. GARFIELD. to be done with it. Mr. Train proposed to go on an expanded scale, but I abandoned it. I think Mr. Train got some subscrip- tions ; what they were I do not know. It has been said that it is absurd to suppose that in- telligent men, familiar with public affairs, did not under- stand all about the relation of the Credit Mobilier Com- pany to the Pacific Railroad Company. It is a sufficient answer to say that, until the present winter, a few men either in or out of Congress ever understood it, and it was for the interest of those in the management of that arrangement to prevent these facts from being known. This will appear from the testimony of the Hon. J. F. Wilson, who purchased ten shares of the stock in 1868. In the spring of 1869 he was called upon professionally to give an opinion as to the right of holders of Pacific Railroad stock to vote their own shares, notwithstand- ing the proxy they had given to the seven trustees. To enable him to understand the case, a copy of the triple contract was placed in his hands. He says (page 213) : Down to the time these papers were placed in my hands, I knew almost nothing of the organization and details of the Credit Mobilier, or the value of its stock, but then saw that here was abundant ground for future trouble and litigation, and, as one of the results, sold out my interest. And again (p. 216) : Q. Do you, or did you know, at the time you had this nego- tiation with Mr. Ames, the value of the Credit Mobilier stock ? A. I did not ; and I wish to state here, in regard to that, that it was a very ditficulc thing to ascertain what was the value of the stock. Tiiose who, as I say in my statement, possessed the secrets 1 CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATIOX. 369 of the Credit Mobilier, kept them to themselves ; and I never was able to get any definite information as to what the value of the stock was. When, in the winter of 1867-68, Mr. Ames proposed to sell me some of the stock, I regarded it as a mere repe- tition of the offer made by Mr. Train more than a year before. The company was the same, and the amount offered me was the same. Mr. Ames knew it had for- merly been offered me, for I had then asked him his opinion of such an investment; and having understood the objects of the company, as stated by Mr. Train, I did not inquire further on that point. There could not be the slightest impropriety in taking the stock, had the objects of the company been such jis Mr. Train represented them to me. The only question on which I then hesitated was that of the personal pe- cuniary liability attaching to a subscription ; and, to- settle that question, I asked to see the charter, and the conditions on which the stock we're based. I have no< doubt Mr. Aqjes expected I would subscribe. But more than a year passed without further discussion of the sub- ject. The papers were not brought, and the purchase never was made. In the winter of 1869-70, I received the first intima- tion I ever had of the real nature of the connection be- tween the Credit Mobilier Company and the Pacific Rail- road Company, in a private conversation with the Hon. J. S. Black, of Pennsylvania. Finding in the course of that conversation that he was familiar with the history of the enterprise, I told him all I knew about the matter, and informed him of the offer that had been made me. He 24 370 JAMES A. GARFIELD. expressed the opinion that the managers of the Credit Mobilier were attempting to defraud the Pacific Railroad Company, and informed me that Mr. Ames was pretend- ing to have sold stock to members of Congress, for the purpose of influencing their action in any legislation that might arise on the subject. Though I had neither done nor said anything which placed me under any obligation to take the stock, I at once informed Mr. Ames that if he was still holding the offer open to me he need do so no longer, for I would not take the stock. This I did immediately after the con- versation with Judge Black, which according to his own recollection as well as mine, was early in the winter of 1869-70. One circumstance has given rise to a painful conflict of testimony between Mr. Ames and myself. I refer to the loan of $300. Among the various criticisms that have been made on this subject, it is said to be a suspi- cious circumstance that I should have borrowed so small a sum of money from Mr. Ames about this time. As stated in my testimony, I had just returned from Europe, only a few days before the session began, and the ex- penses of the trip had brought me short of funds. I might have alluded in the same connection to the fact, that before going abroad I had obtained money from a banker in New York, turning over to him advanced drafts for several months of my Congressional salary when it should be due. And needing a small sum, early in the session, for current expenses, I asked it of Mr. Ames, for the reason that he had volunteered to put me in the way of making what he thought would be a profitable invest- CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 371 merit. He gave me th6 money, asking for no receipt, but saying at the time that if I concluded to take the stock we would settle both matters together. I am not able to fix the exact date of the loan, but it was probably in January, 1868. Mr. Ames seemed to have forgotten this circum- stance until I mentioned it to him after the investigation began ; for he said in his first testimony (p. 28) that he had forgotten tliat he had let me have any money. I neglected to pay him this money until after the conver- sation with Judge Black, partly because of my pecu- niary embarrassments, and partly because no conclusion had been reached in regard to the purchase of the stock. When I repaid him I took no receipt, as I had given none at the first. Mr. Ames said once or twice, in the course of his testimony, that I did not repay it, although he says in regard to it, on page 358, that he does not know and cannot remember. ADDITIONAL TESTIMONY. On these differences of recollection between Mr. Ames and myself, it is not so important to show that my statement is the correct one, as to show that I have made it strictly in accordance with my understanding of the facts. And this I am able to show by proof entirely independent of my own testimony. In the spring of 1868, the Hon. J. P. Robison, of Cleveland, Ohio, was my guest here in Washington, and spent nearly two weeks with me during the trial of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. There has existed 372 JAMES A. GARFIELD. between us an intimate acquaintance of long standing, and I have often consulted him on business affairs. On meeting him since the adjournment of Congress, he in- forms me that while he was visiting me on the occasion referred to, I stated to him the offer of Mr. Ames, and asked him his opinion of it. The following letter, just received from him, states the conversation as he remem- bers it : Cleveland, Ohio, May 1, 1873. Dear General : — I send you the facts concerning a conversa- tion which I had with you (I think in the spring of 1868). when I was stopping in Washington for some days, as your guest, during the trial of the impeachment of President Johnson. While there, you told me that Mr. Ames had offered you a chance to invest a small amount in a company that was to opepte in lands and buildings along the Pacific Railroad, which he (Ames) said would be a good thing. You asked me what I thought of it as a busi- ness proposition; that you had not determined what you would do about it, and suggested to me to talk with Ames, and form my own judgnaent; and if I thought well enough of it to advance the money and buy the stock on joint account with you, and let you pay me interest on the one-half, I could do so. But I did not think well of the proposition as a business enterprise, and did not talk with Mr. Ames on the subject. After this talk, having at first told you I would give the sub- ject thought, and perhaps talk with Ames, I told you one evening that I did not think well of the proposition, and had not spoken to Ames on the subject. Yours, truly, J. P. EOBISON. Hon. J. A. Garfield. I subjoin two other letters, which were written about the time the report of the committee was made, and to which I refer in my remarks made on the 3d of March in the House of Representatives. The first is from a 1 CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 373 citizen of the town where I reside ; and the time of the conversation to which it alludes was, as near as I can remember, in the fall of 1868, during the recess of Con- gress : Hiram, Ohio, February 18, 1873. Dear Sir : — It may be relevant to the question at issue be- tween yourself and Mr. Oukes Ames, in the Credit MobiUer inves- tigation, for me to state that three or four years ago, in a private conversation, you made a statement to me involving the substance of your testimony before the Poland Committee, as publislied in the newspapers. The material points of your statement were these : Thiat you had been spoken to by George Francis Train, who offered you some shares of the Credit Mobilier stock ; tliat you told him that you had no money to invest in stocks ; that subse- quently you had a conversation in relation to the matter with Mr. Ames ; that Ames offered to carry the stock for you until you could pay for it, if you cared to buy it ; and that you had told him in that case perhaps you would take it, but would not agree to do so until you had inquired more fully into the matter. Such an arrangement as this was made, Ames agreeing to carry the stock until you should decide. In this way the matter stood, as I understood it, at the time of our conversation. My understand- ing was distinct that you had not accepted Mr. Ames's proposi- tion, but that the shares were still held at your option. You stated further, that the company was to operate in real property along the line of the Pacific road. Perhaps I should add that this conversation, which I have always remembered very dis- tinctly, took place here in Hiram. I have remembered the con- versation the more distinctly from the circumstances that gave rise to it. Having been intimately acquainted with you for twelve or fifteen years, and having had a considerable knowledge of your pecuniary affairs. I asked you how you were getting on, and especially whether you were managing to reduce your debts. In reply you gave me a detailed statement of your affairs, and con- cluded by saying you had had some stock offered you, which, if 374 JAMES A. GARFIELD. you bought it, would probably make you some money. You then proceeded to state the case, as I have stated it above. I cannot fix the time of this conversation more definitely than to say it was certainly three, and probably four, years ago. Very truly, yours, B. A. Hinsdale, President of Hiram College. Hon, J. A. Garfield, Washington, D. G. The other letter was addressed to the Speaker of the House, and is as follows : Philadelphia, February 15, 1873. My Dear Sir : — From the beginning of the investigation con- cerning Mr. Ames's use of the Credit Mobilier, I believed that General Garfield was free from all guilty connection with that business. This opinion was founded not merely on my confidence in his integrity, but on some special knowledge of his case. I may have told you all about it in conversation, but I desire now to repeat it by way of reminder. I assert unhesitatingly that, whatever General Garfield may have done or forborne to do, he acted in profound ignorance of the nature and character of the thing which Mr. Ames was pro- posing to sell. He had not the slightest suspicion that he was to be taken into a ring organized for the purpose of defrauding the public ; nor did he know that the stock was in any manner con- nected with anything which came, or could come, with the legis- lative jurisdiction of Congress. The case against him lacks the scienter which alone constitutes guilt. In the winter of 18G9-'70, I told General Garfield of the fact that his name was on Ames's list ; that Ames charged him with being one of his distributees ; explained to him the character, origin, and objects of the Credit Mobilier ; pointed out the con- nection it had with Congressional legislation, and showed him how impossible it was for a member of Congress to hold stock in it without bringing his private interests in conflict with his public duty. That all this was to him a perfectly new revelation I am CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 375 as sure as I can be of such a fact, or of any fact which is capable of being proved only by moral circumstances. He told me, then, the whole story of Train's offer to him and Ames's subsequent so- licitation, and his own action in the premises, much as he details it to the committee. I do not undertake to reproduce the conver- sation, but the effect of it all was to convince me thoroughly that when he listened to Ames he was perfectly unconscious of any- thing evil. I watched carefully every word that fell from him on this point, and did not regard his narrative of the transaction in other respects with much interest, because in my view everything else was insignificant. I did not care whether he had made a bar- gain technically binding or not ; his integrity depended upon the question whether he acted with his eyes open. If he had known the true character of the proposition made to him he would not have endured it, much less embraced it. Now, couple this with Mr. Ames's admission that he gave no explanation whatever of the matter to General Garfield ; then re- flect that not a particle of proof exists to show that he learned anything about it previous to his conversation with me, and I think you will say that it is altogether unjust to put him on the list of those who, knowingly and wilfully, joined the fraudulent association in question. J. S. Black. Hon. J. G. Blaine, Speaker of the House of Representatives. To these may be added the fact, recently published by Colonel Donn Piatt, of this city, that in the winter of 1869-70 he had occasion to look into the history of the Credit Mobilier Company, and found the same state of facts concerning my connection with it as are set forth in the letters quoted above. Whether my understanding of the facts is correct or not, it is manifest from the testimony given above that in the spring of 1868, and in the autumn of that year, and again in the winter of 1869, when I could have no motive 376 JAMES A. GARFIELD. to misrepresent the facts, I stated the case to these gen- tlemen, substantially as it is stated in my testimony be- fore the committee. RESPONSE TO THE CHARGE IN SEPTEMBER, 1872. But it has been charged in the newspapers that dur- ing the Presidential campaign, I denied any knowledge of the subject, or at least that I allowed the impression to be made upon the public mind that I knew nothing of it. To this I answer, I wrote no letter on the subject and made no statement in any public address, except to deny in the broadest terms, the only charge then made, that I had been bribed by Oakes Ames. When the charges first appeared in the newspapers, I was in Montana Territory, and heard nothing of them until my return on the 13th or 14th of September. On the following day I met General Boynton, correspon- dent of the Cincinnati Gazette, and related to him briefly what I remembered about the offer to sell the stock. I told hiui I should write no letter on the subject, but if he thought best to publish the substance of what I had stated to him he could do so. The same day he wrote and telegraphed from Washington to the Cincinnati Ga- zettcy under date of September 15, 1872, the following, which is a brief but correct report of my statement to him : General Garfield, who has just arrived here from the Indian country, has to-day had the first opportunity of seeing the charges connecting his name with receiving shares of the Credit Mobilier from Oakes Ames. He authorizes the statement that he never subscribed for a single share of the stock, and that he never re- CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 377 ceived or saw a share of it. "When the company was first formed, Georo-e Francis Train, then active in it, came to Washington and exhibited a list of subscribers, of leading capitalists and some members of Congress, to the stock of the company. The sub- scription was described as a popular one of $1,000 cash. Train urged General Garfield to subscribe on two occasions, and each time he declined. Subsequently he was again informed that the list was nearly completed, but that a chance remained for him to subscribe, when he again declined, and to this day has not sub- scribed for or received any share of stock or bond of the company. This dispatch was widely copied in the newspapers at the time, and was the only statement I made or author- ized. One thing in connection with the case I withheld from the public. When I saw the letters of Oakes Ames to Mr. ^NlcCoinb, I was convinced, from what Judge Black had told me in 1869, that they were genuine, and that Ames had pretended to McComb that he had sold the Credit Mobilier stock for the purpose of securing the influence of members of Congress in any legislation that might arise touching his interests. I might have pub- lished the fact that I had heard this, and now believed Ames had so represented it ; though at the time Judge Black gave me the information I thought quite likely he was mistaken. I did not know to what extent any other member of Congress had had negotiations with Mr. Ames ; but knowing the members whose names were published in connection with the charges, and believing them to be men of the highest integrity, I did not think it just either to them or to the party with which we acted, to express my opinion of the genuineness of Ames's letters at a time when a false construction would doubtless have been placed upon it. 378 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Here I might rest the case, but for some of the testi- mony given by Mr. Ames in reference to myself. I shall consider it carefully, and shall make quotations of his language, or refer to it by pages as printed in the report, so that the correctness of my citations may, in every case, be verified POINTS OF AGREEMENT AND DIFFERENCE BE- TWEEN MR. AMES AND MYSELF. To bring the discussion into as narrow a compass as possible, the points of agreement and difference between Mr. Ames and myself may thus be stated : We agree that, soon after the beginning of the session of 1867-68, Mr. Ames offered to sell me ten shares of the Credit Mobilier stock, at par and the accrued in- terest ; that I never paid him any money on that offer ; that I never received a certificate of stock ; that after the month of June, 1868, I never received, demanded, or was offered any dividend, in any form, on that stock. We also agree that I once received from Mr. Ames a small sum of money. On the following points we dis- agree : He claims that I agreed to take the stock. I deny it. He claims that I received from him $329, and no more, as a balance of dividends on the stock. This I deny ; and assert that I borrowed from him $300, and no more, and afterwards returned it; and that I never received anything from him on account of the stock. In discussing the testimony relating to myself, it be- comes necessary, for a full exhibition of the argument, to refer to that concerning others. i CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 379 MR. AMES'S FIRST TESTIMONY. It has been said that in Mr. Ames's first testi- mony, he withheld or concealed the facts generally ; and hence, that what he said at that time concerning any one person is of but little consequence. The weight and value of his first testimony concerning any one person can be ascertained only by comparing it with his testimony given at the same examination concerning others. In that first examination of December 17, as recorded on pp. 15-58, Mr. Ames mentions by name (pp. 19-21) sixteen members of Congress who were said to have had dealings with him in reference to Credit Mobilier stock. Eleven of these, he says in that testimony, bought the stock ; but he there sets me down among the five who did not buy it. He says (p. 21), " He [Garfield] did not pay for it or receive it." He was, at the same time, cross-examined in regard to the dividends he paid to different persons ; and he testified (pp. 23^1) that he paid one or more dividends to eight different members of Congress, and that three others, being original subscribers, drew their dividends, not from him, but directly from the company. To sev- eral of the eight he says he paid all the dividends that accrued. But in the same cross-examination he testified that he did not remember to have paid me any dividends, nor that he had let me have any money. The following is the whole of his testimony concerning me, on cross- examination : 380 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Q. In reference to Mr. Garfield, you say that you agreed to get ten shares for him and to hold them till he could pay for them, and that he never did pay for them nor receive them ? A. Yes, sir. Q. He never paid any money on that stock nor received any money from it ? A. iSTot on account of it. Q. He received no dividends ? A. No, sir ; I think not. He says he did not. My own recollection is not very clear. Q. So that, as you understand, Mr. Garfield never parted with any money, nor received any money on that transaction ? A. No, sir ; he had some money from me once, some three or four hun- dred dollars, and called it a loan. He says that is all he ever re- ceived from me, and that he considered it a loan. He never took his stock, and never paid for it. Q. Did you understand it so ? A. Yes ; I am willing to so understand it. I do not recollect paying him any dividend, and have forgotten that I paid him any money. — (P. 28). ******* Q. Who received the dividends ? A. Mr. Patterson, Mr. Bingham, James F. Wilson did, and I think Mr. Colfax received. a part of them. I do not know whether he received them all or not. I think Mr. Scofield received a part of them. Messrs. Kel- ley and Garfield never paid for their stock, and nijver received their dividends. — (P. 40). Certainly, it cannot be said that Mr. Ames has evinced any partiality for me ; and if he was attempting to shield any of those concerned, it will not be claimed that I was one of his favorites. In his first testimony, he claims to have spoken from memory, and without the aid of his documents. But he did then distinctly testify that he sold the stock to eleven members, and paid dividends to eight of them. He not only did not put me in either of those lists, but distinctly testified that I never took the stock nor re- ceived the dividends arising from it. CREDIT MOBILIER TRIUMPHANT YINmCATION. 381 MR. AMES'S SUBSEQUENT TESTIMONY. His second testimony was given on the 22d January, five weeks after his first. In assigning to this and all his subsequent testimony its just weight, it ought to be said that before he gave it, an event occurred which made it strongly for his interest to prove a sale of the stock which he held as trustee. Besides the fact that McComb had already an equity suit pending in Phila- delphia, to compel Mr. Ames to account to him for this same stock, another suit was threatened, after he had given his first testimony, to make him account to the company for all the stock he had not sold as trustee. His first testimony was given on the 17th December, and was made public on the 6th of January. On the 15th of January, T. C Durant, one of the heaviest stock- holders of the Credit Mobilier Company, and for a long time its president, was examined as a witness, and said, (p. 173) : ''The stock that stands in the name of Mr. Ames, as trustee, I claim belongs to the company yet ; and I have a summons in suit in my pocket waiting to catch him in New York to serve the papers." Of course, if as a trustee he had made sale of any por- tion of this stock, and afterward as an individual had bought it back, he could not be compelled to return it to the company. Nowhere in Mr. Ames's subsequent testimony does he claim to remember the transaction between himself and me any differently from what he first stated it to be. But from the memoranda found or made after his first examination, he infers and declares that there was a sale 382 JAMES A. GARFIELD. of the stock to me, and a payment to me of $329 oti account of dividends. Here, again, his testimony concerning me should be compared with his testimony given at the same time con- cerning others. The memoranda out of which his additional testimony grew, consisting of certificates of stock, receipts, checks on the Sergeant-at-Arms, and entries in his diary. I will consider these in the order stated. To two members of Congress he delivered certificates of Credit Mobilier stock, which as trustee he had sold to them (see pp. 267 and 290) ; and in a third case he delivered a certificate of stock to the person to whom a member had sold it. But Mr. Ames testified that he never gave me a certificate of stock; that I never de- manded one ; and that no certificate was ever spoken of between us. (See pp. 295, 296.) In the case of five members, he gave to them, or received from them, regular receipts of payment on ac- count of stock and dividends. (See pp. 21, 113, 191, 204, 337, 456, and 458.) But nowhere is it claimed or pretended that any receipt was ever given by me, or to me, on account of this stock, or on account of any divi- dends arising from it. Again, to five of the members, Mr. Ames gave checks on the Sergeant-at-Arms, payable to them by name ; and these checks were produced in evidence. (See pp. 333, 334, and 449.) In the case of three others, he produced checks bearing on their face the initials of the persons to whom he claimed they were paid. But he nowhere pretended to have or ever to have had any check CREDIT MOBILIER TRroMPHANT VINDICATION. 383 bearing either my name or my initials, or any mark or indorsement connecting it with me. In regard to dividends claimed in his subsequent tes- timony to have been paid to different members, in two cases he says he paid all the dividends that accrued on the stock from December, 1867, to May 6, 1871. (See pp. 191 and 337.) In a third case, all the accretions of the stock were received by the person to whom he sold it, as the result of a resale. (See p. 217.) In a fourth case he claims to have paid money on the 22d September, 1868, on account of dividends (see p. 461) ; and in a fifth case he claims to have paid a dividend in full, January 22, 1869. (See p. 454.) One pur- chaser sold his ten shares in the winter of 1868-69, and received thereon a net profit of at least $3,000. Yet Mr. Ames repeatedly swears that he never paid me but $329 ; that after June, 1868, he never tendered to me nor did I ever demand from him any dividend ; and that there was never any conversation between us relat- ing to dividends. (See pp. 40, 296, and 356.) As an example of his testimony on this point, I quote from page 296. After Mr. Ames had stated that he remembered no conversation between us in regard to the adjustment of these accounts, the committee asked : Q. Was this the only dealing you had with him in reference to any stock ? A. I think so. Q. Was it the only transaction of any kind ? A. The only transaction. Q. Has that $329 ever been paid to you ? A I have no recol- lection of it. Q. Have you any belief that it ever has ? A. No, sir. 384 JAMES A. GARFIELD. Q. Did you ever loan General Garfield 1300 ? A. Not to my knowledge : except that he calls this a loan. Q. There were dividends of Union Pacific Railroad stock on these ten shares ? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did General Garfield ever receive these ? A. No, sir. He never has received but $329. . . . Q. Has there been any conversation between you and him in reference to the Pacific stock he was entitled to ? A. No, sir. Q. Has he ever called for it ? A. No, sir. Q. Have you ever offered it to him ? A. No, sir. Q. Has there been any conversation in relation to it ? A. No, sir. The assertion that he withheld the payment of divi- dends because of the McComb suit brought in Novem- ber, 1868, is wholly broken down by the fact that he did pay the dividend to several persons during a period of two years after the suit was commenced. The only other memoranda offered as evidence are the entries in Mr. Ames's diary for 1868. That book contains a separate statement of an account with eleven members of Congress, showing the number of shares of stock sold or intended to be sold to each, with the in- terest and dividends thereon. (See pp. 450 to 461.) Across the face of nine of these accounts, long lines are drawn, crossing each other, showing, as Mr. Ames says, that in each such case the account was adjusted and closed. Three of these entries of accounts are not thus crossed off (see pp. 451, 458, and 459,) and the three members referred to therein testify that they never bought the stock. The account entered under my name is one of three that are not crossed off. Here is the entry in full (See p. 459 :) CREDIT MOBILIER— TRIUMPHANT VINDICATION. 385 Garfield. 10 shares Cr6dit M $1,000 00 7 mos, 10 days 43 36 1,043 36 80 per ct. bd. div., at 97 776 00 267 36 Int't to June 20 3 64 271 00 1,000 C. M. 1,000 U. P. This entry is a mere undated memorandum, and indi- cates neither payment, settlement, or sale. In reference to it, the following testimony was given by Mr. Ames on cross-examination (see p. 460) : Q. This statement of Mr. Garfield's account is not crossed off, which indicates, does it, that the matter has never been settled or adjusted ? A. No, sir ; it never has. Q. Can you state whether you have any other entry in relation to Mr. Garfield ? A. No, sir. Comparing Mr. Ames's testimony in reference to me, with that in reference to others, it appears that when he testified from his memory alone, he distinctly and affirmatively excepted me from the list of those who bought the stock or received the dividends ; and that subsequently, in every case save my own, he produced some one or more of the following documents as evi- dence, viz., certificates of stock ; receipts of money or dividends ; checks bearing either the full names or the initijils of the persons to whom they purported to have been paid ; or entries, in his diary, of accounts marked 25 3