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 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION.
 
 PRESIDENT GARFIELD 
 
 AND EDUCATION 
 
 College 
 
 B. A. HINSDALE, A.M. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF HIRAM COLLEGE 
 
 BOSTON 
 JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY 
 
 1882
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1881, 
 BY JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 JFranfclfn Prf0: 
 
 RAND, AVERY, AND COMPANY, 
 BOSTON.
 
 PEEFAOE. 
 
 THE propriety of a Hiram College Memorial to 
 President Garfield will be admitted on all hands. 
 It was in Hiram that he fitted for college, and that 
 he made his reputation as a teacher and school- 
 administrator. Hiram was his home for twenty-six 
 years. Much of that time, probably one-half of it, he 
 spent in other places and duties, college, the army, 
 and Congress ; but Hiram was the place to which he 
 looked for residence and rest. To those who have 
 become acquainted with him, his name or fame, the 
 last four years, Mentor means more than Hiram ; but 
 .- to all of his earlier friends Hiram means as much more 
 "* than Mentor, as his residence in the one place was 
 longer than his residence in the other. 
 
 Nor can there be two opinions as to the fitness of 
 such a memorial as is here attempted. General Gar- 
 field was a scholar and an educator. His earliest 
 fame was won in study and in teaching. He was 
 always the friend and advocate of education. It was 
 in Hiram school that his happiest days were spent, 
 
 5 
 
 394707
 
 6 PREFACE. 
 
 and that he performed the work which in late years 
 he looked back upon with most satisfaction. Hence, 
 such of his utterances concerning education and edu- 
 cators as have been preserved, attended by suitable 
 memorials of his Hiram life, could not fail deeply 
 to interest educators and cultivated men generally, 
 especially such as belong to the Hiram fellowship. 
 That this volume will measurably draw out this in- 
 terest, is the hope of its compiler and of others whom 
 he has consulted in its preparation. 
 
 Some remarks upon the number and quality of 
 the speeches and addresses included, will be found in 
 another place ; but it is proper to say here, that the 
 personal sketch is by no means exhaustive. An in- 
 teresting and inspiring volume could be prepared on 
 his Hiram life. Here the aim is to make a Garfield 
 book in the sense of his being its author, and not 
 simply its subject. At the same time, the personal 
 sketch is a comprehensive survey, embracing all salient 
 points of his riiram life and character, filled in with 
 sufficient memorabilia to answer the purpose of illus- 
 tration. What is more, the memorial speeches made 
 at Cleveland supplement the sketch, and show the 
 impressions made by Teacher Garfield upon their 
 authors, who are simply the representatives and mouth- 
 pieces of thousands. 
 
 This book has been prepared, and is now published,
 
 PKEFACE. 7 
 
 in the confident belief that no more appropriate memo- 
 rial to the lamented dead could go forth from Presi- 
 dent Garfield's old home. It is also believed that none 
 could go forth, which, were he living, would give him 
 so much pleasure. 
 
 It is proper to add, that this memorial has Mrs. 
 Garfield's cordial approval. The pictures of the 
 President and herself she has chosen. "Writing at 
 Mentor, Oct. 28, 1881, she says, "/ quite approve of 
 your plan in regard to the memorial volume. It would 
 be most appropriate that the speeches to which you refer 
 should appear in such a volume." 
 
 B. A. HINSDAL1.. 
 HIRAM COLLEGE, HIBAM, O., 
 Nov. 19, 1881.
 
 CONTENTS.. 
 
 PART I. PAGE 
 
 MEMORIALS OF PRESIDENT GARFLELD IN HIRAM. 
 
 I. GENERAL SKETCH 15 
 
 I. HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL . . . . . . . 15 
 
 H. GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT 24 
 
 m. THE WILLIAMS COLLEGE INTERREGNUM . 39 
 
 IV. GARFIELD PRESIDENT OP HIRAM . . . .46 
 
 . V. GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK 73 
 
 VI. GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE . . . . .87 
 II. ADDRESSES AT HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE 114 
 
 I. B. A. HlNSDALB 114 
 
 n. J. H. RHODES 124 
 
 HI. C. B. LOCKWOOD . . . . . . . 133 
 
 IV. C. D. WILBUR 138 
 
 V. J. W. ROBBINS 145 
 
 VI. A. H. PETTIBONK 147 
 
 VII. H. C. WHITE 150 
 
 VHI. H. N. ELDRIDGB 157 
 
 PART H. 
 
 PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S SPEECHES AND ADDRESSES 
 ON EDUCATION AND EDUCATORS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES 161 
 
 I. THE STATE AND EDUCATION * 162 
 
 1. The National Bureau of Education . . . 162 
 
 2. The Army Post Schools 169 
 
 3. The "Hoar Bill" 173 
 
 4. Education and the South . . . . . 1J3__ 
 n. THE STATE AND SCIENCE 174 
 
 HI. STUDIES AND METHODS 176 
 
 IV. TRIBUTES TO EDUCATORS .... 178
 
 10 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. THE NATIONAL BUREAU OP EDUCATION: Speech in 
 
 the House of Representatives, June 8, 1866 . . 181 
 II. NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION: Speech in the House 
 
 of Representatives, Feb. 6,1872 215 
 
 III. SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS: Extract from " The Future 
 
 of the Republic: its Dangers and Hopes." An Ad- 
 dress delivered before the Literary Societies of West- 
 ern Reserve College, Hudson, 0., July 2, 1873 . . 231 
 
 IV. POPULAR EDUCATION: Extracts from the Letter of 
 
 Acceptance, and the Inaugural Address, July 12, 
 
 1880, and March 4, 1881 245 
 
 V. THE GIST OF THE "SOUTHERN QUESTION:" Reply 
 made at Mentor, to a Delegation of Colored Citizens 
 from South Carolina and other Southern States, 
 Jan. 14, 1881 251 
 
 VI. RELATION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT TO SCI- 
 ENCE: Speech in the House of Representatives, Feb. 
 
 11,1879 257 
 
 VII. COLLEGE EDUCATION: An Address before the Literary 
 Societies of the Eclectic Institute, Hiram, 0., June 
 
 14,1867 275 
 
 VIII. ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS: Address before the Students 
 of the Spencerian Business College, Washington, 
 D.C., June 29, 1869 . . 315 
 
 IX. SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION: Speech 
 before the Department of Superintendence of the 
 National Education Association, Washington, B.C., 
 
 Feb. 5, 1879 335 
 
 X. S. F. B. MORSE: An Address at the Morse Memorial 
 Meeting, held in the Hall of the House of Represent- 
 atives, April 16, 1872 343 
 
 XI. JOSEPH HENRY: Address at the Memorial Meeting, 
 held in the Hall of the House of Representatives, 
 
 Tuesday evening, Jan. 16, 1879 353 
 
 XII. LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ALMEDA A. BOOTH: An 
 Address delivered at Hiram College, 0., June 22, 
 1876 365 
 
 APPENDIX 427
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIOE"S. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD . . . Frontispiece 
 FACSIMILE LETTER OF PRESIDENT GARFIELD . . . .15 
 
 VIEW OF HIRAM COLLEGE 24 
 
 PORTRAIT OF Miss BOOTH . . 28 
 
 FACSIMILE LETTER OF Miss BOOTH 30 
 
 PORTRAIT OF MRS. GARFIELD 86 
 
 FACSIMILE LETTER OF MRS. GARFIELD .... 90
 
 PAET I. 
 
 JHemorials of President ffiarfieltr in 
 STUDENT, TEACHER, AND CITIZEN,
 
 EXECUTIVE MANSION 
 
 W ASHI NGTON
 
 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 GENERAL SKETCH. 
 
 TAMES ABRAM GARFIELD first came to 
 *-* Hiram in August, 1851. An account of what 
 Hiram then was, and of what he was, will be a 
 fitting introduction to his Hiram life. 
 
 I. HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 
 
 In 1850 Hiram was a township of Western 
 Reserve farmers; surface twenty-five square miles, 
 population eleven hundred and six. The "Cen- 
 tre " was a cross-roads, with a post-office, one or 
 two shops, two white churches, and three or four 
 dwelling-houses. It was remote from any main 
 thoroughfare or centre of population. No stage- 
 coach wheels rolled within five miles of the 
 place. Probably twenty farmhouses lay within 
 
 15
 
 16 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 a radius of a mile. And this was all. Here, 
 on the eastern slope of the great " divide," and 
 a mile from its crest, the Disciples of Christ, in 
 the summer of 1850, planted the Western Reserve 
 Eclectic Institute, the child of much consultation, 
 prayer, and hope. The reasons that led to this 
 location may properly be set down in this place. 
 
 In that day the Disciples of the Western Re- 
 serve were mostly rural people, sharing the old- 
 fashioned prejudices against towns and cities. 
 Thought, in Northern Ohio, was narrowly pro- 
 vincial in 1850. There were only two or three 
 railroads in the State. No one dreamed of our 
 present railroad system, or foresaw the centraliza- 
 tion of wealth and population that the steam- 
 locomotive has wrought. Travelling was done in 
 wheeled vehicles or on horseback. People owned 
 their own conveyances and horses. So the fath- 
 ers asked, " Why can they not turn their horses' 
 heads towards Hiram as well as towards any 
 other place?" Hiram, then, offered the desired 
 seclusion. Hiram had a vigorous church, that 
 would furnish the desired religious environment. 
 Hiram, too, offered a contingent subscription of 
 four thousand dollars, no mean inducement to 
 the trustees of a school that was not expected,
 
 HIRAM AND HIE AM SCHOOL. 17 
 
 at its founding, to cost more than twice or thrice 
 that sum. The aims of the school were both 
 general and special. More narrowly they were 
 these : 
 
 1. To provide a sound scientific and literary 
 education. 
 
 2. To temper and sweeten such education with 
 moral and scriptural knowledge. 
 
 3. To educate young men for the ministry. 
 One peculiar tenet of the* religious movement 
 
 in which it originated was impressed upon the 
 Eclectic Institute at its organization. The Dis- 
 ciples believed that the Bible had been in a degree 
 obscured by theological speculations and ecclesi- 
 astical systems. Hence their religious movement 
 was a revolt from the theology of the schools, and 
 an overture to men to come face to face with the 
 Scriptures. They believed, also, that to the Holy 
 Writings belonged a larger place in general edu- 
 cation than had yet been accorded to them. Ac- 
 cordingly, in all their educational institutions 
 they have emphasized the Bible and its related 
 branches of knowledge. This may be called the 
 distinctive feature of their schools. The charter 
 of the Eclectic Institute, therefore, declared the 
 purpose of the institution to be "the instruction
 
 18 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 of youth of both sexes in the various branches of 
 literature and science, especially of moral science 
 as based on the facts and precepts of the Holy 
 Scriptures." 
 
 It took time for Hiram to become what it is 
 to-day, a bright Ohio village ;. white houses, 
 green blinds, maples and elms, a handsome college 
 building, and a beautiful campus. Soon the new 
 school drew to itself three hundred scholars ; and, 
 although that number was not long maintained, 
 Hiram has furnished tuition for more than five 
 thousand individual pupils. At the re-union of 
 1880 General Garfield said, " To my mind, the his- 
 tory of Hiram College, and the institution on which 
 it was built, divides itself into two chapters. The 
 first, both in time and perhaps in importance, should 
 be headed, ' What other people did for it ; ' and the 
 second, ' What Hiram did for itself.' " On that 
 occasion he condensed much Hiram history as 
 well as much of his own history into this short 
 speech : . 
 
 " LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I said there were two 
 chapters in the history of this Institution. You have heard 
 one relative to the founders. 1 They were pioneers in this 
 Western Reserve. They were all men of energy, great force 
 
 1 Referring to an historical address just delivered.
 
 HIBAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 19 
 
 of character, and nearly all of them men of small means; 
 but they planted this institution. In 1850 the campus was 
 a cornfield with a solid, plain brick building in the centre 
 of it ; and almost all the rest has been done by the insti- 
 tution itself. This is the second chapter. It was without 
 a dollar of endowment, without a powerful friend any- 
 %vli(-ro, but with a corps of teachers who were told to go 
 on the ground, and see what they could make out of it, 
 and to take their pay out of the tuitions that should be 
 received ; who invited students of their own spirit to come 
 here, and find out by trial what they could make out of 
 it; and the response has been their chapter of work, and 
 the chief part of the response I see in the faces gathered 
 before me to-day. It was a simple question of sinking or 
 swimming. I know that we are all inclined to be a little 
 clannish ; perhaps we have a right to be : but I do not 
 know of any place, I do not know of any institution, that 
 has accomplished more, with so little means, than this 
 school on Hiram Hill. 
 
 " I know of no place where the doctrine of self-help has 
 had a fuller development, by necessity as well as by favor, 
 than here on this hill. The doctrine of the survival of 
 the fittest found its place amongst these men and women 
 gathered here. As I said about them a great many years 
 ago, the theory of Hiram was to throw its young men and 
 women overboard, and let them try it for themselves ; and 
 all that were fit to get ashore got there, and I think we 
 had few cases of drowning. Xow, when I look over these 
 faces, and mark the several geological ages so well repre- 
 sented by Air. Atwater in his address, I note one curious
 
 20 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 fact where the geological analogy does not hdld : I find no 
 fossils, no fossils at all. Some are dead, and glorious in 
 our memories ; but those who are alive are ALIVE, I think 
 all. The teachers and the students of this school built it 
 up in every sense, made the cornfield into that handsome 
 campus. These evergreens you see across the road, they 
 planted. I well remember the day that they turned out 
 and went into the woods to find beautiful maples, and 
 brought them in ; when they purchased these evergreens ; 
 when each young man for himself, and perhaps a second 
 for some young lady that he loved, planted one or two 
 trees on the campus, and named them after himself. There 
 are many here with moist eyes to-day who can point out 
 the tree that Bowler planted. Bowler was shot through 
 the heart at Cedar Mountain. Many of you who point out 
 trees, big trees now, called after you many years ago. I 
 believe, outside of the physical features of the place, that 
 there was a stronger pressure of work to the square inch in 
 the boilers that ran this establishment, than any other I 
 x know of. Young men and women, rough, crude, untutored 
 farmer-boys and farmer-girls, came here to try themselves, 
 and find what manner of people they were. They came 
 here to go on a voyage of discovery to discover themselves. 
 In many cases I hope the discovery was fortunate in all 
 that was worthy of trying; and the friendships that were 
 formed out of that struggle have followed this group of peo- 
 ple longer and farther than almost any I have ever known 
 in my life. They are scattered all over the United States, 
 in every field of activity ; and if I should try to name them 
 the sun would go down before I had finished."
 
 HIRAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 21 
 
 Truth, if not modesty, would have allowed him 
 to add with Father .JSneas, " All of which I saw, 
 and a great part of which I was." 
 
 When Garfield came to Hiram, every thing was 
 new and crude. As he says in his address on 
 " The Life and Character of Almeda A. Booth," 
 "The Eclectic was compelled to create its own 
 scholarship and culture. Very few of its early 
 students had gone beyond the ordinary studies 
 of the district school ; and a large majority of 
 them needed thorough discipline in the common 
 English branches." Hiram gave the Institute a 
 seat; the trustees gave a building and the first 
 teachers; the regions farther and nearer, schol- 
 ars; and then the spiritual Hiram developed it- 
 self. Society, traditions, and the peculiar genius 
 of the place were evolved from the teachers and 
 pupils, limited by the local and general environ- 
 ment. 
 
 The opening of this new school was coincident 
 with three things important in this history : 
 
 1. Coincident with a general educational awak- 
 ening in the State of Ohio. In an important 
 sense, the present school-system of the State dates 
 from the year 1853. 1 Population had increased 
 
 1 The date of the " Rice School Law."
 
 22 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 in the State marvellously ; the homes of the peo- 
 ple were full of youth ; and wealth had so grown, 
 that men, in great part freed from the burden of 
 sweeping away the forests, were enabled to pay 
 greatly increased attention to the education of 
 their children. 
 
 2. Coincident with an important epoch in the 
 history of the Disciples of the Reserve. They 
 were numerous and active : they now had a school 
 of their own, in which they took the pride and 
 interest that parents take in a first child. 
 
 3. Coincident with the young manhood of 
 James A. Garfield. His family belonged to the 
 Disciples' Church: so did the families of many 
 neighbors. He himself had become a member a 
 year and a half before. No better school was 
 within his reach in 1851 ; but it must be said, 
 that, for the most part, religious influences brought 
 him to this place. Here, too, may be dropped a 
 thought that cannot be fully developed. 
 
 No other church in the land could have given 
 him the opportunity that the Disciples offered. 
 This is true in a double sense. While there was 
 an absence of license on the one hand, there was 
 large freedom on the other. This gave him an 
 opportunity to exercise his gifts, intellectual and
 
 HIKAM AND HIRAM SCHOOL. 23 
 
 religious, such as an older and more conservative 
 body could not have given, which he improved 
 much to the profit of his brethren and to his own 
 advantage. But more, the Disciple habit of mind, 
 especially the denominational method of handling 
 the Scriptures, which may be briefly defined as 
 a brushing-aside of the Church creeds, as well as 
 much of the traditionary theology, and a direct 
 face-to-face study of the Bible, was an important 
 element in his history. Stress may also be laid 
 upon the accepted canons of interpretation, both 
 few and simple, as well as " dividing the word of 
 truth " by the application of the principle of rela- 
 tivity ; as, for instance, taking into account the 
 period of divine revelation immediately in hand, 
 whether the Patriarchal, the Mosaic, or the Chris- 
 tian. No one who is thoroughly familiar with 
 President Garfield's history can doubt that this 
 Disciple habit and method had a most important 
 influence upon his mind, his whole life and char- 
 acter. At the same time, he was the farthest 
 removed from a sectarian or denominationalist. 
 His religious thought was ever broad, his spirit 
 ever catholic.
 
 24 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 II. GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 
 To this young school, young Garfield came the 
 third term of its existence. In three months more 
 he would be twenty years of age. An obvious and 
 interesting analogy between the school and the 
 pupil could be readily traced out. Both were in 
 the formative period; both were full of strength 
 and enthusiasm; but both needed growth and 
 ripeness. He was strong-framed, deep-chested, six 
 feet high, with a blue eye, and a massive head sur- 
 mounted by a shock of tow-colored hair. Physi- 
 cally he was the Garfield of twenty years later, 
 only he had the pulpy adolescence of twenty. 
 Time had not yet rounded out his figure, browned 
 and thinned his hair, and put into his face the lines 
 of thought. The school was growing, and he was 
 growing. His intellectual and moral qualities had 
 already declared themselves. Having lost his fa- 
 ther in his infancy, and having been thrown upon 
 his own resources at an early age, in the midst of 
 the pioneers of Ohio, his sense of responsibility, 
 his judgment, and his self-helpfulness were devel- 
 oped much beyond the average. He was full of 
 animal spirits and young joviality ; but he had had 
 his ear upon the human heart, and had heard its re-
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE.
 
 GAEFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 25 
 
 verberatory murmur in the minor key. Two years 
 or more before, he had finished the studies of the 
 Orange district school. At Chester, O., where he 
 had attended Geauga Seminary four terms in 1849 
 and 1850, he had studied natural philosophy, 
 algebra, and botany, and begun Latin and Greek. 
 He had taught district-school two terms, and 
 received a full measure of the benefit which comes 
 from that valuable discipline. He had already 
 put his early longings for the lake and the sea 
 behind him, and had determined to have the best 
 education that he could obtain. His coming to 
 Hiram was the next step towards carrying out 
 this resolution. His address on Miss Booth con- 
 tains some interesting description and autobiog- 
 raphy. This extract lets in a strong side-light 
 upon his mind in 1851 : 
 
 "A few days after the beginning of the term, I saw a 
 class of three reciting in mathematics, geometry, I think. 
 They sat on one of the red benches, in the centre aisle of 
 the lower chapel. I had never seen a geometry ; and, regard- 
 ing both teacher and class with a feeling of reverential awe 
 for the intellectual heights to which they had climbed, I 
 studied their faces so closely that I seem to see them now as 
 distinctly as I saw them then." 
 
 All scholars who had few books and other edu-
 
 26 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 cational advantages in youth can take in this 
 picture at once, teacher, class, and the honest, 
 open-eyed youth of twenty years, full of wonder, 
 appreciation, and reverence. 
 
 Having looked at Garfield's new surroundings, 
 and equipped him, let us now see him at his 
 work. 
 
 First, he came to Hiram poor in every thing 
 but faculties and character. He was wholly de- 
 pendent upon his own resources. He sought and 
 obtained the position of janitor, a position re- 
 served hi those days for poor students who wanted 
 
 'a chance to help themselves. Two terms he made 
 fires, swept the floors, and rang the bell. Scores 
 of men and women can now be found who well 
 remember seeing the future President of the 
 
 ^ United States at the end of the Hiram bell-rope. 
 One who has added her rill to this stream of 
 reminiscence, and whose memory goes back to 
 the bell-ringing days, says, " His large head and 
 massive frame had a suggestion of the overgrown ; 
 but he escaped awkwardness by the thought and 
 purpose that controlled his actions. His clothes 
 had a poor-student look. At the close of the 
 morning lecture, before the students left the room, 
 he would leave the chapel, and ring the bell. His
 
 GAEFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 27 
 
 tread was firm and free, and the same unconscious 
 dignity followed him then that attended him when 
 he ascended the eastern portico of the Capitol to 
 deliver his Inaugural Address. He was modest 
 and self-possessed, without vanity or self-con- 
 sciousness, and then and always absolutely free 
 from any affectation whatever." A house is still " 
 pointed out in Hiram, the clapboards of which he 
 planed in one of his vacations. But bell-ropes 
 and jack-planes do not make men great : if they 
 did, the road to greatness would be easy enough. 
 So we pass on to things more important. 
 
 On his arrival at Hiram in August, 1851, Mr. 
 Garfield took up his studies where he had dropped 
 them at Chester. After one term's work as stu- 
 dent and janitor, he retired for a term to teach 
 his last district-school. In the spring of 1852 he 
 returned, and continued in Hiram until he went to 
 Williamstown in 1854. Principal Hayden and 
 teachers Dunshee, Munnell, and Hull were his 
 instructors. To Dunshee he probably recited more 
 than to all the rest put together. Garfield always 
 appreciated and respected his Hiram teachers ; but 
 it is perfectly just to them to say that Miss Booth, 
 wiio never was a teacher of his, but rather a fellow- 
 student, did much more than they did to mould his
 
 28 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 character and give direction to his life. That he 
 so felt, any one can see by reading between the 
 lines his noble tribute to her character and work. 
 Not only so, but he says in words, 
 
 " On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, that for 
 her generous and powerful aid, so often and so efficiently 
 rendered, for her quick and never-failing sympathy, and for 
 her intelligent, unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe 
 her a debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment of 
 which the longest term of life would have been too short." 
 
 But it may be said, " This was in the presence 
 of the Hiram fellowship." Let it be said, then, 
 that before the Williams College fellowship he 
 bore a similar testimony. At the Williams ban- 
 quet, held in Cleveland, Jan. 10, 1881, after recog- 
 nizing his obligation to the common schools of 
 Ohio and to Williams College, he said, 
 
 " I am glad to say, reverently, in the presence of the many 
 ladies nere to-night, that I owe to a woman who has long 
 since been asleep, perhaps a higher debt intellectually than 
 I owe to any one else. After that comes my debt to Wil- 
 liams College." 
 
 He called no name, but it was Almeda Booth. 
 Probably the best account of Garfield's Hiram
 
 GAEFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 29 
 
 studies that can be given without access to his 
 diary is his account of Miss Booth's studies. Let 
 the reader substitute his name for hers, in the 
 following paragraphs : 
 
 " I remember that she and I were members of the class 
 that began Xenophon's ' Anabasis,' in the fall term of 1852. 
 Near the close of that term I also began to teach in the 
 Eclectic, and thereafter, like her, could keep up my studies 
 only outside of my own class hours. In mathematics and 
 the physical sciences, I was far behind her ; but we were 
 nearly at the same place in Greek and Latin, each having 
 studied them about three terms. She had made her home at 
 President Hayden's, almost from the first ; and I became a 
 member of his family at the beginning of the winter term of 
 1852-53. Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied 
 together, and recited in the same classes (frequently with- 
 out other associates), till we had nearly completed the classi- 
 cal course. 
 
 " From a diary which I then kept, and in which my own 
 studies are recorded, I am able to state, quite accurately, 
 what she accomplished in the classics, from term to term, in 
 the two following years. During the whiter and spring terms 
 of 1853, she read Xenophon's ' Memorabilia ' entire, reciting to 
 Professor Dunshee. In the summer vacation of 1853, twelve 
 of the more advanced students engaged Professor Dunshee 
 as a tutor for one month. John Harnit, H. W. Everest, 
 Philip Burns, C. C. Foote, Miss Booth, and I were of the 
 number. A literary society was formed, in which all took 
 part. During those four weeks, besides taking an active
 
 30 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 part in the literary exercises of the society, Miss Booth read 
 thoroughly, and for the first time, the Pastorals of Virgil, 
 that is, the ' Georgics ' and ' Bucolics ' entire, and the first six 
 books of Homer's ' Iliad,' accompanied by a thorough drill in 
 the Latin or Greek grammar at each recitation. I am sure 
 that none of those who recited with her would say she was 
 behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her work or the 
 elegance of her translations. 
 
 "During the fall term of 1853, she read one hundred pages 
 of Herodotus, and about the same amount of Livy. During 
 that term also, Professors Dunshee and Hull, Miss Booth 
 and I, met at her room two evenings of each week, to make 
 a joint translation of the book of Romans. Professor Dun- 
 shee contributed his studies of the German commentators, 
 De Wette and Tholuck ; and each of the translators made 
 some special study for each meeting. How nearly we com- 
 pleted the translation, I do not remember ; but I do remem- 
 ber that the contributions and criticisms of Miss Booth were 
 remarkable for suggestiveness and sound judgment. Our 
 work was more thorough than rapid ; for I find this entry in 
 my diary for Dec. 15, 1853 : ' Translation Society sat three 
 hours at Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the translation 
 of nine verses.' 
 
 " During the winter term of 1853-54, she continued to 
 read Livy, and also read the whole of Demosthenes ' On the 
 Crown.' The members of the class in Demosthenes were 
 Miss Booth, A. Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. 
 
 " During the spring term of 1854, she read the ' Germa- 
 nia ' and ' Agricola ' of Tacitus, and a portion of Hesiod."
 
 GARFIELD THE HEBAM STUDENT. 31 
 
 Garfield was in Hiram only eight terms, aver- 
 aging thirteen weeks in length, before he went 
 to college. Six of these terms, as will soon be 
 more fully stated, he taught in the Institute sev- 
 eral hours each day. In those eight terms he 
 carried his studies to the junior year of the 
 Williams College course. This included nearly 
 all the Greek and Latin included in the terms 
 of admission, as well as the studies of the 
 Freshman and Sophomore years. Those who are 
 curious to see the amount of study that this 
 included are referred to the terms of admission 
 to Williams in 1854-55, and the full course of 
 instruction, which will be found in the catalogue. 
 The simple facts tell their own story, and no 
 commentary is needed. 
 
 President H. W. Everest, of Butler University, 
 Indiana, who was a student with Garfield in 
 Chester, as well as a student and teacher with 
 him in Hiram, thus speaks in a late private com- 
 munication : 
 
 " I met him first at Chester. Rooming in the same 
 building, and working for a while at the same carpenter's 
 bench, we soon became intimate. He was a noticeable stu- 
 dent, both on the play-ground and in the class-room. We 
 recited Robinson's algebra together, and belonged to a liter-
 
 32 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ary society of our own getting-up, called the 'Mystic Ten.' 
 At Hiram I was not classed with him, yet knew much of 
 him as a student, but more of him as a teacher. My esti- 
 mate is briefly as follows; and for many of the items I 
 remember distinct illustrations: 
 
 "1. His intellections were clear, vigorous, and easy in 
 all directions, but especially so in the languages. 
 
 " 2. He did not study merely to recite well, but to know, 
 and for the pleasure of learning and knowing. 
 
 " 3. It was his main object to master the thought, but the 
 language was retained with the thought. 
 
 "4. As study was the easy play of his mind, so to recount 
 and to review his lessons and reading was a frequent pleas- 
 ure. 
 
 " 5. He was a master at condensed classifications, so that 
 his memory easily held and reproduced what he had learned. 
 
 " 6. He had a wide-awake curiosity, which seemed never 
 to be satiated. A new thing, however unimportant, always 
 attracted his attention. 
 
 " 7. He had a great desire and settled purpose to conquer, 
 to master the lesson, to prove superior to every difficulty, 
 to excel all competitors, to conquer and surpass himself. 
 
 "8. With this desire to conquer, there was found the 
 most generous and exultant admiration at the success of 
 another. 
 
 "9. Over all his study he shed the glory of a happy 
 disposition, of youth, hope, and manly courage." 
 
 All of these points are well taken, but several 
 of them deserve especial emphasis. He studied
 
 GAEFIELD THE HIE AM STUDENT. 33 
 
 to know, and for the pleasure of learning and 
 knowing. With this may be connected President 
 Everest's seventh point, Garfield's settled purpose 
 to conquer, to prove superior to every difficulty. 
 His love of victory, over men or things, was the 
 strongest ; but it was a love born of the noblest 
 elements. He took no pleasure in a merely per- 
 sonal triumph ; but a triumph that was a test of 
 honorable superiority, he keenly enjoyed. Here, 
 too, may be mentioned his full appreciation and 
 generous recognition of all men, even though com- 
 petitors or opponents. His determination to mas- 
 ter whatever he undertook, especially to subdue 
 his own nature, is well illustrated by an anecdote. 
 Sitting on a log in the edge of the woods, back 
 of the college building in Hiram, he once said to 
 the companion of his walk, 
 
 " I have made a painful discovery. I have found that my 
 mind needs interest in a subject to incite it to continuous 
 action. The other day I tried to read through a long bill in 
 which I had no interest : it was merely my duty to read it. 
 My attention wandered, thus revealing a defect in my train- 
 ing. If I cannot otherwise overcome this defect," he said, 
 " I will give up my work, renounce public life, go to Germany, 
 and take a full course in one of the universities. I must be 
 full master of my powers at any cost."
 
 34 PKESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 At this time lie had been in Congress several 
 years. 
 
 His mastery of condensed classification not 
 only aided retention and reproduction, and thus 
 greatly facilitated the process of thorough acqui- 
 sition, but was of incalculable value to him as 
 a teacher and a public speaker. All members of 
 his classes who appreciated him, and even those 
 students who simply heard his lectures, cannot 
 fail to remember the advantage that they received 
 from his blackboard classifications. They were a 
 capital feature of all his teaching. Probably, too, 
 some will remember the effective use that he made 
 of the blackboard at Chagrin Falls (in the debate 
 soon to be mentioned), in showing up Mr. Den- 
 ton's " law of the planetary distances." Besides, 
 in his oratory classification is an element equally 
 important with strength of statement and aptness 
 of illustration. His curiosity could never be 
 satisfied. No matter what he touched, he must 
 understand it. When he went as commissioner to 
 the Flat-Heads, he studied up all the Flat-Head 
 literature that he could find. He got hold of 
 Lewis and Clarke's report of their expedition to 
 Oregon : he carried it with him, and read it with 
 the utmost avidity as he rolled over the hills
 
 GABFIELD THE HIEAM STUDENT. 35 
 
 of Montana in the stage-coach. No doubt, too, 
 Captain Douglass Ottinger, the other officers, and 
 the crew of the cutter " Commodore Perry," will 
 remember the eager interest that he took in 
 every thing pertaining to their ship and service, 
 when he made a trip with them down Lake Erie 
 in 1878, to inspect the Life-Saving Service. The 
 glow of his happy social disposition, his joyous 
 nature, his faith, hope, and courage, and even his 
 tendency to optimism, was an indispensable condi- 
 tion of his success as a student, as a teacher, and 
 as a public man. 
 
 Finally, President Everest says Garfield did not 
 study merely to recite well, but to know, and for 
 the pleasure of learning and knowing. But Gar- 
 field did study to recite well, all the same. He 
 was never indifferent to a recitation, or to any 
 other appearance of his before a class or an audi- 
 ence. Consciousness that he had made a good 
 recitation never failed to give him much satisfac- 
 tion. Still, he perfectly appreciated that knowl- 
 edge and training are the ends of study : nay, 
 he recognized no antagonism between good recit- 
 ing, in the proper sense, and thorough knowledge. 
 The one is an end in itself, and is the necessary 
 condition of the other." He once said, " If at any
 
 36 PRESIDENT GARFEELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 time I began to flag in my effort to master a sub- 
 ject, as working out a problem, I was stimulated 
 to further effort by the thought, 'Some other 
 fellow in the class will probably master it.' " In 
 summing up the forces that acted in President 
 Garfield's life, what he thought "the other fellow " 
 was likely to do must never be overlooked. He 
 was always generous in his emulations, but his 
 eye never wandered from the " other fellow." At 
 the same time, full recognition of noble achieve- 
 ment for its own sake, and faithfulness to the 
 heavenly vision as revealed in his own heart, ran 
 parallel with the spirit of emulation. 
 
 Although Mr. Garfield had made but slight 
 progress in mathematics and classics when he 
 came to Hiram, before the end of the first year 
 he ranked well up with the best scholars. His 
 masterful mind immediately asserted itself. All 
 soon acknowledged that he was the peer of any : 
 many held him superior to all his compeers. 
 His mind was now reaching out in all directions. 
 He was a vast elemental force, and nothing was 
 so essential to him as room and opportunity. 
 Hiram was now forming her future teachers, as 
 well as creating her own culture. Naturally, 
 therefore, he was given a place in the corps of
 
 GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 37 
 
 teachers. So in the catalogue of 1853-54 his name 
 appears twice, " James A. Garfield, Cuyahoga 
 County," pupil; and "J. A. Garfield, Teacher 
 in the English Department, and of the Ancient 
 Languages." His early engagement as a teacher 
 may point to a certain rawness in the school. 
 However that may be, the pupils lost nothing, but 
 gained much. That the engagement was of great 
 value to him, all will admit who hold with the 
 ancients, and with the founders of the European 
 universities, that teaching is essential to the prog- 
 ress and perfection of the scholar. In this respect 
 Hiram gave him an advantage that an older 
 school, with a higher standard and more conven- 
 tionality, could not have given. The two years 
 following he taught arithmetic, grammar, alge- 
 bra, penmanship, geometry, and classes in classics. 
 He handled large classes in the English studies 
 with conspicuous power. He took captive the 
 members of his classes. He won the students as 
 a body. His pupils and fellow-students had a 
 great deal to say about him, as well as much to 
 write in their letters ; and the result was, that he 
 made a deep impression, both directly and indi- 
 rectly, upon the patrons of the school generally. 
 The managers of the Institute saw that his further 
 
 394707
 
 38 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 services would be most desirable when he had 
 finished his own studies. He and Miss Booth left 
 for college at the same time. As they took their 
 leave, he to return in two years, and she in one, 
 the Board adopted this resolution : 
 
 "In view of the faithfulness and service to the institu- 
 tion of James A. Garfield and Almeda A. Booth, we recom- 
 mend to appropriate to each fifty dollars in addition to their 
 
 In that day of small things, fifty dollars was a 
 large sum to the Hiram Board, and to these faith- 
 ful teachers as well. 
 
 It was in the winter of 1853-54 that Garfield 
 preached his first sermon in Hiram, and made his 
 first chapel lecture. One who was so fortunate as 
 to hear both, says the sermon was a parallel 
 between the history of Napoleon Bonaparte and 
 Jesus Christ. The lecture was upon the origin of 
 the English language, a topic then beginning to 
 attract much attention in academical and col- 
 legiate schools. He came to the stand with a 
 book in his hand, afterwards discovered to be 
 Fowler's English Grammar. From Part II. of 
 this work, " Historical Elements of the English 
 Language," he mainly drew his materials. There
 
 GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 39 
 
 will be found these lines, that he quoted with 
 much effect : 
 
 " Then sad relief, from that bleak coast that hears 
 The German Ocean roar, deep-blooming, strong, 
 And yellow-haired, the blue-eyed Saxon came." 
 
 The lecture was full of instruction, and opened 
 up to one mind at least that inviting field, the 
 origin, history, and nature of our noble mother- 
 tongue. 
 
 But his studies and teaching did not exhaust 
 his activities. He entered into the literary work 
 of the school with great interest and enthusiasm. 
 He was a leading spirit, first in the Eclectic Soci- 
 ety, and later in the Philomathean. He turned 
 his hand with equal readiness and ability to the 
 essay, the oration, and the debate. No student's 
 voice was more potent than his in shaping the 
 general polity and tone of the school. 
 
 III. THE WILLIAMS COLLEGE INTERREGNUM. 
 
 By the close of the spring term, 1854, Mr. Gar- 
 field was ready for college, and was looking about 
 for an alma mater. He thought of Bethany, then 
 presided over by Alexander Campbell, whom he 
 greatly reverenced. He decided against Bethany
 
 40 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 on three grounds, that he thus stated at the time : 
 " The course of study is not so extensive or thor- 
 ough as in Eastern colleges." "Bethany leans 
 too heavily towards slavery." " I am the son of 
 Disciple parents, am one myself, and have had but 
 little acquaintance with people of other views ; 
 and, having lived always in the West, I think it 
 will make me more liberal, both in my religious 
 and general views and sentiments, to go into a new 
 circle, where I shall be under new influence." So 
 he wrote to Brown, Yale, and Williams, stating 
 what he had done, and asking how long it would 
 take him to finish their courses. 
 
 Says Garfield, in the letter just quoted from, 
 
 " Their answers axe now before me. All tell me I can 
 graduate in two years. They are all brief business notes ; 
 but President Hopkins concludes with this sentence : ' If you 
 come here, we shall be glad to do what we can for you.' 
 Other things being so nearly equal, this sentence which 
 seems to be a kind of friendly grasp of the hand has 
 settled the question for me. I shall start for Williams next 
 week." 
 
 Upon what small pivots do great matters turn ! 
 In due time this sentence of Dr. Hopkins's will 
 appear in somebody's book upon turning-points
 
 GAEFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 41 
 
 in life. So our Hiram student went away to 
 Williamstown, feeling, perhaps, with Milton, 
 
 " How soon hath time, the subtle thief of youth, 
 Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!" 
 
 But to Williamstown we cannot follow him. 
 Our story begins again at his return to Hiram in 
 1856. However, the narrative may be interrupted 
 to set down in this place some facts and reflec- 
 tions that force themselves upon the mind. 
 
 Garfield's three years in Hiram had been suc- 
 cessful to an extraordinary degree. They had 
 been years of wonderful growth to him. He had 
 gotten out of the school all that he could get : he 
 left much of himself behind. He had fitted him- 
 self for the junior class of an Eastern college. 
 Indeed, he felt confident of his ability to finish 
 the course in one year ; but, feeling the need of 
 longer and more thorough training, he wisely de- 
 termined to take two years. He had demon- 
 strated his great ability as a teacher. He had 
 also given evidence of superior power as a public 
 speaker. Accordingly, he was pretty well known 
 at the age of twenty-three to that large circle of 
 which Hiram was the centre; and the question 
 of his future more commonly shaping itself
 
 42 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 thus: the pulpit, or the law? was often debated 
 with no little interest in many an Ohio home. 
 
 As he turned his face eastward, Mr. Garfield 
 probably did not pause to answer, or even ask, the 
 question, " What has Hiram done for me ? " He 
 always became so much a part of every place, and 
 every place so much a part of him, that he was 
 never well fitted for such a bit of self-analysis. 
 First, there is the large question of nature and 
 nurture. He held that every character is the 
 joint product of these two causes. But how diffi- 
 cult to assign to each its proper share of the prod- 
 uct ! Besides, who can tell the effect of nature 
 in determining nurture? Next comes up the 
 question, "Which would have been better for 
 Garfield, young Hiram, or old Exeter or An- 
 dover ? " At Hiram was freedom, a large society 
 of opening minds, instructors learned enough to 
 start him well in his studies, and large room for 
 ability and force of character, of which he had a 
 superabundance. He could do as much as he 
 wanted to do, in pretty much his own way ; and 
 he wanted to do a great deal. The especial ad- 
 vantages at Exeter or Andover readily suggest 
 themselves. 
 
 Garfield always had a warm side for the small
 
 GAKFIELD THE HIKAM STUDENT. 43 
 
 schools in out-of-the-way places. He thought that 
 the personal elements in education, which he 
 mainly prized, acted in them with more power. 
 Late in life, replying to what had been some- 
 where said about necessary physical appliances, he 
 said, 
 
 " To all that has been said, I most heartily assent. No 
 words of mine shall in any way detract from the importance 
 of every thing that has been urged; but I am not willing 
 that this discussion should close without mention of the 
 value of a true teacher. Give me a log hut, with only a 
 simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other, 
 and you may have all the buildings, apparatus, and libraries 
 without him." 
 
 Miss Booth was the strong individual force that 
 acted upon liim in Hiram, as President Hopkins 
 was at Williamstown. Of his indebtedness to the 
 one, he eloquently testified in his address ; of his 
 indebtedness to the other, he spoke on numerous 
 occasions. He has been heard to say, " I am sur- 
 prised to meet President Hopkins some thought 
 or word of his so often along the path of my 
 life." All of this is most appreciative and gener- 
 ous, in a sense, both true and just : nevertheless, 
 it may well be doubted whether, to such a nature 
 as Garfield's, teachers, after he reached his twen-
 
 44 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 tieth year, were so important as he thought. It 
 may well be questioned, now that he had got his 
 bent, whether any school was or could be much 
 more to him than a place to spread his tent while 
 he surveyed the kingdom of knowledge. Proba- 
 bly the Hiram students, as a body, did more for 
 him than the Hiram faculty; and the same may 
 be true of the Williams students and faculty. 
 Mr. Rhodes justly said of him in his Cleveland 
 speech, "All men were foils for his own swift 
 blades." He was one of the few who do really 
 
 " Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing." 
 
 However these questions touching the growth 
 of this choice spirit are settled, it was well for 
 Garfield that he took his Ohio training to a New- 
 England college. He never regretted,. either his 
 coming to Hiram, or his going to WilHamstown. 
 He always retained an unswerving affection for 
 both schools. It was well, too, that on his gradua- 
 tion he returned to his native State. According 
 to Professor C. D. Wilber, he was strongly tempt- 
 ed by a twenty-five-hundred-dollar salary not to 
 return to Hiram. He discussed the subject with 
 himself, and finally said, " They want me at Hiram.
 
 GARFIELD THE HIRAM STUDENT. 45 
 
 They cannot pay me much, but I ought to go." 
 And so he came back, to receive a salary not more 
 than one-fourth of the sum named. Sense of 
 duty inspired his choice, and the end vindicated 
 his wisdom. 
 
 The two years at Williams College lie across 
 the track of my. story. That was an epoch of 
 peculiar interest in his life. From 1850 to 1860 
 President Garfield was in the formative stage, 
 a period in a man's life that he always regarded 
 with peculiar interest. He said, at the Hiram 
 commencement in 1880, " Oh, these hours of 
 building ! If the Superior Being of the Universe 
 would look down upon the world to find the 
 most interesting object, it would be the unfin- 
 ished, unformed character of young men and of 
 young women." Still, interesting as those two 
 years are, and notwithstanding that they cut 
 the formative period of his life in two, they do 
 not lie within the topic, " President Garfield in 
 Hiram." 
 
 He graduated with honor Aug. 6, 1856. Presi- 
 dent Hopkins's baccalaureate sermon had for its 
 subject, "Self-denial," and closed thus: "Go to 
 your posts; take unto you the whole armor of 
 God ; watch the signals and follow the footsteps
 
 46 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 of your Leader. That leader is not now in the 
 form of the Man of Sorrows; not now does the 
 sweat of agony rain from him. Him the armies 
 of heaven follow; and he hath on his vesture 
 and on his thigh a name written, ' King of kings 
 and Lord of lords.' The conflict may be long, 
 but its issue is not doubtful. You may fall upon 
 the field before the final peal of victory ; but be 
 ye faithful unto death, and ye shall receive a 
 crown of life." These sentences now read like 
 a prophecy. 
 
 IV. GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 
 
 In the fall of 1856 Mr. Garfield returned to 
 the Eclectic Institute as teacher of ancient lan- 
 guages. He was now nearly twenty-five years 
 old. He entered upon his work with his wonted 
 enthusiasm and ability, and with greatly enlarged 
 mind and resources. At the end of the school 
 year, Principal Hayden, after seven years of ser- 
 vice, resigned. The School Board now took this 
 action as recorded in the minutes : 
 
 " It was resolved, that the present teachers of the institu- 
 tion be constituted a Board of Education, to conduct the 
 educational concerns of the school, subject to the counsel and 
 advice of the Board."
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 47 
 
 This board of instruction 1 made Mr. Garfield 
 its chairman, and he was so published in the 
 catalogue for the year 1856-57. There appears 
 to have been some hesitancy in making him the 
 principal in name, but he was principal in fact. 
 The next year he became principal in name as 
 well. His style now was, " Principal, and Teacher 
 of Ancient Languages." Thus it continued until 
 August, 1861, when he went to the army, and 
 his de facto connection with the Institute ceased. 
 But the Board thought he might return, at 
 least, they were not ready to part with his name : 
 so he was announced as principal, both in 1862 
 and 1863. He does not appear in the catalogue 
 for 1864, but re-appears in 1865 and 1866 as advi- 
 sory principal and lecturer. From this time on, 
 he stands only among the trustees. Within the 
 foregoing chronological limits, lie the life and 
 services that are now to be described. As a 
 matter of course, the heart of the story will be 
 found in the five years reaching from 1856 to 
 1861. 
 
 A good preface to this account of Garfield's 
 life and service as a teacher will be furnished by 
 
 1 Tliis Board consisted of J. A. Garfield, Norman Dunshee, 
 H. W. Everest, J. H. Rhodes, and Almeda A. Booth.
 
 48 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 two anecdotes that he related, at widely separated 
 intervals, concerning his experience as a teacher 
 in the district schools. They are also invaluable 
 illustrations of his life and Character. The first 
 he told to two or three friends but a short time 
 before he left Mentor for Washington, to be in- 
 augurated President of the United States. The 
 subject under discussion at the time was " office- 
 seeking " in general, and the " second term " in 
 particular. 
 
 " The fall that I was eighteen years old, I travelled a con- 
 siderable circuit round about Orange in quest of a district 
 school to teach. I was refused in one place after another 
 for different reasons ; so that at last I came home tired and 
 discouraged. I had made up my mind that seeking posi- 
 tions was not in harmony with my nature; that I never 
 should succeed in life if I hunted places ; and that I would 
 make no further effort in that direction, but would wait and 
 see what would come to me. An hour or two after reach- 
 ing home with these conclusions fully wrought out in my 
 mind, a man from an adjoining neighborhood called at my 
 mother's house, and said he was ' huntin' widow Gaffield's 1 
 Jimmie.' He wanted a teacher for his district, and he 
 ' 'lowed that Jimmie would do.' I was called in," said the 
 President-elect, "and a bargain was soon concluded. The 
 coming of this man confirmed me in the opinion that place- 
 
 1 A local corruption of Garfield.
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OP HIRAM. 49 
 
 seeking was not in my line ; and I have never asked any- 
 body for a place from that day to this." 
 
 The reader can reflect upon this story at his 
 leisure. Here it suffices to say, that, in conse- 
 quence of this contract, the future President of 
 the United States taught his first school. The 
 place was the "Ledge," in Solon, Cuyahoga 
 County, O.; the time, the winter of 1849-50. 
 Afterwards he taught two other district schools, 
 each one term, one near Zanesville, Muskingum 
 County ; and the other in Warrensville, Cuyahoga 
 County. 
 
 Years after Garfield had ceased to teach, and 
 when he had already acquired a national reputa- 
 tion as a statesman, he one day gave a lecture 
 to the teachers' class in Hiram College. It was 
 in this lecture that he related the second anec- 
 dote : 
 
 " When I first taught a district school, 1 formed and car- 
 ried out this plan : After I had gone to bed at night, I 
 threw back the bedclothes from one side of the bed. Then 
 I smoothed out the sheet with my hand. Next, I mentally 
 constructed on this smooth surface my schoolroom. First 
 I drew the aisles ; here I put the stove, there the teacher's 
 desk ; in this place the water-pail and cup, in that the open 
 space at the head of the room. Then I put in the seats,
 
 50 PEESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and placed the scholars upon them in their proper order. 
 I said, Here is John, with Samuel by his side ; there Jane 
 and Eliza ; and so on, until they were all placed. Then I 
 took them up in order, beginning next my desk in this 
 manner : This is Johnny Smith. What kind of boy is he ? 
 What is his mind, and what his temper? How is he 
 doing? What is he now as compared with a week ago? 
 Can I do any thing more for him ? And so I went on from 
 seat to seat, and from pupil to pupil, until I had made the 
 circuit of the room. I found this study and review of 
 my pupils of great benefit to them and to me. Besides, my 
 ideal construction, made on the bed-sheet in the dark, aided 
 me materially in the work." 
 
 The reader can reflect upon this narrative also 
 at his leisure. Here it suffices to say, that a 
 young man who had the ingenuity, patience, and 
 thoughtfulness to carry on such work as this, 
 night after night, could not but succeed as a 
 district-school teacher, not to speak of higher 
 capacities. 
 
 Now we will go on with the Hiram story. 
 
 The field of instruction in the Institute was 
 regularly allotted to the different teachers. But 
 -the published scheme was never fully carried out 
 in practice. The majority of the students were 
 pursuing selected studies. Calls for classes were 
 more or less irregular. Hence the teachers
 
 GABFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 51 
 
 were compelled to accommodate themselves to 
 the wants of the students. Then their desire to 
 shun ruts and narrowness, to gain breadth and 
 to preserve freshness, as well as the desire to 
 carry their individual methods and personal force 
 through the whole school, tended in the same 
 direction. Still, each teacher generally worked 
 within certain lines, though the lines were not 
 very straight or rigid. Accordingly, it must not 
 be thought that Mr. Garfield taught all the Latin 
 and Greek, or that he taught nothing else. He 
 taught classes in classics and mathematics, his- 
 tory, philosophy, criticism, English literature, rhet- 
 oric, English analysis, and geology. Certainly his 
 knowledge of these subjects was not that of the 
 specialist, but it was sufficient for present de- 
 mands. Nor must it be thought that the demands 
 were small. The standard had been greatly raised 
 since the day that young Garfield looked with 
 such wonder upon a class in geometry. Many 
 young men and women were then fitting for col- 
 lege in Hiram, some for the Freshman class, but 
 more for the higher classes. Then there were 
 many young men and women of age, ability, and 
 character, who had no thought of going to college, 
 but wanted the " best studies ; " and these some- 

 
 52 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 times tasked the powers of the teachers quite as 
 fully as any others. Principal Garfield took more 
 interest in some studies than in others ; but upon 
 the whole it was hard to see that he did not teach 
 all the studies named equally well. At some time 
 all the studies taught in colleges, and more be- 
 sides, engaged his particular attention, and aroused 
 his special enthusiasm. He introduced Shaw's 
 " English Literature," and Kames's " Elements of 
 Criticism," and awakened a special interest in them. 
 He always taught the class in English analysis. 
 This study was a special favorite with him, and 
 nowhere else did he more shine as a teacher. 
 Through this class most of the better scholars at 
 some time passed, even if they considered them- 
 selves thorough in it before. Probably no other 
 of his classes is to-day remembered with equal 
 interest by so many persons. Then his geology 
 class, that recited at five o'clock in the morning, 
 cannot be forgotten by a single surviving member. 
 His method of teaching combined the technical 
 question, the general question, the topic, and the 
 teacher's own discussion of the question in hand. 
 A critic might have said that the last element 
 was too prominent, that he did too much himself, 
 that he did not so much excel as a drill-master
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 53 
 
 and a disciplinarian; but, if fruit is the test of 
 method, it would be hard to sustain the criticism. 
 He strove to awaken the student's faculties. He 
 sought to energize or vitalize him. He revealed 
 the world to the student, and the student to him- 
 self. He stimulated thought, created the habit 
 of observation and reflection, aroused courage, 
 widened the field of mental vision, and furnished 
 inspiration in unlimited measures. If his regimen 
 was somewhat deficient in the forces that push the 
 student, it was strong in the forces that draw him. 
 His associate teachers had more than ordinary 
 ability, and were thoroughly respected by the 
 school ; but those scholars who had reached his 
 zone always made an effort, if necessary, to be in 
 at least one of his classes. 
 
 In the communication already quoted from, 
 President Everest of Butler University sets these 
 down as Garfield's striking characteristics as a 
 teacher : 
 
 "1. He was always clear and certain. 
 
 "2. He impressed the main things, but passed perhaps 
 too lightly over the subordinate portions. 
 
 " 3. He had rare ability at illustration. 
 
 " 4. He gave more attention to the boy than to the book. 
 He strove to develop the student, not the lesson or science.
 
 54 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 " 5. He was abundant in praise of success, but sparing of 
 blame. 
 
 " 6. He inspired his students with a spirit of investiga- 
 tion and conquest. 
 
 " 7. By frequent and rapid reviews he kept the whole 
 work in hand, and gave it completeness." 
 
 Principal Garfield's chapel lectures were a great 
 source of instruction and influence. Of these 
 he gave many hundreds, ranging over education, 
 teaching, studies, books, methods of study and 
 reading, physical geography, geology, history, the 
 Bible, morals, current topics, and life questions. 
 These lectures were full of fresh facts, new 
 thoughts, striking illustrations, and were warm 
 with the glow of his own life. His two years in 
 Williams College had given his mind some new 
 facets. He brought back the best thoughts of Dr. 
 Hopkins, and sowed them in Hiram soil. His 
 mind was growing every day, and the studies that 
 nourished him nourished his pupils as well. He 
 generally spoke from notes that he had carefully 
 prepared, and that he carefully preserved. If 
 these notes should be brought forth from their 
 hiding-place and published, men would be aston- 
 ished at the sweep of his thought, the versatility 
 of his mind, and the fertility of his resources.
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 55 
 
 He appeared frequently as a preacher, both 
 in the pulpit of the Hiram church and in the 
 chapel. His sermons, of which more by and by, 
 added much to his influence over his students. 
 Here it should be said, when he came to the front 
 in 1857, the character of the school somewhat 
 changed. Its genius was less theological or bibli- 
 cal, and more secular or human. The ecclesias- 
 tical way of looking at things somewhat receded 
 with the retirement of Principal Hayden. But 
 morals, religion, and Bible study were by no 
 means forgotten. Noble ideals of life and charac- 
 ter, ideals of manliness, courage, reverence, and 
 truth, were constantly kept in view. What 
 Arnold of Rugby called " moral thoughtfulness " 
 the inquiring love of truth and practical love 
 of goodness was made prominent. Charles 
 Kingsley and Thomas Hughes were a great deal 
 read in Hiram in those days, and the Hiram type 
 of Christianity became somewhat " muscular." 
 Withal, such of the students as could receive it 
 were filled with the Principal's own largeness of 
 nature. 
 
 His rhetorical class known in those days as 
 " Garfield's division" was a great theatre of 
 interest and improvement. He had great skill in
 
 56 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 conducting such a class ; .especially was he a help- 
 ful critic. This class will not be forgotten by its 
 members, nor did he forget it. One of his remi- 
 niscences in his re-union speech, June 10, 1880, 
 was this : 
 
 "Some may remember the time that I had an exercise 
 which I remember with great pleasure, when I called a 
 young lad to the rostrum, and said, ' Now, in the next two 
 minutes, you will speak to the best of your ability on the 
 following subject ; ' and gave him the subject, and let him 
 wrestle with it. It was a trying thing for the young lads, 
 but they very seldom got thrown." 
 
 Strong as was Mr. Garfield's intellectual side, 
 his moral side was even stronger. He was full 
 of appreciation and generosity. He was keenly 
 alive to the rights of men, even the lowest and 
 the least worthy. He respected human nature. 
 Tenderness, compassion, and sympathy abounded 
 in him. His sense of justice to others was keen, 
 no matter whether he always insisted upon its 
 being rendered to himself or not. It hurt him to 
 hurt others. He interested himself in the young 
 and in the weak. He often joined the boys in 
 their sports on the campus. Once two of his spe- 
 cial friends were " choosing sides " for the game.
 
 GAEFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 57 
 
 Two small hoys appeared, and asked to be chosen. 
 The choosers objected to them that they were 
 small, and would spoil the play. "If they can- 
 not play, I will not," said Garfield. They were 
 chosen, and the play went on. In his address on 
 " The Elements of Success " will be found this 
 paragraph : 
 
 " I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than for a man. 
 I never meet a ragged boy of the street without feeling that 
 I may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities 
 may be buttoned up under his shabby coat. When I meet 
 you in the full flush of mature life, I see nearly all there 
 is of you ; but among these boys are the great men of the 
 future, the heroes of the next generation, the philosophers, 
 the statesmen, the philanthropists, the great reformers and 
 moulders of the next age. Therefore, I say, there is a 
 peculiar charm to me in the exhibitions of young people 
 engaged in the business of education." 
 
 General Garfield once told some Hiram students, 
 that no man is ever loved simply because he 
 has a great or brilliant mind. He may be much 
 respected, or greatly admired, but not loved. 
 The intellectual ray is powerful, but also fierce 
 and pitiless. It is not until the heart ray blends 
 with the mental, and tempers it, as the heat ray 
 the light ray of the sunbeam, that the emotive 

 
 58 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 nature is touched. Feeling lies deeper than logic 
 can penetrate. Only the heart can speak to the 
 heart. In harmony with this law so beautifully 
 formulated, the students respected and admired 
 his ability ; but the force that won them was the 
 heart force. Garfield's great, tender heart, his 
 all-embracing sympathy, his nice delicacy of feel- 
 ing, his quick appreciation of every thing ethically 
 good or spiritually beautiful, will be remembered 
 farther and longer than his powerful logical facul- 
 ties or his ample knowledge. He called out the 
 demonstrativeness and affections of men in a way 
 almost unprecedented. His heart, none but the 
 utterly obdurate could resist. To him the phleg- 
 matic would stir, the cold warm, the icy melt. 
 When he put his great brotherly arm around 
 a discouraged or fainting boy, poor, homesick, 
 or blind to the way before him, the boy very 
 likely shed tears ; but somehow the mists began 
 to clear away from his vision, and his heart grew 
 strong. Said one years ago, " Then began to 
 grow up in me an admiration and love for Gar- 
 field that has never abated, and the like of which 
 I have never known. A bow of recognition, or 
 a single word, from him, was to me an inspira- 
 tion."
 
 GABFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 59 
 
 Those who have witnessed the marvellous draw- 
 ing-out of men's hearts towards General Carfield 
 in the last year, have simply seen on a vast scale 
 what was seen in Hiram school more than a score 
 of years ago. The revelations of Washington 
 and Elberon have caused little or no surprise to 
 the Hiram fellowship : only the lamentable occa- 
 sion that brought out the revelations has been a 
 surprise to them. The faith and fortitude, the 
 constancy and courage, the patience and piety, 
 that shone so bright in the White House and in 
 Mr. Francklyn's cottage by the sea, are just what 
 this fellowship, the occasion being given, would 
 have expected. It was said that the eyes of the 
 wife of William the Silent were full of unwept 
 tears : similarly the heart of the late President was 
 full of unshed goodness, gentleness, and tender- 
 ness. 
 
 Perhaps the foregoing paragraphs taken alone 
 will create a false impression. Let it not be sup- 
 posed that the Hiram regimen was only soft and 
 winning. The Principal's hand was as firm as his 
 heart was tender ; and on due occasion he could be 
 exceedingly severe. He never scolded, never be- 
 came angry ; but his reproofs were all the sterner 
 because of the large background of feeling.
 
 60 PEESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Boys of ability and promise came to Hiram in 
 the period of 1856-61, as they still do, having 
 meagre ideas of studies and of themselves. They 
 expected, possibly because they had given the 
 matter small thought, to study two or three terms, 
 and then to go back to the farm or the shop. In 
 time many of these were touched by Garfield's 
 energizing power. Their minds began to open ; 
 new aspirations began to stir in their hearts ; and 
 they longed to carry their studies beyond the 
 limits first set. Often these boys, had troubles 
 peculiarly their own. Some were poor ; some 
 were tethered to home ; some wanted courage and 
 self-reliance ; some tended to despondency. Mr. 
 Garfield found them out. He remembered his 
 own experience. He seemed to read by intuition 
 a mind that teemed with new facts, ideas, and 
 impressions ; that was stirred by a new spirit and 
 power ; that sighed for wider and higher activity. 
 These students he aided with his counsel and en- 
 couragement. He advised and sometimes expos- 
 tulated with parents. He took great pleasure in 
 " capturing boys," as he called it ; and more than 
 one was saved to himself and to the world by his 
 friendly mediation. A boy who wanted to study, 
 and was poor, called out his full interest. The
 
 GARFIELD PEESIDENT OF HIRAM. 61 
 
 following letter, written to a district-school teacher 
 who was struggling with the hard questions of life, 
 a letter already often published, will illustrate 
 the bent of his nature : 
 
 "HiBAM, Jan. 15, 1857. 
 
 " MY DEAR BROTHER, I was made very glad, a few days 
 since, by the receipt of your letter. It was a very acceptable 
 New Year's present, and I take great pleasure in responding. 
 You have given a vivid picture of a community in which 
 intelligence and morality have been neglected, and I am 
 glad you are disseminating the light. Certainly men must 
 have some knowledge in order to do right. God first said, 
 'Let there be light:' afterwards he said, 'It is very good.' 
 I am glad to hear of your success in teaching, but I approach 
 with much more interest the consideration of the question 
 you have proposed. Brother mine, it is not a question to be 
 discussed in the spirit of debate, but to be thought over and 
 prayed over as a question ' out of which are the issues of 
 life.' You will agree with me, that every one must decide 
 and direct his own course in life; and the only service 
 friends can afford is to give us the data from which we must 
 draw our own conclusion and decide our course. Allow me, 
 then, to sit beside you, and look over the field of life, and 
 see what are its aspects. I am not one of those who advise 
 every one to undertake the work of a liberal education : 
 indeed, I believe that in two-thirds of the cases such advice 
 would be unwise. The great body of the people will be, and 
 ought to be, (intelligent) farmers and mechanics; and, in 
 many respects, these pass the most independent and happy
 
 62 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 lives. But God has endowed some of his children with 
 desires and capabilities for a more extended field of labor 
 and influence ; and so every life should be shaped according 
 to 'what the man hath.' Now, in reference to yourself, / 
 know you have capabilities for occupying positions of high 
 and important trust in the scenes of active life ; and I am 
 sure you will not call it flattery in me, nor egotism in your- 
 self, to say so. Tell me : do you not feel a spirit stirring 
 within you that longs to know, to do, and to dare, to hold 
 converse with the great world of thought ; that holds before 
 you some high and noble object to which the vigor of your 
 mind and the strength of your arm may be given ? Do you 
 not have longings like these, which you breathe to no one, 
 and which you feel must be heeded, or you will pass through 
 life unsatisfied and regretful? I am sure you have them, 
 and they will forever cling round your heart till you obey 
 their mandate. They are the voices of that nature which 
 God has given you, and which, when obeyed, will bless you 
 and your fellow-men. Now, all this might be true, and yet 
 it might be your duty not to follow that course. If your 
 duty to your father or your mother demands that you take 
 another, I shall rejoice to see you taking that other course. 
 The path of duty is where we all ought to walk, be that 
 where it may. But I sincerely hope you will not, without 
 an earnest struggle, give up a course of liberal study. Sup- 
 pose you could not begin your study again till after your 
 majority. It will not be too late then : but you will gain in 
 many respects; you will have more maturity of mind to 
 appreciate whatever you may study. You may say you will 
 be too old to begin the course ; but how could you better
 
 GAKFIELD PBESIDENT OF HIRAM. 63 
 
 spend the earlier days of life ? We should not measure life 
 by the days and moments that we pass on earth. 
 
 ' The life is measured by the soul's advance; 
 The enlargement of its powers ; the expanded field 
 Wherein it ranges, till it burns and glows 
 "With heavenly joy, with high and heavenly hope.' 
 
 "It need be no discouragement that you be obliged to 
 hew your own way, and pay your own charges. You can 
 go to school two terms every year, and pay your own way. 
 I know this, for I did so when teachers' wages were much 
 lower than they are now. It is a great truth, that ' where 
 there is a will, there is a way.' It may be that by and by 
 your father could assist you. It may be that even now he 
 could let you commence on your own resources, so that you 
 could begin immediately. Of this you know, and I do not. 
 I need not tell you how glad I should be to assist you in 
 your work ; but, if you cannot come to Hiram while I am 
 here, I shall still hope to hear that you are determined to go 
 on as soon as the time will permit. Will you not write me 
 your thoughts on this whole subject, and tell me your pros- 
 pects ? We are having a very good time in the school this 
 winter. Give my love to Rolden and Louise, and believe me 
 always your friend and brother, J. A. GARFIELD. 
 
 "P. S. Miss Booth and Mr. Rhodes send their love to 
 you. Henry James was here, and made me a good visit a 
 few days ago. He is doing well. He and I have talked of 
 going to see you this winter. I fear we cannot do it. How
 
 64 PEESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 far is it from here ? Was it prophetic that my last word to 
 you ended on the picture of Congress Capitol ? " l 
 
 He seemed always to say and do the right thing 
 at the right time. His wit never came too late. 
 Even trivial things became potent because he did 
 them. One student points with affectionate pride 
 to the words, " carpe diem," in Garfield's hand, on 
 the fly-leaf of his Horace. Another has shown 
 me this page of autobiography, that he wrote 
 many years ago. The scene lies in the fall term 
 of 1856, the first after the return from "Williams- 
 town : 
 
 " I had to leave school at the close of the term for finan- 
 cial and home reasons. I was exceedingly anxious to go 
 on. My faculties were pretty fully worked up; the king- 
 dom of knowledge stretched away before me on every hand ; 
 my mind was opening on many questions. Life on the 
 farm, or any life that ignored study, became more and more 
 painful to me. My state of mind became known to a few 
 friends, who did what they could with their sympathy. 
 Garfield tried to steady me and give me courage. At last 
 the end came. After participating in some public literary 
 exercises, I withdrew from the chapel. A few friends, Gar- 
 field among them, went with me to the lower hall, where we 
 said good-by. They returned to the chapel ; and I started 
 
 1 The letter is written on " Congress " paper. The last word 
 of the previous sentence is on the picture of the Capitol.
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 65 
 
 homeward, fearing that I should go to school no more. 
 When I had gone many miles, I discovered under the thread 
 of my hat-lining a note that ran thus : 
 
 " ' You need to guard against a tone, for I see that you are a 
 little inclined to fall into a measured rhythm. You say sense 
 instead of since. JAMES.' 
 
 " How much influence that note has had upon my life," 
 the page reads, " I do not know ; but I feel sure that it was 
 not small." 
 
 Perhaps it is needless to say that such a teacher 
 and such a man was very successful as a school 
 administrator. He had nothing of the regulation 
 schoolmaster about him, and he put red tape to 
 small use. He never spent his force on little things. 
 He understood what was, and what was not, essen- 
 tial to discipline and good order ; and he secured 
 the first all the more readily because he was indif- 
 ferent to the second. He always had a code of 
 printed rules that he expounded each term; he 
 exacted weekly reports of conduct : but his own 
 personality was worth far more than both rules 
 and reports. His management of disciplinary 
 cases was skilful. On one occasion, after morning 
 prayers, he read impressively selections from Prov. 
 vii. He added, "... [naming three young men] 
 are expelled from this school." Not another word
 
 66 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 was said, but the whole made a profound impres- 
 sion. He had unusual power in controlling and 
 influencing bad boys. He did not always make 
 them good ; far from it : but he had so much heart 
 and nature, was so free from cant and affectation, 
 that rough fellows who despised a religious pro- 
 fession respected and loved him. Many a boy was 
 thus inclined towards goodness, whom austerity 
 and pretension would have driven to evil. 
 
 President Garfield left the academy for the field 
 and the forum at the age of thirty years. But 
 this was not until he had demonstrated his capa- 
 city for the highest educational work and honor. 
 He had taught twenty-four terms: viz., three in 
 the district school, six in Hiram before going to 
 college, and fifteen afterwards, eight years in all. 
 Had he remained an educator, which he had not 
 intended to do more than he had intended to 
 preach, he would have proved himself worthy of 
 the highest position in the land. Other things 
 being equal, he was never greater than in Hiram 
 in the years 1856 to 1861. He came in contact 
 with from one hundred and seventy-five to three 
 hundred students a term, of all ages from fifteen 
 to twenty-five, and of all grades of ability. These 
 students he fired with enthusiasm. The ordinary
 
 GARFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 67 
 
 terms of respect and affection do not meet the 
 case. Their idea of him was the largest that they 
 were capable of forming. They could think of 
 nothing more. It is common for students to 
 form exaggerated opinions of their teachers, 
 opinions that larger knowledge of men generally 
 shatters. But not so in this case. As their 
 minds grew with years, he grew too ; and they 
 never had occasion to measure him over again. 
 As these young hero-worshippers went out from 
 Hiram, some to college and some to business, Mr. 
 Garfield was the standard by whom they measured 
 men. As, with rapturous devotion, they told men 
 of his qualities, they were met sometimes with 
 incredulity, sometimes with a pitying smile, some- 
 times with a sneer. They were told that Mr. Gar- 
 field might answer very well for a little place like 
 Hiram, but that they must not expect to see men 
 accept their estimate of him. But they continued 
 to insist that time would show him equal to the 
 highest honors. The very title by which they had 
 been accustomed to call him at school clung to 
 their lips. Hiram was not then a college, and the 
 teachers were not commonly called professors. 
 He became colonel, general, representative, sen- 
 ator, and president ; but plain " Mr. Garfield "
 
 68 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 always seemed to best befit Hiram students. Still 
 further, his home was in Hiram for many years 
 after he ceased to teach. His relations to the 
 school and to the community in those years will 
 soon be described. Here it suffices to say, his 
 influence was largely felt by the students, even 
 when he did not know their names or faces. 
 What is more, to gain his approval in school, or to 
 be worthy of it afterwards, was an ideal that many 
 a young man or woman carried out into life. 
 These things Mr. Garfield did naturally, and 
 almost unconsciously. His method was spontane- 
 ity. However, as years went by, his Hiram friends 
 were able to render him substantial service in his 
 public career. And this they were always glad to 
 do. To serve him, some of them hardly counted 
 their lives dear unto themselves. 
 
 Perhaps people outside the Hiram fellowship 
 should make some allowance for the enthusiasm 
 of youth, and for the illusions that time works. 
 However that may be, I cannot refrain from 
 making quotations from two private communi- 
 cations recently received. Both are from old 
 Hiram students; one is an alumnus of Williams, 
 and the other of Oberlin :
 
 GARFIELD PKESIDENT OF HIBAM. 69 
 
 " One day in reading the eleventh ode of Horace, Book 
 I., he had my book; and when it came back to me he had 
 written on a fly-leaf the phrase 'carpe diem,' as a kind of 
 motto. I have the book still ; and, though the pencil-marks 
 are somewhat dim, I shall keep this book. When we wanted 
 a motto for the Delphic, he gave us ' Possunt quia posse 
 videntur,' and translated it for us, ' They are strong because 
 they think they are strong.' Both of these are real Garfield 
 mottoes ; and I have thought, that, while he was wonderfully 
 gifted by nature, few men ever improved their opportunities 
 as he did. He not only had courage and inspiration for 
 himself, but he filled every one who approached him with 
 much of his own spirit. Now that he is gone, and the 
 vision has fled, I feel like using the words of the disciples 
 who came from Emmaus, 'Did not our heart burn within 
 us while he talked with us by the way ? ' 
 
 " I have been thinking that some one should write a 
 paper or lecture about Garfield as a teacher. I really feel 
 that he was one of the greatest teachers who have appeared 
 in this country. What wisdom, what power, what inspira- 
 tion, there was in him ! It has been my fortune to enjoy 
 the acquaintance of some very distinguished teachers ; but 
 even Dr. Hopkins seems to me far inferior to ' Mr. Gar- 
 field.' He taught all his life, in the pulpit, on the plat- 
 form, and in the halls of Congress. Instead of laboring 
 for brilliant periods and high-sounding perorations, he en- 
 deavored to make his subjects understood, and to teach the 
 people the science of government."
 
 70 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Too much prominence cannot be given to the 
 fact that Gen. Garfield taught all his life. Nor 
 is it easy to over-estimate the influence of his 
 teacher-life upon his whole public career. No 
 doubt he would have taken a strong interest in 
 public education, had he never taught ; but his 
 experience as a teacher greatly widened and 
 deepened his interest. Besides, that experience 
 profoundly influenced his manner of thought and 
 discussion. To instruct his hearers, to throw 
 light upon his subject, was always his supreme 
 ambition in public speaking. An old Hiram stu- 
 dent, who often heard him on the stump, once 
 said, " The General never succeeds so well in 
 dealing with a great audience as when he han- 
 dles it just as he handled his class." Naturally, 
 the educators of the land took great pride in him 
 as a statesman ; and, now that he is dead, some 
 affectionately call him " our teacher Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 A lady who has contributed other valuable 
 memorabilia to this sketch thus writes of Gar- 
 field's student and teacher days : 
 
 " I have often thought a complete conduct of life might 
 be made from his apt quotations and happy generalizations. 
 His studious habits never gave him a pre-occupied air. He
 
 QAEFIELD PRESIDENT OF HIRAM. 71 
 
 seemed so to command his time that leisure belonged to him 
 as much as study. 
 
 "I was never his classmate, but was once a fellow- 
 member of a vacation lyceum that met in the lower chapel. 
 The lyceum had night sessions ; and the darkness was made 
 apparent by the tallow candles, whose tendency to drip was 
 a constant menace. When any one read an essay, a mar- 
 shal accompanied him to the rostrum, and illuminated the 
 face, if not the paper, of the reader. Mr. Garfield read 
 a paper, ' The Millennium.' He was a firm believer in a 
 swift-coming millennium ; he cited authorities to prove that 
 it was surely coming; proved its desirability, and quoted 
 some very good poetry ; but wound up with, ' Let us, there- 
 fore, do all that we can to hasten the millennium.' A stu- 
 dent who had actually printed some of his own poetry was 
 critic. He criticised the 'Let us.' General Garfield was 
 accustomed to say that this criticism was of great value 
 to him, and that then and there he dropped the hortatory 
 ' Let us.' 
 
 " ' I am a part of all that I have met,' was one of his 
 favorite quotations. In his class-room his personality was 
 as beneficent, as all-pervasive, as the air we breathe. Each 
 student was etched upon his memory so that he never forgot 
 a name, face, or initial. Often this remembrance brought 
 tears of joy to the eyes of his former pupils after the teacher 
 was lost in the statesman. He once said of himself, 'Of 
 two courses, the one offering improvement, and the other 
 pecuniary reward, I have always sought to choose the one 
 that offered improvement.' "
 
 72 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Mr. Garfield's administration lifted the Eclectic 
 Institute into new prominence. The attendance 
 of students did not indeed increase, owing to the - 
 growing competition of other schools, especially 
 within the Disciple pale ; but its character was 
 raised, and its influence was enlarged. There 
 was a higher standard of scholarship. Hiram cul- 
 ture became more mature. Students outside of 
 the church were drawn into the school in increas- 
 ing numbers. Educators became familiar with 
 the name of Hiram and its head. The scope of 
 the work done is pretty fully shown by the Princi- 
 pal's report to the State Commissioner of Common 
 Schools, for the year 1858. It is here somewhat 
 condensed : 
 
 " Students since the founding of the Institute, counting 
 by terms, 5,045; males 2,881, females 2,164. Twenty-five 
 students have graduated from regular colleges, and ten are 
 now in college. The Board of Instruction consists of a 
 principal and seven associate teachers, four male and three 
 female. The number of students enrolled for the year end- 
 ing Aug. 31, 1858, by terms, as before, 520. Two have en- 
 tered college during the year, and eight now here are one 
 year advanced in the college course. Number of students 
 studying common branches, 250 ; ancient languages, 75 ; 
 modern, eight ; higher English branches, 190. 
 
 " The aim of the school is to hold the rank of a first-clasa
 
 GAKFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 73 
 
 collegiate seminary ; to train teachers for their duty in the 
 public schools, and to prepare students for an advanced 
 standing in college. One of the peculiarities of the Eclectic 
 is a clause in its charter providing for the introduction of 
 the Bible as a text-book. It is introduced in no sectarian 
 attitude; but the sacred literature, history, and morals of 
 the Bible are regarded as legitimate theme for academic in- 
 struction. The Institute is constantly increasing in influ- 
 ence and number of students, and is now more prosperous 
 than ever." 
 
 V.-GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 
 
 But teaching and lecturing did not exhaust 
 Mr. Garfield's activity. He was all the time 
 carrying on important outside work in several 
 fields. This must now be sketched, not indeed 
 fully, but for illustration. 
 
 First, may be mentioned his labors at teachers' 
 institutes. His ability as a teacher, and especially 
 as a lecturer, strongly recommended him to the 
 institute committees as well as to the teachers 
 who attended them. Frequent calls for lectures 
 came to him from the various lecture associations 
 round about. Admirable lectures on " Sir Walter 
 Seott" and "Germany," as well as other topics, 
 lie to-day among his unpublished papers. 
 
 He preached more or less- before he went to
 
 74 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 college. At college he preached frequently to 
 two or three small churches of Disciples within 
 reach of Williamstown. After his return to 
 Hiram, he continued to preach until he went 
 into the army. For five full years, he preached 
 somewhere nearly every Sunday. A number of 
 churches can be named to which he preached 
 " one-half his time " for several years. He ap- 
 peared occasionally in the pulpits of churches 
 where he had no regular engagements. At the 
 great "yearly meetings," where thousands gath- 
 ered under the old "Bedford tent" or under the 
 shade, he was a favorite preacher. His sermons 
 live only in the hearts of those who heard them. 
 They were strong in the ethical rather than in the 
 distinctively evangelical element. He had small 
 interest in purely theological or ecclesiastical 
 topics. He inclined to Coleridge's canon, " That 
 is truth which finds me." His stricter brethren 
 found much fault with him because he was not 
 more denominational ; some said he lacked " unc- 
 tion : " but the people, wherever he went, would 
 turn out to hear Garfield preach. He greatly 
 admired the life and character of Paul the apostle ; 
 and one of his ablest sermons, remembered by 
 many to this day, .was upon that subject. In
 
 GAEFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 75 
 
 August, 1860, Mr. Campbell and Mr. Garfield 
 attended the Stark County Yearly Meeting at 
 Alliance, O. The old preacher preached Sunday 
 morning, the young one Sunday afternoon. Mr. 
 Robert Moffet, now of Cleveland, O., has just 
 reproduced from his "sketch-book" a report of 
 Garfield's sermon, written at the time. No doubt 
 many readers will be glad to see the framework 
 of a Garfield sermon. 
 
 "He took for his text the following passages: 'In him 
 was life, and the life was the light of men' (John i. 4). 
 ' Let your light so shine before men that they may see your 
 good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven' 
 (Matt. v. 16). 
 
 " In the exordium he drew a contrast between the giving 
 of the old law, and the giving of the law of the spirit of life 
 in Christ Jesus. The one was given amid the awful thun- 
 der and smoke of Sinai; the other, amid the quiet and 
 glory of nature's mountain scenery in Judea. The one was 
 given in a manner to terrify the people; the other, in cir- 
 cumstances which invited the multitude to draw near to 
 Jesus. The one was the awful voice of the unseen God; 
 the other, the voice of God in a Friend and Brother. 
 
 " He then took up the subject of life and light as found 
 in the texts. 
 
 "I. THE LAW OF ITS BEING: constitutional law, the 
 law by which this life must be in us.
 
 76 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 " 1. We must be in him. Spiritual life is spiritual union 
 with Christ. 
 
 " 2. The union must be intimate. When a scion is grafted 
 into the stock, care is taken to establish a very close and 
 intimate union, so that the life of the tree or vine may be 
 imparted to it. So our union with Christ must be very 
 intimate. External forms do not constitute an intimate 
 union. There must be the faith and love of the heart. 
 There must be a complete surrender of the will to Christ. 
 
 "3. As the scion grafted into the stock must be capable 
 of receiving life, must not be dead, so the man grafted 
 into Christ must not be totally dead, but must be capable of 
 receiving life from the fountain of life, Christ Jesus. ' If 
 any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.' He has been 
 quickened from his ' death in trespasses and in sins.' 
 
 " II. THE LAW OF ITS ACTION : 
 
 " 1. The life of Christ transferred becomes light. When 
 we take Christ for our example, when we draw our inspira- 
 tion from him, when his life is in us as a controlling inspira- 
 tion and power, then do we become the light of the world. 
 
 "2. 'Let your light so shine.' We cannot dim the light 
 which comes from Christ, but we can 
 
 " (a) Bring something between us and Jesus Christ, and 
 prevent his shining upon us. We can fail to maintain that 
 intimate union with Christ, who is the source of life, that 
 life which is the light of men. 
 
 " (b) We can place something between us and others, and 
 thus hinder our light from shining before men. We need 
 to let our light shine out into all the dark places. What 
 for?
 
 GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 77 
 
 " (c) To induce men to glorify God our Father. The 
 world demands a lived gospel as well as a preached gospel. 
 Christians need to be living epistles, known and read of all 
 men. A dying world is calling for that life which is the 
 light of men." 
 
 President Garfield's connection with the min- 
 istry has been the theme of much curious inquiry. 
 Hence it may be well to state some general facts 
 connected therewith. 
 
 He was never a minister in the commonly 
 accepted sense. The Disciples' Church originated 
 in a revolt from the old standards of doctrine and 
 polity, and thus gave more room to personal force 
 and inspiration than the older and more conserva- 
 tive bodies. " To exercise his gifts," was each 
 brother's privilege. Such exercise was directly 
 encouraged. Hence " the liberty of prophesy- 
 ing " took a wide range. What is more, even the 
 brethren who were known as preachers passed 
 into the ministerial body, and out of it, with com- 
 parative ease. It must be remembered that the 
 Disciples were a young body thirty years ago, and 
 that they had not then attained to their present 
 degree of order and discipline. Mr. Garfield had 
 no other ordination than the approval and encour- 
 agement of the churches. Whether at any time
 
 78 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 he intended to devote his life to preaching, must 
 perhaps remain in doubt. If he did, it must have 
 been before he went to college. The probability 
 is, that from the time when he began to preach he 
 held it an unsettled question, until he decided it 
 in the negative. To a few persons in his confi- 
 dence, he definitely announced, as early as 1857 or 
 1858, that he should not be a preacher. His 
 action was in harmony with this announcement. 
 While preaching week by week, he was taking an 
 active part in politics, and was carrying on a 
 course of reading in the law. That the pulpit 
 took a strong hold of his mind, cannot be ques- 
 tioned. Once he was called to the pulpit of what 
 is now the Central Church of Cincinnati, but de- 
 clined. No doubt he would have achieved high 
 distinction as a preacher, but he did not feel that 
 he had the inward vocation for the work. His 
 genius drew him to the State by its very bent, as 
 any one who has followed his history can see. 
 Ceasing to preach at the same time that he ceased 
 to teach (save an occasional later discourse), his 
 preaching had been not only the source of much 
 good to others, but a source of great strength to 
 him, both as a man and as a public servant. 
 
 Here are presented all the facts needed to
 
 GAEFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 79 
 
 answer the question of Garfield's having been a 
 preacher, that occupied so much attention the 
 last Presidential campaign. Sometimes he was 
 made the victim of violent attacks ; sometimes, of 
 ill-considered defences. On the one hand it was 
 said he had " abandoned the ministry ; " and on 
 the other replied, that he did not preach much or 
 long, that he was only a "lay preacher," and 
 things of that sort. The history now given shows 
 that there was no room for the attack, and no 
 need of the apology. 
 
 One incident of peculiar interest rose out of Mr. 
 Garfield's short ministry. He was preaching in 
 Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga County, where infidel- 
 ity had long had a strong grasp. Spiritualism 
 had also taken a strong hold of the x community. 
 Mr. William Denton, an itinerant Spiritualistic 
 and scientific lecturer and debater, occasionally 
 visited the village, in which he gained a large fol- 
 lowing. So he did in other similar centres in the 
 Western Reserve. His particular effort was to 
 overthrow the Bible. He sometimes followed the 
 line of argument marked out by Paine one hun- 
 -dred years ago, and pursued by Col. Ingersoll 
 to-day. But his favorite weapon was the discov- 
 eries of science, especially geology. These he so
 
 80 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 interpreted as to sap faith in the Mosaic history. 
 More narrowly, he advocated the development 
 theory. Mr. Denton was a man of considerable 
 discursive reading : he made pretensions to being 
 a practical geologist, and was a public speaker of 
 much fluency and force. According to his cus- 
 tom, he threw out a challenge in Chagrin Falls, 
 to all comers, to meet him in debate upon his 
 favorite ground. The Hiram teacher and preach- 
 er took up the glove. At the time he had no 
 special knowledge of the subject. He had studied 
 geology at college, and had perhaps read a few 
 books on the science since. He made his prepara- 
 tion with his usual thoroughness. Instead of 
 "two days," as one historian has glibly said, he 
 devoted weeks and even months to the study of 
 the subject. In the holidays of 1858 the debate 
 came on. Mr. Denton's friends expected an easy 
 victory, so did Mr. Denton himself; and even 
 Mr. Garfield's friends looked forward with much 
 fear and trembling. The roads and weather could 
 hardly have been worse. Nevertheless, public 
 interest and even excitement ran high ; and the 
 largest audience-room in the town was packed 
 with eager listeners day after day and night after 
 night, for nearly a week. The contest need not
 
 GAEFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 81 
 
 here be followed point by point. Suffice it to 
 say, that was before Mr. Darwin, in " The Origin 
 of Species," gave evolution its present shaping ; 
 and the proposition in dispute stated the doctrine 
 as it had been left by Lamarck and the author 
 of "The Vestiges of Creation." Mr. Garfield's 
 strength and resources proved ample. He rose to 
 the level of the occasion, and surpassed expecta- 
 tions. The Christian portion of the community 
 claimed a decided triumph ; the irreligious either \ 
 admitted it, or called it a " drawn battle ; " while 
 Mr. Denton said that his antagonist was the ablest 
 and the noblest that he had ever met. His influ- 
 ence in all the country round about immediately 
 waned, and never regained its former height. 
 
 This debate was coincident with a dawning of 
 popular interest in scientific subjects in Mr. Gar- 
 field's constituency, and in much wider circles. 
 Many important results followed the debate. 
 First, the defences of the Christian faith were 
 strengthened in a considerable region of country. 
 In the second place, it added much to the defend- 
 er's power and influence. Third, it led at once to 
 a great quickening of interest in science among 
 Hiram students. Fourth, the interest reached out 
 into the larger community of which Hiram was
 
 82 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 the centre ; and more invitations to lecture on 
 scientific topics than he could possibly accept 
 flowed in upon the debater. 
 
 At the very time of his return from Williams 
 College, President Garfield was drawn into poli- 
 tics. This was due to several causes. First may 
 be named the bent of his mind already mentioned. 
 Next the inspiring Presidential campaign of 1856. 
 Now the Republican party, born in a day, first 
 came into national prominence. The attempt to 
 limit the extension of slavery took full possession 
 of his soul, and Gen. Fremont's candidacy fired his 
 imagination. Mr. Garfield made several speeches 
 that campaign in Hiram and adjoining towns. 
 The next year he took a more prominent part in 
 the canvass. Year by year, both the number and 
 the geographical range of his speeches increased. 
 He soon became a recognized political force in 
 Portage County. In 1859 he was chosen State 
 Senator from the Portage-Summit district. He 
 was now twenty-eight years old. That campaign 
 he appeared in Akron on the same platform with 
 Mr. Chase, then candidate for Governor; and one 
 good judge said the Senatorial candidate made the 
 better speech. He served in the Senate one term, 
 and at the close entered a still wider field of ac-
 
 GAEFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 83 
 
 tivity and influence. Nothing more need be said 
 of his entry into politics than that his rise was 
 rapid, almost instantaneous. As early as 1859, in 
 which campaign he took an active part, he had be- 
 come a favorite speaker in a considerable section 
 of the State ; and in the Senate he immediately 
 came to the front. 
 
 As a matter of course, Hiram school received 
 only a part of its Principal's energies, particularly 
 after 1859. Preaching, lecturing, politics, and his 
 law-reading made heavy and constant draughts 
 upon him ; but he was so full of faculties, of 
 strength, and resources, that he did not seem 
 weakened thereby. In 1859 or 1860 this was a 
 common day's work for him : a chapel lecture in 
 the morning ; five solid hours of teaching, perhaps 
 six; attention to administrative details; a speech 
 ten miles away in the evening ; home to bed at 
 midnight. If the next day was Sunday, he would 
 give two sermons, perhaps fifteen miles off. Of 
 course no man who covers such a field as this can 
 be called a specialist. Still, he always kept abreast 
 of his school-work. The range of his ability, and 
 the great strength that he put into whatever he 
 undertook, attracted public attention, gave promi- 
 nence to the school, and increased the pride that 
 his pupils felt in him.
 
 84 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Only the most vigorous and wide-reaching in 
 tellectual life could sustain such labors as these. 
 Garfield's mind was ever fresh, his thoughts ever 
 new. His reading lay, first, along the lines of 
 his work, teaching, lecturing, preaching, and 
 politics ; second, in 1858, he entered his name as 
 a student-at-law with a Cleveland firm. His legal 
 studies he carried on at home, and with such 
 thoroughness and zeal, that he fitted for the Ohio 
 bar in the time usually required by students who 
 have nothing else on hand. But, third, he read 
 widely outside of his work, both present and 
 prospective. He read "hard reading," but fiction 
 and poetry as well. He naturalized Tennyson, of 
 whom he became a profound student, in Hiram. 
 In later years he read everywhere, on the cars, 
 in the omnibus, and after retiring at night. He 
 rarely, or never, went away from home, even for 
 a few hours, but he took his book. He made 
 special efforts to procure out-of-the-way reading. 
 If he was leaving Washington for a few days, 
 and had nothing requiring immediate attention on 
 hand, he wpuld go to the great Library of Con- 
 gress, and say to the librarian, " Mr. Spofford, give 
 me something that I don't know any thing about." 
 A stray book coming to him in this way would
 
 GARFIELD'S OUTSIDE WORK. 85 
 
 often lead to a special study of the subject. In 
 this way he kept his mind full and fresh. 
 
 But, with all his reading, he could not have 
 done the work that he did, but for the ready and 
 powerful grasp with which he took hold of a 
 subject, and for the wondrous ease and quickness 
 with which he could organize the material that he 
 needed. He seemed to see at a glance the rela- 
 tions of things. In his studies he strove to get 
 hold of the underlying principle, and was never 
 satisfied until he could reduce facts to order. 
 Once he said, " I could not stay in politics unless 
 I found some philosophy." Hence the breadth 
 of his views of all subjects. Here is also the expla- 
 nation of Judge Cooley's remark in his Ann Arbor 
 oration : " He always discussed large subjects in a 
 large way." His powers, the whole mass of his 
 being, came to be under the control of his will. 
 
 General Garfield was always absorbed and happy 
 in his work, in studies, in teaching, in arms, in 
 legislation. But he ever looked back to his 
 teacher-life with peculiar satisfaction. Address- 
 ing the National Association of School Superin- 
 tendents, in 1879, he said, 
 
 " I feel at home among teachers ; and, I may say, I look 
 back with more satisfaction upon my work as a teacher than
 
 86 PKESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 upon any other work I have done. It gives me a pleasant 
 home feeling to sit among you, and revive old memories." 
 
 In the Hiram period he was full of ambition 
 and strength ; he had plenty of work and plenty 
 of leisure; his friends and fellow-workers were 
 congenial ; and his joyous nature ran full and free. 
 To all who beheld it, his teacher-life must remain 
 a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Again let 
 the reader substitute his name for Miss Booth's in 
 this passage : 
 
 " As the earlier teachers were called away to other fields 
 of duty, their places were supplied by selection from those 
 who had been Eclectic students; and thus Miss Booth 
 found herself associated with teachers whose culture she 
 had guided, and who were attached to her by the strongest 
 ties of friendship. I know how apt we are to exaggerate 
 the merits of those we love ; but, making due allowance for 
 this tendency, as I look back upon the little circle of teachers 
 who labored here, under the leadership of our honored and 
 venerable friend Mr. Hay den, during the first six years of 
 the Eclectic, and upon the younger group, associated 
 with me from 1856 until the breaking-out of the war, I 
 think I wrong no one of them by saying, that for generous 
 friendship and united, earnest work, I have never seen and 
 never expect to see their like again. Enough new members 
 were added to the corps of teachers from year to year to 
 keep alive the freshness of young enthusiasm; and yet
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIKAM LIFE. 87 
 
 enough experience and maturity of judgment were left to 
 hold the school in a steady course of prosperity." 
 
 VI. GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Garfield went to the army, and in 
 1863 to Congress. His services as a soldier and 
 statesman do not lie within the scope of this 
 sketch. But Hiram continued his Ohio home 
 until he removed to Mentor in 1877. Some phases 
 of his later Hiram life must be here described. 
 
 In November,. 1858, he married Miss Lucretia 
 Rudolph, whose mental gifts, both native and 
 acquired, well fitted her for his wife and com- 
 panion. She had been a pupil with him, both in 
 Chester and in Hiram, as well as a pupil of his in 
 Hiram. Now she became both his fellow-student 
 and co-worker. His obligations to her in the 
 wifely relation he strongly and beautifully recog- 
 nized on all fitting occasions. Her great strength 
 of character, long before known to private friends, 
 was fully revealed to the world in the long tra- 
 gedy that closed at Elberon, Sept. 19, 1881. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Garfield's domestic life was eminently 
 happy and beautiful. After the war Grandma 
 Garfield, now known so pleasantly to the world , 
 as " the little white-haired mother," was generally
 
 88 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 a member of the family. They were a happy 
 trio, a fond mother, a dutiful son and husband, 
 a faithful daughter and wife. Both General arid 
 Mrs. Garfield were always conspicuous for private 
 and domestic virtues, "filial affection, unbroken 
 troth, and parental love." 
 
 At first they did not set up housekeeping, but 
 boarded. In the month of April, 1863, the Gen- 
 eral then on a visit home from the army pur- 
 chased for eight hundred and twenty-five dollars 
 the only home that they ever owned in Hiram, 
 the small two-story frame house that so many 
 friends remember. This house Mrs. Garfield re- 
 fitted and enlarged in the fall of 1863, at an 
 expense of one thousand dollars. Here they made 
 their happy home until, in 1872, the family hav- 
 ing outgrown it, he sold it to its present owner 
 and occupant. Henceforth the Garfields spent 
 more time in Washington ; but whenever in 
 Hiram, as they always were each summer until 
 the removal to Mentor in 1877, they made their 
 home at father Rudolph's. Their Hiram life was 
 perfectly simple and natural, as became their 
 estate, their nature, and their surroundings. Save 
 the constantly-used and ever-growing library, 
 nothing in or about General Garfield's home stood
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 89 
 
 in contrast to the homes of his neighbors. His 
 house was a place for "plain living and high 
 thinking." If the old walls could speak, what 
 thoughts would they not voice, what emotions 
 utter, what joyousness describe ! He never kept 
 a carriage, and save for two short intervals, one 
 just before and one just after the war, never a 
 horse and buggy. To get to and from the rail- 
 road, he depended upon the hack, or some neigh- 
 bor's vehicle, or walked. It may be added, that it 
 was from the old house that little Trot was buried 
 in December, 1863, just as her father reached 
 Hiram on his way to Washington from the Army 
 of the Cumberland ; and that it was to father 
 Rudolph's that the body of little Eddie was 
 brought for burial in the autumn of 1876. The 
 two children the eldest and the youngest born 
 sleep side by side in the Hiram graveyard. 
 
 Talking of walking to and from the railroad, let 
 me say that more of it was done twenty years ago 
 than now. As I write, there comes to me a vision 
 of an autumn evening in the year 1858. Mr. 
 Garfield, Miss Booth, Henry Newcomb, and the 
 writer all of whom, save the last, have passed 
 over, and "joined the majority" alighted from 
 the same train at the " Jeddo " platform. The
 
 90 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 two teachers had been to Cleveland; and Mr. 
 Garfield had brought home with him a copy of 
 " The Atlantic Monthly " for the current month. 
 Here let me say that no man or woman less than 
 forty years old can well appreciate the advent of 
 this magazine. Such people found " The Atlan- 
 tic " when they began to read. But in 1857 
 " The Atlantic's " natal year a great many 
 minds were waiting for " something of the kind ; " 
 and the magazine came to them. Thus it came to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Garfield, Miss Booth, and others in 
 the Hiram fellowship. He thought Dr. Holmes 
 the strongest of the early contributors, and much 
 appreciated, both his prose and his verse. He fol- 
 lowed the successive numbers of " The Autocrat " 
 with great interest. As the quartet before men- 
 tioned walked to Hiram that beautiful autumn 
 evening, he read to them the twelfth number of 
 this serial. I seem to hear again the intonations 
 and to see the gestures with winch he read the 
 professor's " Prelude : " 
 
 " J'm the fellah that tole one day 
 The tale of the won 'erf ul one-hoss shay." 
 
 This little incident gives an opportunity to say 
 that the scope of General Garfield's intellectual 

 
 / 
 
 / 
 
 v 
 
 
 
 yC
 
 GAEFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LITE. 91 
 
 tastes and likes was singularly wide. He took 
 equal though a very different interest in Tooke's 
 " History of Prices," and in the " Biglow Papers." 
 He grew wise over the grave and weighty page 
 of Bacon, and laughed over " Pickwick " until it 
 seemed that his own prediction, " I believe Dick- 
 ens will kill me yet," would be realized. He 
 delighted in the knightly tales of Scott, and in 
 both the tragedy and comedy of Shakspeare. He 
 was as rich in humor as he was strong in logic. 
 He abounded in delightful fancies and in pleas- 
 ant conceits. The election to the Presidency, in- 
 deed, laid its hand heavily upon him, repressing 
 somewhat his early spirits ; but in Hiram he was 
 full of "jest and youthful jollity," of "quips 
 and cranks." At the same time he never lost 
 his propriety, or surrendered the dignity of his 
 carriage. The over-grave might, indeed, have 
 taken offence at his mirth and flow of spirits ; 
 but he who could " unbend " with a boy could 
 instantly rise to the level of the grave and 
 the serious. 
 
 Few men ever saw clear around General Gar- 
 field, he was so many-sided. He became the " sage 
 of Mentor," the man to whom the people looked 
 for counsel and wisdom : but he was much more
 
 92 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 than a sage. He was full of human nature. Mr. 
 Lowell read him aright when he said in Exeter 
 Hall, London, " He was so human.' 1 '' He could 
 ever give the one touch of nature that makes 
 the whole world kin. He had read books ; he 
 / " talked like a book ; " but he was not a book. 
 Men spoke admiringly of his great attainments; 
 but he was never a recluse, never seemed book- 
 ish. He gathered the metal from which he forged 
 his armor and his weapons from all mines; but 
 they were always forged in his own fires. He 
 generally seemed to have abundant leisure. His 
 delight in conversation was equalled only by his 
 excellence as a converser. He was at home to 
 all men, and at home with them. He would 
 leave on the mind of the Montana stage- 
 driver, on whose box he rode, the impression 
 that he was an extraordinary man ; and he met 
 the courtly Sir Edward Thornton, on the latter's 
 departure for England, with an equal dignity and 
 grace. 
 
 Astonishment has often been expressed by those 
 familiar with intellectual work, that Represent- 
 ative Garfield performed such a great amount of 
 work the nine Congresses that he sat in the 
 House of Representatives. At the same time, a
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 93 
 
 fuller appreciation of what he did, which is sure 
 to follow the gathering-up of his literary work, 
 and the publication of an adequate life, will add 
 to this astonishment. No man in this country 
 contributed so much that is valuable to the public 
 discussion of serious questions, between 1870 and 
 1880. This was profoundly felt by the managers 
 of the Republican campaign last year. A note 
 addressed to the Hon. Edward McPherson, secre- 
 tary of the Republican Congressional Committee, 
 brought this reply : 
 
 "GETTYSBURG, PENN., Oct. 3, 1881. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, I have found the statement of the issues 
 [of documents] made by the Republican Congressional Com- 
 mittee of 1880. The total number of copies issued by us 
 'was 12,973,000. Of this the reprint of General Garfield's 
 speeches reached the large aggregate of 3,881,000 copies, or 
 more than one-fourth of the whole. The same proportion, 
 no doubt, applies to the National Committee. 
 
 "No candidate ever so powerfully impressed himself 
 upon the country as General Garfield ; and he, more truly 
 than any one else, elected himself. Usually candidates are 
 a burden. He was a help almost to the extent of carrying 
 the campaign. This I felt daily as the months rolled on. 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 "Eow. McPflERSON. 
 "PRESIDENT HINSDALE."
 
 94 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Here it may be added, that Mr. McPherson's 
 committee published fifteen Garfield documents ; 
 that one exceeded a circulation of half a million 
 copies, and several others approached that number. 
 
 Now, the explanation of General Garfield's 
 work, so great and so valuable, lies in these facts, 
 his great abilities, his thorough mental training 
 and sound habits of study, his powerful physical 
 constitution, his just conception of public life and 
 public duty, his noble ambition to fill out that 
 conception, and the favorable surroundings of his 
 Ohio home. He devoted himself to his proper 
 work. His comparative retirement and freedom 
 from interruption gave him one of the conditions 
 for that work which he needed. 
 
 What is more, his constituency did not greatly 
 annoy him with calls for offices or clamor for pat- 
 ronage. Much surprise has been expressed that so 
 great a man as General Garfield lived in so small 
 a place as Hiram. The surprise is ill-founded. It 
 is more than doubtful whether he ever could have 
 done so much, had he lived in a great social and 
 business centre. Macaulay expressed the opinion 
 that a great work on political science, like Adam 
 Smith's " Wealth of Nations," is more likely to 
 come from a humble clergyman in the Hebrides
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIKAM LIFE. 95 
 
 than from an active member of the British Parlia- 
 ment ; and there was equally good cause for look- 
 ing to Hiram for a great statesman, rather than to 
 New York or Philadelphia. 
 
 General Garfield's readiness on all occasions has 
 often been remarked. Probably some have attrib- 
 uted this readiness to the inspiration of genius. 
 The explanation lies partly in his genius, but much 
 more in his indefatigable work. He treasured up 
 knowledge of all kinds. " You never know," he 
 would say, " how soon you will need it." Then he 
 forecasted occasions, and got ready to meet them. 
 One hot day in July, 1876, he brought to his 
 Washington house an old copy of " The Congres- 
 sional Globe." Questioned he said, " I have been 
 told confidentially that Mr. Lamar is going to 
 make a speech in the House on general politics, to 
 influence the Presidential canvass. If he does, I 
 shall reply to him. Mr. Lamar was a member of 
 the House before the war ; and I am going to read 
 some of his old speeches, and get into his mind." 
 Mr. Lamar made his speech Aug. 2, and Mr. Gar- 
 field replied the 4th. Men expressed surprise at 
 the fulness and completeness of the reply delivered 
 on such short notice. But to one knowing his 
 habits of mind, especially to the one who had the
 
 96 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 aforesaid conversation with him, the whole matter 
 was as light as day. His genius was emphatically 
 the genius of preparation. How apposite here is 
 this paragraph from his address on " College Edu- 
 cation : " 
 
 " Men look with admiring wonder upon a great intellect- 
 ual effort, like Webster's reply to Hayne, and seem to think 
 that it leaped into life by the inspiration of the moment. 
 But if, by some intellectual chemistry, we could resolve that 
 masterly speech into its several elements of power, and trace 
 each to its source, we should find that every constituent force 
 had been elaborated twenty years before, it may be in some 
 hour of earnest intellectual labor. Occasion may be the 
 bugle-call that summons an army to battle ; but the blast of 
 a bugle cannot ever make soldiers, or win victories." 
 
 Mr. Garfield excelled almost all men in compre- 
 hensive generalizations ; also in the patient, un- 
 tiring labor with which he would hunt down 
 special facts. Some loose leaves found the other 
 day in an old memorandum-book, probably not 
 opened before for a dozen years, happily illus- 
 trate this latter point. They will also call atten- 
 tion to a little thing long since forgotten. 
 
 Senator Sumner published in " The Atlantic 
 Monthly " for December, 1866, an article entitled 
 " Clemency and Common Sense." Upon one fea-
 
 GAEFIELD'S LATER HIBAM LIFE. 97 
 
 ture of this article General Garfield wrote this 
 criticism, which appeared in "The New- York 
 
 Evening Post : " 
 
 " In Senator Sumner's very learned and interesting article 
 in the December number of ' The Atlantic Monthly,' he has 
 minutely analyzed the Homeric fable of Scylla and Charyb- 
 dis, and has located the Sirens near by, and made them a 
 party to the dangers of, Scylla. 
 
 " He says, ' For the fable Homer is our highest authority,' 
 and he represents the Sirens as playing their part to tempt 
 their victims. . . . 'Charybdis was a whirlpool in which 
 ships were often sucked to destruction. Scylla was a rock 
 on which ships were often dashed to pieces.' ' Ulysses in his 
 wanderings encountered these terrors ; but, by prudence and 
 the counsels of Circe, he was enabled to steer clear between 
 them, although the Sirens strove to lure him onto the rock. ' 
 
 " Again, after quoting from the ' Odyssey ' the descriptions 
 of the whirlpool and the rock, the Senator says, ' Near by were 
 the Sirens, who strove by their music to draw the navigator 
 on to certain doom.' 
 
 "He then represents Ulysses as stuffing the ears of his 
 companions with wax to shut out the ravishing melody of 
 the Sirens, causing himself to be lashed to the mast like 
 another Farragut, and steering clear between Scylla and 
 Charybdis, beyond the Sirens, ' Till dying off the distant 
 sounds decay.' 
 
 " Xow, the island, or rather promontory, of the Sirens is on 
 the Italian coast, more than a hundred miles north of Scylla 
 and Charybdis. Surrentum is generally believed to have
 
 98 PRESIDENT GARFIE-LD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 been their home, and is set down in Bohn's ' Classical Atlas' 
 at 40 38' north latitude, while Scylla is 38 15'. 
 
 " Homer, who, as the Senator says, ' is our highest author- 
 ity' for this fable, does not associate the Sirens with the 
 dangers of the narrow passage. 
 
 " They lived in a verdant meadow strewn with the bones 
 of victims, who had been lured to the shore by the irre- 
 sistible charm of their music. 
 
 " Circe having described their abode, and taught Ulysses 
 how to escape them, says, 
 
 " ' When their companions shall have sailed beyond them, 
 then I cannot tell thee which will afterward be thy way,' 
 and then proceeded to point out the dangers of Scylla and 
 Charybdis. 
 
 " Let us believe that the honorable Senator's mistake in 
 regard to the Sirens arises from the fact that he has never 
 been lured by their charms to an intimate acquaintance." 
 
 The loose leaves mentioned above are Garfield's 
 original draught of this note. It may not read 
 here just as it does in the " The Evening Post." 
 
 Those were grand years in Garfield's life that 
 lay between 1865 and 1877. At the first date he 
 was well started upon his great legislative career : 
 at the second, he had not become so absorbed in 
 public affairs as he afterwards became. They 
 were years of reading, study, thinking, and com- 
 munion with friends and family. He was happy
 
 GAKFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 99 
 
 in his family, in his friends, and in his work. To 
 live by his side those years, to be welcome to his 
 house, to walk with him through field and wood, 
 to hear him discuss books, men, and questions, 
 with him " to outwatch the Bear," was a privi- 
 lege such as the gods of high Olympus never 
 granted to their greatest favorites. 
 
 General Garfield retained his Hiram interest 
 and affection to the last. This can be shown by 
 short notices of his relations to the church, the 
 College Board, the students, and the Hiram fel- 
 lowship. 
 
 He early became a member of the Hiram church, 
 and never removed his proper membership to 
 another congregation, neither to Mentor nor 
 Washington. His interest in both the congrega- 
 tion and the pulpit continued. In the church he 
 frequently participated in the social services. 
 The last time that he did so, he spoke feelingly of 
 the gloom and chill cast over life by unbelief in 
 the central Christian doctrines. A letter just 
 received speaks of another of these occasions: "A 
 little talk that he gave one Sunday afternoon near 
 twilight, in the blessed Hiram church, has come 
 into my mind again and again, these last days. 
 It was five or six years ago ; and I cannot recall
 
 100 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 what lie said, except that he quoted these words 
 of Christ to his disciples, perhaps for a text : ' It 
 is expedient for you that I go away : for if I go 
 not away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; 
 but if I depart, I will send him to you.' " 
 
 He conscientiously performed his duties as a 
 member of the Board of Trustees. No member 
 was more useful, or made more sacrifice to be 
 present at the meetings. June 7, 1881, in a letter 
 to the President of the College, he wrote : " I 
 feel a sense of positive loss in not being able 
 to attend the commencement at Hiram, but of 
 course it is impossible. . . . Express to the Board 
 my regret that I am not able to be with them." 
 Record should also be made of the fact that he 
 always stood with the most liberal in his contribu- 
 tions to the treasury. 
 
 So long as Hiram was his home, he gave the 
 students occasional lectures ; and, even after he 
 moved away, on his flying visits he would visit 
 the chapel, if possible, and make a "talk." In 
 the spring of 1871 he gave a course of ten lec- 
 tures on Social Science. In 1869 and 1870, he 
 had made a special study of the census and its 
 related subjects, and had attempted to get an 
 improved census law enacted. He read widely
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 101 
 
 the literature of statistics, English, French, and 
 Belgian. His lectures were an outgrowth of 
 these studies. Professor I. N. Demmon, then of 
 Hiram, now of Michigan University, who heard 
 these lectures, thus speaks of them under date of 
 Oct. 17, 1881 : 
 
 " On consulting my diary for that year, I find that the 
 first lecture was given on Friday afternoon, May 26. The 
 subject was ' The Methods of Thought.' The second, given 
 on the following day, attempted a classification of the sci- 
 ences. During the next week, at least four more lectures 
 were given, as follows : ' Practical Value of Social Science ; ' 
 'Preservation and Extension of Life;' 'Society and Gov- 
 ernment, their Nature and Origin;' 'Reign of Law.' I 
 took rough notes of the lectures, which I have since re- 
 gretted that I did not write out and elaborate at the time. 
 The lectures were full of suggestive thought and happy 
 illustration, and were delivered in the General's engaging 
 manner, greatly to the delight and instruction of us all. 
 They were given off-hand, apparently from rough notes. A 
 rational, and at the same time devout, spirit ran through 
 them all." 
 
 But it must not be supposed that these lectures 
 flowed spontaneously out of their author's general 
 reading upon the subjects discussed : he devoted 
 to them much labor and time, more, probably,
 
 102 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 than he ever gave to a case in the Supreme Court. 
 All of which he did on account of his interest in 
 the subjects themselves, and his desire to aid the 
 students and college. 
 
 Soon after President Garfield's election to the 
 Senate in the winter of 1879-80, a letter of con- 
 gratulation was sent to him in the name of the 
 faculty and students. The letter spoke of his 
 election, and particularly of the honorable manner 
 in which it had been accomplished. Soon came 
 back this graceful reply : 
 
 " WASHINGTON, D.C., Jan. 28, 1880. 
 
 "PKOF. G. H. COLTON, LOOTS HOFFMAN, AND C. P. WILSON, 
 Hiram, Portage Co., Ohio. 
 
 " GENTLEMEN, I owe you an apology for so long neglect- 
 ing to acknowledge your very kind letter of the 17th inst. 
 I have been so constantly engaged since it caine, that it has 
 been really impossible to answer it sooner. 
 
 " I thank you with all my heart for the kind congratula- 
 tions with which the faculty and students of Hiram College 
 have honored me. So much of my life was identified with the 
 educational work of Hiram, that I could not be true to my- 
 self should I ever cease to cherish with the utmost affection, 
 not only the memories of the place, but its dearest interests. 
 
 " I concur with you in esteeming more highly than the 
 office itself the manner in which the Senatorship was con- 
 ferred upon me ; and I may add that I prize still more highly
 
 OAKFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 103 
 
 the approval of thoughtful, cultivated men, and especially 
 those who know me so well as the faculty and students of 
 Hiram College. I beg you to express to them my heartfelt 
 thanks for their kind remembrance. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "J. A. GARFIELD." 
 
 Of his relations to the community, a word suf- 
 fices. He discharged to the full his duties as a 
 citizen. His democratic manner and spirit levelled 
 all barriers to approach. All his neighbors knew 
 that he was approachable and generous; and all 
 had the most unbounded confidence in his probity 
 and honor. 
 
 The great day of every year in Hiram is Com- 
 mencement. It is a day very like what Com- 
 mencement was to the smaller New-England 
 colleges before the railroads so mixed up the city 
 and the country. It is a day looked forward to 
 with great interest by a large number of persons. 
 General Garfield always made it a point to attend, 
 if consistent. As the time drew near, the ques- 
 tion, " Will Mr. Garfield [or, " the General "] be 
 there ? " was often asked in the regions round 
 about. It is, perhaps, needless to say, that to the 
 " old students " (as they are now called) he was 
 always the centre of interest. To Hiram he came,
 
 104 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 June 10, 1880, two days after his nomination at 
 Chicago, partly to attend the Commencement, but 
 more to be present at the great re-union that is 
 held every five years. How different his coming 
 from that of 1851 ! Then he came unobserved, 
 a student poor and plain : now he comes with 
 flags, and bands of music, powerful friends and a 
 huzzaing multitude, and a troop of correspondents 
 to tell it all to the world. At the close of the 
 exercises he made this, his last Commencement 
 speech : 
 
 " It always has given me pleasure to come here, and look 
 upon these faces. It has always given me new courage and 
 new strength. It has brought back a large share of that 
 richness that belongs to those things out of which come the 
 joys of life. While I have been sitting here this afternoon, 
 watching your faces, and listening to the very interesting 
 address just delivered, it occurred to me that the best thing 
 you have that all men envy I mean, all men who have 
 reached the meridian of life is perhaps the tiling you 
 care for least, and that is your leisure, the leisure you 
 have to think in, and to be let alone ; the leisure you have 
 to throw the plummet with your hands, and sound the 
 depths, and find what is below ; the leisure you have to walk 
 about the towers of yourselves, and find how strong or how 
 weak they are, and determine which need building up, and 
 how to shape them, that you may be made the final being
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LITE. 105 
 
 that you are to be. Oh, these hours of building! If the 
 Superior Being of the universe would look down upon the 
 world, to find the most interesting object, it would be 
 the unfinished and unformed character of young men and 
 young women. Those behind m.e have probably, in the 
 main, settled such questions. Those who have passed mid- 
 dle manhood and middle womanhood are about what they 
 will always be, and there is little left of interest or curiosity 
 as to their development ; but in your young, unformed na- 
 tures, no man knows the possibilities that lie treasured up. 
 While you are working up those possibilities with that 
 splendid leisure, you are the most envied of all classes of 
 men and women in the world. I congratulate you on your 
 leisure. I commend you to keep it as your gold, as your 
 wealth, as your means, out of which you can demand all 
 possible treasures that God laid down when he formed your 
 nature, and unveiled and developed the possibilities of your 
 future. This place is too full of memories for me to trust 
 myself to speak more, and I will not; but I draw again 
 to-day, as I have drawn for a quarter of a century, evidences 
 of strength and affection from the people who gather in this 
 place, and I thank you for the permission to see you and 
 meet you and greet you as I have done to-day." 1 
 
 1 Soon after Garfleld's graduation, President Hopkins 
 preached a Baccalaureate Sermon on " Leisure," from the text, 
 " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." 
 This sermon, which he either heard or read, was a seed- 
 thought in Garfield's mind. He struck the " leisure " chord 
 again in his inimitable Chautauqua speech delivered at sun- \ 
 rise, Aug. 9, 1881.
 
 106 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The next day he presided in the Tabernacle, 
 and made his last re-union speech. This has been 
 once given in this sketch, and need not be here 
 repeated. Feb. 4, 1881, he made his last visit to 
 Hiram. He came primarily to attend a funeral ; 
 but he met and greeted the faculty and students 
 in the chapel, as was his wont. As noted down 
 by one of the latter, these were his last public 
 words in that place : 
 
 " To-day is a sort of burial-day in many ways. I have 
 often been in Hiram, and have often left it ; but, with the 
 exception of when I went to the war, I have never felt- that 
 I was leaving it in quite so definite a way as I do to-day. It 
 was so long a work-shop, so long a home, that all absences 
 have been temporary, and involved always a return. I can- 
 not speak of all the ties that bind me to this place. There 
 are other things buried beneath this snow besides dead 
 people. The trees, the rocks, the fences, and the grass are 
 all reminders of things connected with my Hiram life. 
 
 " It is a revival of youth to me to be in this place, to see 
 its bright young life. I see before me just such a set of 
 students as I saw here twenty-four, twenty-six, yes, twenty- 
 eight years ago, just as young, just as bright, just as hope- 
 ful of the future. It is pleasing to know that Hiram life 
 is ever the same. A few days ago I saw a girl in the full 
 bloom of early womanhood, who is the daughter of a 
 woman who was my pupil here twenty-four years ago. She 
 was the picture of her mother, whom I have never seen
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 107 
 
 since, but I am told that she has become a gray-haired 
 matron. As the daughter stood before me, the likeness of 
 what the mother was then, what thoughts and feelings came 
 over me of the years that are gone ! There is an idea of 
 immortality in this, life is reproduced in things that 
 follow. A fountain of perpetual youth is in this old chapel : 
 there are no wrinkles in its walls. It is a very comforting 
 thought, that though the ancients sought the fountain of 
 perpetual youth, and found it not, it can be found in the 
 associations of a place like this. 
 
 " It is pitiful that we often do not appreciate good things 
 until they are gone. Emerson has said, ' To-day is a king 
 in disguise.' He passes among us; and, if we heed not, he 
 leaves us, and we are none the wiser. Get acquainted with 
 what there is in to-day ; take what it contains, and appro- 
 priate it to yourself. The strong friendships and deep 
 impressions that you are forming now will live in time to 
 come. The other day a man came to me whom I had known 
 here twenty-five years ago, but he was changed : he was fat 
 and whiskered and half bald ; and when I took him by the 
 hand, and called him by name with ' W. D.'for his initials, 
 he cried like a man to be remembered. I believe he is 
 richer, fuller, more of a man, for what he gained here at 
 Hiram. If I thought the time would ever come when I 
 should live the Hiram life out of me, I should hope to die 
 just before it came. 
 
 "Never despise the days of Hiram life and childhood. 
 The associations that you are now forming, your lessons, 
 your thoughts, and your deeds from day to day, are what go 
 to make up your life here; and this is the foundation of
 
 108 PBESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 your after-life. Be wise now ; and, when you live over again 
 the life you lived here, may it be such as you could wish ! 
 
 " I cannot see what lies beyond. I may be going on an 
 Arctic voyage ; but, be that as it may, I know that years 
 ago I builded upon this promontory a cairn, from which, 
 wherever my wanderings may lead me, I can draw some 
 sustenance for life and strength. May the time never come 
 when I cannot find some food for mind and heart on Hiram 
 Hill I" 
 
 At the close of his remarks he greeted those 
 who were present, one by one. Many of the stu- 
 dents were the children of his old scholars, and 
 his greetings were often accompanied by pleasant 
 reminiscences. As he stepped into the sleigh 
 that stood at the door, where years before he had 
 watched his " star in the east," he said to one of 
 his early friends, " We have come to the parting 
 of the ways, but I hope it will not be for long." 
 These were his last words to her, for they never 
 met again. Then he was driven away from Hiram 
 forever, over the snow that covered so many other 
 things than dead people. How little, indeed, did 
 he know of the sea upon whose shore he stood ! 
 The inauguration, the struggle for the dignity of 
 his office, Mrs. Garfield's illness, the assassin's 
 shot, the brave fight for life, his heroic and tender
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 109 
 
 death, soon followed in quick succession. These 
 things can only be mentioned ; but how fitting the 
 phrase of Minister Lowell in Exeter Hall : " In 
 the presence of that death-scene, so homely, so 
 human, so august in its unostentatious heroism, 
 the commonplaces of ordinary eulogy stammer 
 with the sudden shame of their own ineptitude." 
 
 Here ends the story. Save in one or two minor 
 instances, it has been wholly impersonal, as was 
 fit. But, before he lays down the pen that falter- 
 ingly has drawn this sketch, surely the writer's 
 personality may for one moment come into view. 
 
 I have now discharged, as best I could within 
 my space, what seemed a sacred duty, both to the 
 dead and to the living. I hope this outline has 
 been so drawn, and so filled in with the "little 
 history " in which President Garfield always took 
 so much interest, as to form a sketch of his Hiram 
 life not altogether unworthy of the theme. Gar- 
 field the student and teacher rises before us vast 
 and mountain-like. If the common student or 
 teacher cannot encompass the mountain, he can at 
 least grasp the shrubs that root upon its sides.
 
 110 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 My personal obligations to General Garfield are 
 the strongest possible. It was in the winter of 
 1853-54 that our acquaintance began. But the 
 vision that now rises before my mind begins with 
 the autumn of 1856. Then it was, that on his 
 return to Hiram, with the honors of Williams 
 upon his head, and the light of the future in his 
 eye, he sought me out in the sore doubts and 
 troubles of my closing boyhood, and drew me 
 closer to himself. Then began the friendship 
 that grew stronger and closer until his untimely 
 fall at the post of duty. In those twenty-five 
 years I was permitted to share much of his life, 
 his work, his love. I followed him as a son his 
 father, though it was with very unequal steps. In 
 all the greater labors, and especially in the crises 
 of my life, he endowed me with his knowledge 
 and his wisdom. The measures of instruction, 
 sympathy, and friendship, that he poured into my 
 mind and heart, were not, indeed, all that he could 
 impart, but they were all that I could receive. 
 To testify to his worth and greatness while he 
 lived, in evil as well as in good report, was always 
 a glad office ; as it is to pay even this poor tribute 
 to his memory, now that he is no more. 
 
 Now that he is no more ! Men tell me that he
 
 GARFIELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. Ill 
 
 is dead. They say he died in the audience-cham- 
 ber of the world. The funeral-car that glided 
 past me at Pittsburg in the gray mist of the morn- 
 ing contained, they said, his coffin. They called 
 a hearse behind which I rode, his hearse. They 
 termed some words that I uttered at an open 
 grave, a benediction at his burial. Are, then, 
 God and nature so at strife ? Does nature indeed 
 lend such evil dreams? There comes to me a 
 passage that pleased him three and twenty years 
 ago. Dr. Holmes speaks of the " sweet illusions " 
 that mingled with the fancies of his youth, illu- 
 sions which he loved so well that he would not 
 outgrow them. 
 
 " The firing of the great guns at the Navy Yard," he says, 
 " is easily heard at the place where I was born and lived. 
 < There is a ship-of-war come in,' they used to say when they 
 heard them. Of course I supposed that such vessels came 
 in unexpectedly, after indefinite years of absence, sudden- 
 ly as falling stones ; and that the great guns roared in their 
 astonishment and delight at the sight of the old war-ship 
 splitting the bay with her cutwater. Now, the sloop-of-war 
 ' The Wasp,' Captain Blakely, after gloriously capturing 
 ' The Reindeer ' and ' The Avon,' had disappeared from the 
 face of the ocean, and was supposed to be lost. But there 
 was no proof of it; and, of course, for a time hopes were 
 entertained that she might be heard from. Long after the
 
 112 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 last real chance had utterly vanished, I pleased myself with 
 the fond illusion that somewhere on the waste of waters she 
 was still floating ; and there were years during which I never 
 heard the sound of the great guns booming inland from the 
 Navy Yard without saying to myself, "'The Wasp" has 
 come ! ' and almost thinking I could see her as she rolled in, 
 crumpling the water before her, weather-beaten, barnacled, 
 with shattered spars and threadbare canvas, welcomed by 
 the shouts and tears of thousands. This was one of those 
 dreams that I nursed and never told. Let me make a clean 
 breast of it now, and say that, so late as to have outgrown 
 childhood, perhaps to have got far on towards manhood, 
 when the roar of the cannon has struck suddenly on my 
 ears, I have started with a thrill of vague expectation and 
 tremulous delight ; and the long-unspoken words have articu- 
 lated themselves in the mind's dumb whisper, ' " The Wasp ' 
 has come I'" 1 
 
 Let no one call me boyish if I tell a like dream 
 that I nurse. It is that my teacher, friend, and 
 President is not really dead, but that he has gone 
 on some distant journey from which he will return 
 richer and wiser than before. Surely some day, 
 as I sit musing in the old college, or abstractedly 
 pace the floor, there will come without a footfall, 
 and then at the door a knock, that shall startle 
 me with a thrill of vague expectation and tremu- 
 lous delight, and the long-unspoken words shall 
 
 1 Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, p. 239.
 
 GARFTELD'S LATER HIRAM LIFE. 113 
 
 articulate themselves in the mind's dumb whisper, 
 " Garfield has come ! " 
 
 " I cannot think he wished so soon to die 
 With all his senses full of eager heat, 
 And rosy years that stood expectant by 
 To buckle the winged sandals on their feet. 
 
 " The shape erect is prone : forever stilled 
 The winning tongue ; the forehead's high-piled heap, 
 A cairn which every science helped to build, 
 Unvalued will its golden secrets keep : 
 He knows at last if Life or Death be best : 
 Wherever he be flown, whatever vest 
 The being hath put on which lately here 
 So many-friended was, so full of cheer 
 To make men feel the Seeker's noble zest, 
 We have not lost him all; he is not gone 
 To the dumb herd of them that wholly die ; 
 The beauty of his better self lives on 
 In minds he touched with fire, in many an eye 
 He trained to Truth's exact severity : 
 He was a Teacher : why be grieved for him 
 Whose loving word still stimulates the air? 
 In endless file shall loving scholars come 
 The glow of his transmitted touch to share, 
 And trace his features with an eye less dim 
 Than ours whose sense familiar wont makes numb." * 
 
 1 "Agassiz:" J. R. Lowell.
 
 114 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 n. 
 
 ADDRESSES AT HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL 
 SERVICE. 
 
 Q1UNDAY afternoon, Sept. 25, 1881, while the 
 ^-? remains of President Garfield lay in state in 
 Cleveland, a Hiram College memorial service was 
 held in the First Presbyterian Church. The 
 church was crowded ; and the exercises were 
 marked by deep feeling, as well as great interest 
 and solemnity. Isaac Errett of Cincinnati made 
 the opening prayer, and President Pendleton of 
 Bethany College gave the benediction. The 
 regular choir of the church discoursed beautiful 
 music. The following are the addresses made, in 
 their proper order : 
 
 I. B. A. HINSDALE, PRESIDENT OF HIRAM 
 COLLEGE. 
 
 BRETHREN IN THE HIRAM FELLOWSHIP, 
 There was never but one man who could fitly pre- 
 side at a Hiram re-union. And he was the man
 
 HIEAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 115 
 
 whom we have gathered, not to honor, but , to re- 
 member. With what felicity did he always open 
 the service ! with what aptness guide all our 
 thoughts and feelings ! Can you think of Gar- 
 field as presiding at his own obsequies, not know- 
 ing that they are his own ? If you can, please to 
 consider that I have resigned the chair, and that 
 he is present and presiding in our midst. 
 
 James Abram Garfield : born Nov. 19, 1831 ; a 
 student at Hiram in August, 1851, at Williams- 
 town in 1854; President of the Eclectic Institute 
 in 1857; an Ohio Senator in 1859; a soldier in 
 1861; elected a Representative in Congress in 
 1862, and re-elected each two years succeeding 
 until 1878 ; chosen United-States Senator in Janu- 
 ary, 1880; nominated by the Republican party 
 for the Presidency in June of the same year; 
 elected to that high office in November following ; 
 inaugurated Chief Magistrate of the Republic, 
 March 4, 1881; shot by the assassin, July 2; 
 died at Elberon, Sept. 19: these dates mark the 
 salient points of a career that, in respect to high 
 character, noble achievement, lofty promise not 
 yet fulfilled, beautiful romance, generous enthu- 
 siasm, pure ambition, and a final euthanasia, has 
 no parallel in all the tides of time.
 
 116 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Were I limited to one phrase in which to 
 describe James A. Garfield, I should say, " Great- 
 ness of nature." With what wealth of noble 
 faculties was he endowed ! Close observation, 
 high analytical and generalizing ability, solidity 
 of judgment, depth and purity of feeling, strength 
 of will, power of rhetorical exposition, artistic 
 sense, poetic sentiment, reverence of spirit, and 
 noble courage, these are only a few of his great 
 gifts. Were I allowed a second phrase of de- 
 scription, I should add, " Richness of culture." 
 Fulness of knowledge, breadth of attainment, 
 discipline of all the great faculties of the mind, 
 ripeness of experience, these are phrases that 
 describe but imperfectly what study and the fric- 
 tion of life had done for him. Greatness of nature, 
 and richness of culture, together fitly describe his 
 life and character. And this is in perfect har- 
 mony with his own maxim, "Every character is 
 ' the joint product of nature and nurture." 
 
 One of the most striking features of this noble 
 product of nature and nurture was his many- 
 sidedness. Tennyson says of the Duke of Well- 
 ington, 
 
 "He stood four-square to all the winds that blew.' 

 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 117 
 
 This is a bold figure, and it admirably expresses 
 the poet's thought. But General Garfield had 
 many more sides than four. You can hardly take 
 up a point of observation where you will not dis- 
 cover something in him both interesting and strik- 
 ing. He seemed to face in all directions. He 
 faced to law and politics, to science and to litera- 
 ture, to arms and the camp, to religion and the 
 Christian ministry, to the Senate and the forum, 
 to the farm and the arts, to the social circle and 
 domestic life, and in as many more directions as 
 the diamond from its polished facets flashes its 
 lustrous beauty. 
 
 But we are not come together to remember the 
 late President in all the phases of his great life 
 and character. To-day we leave the soldier to 
 soldiers, the lawyer to lawyers, the statesman to 
 statesmen. Mr. Garfield faced towards Hiram; 
 and to us this will always be his most engaging 
 side. Here we, recall the sound scholar, great 
 teacher, discreet administrator, wise counsellor, 
 sure guide, faithful friend, and noble man. Under 
 circumstances that make the world weep, are we 
 gathered to hold a memorial service for him whose 
 fourfold connection with our college, as pupil, 
 teacher, president, and trustee, has made the
 
 118 PKES1DENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 humble name of Hiram known all over the 
 land. 
 
 Rapid as was General Garfield's march upon 
 the nation, still the public, as a whole, were slow in 
 finding him out. They never did fully find him 
 out until his life was ebbing away to the music 
 made by the Atlantic's sobs. But the students of 
 Hiram had discovered his greatness long before 
 the year 1860. They were, in fact, the original 
 discoverers of James A. Garfield. Years ago a 
 Hiram student sang at one of our re-unions, 
 
 " Right proud are we the world should know 
 As hero him we long ago 
 Found truest helper, friend." 
 
 Young Mr. Garfield first came to Hiram in 
 August, 1851. The next school year he became 
 one of the teachers, and continued such until 
 1854, when he went to college. On his gradua- 
 tion in 1856, he returned as teacher, and the next 
 year became the Principal. From this time to 
 August, 1861, when he left his class-room for the 
 camp, he was the head of Hiram. Within these 
 years lies the service that we should remember. 
 I can only say, in general, that it was fully marked 
 by all the great qualities of his later life, wealth
 
 HIEAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 119 
 
 of knowledge, buoyancy of spirits, dignity of 
 carriage, wisdom in counsel, kindness and justice, 
 faithfulness of friendship. I draw the outline, 
 and leave it for you to fill in the picture. 
 
 Of my own obligations to him, first as a pupil, 
 next as a co-teacher, then as friend, nay, as a 
 brother, I cannot trust myself to speak. Only he 
 who chanted the elegy over the slain Saul, and 
 Jonathan his son, can voice my grief : " How are 
 the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle ! O 
 Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places ! 
 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan : 
 very pleasant hast thou been unto me : thy love 
 to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 
 How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of 
 war perished ! " 
 
 One of the very grandest phases of this grand 
 man was his great simplicity of character. This 
 he retained unsullied to the end. Nothing could 
 corrode or taint his native honest fibre. Princi- 
 palities and powers, dignities and dominion, were 
 nothing to him in comparison with the fellowship 
 of his early friends. His love for the old school 
 continued to the very end. His. last visit was 
 made not long before his final departure for 
 Washington. He made one of his beautiful
 
 120 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 speeches in the chapel. He spoke of the memo- 
 ries that lay under the snow ; said, never since he 
 went to the army had he left Hiram with similar 
 feelings ; said he was about to sail out into un- 
 known, perhaps Arctic seas, but that he felt, 
 that, on the Hiram promontory, he had built a 
 cairn from which he could draw supplies through- 
 out the voyage. He called for " Ho, Reapers of 
 Life's Harvest," joined heartily in the song, shook 
 hands with all present, and drove away home- 
 ward. The last autograph letter that he wrote 
 me, in the midst of the great political tempest 
 that burst so soon after his inauguration, con- 
 tained these words : 
 
 " I throw you a line across the storm, to let you know that 
 I think, when I have a moment between breaths, of the dear 
 old quiet and peace of Hiram and Mentor." 
 
 How he longed for this " dear old quiet and 
 peace " in all storms, was well known to all his 
 closer friends ; and how he sighed for it as he lay 
 upon his bed of pain in the heats of Washington 
 and by the shore of the far-resounding sea, his- 
 tory has recorded. 
 
 There is one person living whom to-day we 
 must not forget. And who is this? You all
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 121 
 
 anticipate my answer. She is a Hiram student, 
 one of our fellowship, the lamented President's 
 noble wife. Many of Hiram's two thousand 
 daughters have done nobly ; but thou, Lucretia, 
 excellest them all. Wheresoever his story shall 
 go in all the world, there shall also this that 
 you have done be told for a memorial of you. In 
 behalf of all who are in the Hiram fellowship, 
 I wish to thank you for your heroic devotion, un- 
 faltering courage, and immortal hope in the sick- 
 chamber of your husband. It was not for your- 
 self and your children alone that you wrought : 
 you wrought for the" nation, for the world, and 
 for us. We recognize the deep debt of obligation 
 that we can never pay. 
 
 But it is all over. Black Care, that perched 
 like the night-raven in our homes the evening of 
 July 2, sits in them still. April 28, 1865, I stood 
 with General Garfield in the pouring rain, on 
 Dr. Robison's doorsteps on Superior Street, when 
 the hearse of President Lincoln passed by to the 
 Public Square. Yesterday I passed the same 
 place as I followed Garfield's hearse to the same 
 destination. To-day his remains lie where Lin- 
 coln's lay. And it is left for us to adjust our- 
 selves to a world that contains no living Garfield.
 
 122 PKESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 He has left us his life and his spirit. Storm and 
 war and strife are all over, and he has entered 
 upon a quiet and a peace that neither Hiram nor 
 Mentor knew. He is thrice happy, and doubly 
 immortal, immortal in life and immortal in 
 death. 
 
 Let me ask, why was all this permitted ? Why 
 was the assassin allowed to strike him down ? 
 Why were not the prayers of the people granted ? 
 Why did the night-raven never lift his wings, and 
 fly away? Why was the Most High deaf? and 
 why did the heavens give no sign? What a 
 strange providence ! How can it fit into any 
 plan of divine wisdom and love? Thus far I 
 have scarcely tried to answer these questions, 
 though they have pressed upon me many an 
 hour. It is a great test of faith in God. But 
 Garfield believed in God. He thought that an 
 increasing purpose runs through the ages, and 
 comprehends the lives of men ; and I think so 
 too. Still, hitherto I have been able to do little 
 more than say, " Lord, I believe : help thou 
 mine unbelief ! " For myself, I must leave the 
 problem to the future. History will no doubt 
 discover and disclose what passes my power to 
 comprehend. 

 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 123 
 
 I have dwelt upon the dark side of the great 
 tragedy. True, there are great elements of good 
 in the story. These I hope will be duly empha- 
 sized, for we must not dwell too much under the 
 cypress. In Garfield's young days at Hiram, 
 when he was full of joyous life, this saying of 
 Emerson's was a great favorite with him: "To- 
 day is a king in disguise. Strip off his robes, 
 and enjoy him while he is here." And I think 
 I hear him who presides over us, in spirit, say, 
 " Be not so carried away with grief, so paralyzed 
 with sorrow, so blind with weeping, that you can- 
 not discover the good that is in it all." Still, 
 for one, 
 
 "I falter where I firmly trod, 
 
 And falling with my weight of cares 
 Upon the great world's altar-stairs 
 That slope through darkness up to God, 
 
 "I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, 
 And gather dust and chaff, and call 
 To what I feel is Lord of all, 
 And faintly trust the larger hope."
 
 124 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 II. J. H. RHODES, ESQ., OF CLEVELAND. 
 
 To thousands of men and women the words 
 "Garfield at Hiram" bring swift and happy 
 visions of the golden age the world over, when 
 memory is not busy with the dead past, but life 
 is eager, joyous, standing on tiptoe to catch each 
 new, bright morning. Then surely it was true, as 
 he often said, " Each day is a king in dis- 
 guise." 
 
 It always seems to me now that from boyhood 
 he was almost conscious of his high destiny in 
 life. He was born to lead and command. He 
 captured all hearts as naturally as he breathed. 
 He could not help winning them if he would. 
 
 It is not now the time for critical analysis or 
 historic preciseness. We see him only through 
 the mist of tears. We cry out in our despair, 
 
 like 
 
 " An infant crying in the night, 
 
 An infant crying for the light, 
 And with no language but a cry." 
 
 But generations hence his memory and his life, 
 hallowed by the lapse of years, and looked at 
 through a long line of succeeding events, like 
 some grand mountain-peak viewed from afar, will
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 125 
 
 not be less grand, will rise into the heavens with 
 equal glory as now. 
 
 To many who are here to-day, visions come 
 again of Garfield in the class-room or the chapel 
 at Hiram. They see a fair-faced, blue-eyed 
 young man, in the robust vigor of early man- 
 hood, overflowing with animal spirits, and breezy, 
 cheerful good-nature, standing before a class, and 
 irradiating the room with his grand enthusiasms 
 for knowledge and ideas which made each pupil 
 feel as if he were in an atmosphere highly electri- 
 fied, out of which he passed feeling that life had 
 new meanings to him, and longing for the return 
 of the next lesson. The crayon often became a 
 magic wand with which new worlds were dis- 
 closed to the young explorer in search of new 
 continents. 
 
 " Observe all things," and " Question all men," 
 were maxims that he daily illustrated. No man 
 was so humble, he often remarked, but something 
 new can be learned by talking with him. With 
 all men he was, therefore, social. If he did not 
 learn any thing from another, young Garfield had 
 already learned that ideas can only be clearly 
 held when they can be clearly clothed in words ; 
 and, as long as he could find a good listener, he
 
 126 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 delighted to pour forth his own thoughts, thus 
 crystallizing ideas and opinions already formed. 
 Many a man wondered at the wealth of conver- 
 sation with which he was flooded. Many a small 
 audience thought it strange he should speak as 
 abundantly and as eloquently to them as if there 
 were thousands to be moved. All men were foils 
 for his own swift blades, and so he grew daily in 
 strength and breadth. 
 
 He died young, but he was born at the right 
 time. His young manhood began with the great 
 stir in modern thought which had already revo- 
 lutionized the world. The age of invention and 
 discovery had just begun to usher into our mod- 
 ern life the triumphs of electricity and steam. 
 The ferment of scientific research had opened up 
 a thousand new fields of inquiry. The great con- 
 flict between old decays and new creations in the 
 world of politics was at hand. Literature had 
 just had a new birth, and the modern period of 
 books and newspapers had been inaugurated. I 
 can remember how, in the years 1855-1860, the 
 very air seemed surcharged with the new life that 
 already threatened storms and hurricanes. I 
 never heard him wish that he had been born in 
 another age. He did not sigh that his lot had
 
 HIEAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 127 
 
 not been cast amid the stirring scenes of ancient 
 Rome or modern .Europe. He was born in 
 America, and for America; and he lived long 
 enough to see the sun of the modern life and 
 thought full-orbed and high advanced in the day. 
 He went away from Hiram at twenty-three to 
 Williainstown, to return in the fall of 1856 with 
 the baptism of fire from that new heaven on his 
 heart and head. For two years after his gradua- 
 tion at Williams, we roomed together at Hiram. 
 The old office in " the Orchard " is more hallowed 
 to me by that two years of companionship than 
 any other temple made by human hands. It was 
 both an education and an inspiration to hear him 
 at this period. 
 
 It was after his return from Williams College 
 that he began to preach. Preaching was a vent 
 for the overflow of his energies and activity. In 
 preaching he had a greater range of thought than 
 in the schoolroom. The effect upon him of two 
 years at the feet of that great teacher, Mark 
 Hopkins, was very marked. His thought ranged 
 through wider circles. Whilst the dogmas of the 
 church at Williamstowu did not seem to have 
 attached themselves strongly, the philosophic and 
 metaphysical methods of President Hopkins be-
 
 128 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 came a part of his own methods. The result of 
 this was, that his preaching had a new charm for 
 the people who heard him. 
 
 It was during the years that followed his return 
 from Williamstown that he found so much inspira- 
 tion and strength from companionship with that 
 remarkable woman, Almeda A. Booth, whose in- 
 tellectual grasp, and range of thought, were only 
 second in Hiram to his own. He owed much to 
 her; and he has made public acknowledgment in 
 a beautiful tribute to that woman, whom he com- 
 pared to Margaret Fuller. 
 
 Whilst teaching at Hiram, and preaching in va- 
 rious places in Northern Ohio, his mind had turned 
 to the law as a life profession ; and among the 
 legacies I have of this period are synopses made 
 by us of the first two volumes of Bouvier's " Insti- 
 tutes." The law in its great principles, its broad 
 generalizations, its sacred regard for life and prop- 
 erty, its conservative influence and power in main- 
 taining order and peace in society, had a great 
 charm for his mind ; and I distinctly remember 
 that he would synopsize the " Institutes " so thor- 
 oughly as to cover every doctrine laid down. In 
 subsequent years he achieved distinction in the 
 law. But politics, in the higher and almost for-
 
 HIKAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 129 
 
 gotten meaning of the word, had become a subject 
 of great interest to him. The great struggle in 
 the land, which ended in the downfall of Ameri- 
 can slavery, had already begun. He was intensely 
 absorbed in this great controversy, and soon en- 
 tered as State Senator upon that public career 
 with which the world is so familiar. Into this he 
 poured his energies, as he had formerly into 
 teaching and preaching. Here, too, in Hiram 
 began his devotion to the little woman whose 
 name is revered in every home in the civilized 
 world. Their acquaintance began a few years 
 earlier at Chester. Writing to me in 1871, in the 
 midst of his public life, and nearly thirteen years 
 after his marriage, he said, " There is not a day 
 when I do not inly fear such completeness will 
 not be allowed to last long on this earth." Verily, 
 she was "the rainbow on his storm of life, the 
 anchor on its sea." His mind was imaginative, 
 and his temper poetical. The fresh beauties of 
 "In Memoriam" were his delight; and thousands 
 of times did I hear him recite, in those early days, 
 the passage beginning, 
 
 " The tide flows down, the wave again 
 Is vocal in its wooded walls : 
 My deeper sorrow also falls, 
 And I can speak a little then."
 
 130 PBESTDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The Cuyahoga River, above the Rapids, will 
 forever be associated with him in my mind : there 
 once we stopped our carriage on the old bridge, 
 and looked up the stream, and saw in the tall 
 trees on either side what Tennyson means by 
 " wooded walls." 
 
 It is hard to find any reconciliation to the fact 
 that he is dead, and that his bodily form will be 
 visible on earth no more. It may be that his out- 
 ward frame will be resolved again to dust, and 
 become, in the long processes of Nature, flowers 
 and fruit, cloud or frost ; but I never can conceive 
 of him as dead. I do not believe he is dead. 
 Death has no definition or limitations which can 
 include so great a soul. Immortality was no myth 
 with him. His voice, I think, is still heard to-day, 
 in this beautiful poem, " After Death in Arabia," 
 by Edwin Arnold, which, with a slight paraphrase, 
 I will read : 
 
 " He who died at Elberon sends 
 This to comfort all his friends. 
 
 Faithful friends ! It lies, I know, 
 Pale and white and cold as snow ; 
 And ye say, ' Our Garfield's dead I ' 
 Weeping at the feet and head,
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 131 
 
 I can see your falling tears, 
 I can hear your sighs and prayers ; 
 Yet I smile, and whisper this, 
 ' / am not the thing you kiss ; 
 Cease your tears, and let it lie ; 
 It was mine, it is not I.' 
 
 " Sweet friends ! what the women lave, 
 For its last bed of the grave, 
 Is but a hut which I am quitting, 
 Is a garment no more fitting, 
 Is a cage from which, at last, 
 Like a hawk my soul hath passed. 
 Love the inmate, not the room, 
 The wearer, not the garb, the plume 
 Of the falcon, not the bars 
 Which kept him from those splendid stars. 
 
 " Loving friends ! Be wise and dry 
 Straightway every weeping eye, 
 What ye lift upon the bier 
 Is not worth a wistful tear. 
 "Tis an empty sea-shell, one 
 Out of which the pearl has gone ; 
 The shell is broken, it lies there ; 
 The pearl, the all, the soul, is here. 
 'Tis an earthen jar, whose lid 
 Allah sealed, the while it hid 
 That treasure of his treasury, 
 A mind that loved him ; let it lie 1
 
 132 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Let the shard be earth's once more, 
 Since the gold shines in his store. 
 
 " Allah glorious 1 Allah good ! 
 Now thy world is understood ; 
 Now the long, long wonder ends ; 
 Yet ye weep, my erring friends, 
 While the man whom ye call dead, 
 In unspoken bliss, instead, 
 Lives and loves you ; lost, 'tis true, 
 By such light as shines for you ; 
 But in the light ye cannot see 
 Of unf ulfilled felicity, 
 In enlarging paradise, 
 Lives a life that never dies. 
 
 " Farewell, friends 1 Yet not farewell ; 
 Where I am, ye, too, shall dwell. 
 I am gone before your face, 
 A moment's time, a little space. 
 When ye come where I have stepped 
 Ye will wonder why ye wept ; 
 Ye will know, by wise love taught, 
 That here is all, and there is naught. 
 Weep awhile, if ye are fain, 
 Sunshine still must follow rain ; 
 Only not at death, for death, 
 Now I know, is that first breath 
 Which our souls draw when we enter 
 Life, which is of all life centre.
 
 HIKAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 133 
 
 " Be ye certain all seems love, 
 Viewed from Allah's throne above ; 
 Be ye stout of heart, and come 
 Bravely onward to your home ! 
 La Allah ilia Allah! yea! 
 Thou love divine I Thou love alway ! 
 
 " He that died at Elberon gave 
 This to those who made his grave." 
 
 ILL HON. C. B. LOCKWOOD OF CLEVELAND. 
 
 I have always thought that General Garfield 
 was greater than any of his works, wiser than any 
 of his words; and I think this is the general 
 impression of all those who knew him well. 
 
 I remember, in his early manhood, his coming 
 into the pulpit one morning, and relating this cir- 
 cumstance : He said that as he walked to church 
 he met a boy by the way, who called him, and 
 said, " Mr. Garfield, explain to me why this thistle- 
 seed is covered with down. You see that it is 
 just fitted to be blown by the winds of heaven, to 
 be scattered broadly over the earth, and to do 
 great harm. Why is it so ? "" He commenced 
 with that narration a sermon that I shall never 
 forget ; and I will relate its salient points, because 
 I believe they were the groundwork of all that
 
 134 PBESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 he was in life. General Garfield, more than any 
 other man that I ever knew, believed in God. 
 His belief was most implicit. Not always in the 
 God of tradition, but in the God who is the Father 
 of this race of ours. His reply to the young man 
 was, that the earth was cursed for our sake ; and 
 his only explanation was, that this was a part of 
 the curse. He said the fall made it absolutely 
 necessary, if we would be any thing in the world, 
 that we should be men of business. I remember, 
 and I shall never forget, the wonderful picture he 
 drew of the providence of God in the world. He 
 said, " The time .will come when this race of ours 
 shall be relieved from the burdens that now seem 
 to bear it downward ; and that tune will come just 
 as soon as we are fitted for it. The great Father 
 waits and longs to give us leisure ; but in his great 
 love for us, and in his great wisdom, he is com- 
 pelled to hold us to this work to this drudgery 
 day by day. This is because in his love he is 
 determined to make the most of us." He said, 
 further, that in his view the knowledge and use of 
 the great powers of nature were only withheld 
 from us because it was unsafe to put them in our 
 hands. " Ah ! " he said, " controlled by passion, 
 see how unsafe it would be." But he said further,
 
 HIKAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 135 
 
 " Watch it, if you will. The progress of civiliza- 
 tion and Christianity, the labor-saving machines 
 that are being invented, shall go on step by step. 
 Measured by our ability to use the new powers, 
 the revelation of them shall come to us. Oh ! " 
 he said, "I look forward to the time when the 
 promised millennium shall come to us; and it 
 seems to me this is the direction in which it is to 
 come. It is to follow in the wake of civilization ; 
 and so fast as we are prepared and fitted to take 
 these powers, and use them for the glory of God 
 and men, they will be given to us." I have often 
 said to myself, as this wonderful knowledge was 
 coming to us, the knowledge of these inventions 
 and labor-saving machines that has come in the 
 past few years, "Is it a measure of our growth 
 in purity?" If the theory that he then an- 
 nounced, nearly twenty-five years ago, be true, 
 then surely it must be evidence of some growth 
 toward safety, at least, to have these things within 
 our power. General Garfield recognized in all the 
 movements of earth this Father, God. He felt 
 that this nation and this accounts for his won- 
 derful love for it, and his willingness to make 
 great sacrifices for it was a nation through 
 which was to be organized into law and into insti-
 
 136 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 tutions the will of that Father, the divine prin- 
 ciples which were to make for the happiness of our 
 race in the future. It is only a few days since I 
 heard him discoursing on this subject ; and he said 
 this about it: "The time is very near at hand 
 when this nation shall be the power in all the 
 world that shall say, ' No more war ; ' when its 
 voice will be heard in favor of peace, and when 
 no civilized government in all this world will dare 
 to provoke a war against the wishes, the advice, 
 and the counsel of this great land of ours." He 
 looked forward, and he thought he saw in its 
 movements that it was to be the instrumentality 
 of great good in the world : and when he left the 
 pulpit, when he went into the field, wherever he 
 went, he felt that he was doing this great work, 
 that he was an instrument in the hands of that 
 God, who, by some means, communicated still with 
 all those who sought to do his will. He struggled 
 to open the avenues, that that influence might 
 come in, and make him a manly, powerful man, 
 that he might be of use to his time. He said to 
 me the night after the election, nearly at the break 
 of day, i; This has been to me a strange scene. 
 I have passed through it, with the excitement of 
 all the people and of all my friends ; and I have
 
 HIEAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 137 
 
 lain down upon my pillow at night without an 
 anxiety. I could not have believed it a few years 
 since, but I have passed through it all without an 
 anxious thought." 
 
 I said, " General, that illustrates your faith in 
 God." "Ah ! " he said, " I was sure that the best 
 would be true, and, if the highest was to be sub- 
 served, success would be upon our side ; if not, 
 upon the other : and I have been literally without 
 anxiety." 
 
 Oh ! my dear friends, if there is one thought 
 that I would leave with you it is this one ; and I 
 think his view of life would include all that we 
 mourn to-day. I think, if his voice could be 
 heard, he would say to us, " Be not anxious. God 
 reigns. He is infinite in his wisdom and his love." 
 And he would thank God for his power and his 
 willingness to take control of and so manage the 
 great affairs of this nation and of the race that 
 the highest good should be accomplished. I think 
 that this is the secret of the great life of General 
 Garfield, that which brought him a peace amid 
 all the struggles of life, that flowed like a river.
 
 138 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 IV. PROFESSOR C. D. WILBUR, WILBUR, NEB. 
 
 I am mindful that my time is necessarily short, 
 and have only one idea to present in behalf of 
 our lamented friend. It is this: that, in all the 
 story of my long intercourse and friendship with 
 him, there was one principle at the foundation of 
 his movements, and that was his love of duty. I 
 noticed, that, in the references made to him by 
 those who belong to the Hiram alumni, his labors 
 after he came to Hiram from Williams College 
 were eloquently mentioned. But let me tell you 
 all, that there was a time when he was somewhat 
 tempted not to come back to Hiram; and the 
 temptation came to him in the shape of an offer 
 of a twenty-five-hundred-dollar salary to go and 
 teach school somewhere else. I remember how 
 he discussed that with himself; he and I being in 
 the same room, No. 12, Old South College. He 
 said, " They want me back at Hiram : they cannot 
 pay me much, but I ought to go there." He fol- 
 lowed the word ought; and thither he bent his 
 willing footsteps, and did all that work. It was 
 simply his love of duty ; and, wherever you find 
 him, you find him acting up to that standard. 
 
 In it will be found that courage which made
 
 HIBAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 139 
 
 him do or dare. We were both co-workers and 
 teachers in Hiram more than twenty-five years 
 ago ; and this was his thought then : " I can," said 
 he^ " smell the coming battle afar off. There is a 
 great amount of work to do in this world, and I 
 must get ready for it." How this came to him, 
 no matter. It was probably through the wonder- 
 ful impressiveness that separated him from all 
 the social world around. " And where shall I go 
 to get ready ? " To use his own expression, " I 
 want to go where I can get the irons forged for 
 the conflict ; and where shall I go ? " So we made 
 a careful survey of all the colleges in the land. 
 We wrote letters to all the presidents of Eastern 
 colleges. " I turn my face toward the East," he 
 said, "because there is the accumulation of vast 
 libraries, science, history, veteran professors who 
 have grown gray in teaching ; and I would go and 
 counsel with them." There came a letter from 
 that wonderful man, that sage, teacher, and coun- 
 sellor, Mark Hopkins ; and the statement in the 
 letter, " If you come to us, we will do you all the 
 good we can," led him there ; and he always re- 
 garded it as the wisest step in his intellectual life, 
 that he did so. He preceded me there by three 
 months, and prepared a room, and got every thing
 
 140 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ready. Having wrought together in Hiram, we 
 worked together, studied together, and roomed 
 together, in old Williams. 
 
 He very soon cleared the amphitheatre, laid out 
 his work, and declared his purposes. " Here is 
 this vast library of so many thousand volumes : I 
 must know what it contains. Here is this realm 
 of study in history and science : I must go 
 through this, I must know about it." I want 
 to say to you that he did not seem to have one 
 leisure hour there. It was work, work, work, 
 early and late ; and one condition of his great 
 success was his great physical endurance to go 
 through it all. I want to say to you, that at 
 Hiram every one seemed to love one another, 
 that it was a school of brotherly love. I have 
 walked in it all the days since I was there, 
 although my lot has been cast far beyond. But 
 when he went to Williams College he found an 
 atmosphere essentially different. If he stood or 
 fell, he would stand or fall on his own merits. 
 There was no favoritism. When we from Ohio 
 went there, we went from the West, the wilder- 
 ness of the West, although it was Ohio. It was 
 almost a barbarous West. 
 
 We found that we were in a focus of not un-
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 141 
 
 friendly, but unrelenting, criticism. If we could 
 not stand the test, we could not pass. So Gar- 
 field had to meet this test ; and let me say that in 
 six months, although the criticism was formidable, 
 he had broken down all the college walls so com- 
 pletely, that, though every class seemed to be 
 bound by its traditions and its peculiar style of 
 selfishness, all seemed to be laid low, and he was 
 one with all the college, and the hero of all. 
 From this you may know the style of the man 
 and his heart : speaking kind words, doing all 
 those things that were just right, remembering 
 the Golden Rule, and in every intellectual contest 
 coming off the victor ; and this he did by the 
 hardest study. He never chose or sought for a 
 college honor in his life : they all came to him 
 from his fellows without his solicitation. I have 
 watched his career from that day until this, and I 
 know that never did he seek an honor, or an 
 office, in his life ; and yet, when they came to 
 him, he wrought so faithfully and so well, that he 
 dignified and honored the place he occupied. 
 And as the days go on, in the very light of this 
 great fact we shall require of the occupant of the 
 great office of President of the United States, 
 hereafter, higher qualifications than we have ever
 
 142 PKESLDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 demanded before, just because this worthy man 
 has occupied and honored it, and made ,it sacred 
 by his presence. 
 
 Our college life was of this sort. It was con- 
 tinual work. Garfield used to say, "I must so 
 comprehend all these studies that I can analyze 
 them at night, and put them in shape." And so 
 he did. While he gathered in those rich harvests 
 from those grand old men who were teachers, 
 every day or every night before midnight saw the 
 postings of them, which you will find among his 
 papers now. He put them in that finished shape, 
 so that any hour he could bring them to his hand, 
 and use them. He used to say to me that he 
 wrote down these thoughts at the time so that 
 they would be complete; for, he said, "There 
 come to every one at times expressions that he 
 will forget, and never have, unless they are treas- 
 ured at the time." So he acted, so he wrought, 
 and so he managed to accumulate those vast pos- 
 sessions that are the wonderment and the marvel 
 of his friends to-day. 
 
 I will close by detailing an incident of our inte- 
 rior room-life. Every thing was in perfect order ; 
 and when the sunset came, there came with it the 
 oft-repeated, never-forgotten circumstance. It was
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 143 
 
 an hour and a moment that was deemed by him 
 sacred to his mother. It seemed to be in accord- 
 ance with a promise : " Whenever the sun is set- 
 ting, read in the Bible, for I will read with you 
 then." That was his mother's word to him, and 
 he never forgot it. No matter what the press was, 
 he always had time for that. We all know, that, 
 when he went up Greylock, he drew forth the 
 Testament in the sunset upon the mountain, be- 
 fore his companions, and said, " Such is my habit." 
 But down in the old room at the college it was an 
 every-evening occurrence. 
 
 Sometimes we would post the books ; that is to 
 say, repeat to one another passages, not of Scrip- 
 ture, but of philosophy or of poetry, Shake- 
 speare or any other author, according to our 
 liking. Sometimes hours were delightfully passed 
 in that way. It was discipline, at the same time. 
 His memory was prodigious, far beyond mine. 
 I had hardly thought of it until one day last fall, 
 when I was visiting him at his own home, he said 
 to me, " Can you repeat to me that little poem 
 that was the epitome of life? It was done up, 
 perhaps, in five stanzas; but the roll of it, the 
 style of it, the measure of it, has kept with me all 
 the days since." It was a short view of life. He
 
 144 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 had some such view as Lincoln had when he would 
 insist on the reading of that poem, " Oh ! why 
 should the spirit of mortal be proud?" But this 
 poem was more condensed, more to the point, more 
 practical, as Garfield himself was. So I tried to 
 remember and repeat it to him. It fits so well 
 here, seeing that now he lies yonder, that I will 
 venture to give it, and, with it, close. It is by 
 Barry Cornwall : 
 
 " Day dawned. Within a curtained room, 
 Filled to faintness with perfume, 
 A lady lay at point of doom. 
 
 Day closed. A child had seen the light ; 
 But for the lady, fair and bright, 
 She rested in undreaming night. 
 
 Spring rose. The lady's grave was green ; 
 And near it oftentimes was seen 
 A gentle boy, of thoughtful mien. 
 
 Years fled. He wore a manly face, 
 And struggled in the world's rough race, 
 And gained at last a lofty place. 
 
 And then he died. Behold before ye 
 Humanity's poor sum and story, 
 Life, death, and all that is of glory."
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 145 
 
 V. J. W. BOBBINS OF OMAHA, NEB. 
 At the Chicago Convention a motion was made 
 one day that three members should be expelled 
 from their seats. It was a tumultuous body, sur- 
 rounded, in the high galleries encircling the vast 
 room, by ten thousand people. The delegates had 
 sat there until worn out. It was, at that moment, 
 a gathering which seemed to be ruled more by pas- 
 sion than by reason. At any rate, this extraordi- 
 nary resolution which had been read was about 
 to be passed with a storm of approval. At that 
 moment a form, familiar to so many here, rose 
 upon a chair; and I never can forget the first 
 words that he spoke. I wish that I could repeat 
 them as he did. It was only necessary for him to 
 appear before that Convention, to attract, in the 
 midst of the greatest tumult, universal attention. 
 He said, " Gentlemen, I fear that we are about to 
 commit a great error." A great hush fell upon 
 that body of men, and they commenced to think. 
 He talked there perhaps ten minutes. He talked 
 long enough for them to have time to think, and 
 to weigh the words of wisdom that he spoke ; and, 
 when he sat down, the purpose and the temper of 
 that great body of seven hundred delegates were
 
 146 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 changed as I never saw a change wrought before 
 or since. It was to General Garfield, owing to 
 the peculiar circumstances which it would not be 
 proper for me to mention here, the greatest per- 
 sonal triumph, I believe, that ever came to him in 
 all his life. At that moment, when the congratu- 
 lations of some of the most eminent men of the 
 nation were being showered upon him, I hap- 
 pened to pass along where he was; and not 
 thinking that my congratulations would be aught 
 to him, but filled as I was at that moment with 
 pride and with such emotions at the grand spec- 
 tacle that I had seen, I reached out my hand to 
 him. He took it, and with his other pulled me 
 clear down to him, put his lips to my ear, and 
 whispered this : " How many Hiram boys do you 
 think there are in the gallery ? " That needs no 
 comment. In that moment of supreme exulta- 
 tion, in that moment when he had won, as I 
 have said, the grandest personal triumph that 
 ever came to him, his first thought was to know 
 whether, in all that vast gathering, there were 
 any, and, if so, how many, of the Hiram circle, 
 to feel pride in his achievement, and to share with 
 him the victory.
 
 HIBAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 147 
 
 VI. HON. A. H. PETTIBONE OF GREENVILLE, 
 TENN. 
 
 Standing to-day before an audience of Hiram 
 students, with all the sad associations and thrill- 
 ing memories that come up to me, I am reminded 
 impressively of the past. I come from the battle- 
 field of Chickamauga, where, in the last few days, 
 we have had a re-union of our Garfield's old com- 
 rades of the Army of the Cumberland ; and, when 
 we heard that finally his spirit had winged its 
 everlasting flight, we turned what we intended 
 to be a season of rejoicing and festivity into a 
 solemn requiem occasion. Speaking to you with 
 those associations at Chickamauga fresh upon me, 
 I can but think of the sweet lines of " Miles 
 O'Reilly:"- 
 
 " There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, 
 Fetters of friendship, and ties of flowers, 
 
 And true-lover's knots, I ween : 
 The girl and the boy are bound by a kiss ; 
 But there's never a tie, old friend, like this : 
 ' We have drunk from the same canteen.' " 
 
 And in that spirit, coming to this stand on this 
 occasion, and in the presence of all these Hiram 
 students, recollecting the old associations that
 
 148 PBESIDENT GAKF1ELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 used to bind us in the early days, I feel that we 
 have all of us "drunk from the same can- 
 teen." 
 
 But it is not for me to occupy time in reminis- 
 cence. There are others here better prepared 
 and better fitted to do that than I am. I come 
 here for another purpose. I have been wont 
 to be belligerent in life, and for sixteen years 
 I have differed most fearfully and bitterly from 
 the men whom we used to meet in gray along 
 the Tennessee ; but only the other day, under 
 the shadow of old Lookout, while the plain of 
 Chickamauga lay before us, and the old heights 
 of Missionary Ridge frowned down upon us, I 
 saw a scene that I would that all of you could 
 see. I must preface my account of it by saying 
 that the last time I ever took our old friend 
 by the hand was just a week before the assas- 
 sin fired the fatal pistol. I was going home ; and 
 he said to me in his peculiar way, giving me not 
 his hand, but both hands, " Good-by. Tell all 
 the boys they must meet me at Chattanooga, at 
 the re-union of the Army of the Cumberland." 
 And, when I told him that the ex-Confederates 
 were going to meet us and to greet us, it seemed 
 to put new animation into his face, and new fire
 
 HIBAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 149 
 
 into his eye, and he said, " Oh, won't we have a 
 jolly time ! " It was not to be ; but the Confed- 
 erate soldiers met us there. For some years I 
 have felt down yonder as if every man's hand 
 was against me : but I know now that a touch 
 of real, genuine feeling makes all the world akin ; 
 and I say to this audience in Cleveland, that no- 
 where in the world, and among no class of people, 
 is James A. Garfield more mourned and honored 
 and loved than among the stalwart followers of 
 Stonewall Jackson and Lee and Cheatham, the 
 nameless, unnumbered host who are now stretch- 
 ing out their hands to us from all the land be- 
 tween us and the Gulf. I saw old Frank Cheat- 
 ham, who fought him at Chickamauga, sitting 
 upon the stand ; and again and again the tears 
 unbidden would start from his eyes while the 
 minute-guns were firing, reminding us that Gar- 
 field was no more. I speak, then, for that people. 
 All Tennessee is in mourning. The good women 
 and the good men of the South, the poor men 
 and rich men, are mourning to-day, literally min- 
 gling their tears with ours. For long weeks, day 
 after day, they would come to my home at Green- 
 ville, early in the morning and late in the evening, 
 and ask me, "Major, how is our President?"
 
 150 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 From the colored people and the mountaineers, 
 from the glorious old boys in gray, and from 
 those I love still better, the Union soldiers of 
 Tennessee, there came that question ; and I 
 noticed always an accent was laid upon the pro- 
 noun our, " How is our President ? " 
 
 I cannot take longer time. I shall bear back 
 to that people your feeling. I only come to give 
 you their greeting. 
 
 VII. H. C. WHITE, ESQ., OF CLEVELAND. 
 
 The composite pillar of a great life stands 
 broken. The blow of the inhuman iconoclast has 
 fallen. But the ruined shaft still reaches to the 
 heavens, and for its capital bears the martyr's 
 thorny crown. 
 
 We are here to-day with aching hearts, but 
 tender hands, to garland with blooming memories 
 the pedestal of this masterpiece. We are here to 
 open 
 
 " That book of memory 
 
 Which is to grieving hearts like the sweet shower 
 To the parched meadow or the dying tree ; 
 Which fills with elegy the craving mouth 
 Of sorrow, slakes with song the piteous drought, 
 And leaves us calm, but weeping silently."
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 151 
 
 The lessons of the -life here closed, like its own 
 history, are easily clustered in chapters. These 
 chapters unfold in harmonious development, and 
 are merged in logical gradations. Yet there is a 
 marked completeness in each chapter. His life, 
 thus stratified, illustrates the unyielding grasp of 
 purpose which runs through its entire plan and 
 tenor. Holding on to this single clew, running 
 through all the labyrinth of circumstances, he 
 marched with steady step through all the wilder- 
 ing mazes of life. It is given us here to-day to 
 open a chapter of this history, completed now a 
 quarter of a century. 
 
 James A. Garfield never ceased to be a teacher, 
 because he never ceased to be a learner. Many 
 of us here knew him when he wielded the upbuild- 
 ing forces of education with the arm of a Titan 
 and the hand of a master. A peculiar tone was 
 given to his career as teacher by the fact that 
 during the whole of it he was at once teacher and 
 learner. Scattering light with wonderful efful- 
 gence, his light was clear and far-reaching, be- 
 cause he was simultaneously filling and trimming 
 his own lamp of knowledge. Thus, in God's 
 economy, he was enabled to bless us out of that 
 inheritance of poverty which was his. The blend-
 
 152 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ing of these forces aided his native endowment 
 of mind and heart in the production of those 
 grand qualities which he possessed in such full 
 measure as a teacher : 
 
 First, In that all-compassing love and sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 Secondly, In that exhaustless enthusiasm which 
 sent the rippling and unseen waves of inspiration 
 into the dullest and deadest soul. 
 
 Not entirely to the progress of this self-develop- 
 ment must we attribute his great power as an 
 intellectual and moral builder. Such power was 
 inborn and native to him. He won many, because 
 he loved much. By the sheer force of the spirit 
 he breathed, he lifted all who touched the circle 
 of his influence to a higher, purer life. Thus 
 the best edifying force with which he wrought 
 was his own noble self. His whole life was a 
 constantly increasing offering-up of himself. He 
 began the sacrifice, in no small measure, while he 
 was a teacher. His best text-book was his own 
 great heart, mind, and life. Broadly and deeply 
 learned, he venerated classic learning, and bowed 
 to its authority. In the choice of methods, he 
 gave it its due office as a disciplining force. More 
 than that, in the alembic of his mind, in the very
 
 HIBAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 153 
 
 process of mental assimilation, the dead tongue 
 and the dead past took on the glow and form of 
 living beauty. But, after all, the value and cur- 
 rency of this coinage came largely from the mould 
 and impress of his mind and heart, rather than 
 from the intrinsic preciousness of the native metal. 
 He never wore the perfunctory mental habit of 
 the professor. He was not merely equipped with 
 the intellectual weapons of the scholastic training- 
 master, to be thrown down at the end of the hour 
 of drill. He never lost an opportunity to mould 
 moral impressions. Better than the iron of the 
 Latin thought and tongue he taught so skilfully, 
 was the love that he poured out with it. Better 
 than the philosophy of the subtle Greek, was the 
 grace of his life. Better than the great systems 
 of science that he opened, was the sincerity of 
 character irradiating his every-day life. Better 
 than his expositions of mathematics, was his ex- 
 ample of manliness. 
 
 Another source of his power lay in his constant 
 and unwearied lifting into view of great life pur- 
 poses. How, by wisest precept and loftiest ex- 
 ample, he bent up the angle of our aims to high 
 and worthy objects ! These aims were not the- 
 oretical and unattainable : their binding, guiding
 
 154 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 force lay in their practicability. Upon these grand 
 harmonies which burst upon our enraptured ears 
 in the olden time, his whole life was tuned. They 
 were not mere erratic ideals, wandering darkly in 
 his heavens : they were the fixed stars to which 
 his moral vision ever turned, on whatever stormy 
 sea he rode. 
 
 I have found these grand tenets of his life crys- 
 tallized in forms of beauty by the poetic soul of 
 another, now dead. Let me read them. This 
 was his summary : these are the rules he always 
 accepted : 
 
 " First, labor. Nothing can be had for nothing. What- 
 ever a man achieves, he must pay for; and no favor of 
 fortune can absolve him from his duty. 
 
 " Secondly, patience and forbearance, which are simply 
 dependent on the slow justice of time. 
 
 "Thirdly, and most important, faith. Unless a man 
 believes in something far higher than himself, something 
 infinitely purer and grander than he can ever become, 
 unless he has an instinct of an order beyond his dreams, of 
 laws beyond his comprehension, of beauty, goodness, and 
 justice beside which his own ideals are dark, he will fail 
 in every loftier form of ambition, and ought to fail." 
 
 As a teacher, he possessed in wonderful degree 
 another excellence : upon whomsoever he laid
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 155 
 
 hold, he never let go. The seeds of truth, once 
 implanted by his hand, he watched to see germi- 
 nate, grow, and yield fruit. His manner of deal- 
 ing with immortal elements rendered, in his view, 
 his work immortal. Hence those who had re- 
 ceived the impress of his moulding hand, he bore 
 with him in the casket of his memory, enshrined 
 in his heart, up the toilsome steeps of his glorious 
 career ; and, while standing upon " the perilous 
 heights," he still bore the obscurest to the end. 
 
 Thus transient pupilage, with some of us, be- 
 came enduring discipleship. He fashioned his 
 work and life as a teacher after the highest model. 
 In the harmonious development of the whole 
 being, the only true culture, in the imparta- 
 tion of himself in loving sympathy, in the unyield- 
 ing love encircling all beneath him, he exhibits 
 the pattern of the Great Teacher. 
 
 I know these are dead leaves, rather than living 
 flowers, from the field of memory. These are 
 but the superficial, abstract impressions, left after 
 the lapse of years. To me the sweet savor and 
 memory of his kindly aid as a teacher is the rich- 
 est of all legacies. A thousand bright memories 
 springing out of this blessed relationship of teacher 
 and pupil come thronging around me ; but they
 
 156 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 swim and glint upon the floods which choke the 
 utterance. To many of you was vouchsafed the 
 blessing of other and later relationships: to me 
 the older one never ended. God grant that it 
 may never end to any of us ! 
 
 He taught lessons to all people, out of all events. 
 His great grasp of mind and wonderful power of 
 generalization made it easy for him to evoke great 
 lessons out of all situations and junctures; and 
 while in him we had unbounded faith, and trusted 
 him as equal to all trials and burdens, yet his own 
 humility and better wisdom never allowed him to 
 close his eyes to perils. 
 
 His own prophetic spirit has given us the best 
 lesson that we can get out of the awful mystery 
 of the hour. Standing on the sloping heights of 
 Arlington, over the graves of fifteen thousand 
 men, he spoke these words, now suggestive and 
 full of peace to us all : 
 
 "For the noblest man that lives, there still remains a 
 conflict. He must still withstand the assaults of time and 
 fortune, must still be assailed with temptations before which 
 lofty natures have fallen. But with these the conflict ended, 
 the victory was won, when death stamped on them the great 
 seal of heroic character, and closed a record which years can 
 never blot."
 
 HIRAM COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE. 157 
 
 . COLONEL H. N. ELDRIDGE OF CHICAGO. 1 
 The lengthening shadows remind me and you 
 that you have a right to be impatient. What I 
 have to say, then, shall have one virtue, brevity. 
 You have gathered at this place of prayer, not 
 to recount the glories of the soldier, not to tell the 
 story of the statesman. It is for another, a higher, 
 a holier purpose. These upturned faces stran- 
 gers to me individually, for the most part I 
 know are the faces of those who have sat at the 
 same seat of learning, and who have drank 
 draughts of knowledge from the same source. Of 
 all the relationships of life, so far as my knowl- 
 edge and observation go, the relationships which 
 spring from college association are the purest, the 
 holiest, the best. For, after all, my friends, what 
 are all these grand attainments of genius without 
 a heart ? You will bear me out in saying, that, 
 above and beyond all men that you ever met, 
 James Abram Garfield had the power of making 
 himself a part of your life. College days, of all 
 others, are the days of sentiment ; and the recol- 
 lection of college life comes as a sweet memory 
 in the bustling cares that come after, and, like 
 
 1 Colonel Eldridge was a classmate of Garfield's at Williams.
 
 158 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 glints of sunshine through the rifted cloud, they 
 are a glory and a beauty forever. It is his gener- 
 ous impulses, and the greatness of his heart, that 
 you and I have come here to think of, to remember, 
 and to dream over again, this September afternoon. 
 Wherever Garfield went, he carried with him 
 that which could never be forgotten. I recollect 
 an incident that occurred soon after General Han- 
 cock was nominated for the Presidency, when there 
 was an appearance of the tide turning that way. 
 I dined with a pronounced and prominent politi- 
 cian ; and the remark was made by me, " Should 
 the election take place to-day, I fear that my old 
 friend Garfield would be in the minority." 
 "Yes," said he; "but the election don't take place 
 to-day, and that is what troubles me. I fear that 
 betwixt now and next November the great people 
 of the North will learn to know your friend as 
 you know him." My friends, the millions of this 
 land and the millions of other lands are begin- 
 ning to know him as you and I know him ; and as 
 the days shall come, and as the time of this solemn 
 pageant shall become the past, the light of his 
 memory shall be as the torch in the fisherman's 
 boat, that distance frees from all smoke, and that 
 only gleams the brighter, the farther it recedes 
 from view.
 
 PART II. 
 
 $resfoent ffiarfoto's $peerfje$ antr 
 
 ON 
 
 EDUCATION AND EDUCATOKS,
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 
 
 riHHE phrase " Education and Educators " does 
 not fully describe this collection of addresses 
 and speeches. Still they form a distinct group, 
 having a centre of unity, and so may properly be 
 brought together. Nor has any better description 
 than the one used occurred to their collector. 
 
 The great interest that President Garfield 
 always took in education, even after he ceased to 
 teach, and grew to influence as a statesman, is 
 well known to those who have only a general 
 acquaintance with his life. Still the extent of his 
 interest, and the value of his contributions to 
 educational discussions and literature, is known 
 to very few. Even this collection, in which are 
 brought together all of the speeches that he him- 
 self published, and more besides, is an inadequate 
 witness to his interest and activity. He made 
 many lectures and addresses at institutes, at col- 
 lege commencements, and to schools that he casu- 
 
 161
 
 162 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ally visited, which were either never published, or 
 were meagrely reported in the local press. He 
 was always a generous respondent on such occa- 
 sions, and always said something worth remember- 
 ing. Many a teacher did he thus cheer, many a 
 student stimulate, many a parent arouse to his 
 duties to his children, many a citizen awaken to 
 his relations to public education. He was always 
 keenly alive to politics, and to party politics ; but 
 never, even in the most exciting times, did he lose 
 his interest in the progress of knowledge and the 
 education of the people. This collection shows 
 the range and the value of his contributions to 
 the discussions of these subjects, though it by no 
 means exhausts them. It shows as well the range 
 of his reading upon educational subjects. 
 
 His efforts to advance the educational interests 
 of the country, as they are here revealed, may be 
 grouped under four heads. 
 
 I. THE STATE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Here his influence was felt along several lines 
 of educational enterprise. These will be mentioned 
 in order. 
 
 1. The National Bureau of Education. Feb. 
 14, 1866, Mr. Garfield presented to the House of
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 163 
 
 Representatives a memorial of the National Asso- 
 ciation of School Superintendents, recently held 
 in Washington, asking for the establishment of a 
 National Bureau of Education; also a bill that 
 accompanied said memorial. This bill was read 
 twice, referred to a select committee of seven, and 
 ordered printed. This committee consisted of the 
 following gentlemen: Garfield of Ohio, Patter- 
 son of New Hampshire, Boutwell of Massachu- 
 setts, Donnelly of Minnesota, Moulton of Illinois, 
 Goodyear of New York, and Randall of Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 April 3, following, Mr. Garfield reported from 
 the Committee a substitute for the original bill. 
 This bill, known as House Bill No. 276, was wider 
 in its scope than the bill, submitted with the me- 
 morial. Made a law, it would establish a Depart- 
 ment of Education. June 5 and 8 it was debated 
 by the House at considerable length. It was sup- 
 ported by Messrs. Donnelly, Banks, Beaman, and 
 others, and opposed by Messrs. Rogers and Pike. 
 In its favor, it was argued that the department pro- 
 posed would be of great service in gathering and 
 publishing statistics and other information concern- 
 ing education ; also, that education in the South 
 needed particular attention, that the States were
 
 164 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 not likely to give. It was urged against the bill, 
 that such a department was unnecessary and un- 
 constitutional, and that it would be expensive. 
 Mr. Garfield closed the debate. He had granted 
 to other members so much of the hour allowed by 
 the rules, that his own speech was cut short by 
 the Speaker's hammer. However, in obedience to 
 the earnest request of friends of education, he 
 wrote out his speech in full, and published it as 
 found in this volume. The bill was lost, 59 yeas 
 to 61 nays. June 19 a reconsideration was car- 
 ried by a vote of 76 to 44. On this question, Mr. 
 Garfield said that the measure was framed " at the 
 earnest request of the School Commissioners of 
 several of the States." He added, " It is an inter- 
 est that has no lobby to press its claims. It is 
 the voice of the children of the land, asking us to 
 give them all the blessings of our civilization. I 
 hope that the interest which has moved the other 
 side of the House to vote solidly against this lib- 
 eral and progressive measure will at least induce 
 this side to save it from defeat." The expressions 
 " other side " and " this side " need no comment. 
 Without the argument implied hi these terms, it 
 is doubtful whether the bill would have carried. 
 It now passed, 80 yeas to 44 nays. Immediately
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 165 
 
 the bill went to the Senate, and was referred to 
 the Judiciary Committee. At the next session, 
 Jan. 30, 1867, Mr. Trumbull reported it back to 
 the Senate. After brief discussion it passed, Feb. 
 27. The President's approval, March 2, made it 
 a law. 
 
 That this beneficent law was peculiarly Mr. 
 Garfield's work, is shown by the facts recited. He 
 introduced the subject to the House, was chair- 
 man of the special committee, drew up the bill, 
 and was its principal champion on the floor. The 
 bill as reported by him was not changed in any 
 particular in either house. What is more, the 
 great change wrought in the temper of the House, 
 as shown by the votes (June 8, 49 to 51 ; June 19, 
 80 to 44), was almost wholly due to the persistent 
 zeal with which he urged the measure in private. 
 
 Apparently the Department of Education was 
 in advance of public sentiment : certainly it was 
 in advance of Congressional sentiment. No sooner 
 was it created, than it was attacked. In these 
 later debates the measure was accredited to 
 Garfield's "persuasive eloquence." One mem- 
 ber said it was carried by " dint of personal en- 
 treaty." The author of the Department defended 
 it point by point. He protested time and again
 
 166 PKESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 against " putting out the eyes of the government." 
 But, in spite of his efforts, the Department was 
 reduced to a Bureau in the Interior Department, 
 the appropriations were cut down, and the Bureau 
 was for a time thoroughly crippled. By and by 
 Congress began to deal more generously with this 
 child of his ; and the appropriation for the fiscal 
 year ending June 30, 1882, is more than fifty 
 thousand dollars, 1 the largest ever made. 
 
 The Bureau immediately attracted the attention 
 of friends of education in the Old World. John 
 Bright wrote this letter concerning it : 
 
 " ROCHDALE, Jan. 4, 1868. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, I write to thank you for sending me a 
 copy of General Garfield's speech on education. I have read 
 it with much interest. 
 
 " The Department now to be constituted at Washington 
 will doubtless prepare statistics which will inform the world 
 of what is doing in the United States on the education ques- 
 tion ; and the volume it will publish will have a great effect 
 in this country, and, indeed, in all civilized countries. 
 
 " You will have observed the increased interest in educa- 
 tion shown in England since the extension of the suffrage. 
 
 1 These are the yearly appropriations: 1867, 1,678.67; 1868, 
 
 $11,757.17; 1869, $23,151.82; 1870, 5,842.50; 1871, S14,606.00; 1872, 
 
 $26,669.89; 1873, $34,835.79; 1874, $34,771.07; 1875, $35,562.53; 1876, 
 
 $35,561.00; 1877, $32,061.79; 1878, $30,340.00; 1879, $31,220.00; 1880, 
 $36,720.00; 1881, $45,580.00; 1882, $50,155.00.
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 167 
 
 I hope some great and good measure may be passed at an 
 early period. 
 
 " I am very truly yours, 
 
 "JOHN BRIGHT. 
 
 " GEORGE J. ABBOT, ESQ., United States Consul, Sheffield." 
 
 This is the Act as drawn by him, and as origi- 
 nally passed : 
 
 " AN ACT TO ESTABLISH A DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 
 
 " Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That 
 there shall be established, at the city of Washington, a De- 
 partment of Education for the purpose of collecting such 
 statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress 
 of education in the several States and Territories, and of 
 diffusing such information respecting the organization and 
 management of schools and school systems, and methods of 
 teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the 
 establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, 
 and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout 
 the country. 
 
 "SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That there shall 
 be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and 
 consent of the Senate, a Commissioner of Education, who 
 shall be intrusted with the management of the department 
 herein established, and who shall receive a salary of four 
 thousand dollars per annum, and who shall have authority 
 to appoint one chief clerk of his department, who shall 
 receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum, one
 
 168 PRESIDENT GARF1ELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 clerk who shall receive a salary of eighteen hundred dollars 
 per annum, and one clerk who shall receive a salary of six- 
 teen hundred dollars per annum, which said clerk shall be 
 subject to the appointing and removing power of the Com- 
 missioner of Education. 
 
 " SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the 
 duty of the Commissioner of Education to present annually 
 to Congress a report embodying the results of his investi- 
 gations and labors, together with a statement of such facts 
 and recommendations as will, in his judgment, subserve 
 the purpose for which this department was established. In 
 the first report made by the Commissioner of Education 
 under this Act, there shall be presented a statement of the 
 several grants of land made by Congress to promote educa- 
 tion, and the manner in which these several trusts have 
 been managed, the amount of funds arising therefrom, and 
 the annual proceeds of the same, as far as the same can be 
 determined. 
 
 "SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Commis- 
 sioner of Public Buildings is hereby authorized and directed 
 to furnish proper offices for the use of the department 
 herein established." 
 
 July 28, 1868, this provision was attached to 
 the Legislative Appropriation Bill : 
 
 " After the thirtieth day of June, 1869, the Department 
 of Education shall cease ; and there shall be established and 
 attached to the Department of the Interior an office to be 
 denominated the office of education, the chief officer of
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 169 
 
 which shall be Commissioner of Education, at a salary of 
 three thousand dollars per annum, who shall, under the 
 direction of the Secretary of the Interior, discharge all such 
 duties, and superintend, execute, and perform all such acts 
 and things, touching and respecting the said office of educa- 
 tion, as are devolved by law upon said Commissioner." 
 
 2. The Army Post Schools. In the year 1866 
 General Garfield brought forward another educa- 
 tional measure that has already yielded fruit, and 
 that promises to yield still more in the future. 
 May 2 he moved a new section to the Army Bill 
 then pending, as follows : 
 
 " And be it further enacted, That whenever troops are serv- 
 ing at any post, garrison, or permanent camp, there shall 
 be established a school where all enlisted men may be pro- 
 vided with instruction in the common English branches of 
 education, and especially in the history of the United 
 States ; and the Secretary of War is authorized and di- 
 rected to detail such commissioned and non-commissioned 
 officers as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of 
 this section." 
 
 He supported the proposition in this short 
 speech : 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, I only ask a word on that subject. One 
 of the greatest evils known in standing armies is the evil 
 of idleness, the parent of all wickedness, and especially the
 
 170 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ignorance connected with it. I hope we shall be able to do 
 something to eradicate that evil from our army, and to do 
 something to make it a patriotic army. In the wearisome 
 months spent in camp and at posts and garrisons, there is 
 nothing for the soldiers to do but to indulge in some deviltry. 
 It is a great evil in the army. I want the enlisted men. to 
 have opportunities for culture ; and I ask that the Secretary 
 of War shall detail officers fitted for that purpose. I think 
 such a section will relieve the army from this evil. It has 
 been drawn hastily, but I think will commend itself to the 
 country. 
 
 "One word more. If it were in my power, I would 
 make a law that every man and woman in the United 
 States should study American history through the period 
 of then- minority. We cannot do that throughout the 
 United States generally, but we can enforce it to some 
 extent upon the privates in our army." 
 
 The proposed section was added to the bill : 
 it became law, and forms now the substance of 
 Section 1,231 of the Revised Statutes, thus : 
 
 " Schools shall be established at all posts, garrisons, and 
 permanent camps at which troops are stationed, in which 
 the enlisted men may be instructed in the common English 
 branches of education, and especially in the history of the 
 United States ; and the Secretary of War may detail such 
 officers and enlisted men as may be necessary to carry out 
 this provision. It shall be the duty of the post or garrison 
 commander to set apart a suitable room or building for 
 school and religious purposes."
 
 1NTEODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 171 
 
 Little or no attempt to carry out this provision 
 appears to have been made until the end of the 
 year 1877. In December of that year the Secre- 
 tary of War, "believing this to be an important 
 provision of law, from the full enforcement of 
 which much benefit would accrue, not only to the 
 service, but to the enlisted men, many of whom 
 sadly needed the contemplated instruction," 
 convened a board of officers to consider what steps 
 should be taken to fully carry it out. This board,. 
 consisting of the Quartermaster-General, the 
 Adjutant-General, and the Judge- Advocate-Gen- 
 eral, after full inquiry, reported an elaborate 
 code of rules for the government of post schools, 
 libraries, and reading-rooms. The report was ap- 
 proved by the Secretary, and announced to the 
 army in General Order No. 24. Col. A. McD. 
 McCook was detailed as visitor and inspector of 
 the various post-schools, with all the necessary 
 powers and authority. 1 The results, up to No- 
 vember, 1879, are thus summed up by Gen. 
 Eaton, the head of the National Bureau : 
 
 " Immediate measures were taken at nearly all the perma- 
 nent military posts toward the establishment of schools for 
 promoting the intelligence of soldiers and affording educa- 
 
 1 Keport of Secretary of War, 1878.
 
 172 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 tion to their children, as well as to those of officers and 
 civilians at the remote frontier-posts. Requisitions for the 
 construction of suitable buildings for chapel, school, and 
 library were soon forwarded by post-commanders, and ap- 
 proved by the War Department, whenever funds for the 
 purpose were available. At twenty-nine posts such build- 
 ings, at a cost of 33,708, were erected ; and, at others, exist- 
 ing rooms were put to service. In all, sixty-nine posts were 
 thus provided with schools in 1878-79, and an average of 
 seven hundred and fifty-four enlisted men and one thousand 
 and thirty-nine children received instruction in them. 
 
 " A letter from the officer who was put in general charge 
 of this education in the army (Gen. A. McD. McCook) says 
 that great difficulty has been experienced in the selection of 
 enlisted men suitable for teachers, and that, at numerous 
 posts, schools could not be established (or, if established, 
 had to be discontinued) 011 account of the want of men that 
 could be trusted to do the teaching. 
 
 "Enlisted men detailed as teachers receive thirty-five 
 ' cents a day extra pay. They are subject to military disci- 
 pline, as other soldiers, and are liable to be called on to per- 
 form active service at any time. Normal schools, to prepare 
 for teachers enlisted men possessing the qualifications and 
 inclination to become such, have been established at Colum- 
 bus Barracks, O., and David's Island, N.Y., depots of the 
 general recruiting-service, and thus a better class of teachers 
 will probably be soon provided. They are expected to 
 understand the rudiments of a common-school education; 
 to be conversant with reading, writing, and arithmetic ; and 
 to possess a fair knowledge of geography, grammar, and
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 173 
 
 history. They must also be able to demonstrate clearly, 
 and in plain language, the subjects before them. ,^ 
 
 " School-books for these schools are furnished by tne 
 Quartermaster's Department, on the application of post- 
 commanders, in lieu of, or in connection with, the news- 
 papers and periodicals which it has been the custom to fur- 
 nish to each post in proportion to its strength of garrison." 
 
 Since 1879 the post-schools have made laudable 
 progress ; and there' can be no doubt that they 
 will do much for the intelligence and morale of 
 the army in the future. 1 
 
 3. The " Hoar Bill." The speech on "National 
 Aid to Education," Feb. 6, 1872, was in support 
 of the proposition to dedicate the public lands to 
 education. The subject under immediate consid- 
 eration was House Bill No. 1,043, " To establish 
 an educational fund, and to apply the proceeds of 
 the public lands to the education of the people," 
 what is known as the "Hoar Bill." Unfortu- 
 nately this beneficent measure has not yet be- 
 come a law, though steadily growing in public 
 favor; but, when it has finally triumphed, Gen- 
 eral Garfield's early and able advocacy will not be 
 forgotten. 
 
 4. Education and the South. President Gar- 
 
 1 See Appendix for fuller information touching these schools.
 
 174 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 field studied " the Southern question " profoundly. 
 That he saw the radical trouble in the South, and 
 knew the remedy, is shown by his short speech to 
 the delegation of colored men that visited him at 
 Mentor, Jan. 14, 1881. In a private letter dated 
 Dec. 30, 1880, he wrote, " I have no doubt that the 
 final cure for the ' Solid South ' will be found in 
 the education of its youth and in the development 
 of its business interests ; but both these things re- 
 quire time." No part of his Inaugural is more elo- 
 quent than that in which he presented this subject. 
 What is more, in the last private conversation the 
 writer ever had with him (the evening of March 
 6, 1881), he said, " I am going to keep that sub- 
 ject before me all the time, and shall see that 
 something is done in that direction if possible." 
 His plan was not worked out, probably, when he 
 was stricken by the assassin's bullet ; but his 
 heart was fixed upon this as a prominent feature 
 of his administration, national aid to public, 
 N and especially to Southern, education. 
 
 II. THE STATE AND SCIENCE. 
 
 His views touching this question were always 
 liberal and progressive. In the Ohio Senate he 
 strove to secure the enacting of a law authorizing
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 175 
 
 a geological survey of the State. He submitted 
 a bill for that purpose, and supported it in a 
 lengthy and able report. He also made a similar 
 report upon weights and measures. At Washing- 
 ton he supported every intelligent and practical 
 scheme touching the extension of scientific knowl- 
 edge, or its reduction to practical uses, the coast- 
 survey, the light-houses, the signal-service, the 
 life-saving service, Arctic exploration, and the 
 geological and other surveys. 
 
 Every man who went to him with a well-con- 
 sidered proposition pointing in such directions as 
 these found him an eager and appreciative listener. 
 The scientific men of the country, especially those 
 who were in any way serving the government, as 
 well as the public, geologists, botanists, astron- 
 omers, engineers, and explorers, came to rely 
 greatly upon him for securing the appropriations 
 that they needed to carry on or enlarge their work. 
 Nor was this solely because he was for some time 
 the head of the Appropriations Committee. For 
 many years he was a regent of the Smithsonian 
 Institution. Here he was brought into official 
 relations with Agassiz and Henry, both of whom 
 became his intimate friends. His general views 
 touching the sphere of the National Government
 
 176 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 as respects science, he stated in his speech upon 
 that subject. 
 
 Besides, he made a strenuous attempt, in 1869, 
 to secure a more rational and efficient census law. 
 After months of labor enthusiastically devoted to 
 the subject, he carried his bill through the House ; 
 but it failed in the Senate. The law of 1880, 
 under which our only real census has been taken, 
 is little more than his bill of ten years before 
 reproduced. 
 
 Here it may be remarked, that no man in either 
 house of Congress, from 1863 to 1880, was more 
 constantly on the outlook for opportunities to do 
 something, by way of legislation, for science, edu- 
 cation, and general knowledge. The man who cares 
 to go through the Congressional proceedings will 
 probably be surprised to find how often he came 
 forward with an amendment to a bill, or with an 
 original measure, professing to reach some such 
 end that he thought valuable. Some of these 
 failed, but many succeeded. 
 
 III. STUDIES AND METHODS. 
 
 President Garfield graduated in the traditionary 
 college course. In 1854-56 the modern courses 
 of study had not been established, at least fully,
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 177 
 
 in any American college. He was an excellent 
 classical student and teacher. Probably he did 
 not so much excel as a grammarian ; but few 
 students or teachers equalled him in reading 
 thoughts out of (or into ?) Latin or Greek. After 
 he became absorbed in public affairs, he kept 
 alive his classical reading, more particularly the 
 Latin poets. Once he said, "Early in life men 
 read Virgil ; later, Horace." Certainly Horace 
 grew upon him with the flight of years. Since 
 his death, it has been said that his collection of 
 editions of the poet is one of the finest in the 
 country. The last summer Hon. W. M. Evarts 
 brought him a new and choice edition that he 
 had found in Europe. This was presented to the 
 President on his sick-bed, and gave him much 
 pleasure. But, while thus drawn to the old litera- 
 tures by taste, appreciation, and association, he 
 could not help seeing that the new conditions 
 the enormous extension of knowledge, the growth 
 of modern literature, and the development of 
 industry called imperatively for a widely differ- 
 entiated education. The " new education " took 
 a strong hold upon his mind. He ^believed in the 
 new courses of study. He favored a revision of 
 the classical course. He said Greek and Latin
 
 178 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 must somewhat give way, but confessed at the 
 time that the proposition was like putting his 
 N brothers and sisters out of doors. His views on 
 these subjects matured as early as 1867. That 
 year the Eclectic Institute became Hiram College. 
 Naturally he was called upon to start the old 
 school upon her new course. This he did in the 
 address entitled "College Education," in which 
 he stated his conclusions both fully and strongly. 
 In one direction they are also developed in " Ele- 
 ments of Success in Life." Even at the time 
 when he spoke at Hiram (1867), and before, the 
 era of change in college study had begun. Since 
 that day, the new spirit 'has reached and influ- 
 enced nearly every college in the land. Attention 
 may also be called to the short speech before the 
 Washington Convention of School Superintend- 
 ents in 1879. This shows that he thought the 
 public schools open to much criticism and amend- 
 ment. Perhaps it is proper to add that his private 
 utterances upon this point were even stronger than 
 those made in public. 
 
 IV. TCRIBUTES TO EDUCATORS. 
 
 In the three addresses thus grouped, General 
 Garfield gives expression to his estimate of the
 
 INTRODUCTION TO SPEECHES. 179 
 
 scientific and educational character. Dr. Morse 
 he did not know personally; and so his short 
 speech at the Morse Commemoration was wholly 
 historical. But the other two addresses are full 
 of interesting biographical detail. It is true that 
 Morse, and even Henry, in later years, was not 
 an educator in the sense of being a teacher ; but 
 knowledge is so related to instruction, science to 
 education proper, that the admirable commemora- 
 tive addresses upon them may be fitly put into 
 this collection. There is a peculiar fitness in the 
 other addresses appearing here. Miss Booth and 
 Mr. Garfield were fellow-students and fellow- 
 teachers, and her name will be linked with his 
 in the memories of hundreds of their joint disciples 
 to their latest day. The Hiram fellowship justly 
 regard this as an admirable discourse, and one of 
 the noblest products of his eloquence. With it 
 the volume fitly closes.
 
 I. 
 
 8Tfje National Bureau of lEoucatfon. 
 
 SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 JUNE 8, 1866.
 
 I. 
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 
 
 "A /TR. SPEAKER, I did intend to make a 
 somewhat elaborate statement of the rea- 
 sons why the select committee recommend the 
 passage of this bill ; but I know the anxiety that 
 many gentlemen feel to have this debate con- 
 cluded, and to allow the private bills now on the 
 calendar, and set for this day, to be disposed of, 
 and to complete as soon as possible the work of 
 this session. I will therefore abandon my original 
 purpose, and restrict myself to a brief statement 
 of a few leading points in the argument, and leave 
 the decision with the House. I hope this waiving 
 of a full discussion of the bill will not be con- 
 strued into a "confession that it is inferior in im- 
 portance to any measure before the House ; for I 
 know of none that has a nobler object, or that 
 more vitally affects the future of this nation. 
 
 I first ask the House to consider the magnitude 
 of the interests involved in this bill. The very 
 
 183
 
 184 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 attempt to discover the amount of pecuniary and 
 personal interest we have in our schools shows the 
 necessity of such a law as is here proposed. I 
 have searched in vain for any complete or reliable 
 statistics showing the educational condition of the 
 whole country. 
 
 The estimates I have made are gathered from 
 various sources, and can be only approximately 
 correct. I am satisfied, however, that they are far 
 below the truth. 
 
 Even from the incomplete and imperfect educa- 
 tional statistics of the Census Bureau, it appears 
 that in 1860 there were in the United States 
 115,224 common schools, 500,000 school officers, 
 150,241 teachers, and 5,477,037 scholars; thus 
 showing that more than 6,000,000 of the people 
 of the United States are directly engaged in the 
 work of education. 
 
 Not only has this large proportion of our popu- 
 lation been thus engaged, but the Congress of the 
 United States has given 53,000,000 acres of public 
 lands to fourteen States and Territories of the 
 Union for the support of schools. In the old 
 ordinance of 1785, it was provided that one sec- 
 tion of every township one thirty -sixth of all 
 the public lands of the United States should
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 185 
 
 be set apart, and held forever sacred to the sup- 
 port of the schools of the country. In the ordi- 
 nance of 1787, it was declared that, "religion, 
 morality, and knowledge being necessary to good 
 government and the happiness of mankind, 
 schools and the means of education shall forever 
 be encouraged." 
 
 It is estimated that at least $50,000,000 have 
 been given in the United States by private indi- 
 viduals for the support of schools. We have thus 
 an interest, even pecuniarily considered, hardly 
 second to any other. We have school statistics 
 tolerably complete from only seventeen States of 
 the Union. 
 
 Our Congressional Library contains no educa- 
 tional reports whatever from the remaining nine- 
 teen. In those seventeen States, there are 90,835 
 schools, 129,000 teachers, 5,107,285 pupils; and 
 $34,000,000 are annually appropriated by the 
 Legislatures for the support and maintenance of 
 common schools. Notwithstanding the great ex- 
 penditures entailed upon them during four years 
 of' war, they raised by taxation $34,000,000 annu- 
 ally for the support of common schools. In sev- 
 eral States of the Union, more than fifty per cent 
 of all the tax imposed for State purposes is for the
 
 186 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 support of the common schools. And yet gen- 
 tlemen are impatient because we wish to occupy 
 a short time in considering this bill. 
 
 I will not trouble the House by repeating com- 
 monplaces so familiar to every gentleman here, as 
 that our system of government is based upon the 
 intelligence of the people. But I wish to sug- 
 gest that there never has been a time when all 
 our educational forces should be in such perfect 
 activity as at the present day. 
 
 Ignorance stolid ignorance is not our most 
 dangerous enemy. There is very little of that 
 kind of ignorance among the white population of 
 this country. 
 
 In the Old World, among the despotic govern- 
 ments of Europe, the great disfranchised class 
 the pariahs of political and social life are in- 
 deed ignorant, mere inert masses, moved upon and 
 controlled by the intelligent and cultivated aris- 
 tocracy. Any unrepresented and hopelessly dis- 
 franchised class in a government will inevitably 
 be struck with intellectual paralysis. Our late 
 slaves afford a sad illustration. 
 
 But among the represented and voting classes 
 of this country, where all are equal before the 
 law, and every man is a political power for good
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 187 
 
 or evil, there is but little of the inertia of ignor- 
 ance. The alternatives are not education or no 
 education ; but shall the power of the citizen be 
 directed aright towards industry, liberty, . and 
 patriotism ? or, under the baneful influence of false 
 theories and evil influences, shall it lead him con- 
 tinually downward, and work out anarchy and 
 ruin, both to him and the government? 
 
 If he is not educated in the school of virtue 
 and integrity, he will be educated in the school of 
 vice and iniquity. We are, therefore, afloat on 
 the sweeping current : we must make head against 
 it, or we shall go down with it to the saddest of 
 destinies. 
 
 According to the census of 1860, there were 
 1,218,311 inhabitants of the United States over 
 twenty-one years of age who could not read or 
 write; and 871,418 of these were American-born 
 citizens. One-third of a million of people are 
 being annually thrown upon our shores from the 
 Old World, a large per cent of whom are unedu- 
 cated ; and the gloomy total has been swelled by 
 the 4,000,000 slaves admitted to citizenship by 
 the events of the war. 
 
 Such, sir, is the immense force which we must 
 now confront by the genius of our institutions,
 
 188 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and the light of our civilization. How shall it be 
 done? An American citizen can give but one 
 answer. We must pour upon them all the light 
 of O.UT public schools. We must make them intel- 
 ligent, industrious, patriotic citizens, or they will 
 drag us and our children down to their level. 
 Does not this question rise to the full height of 
 national importance, and demand the best efforts 
 of statesmanship to adjust it? 
 
 Horace Mann has well said that 
 
 " Legislators and rulers are responsible. In our country 
 and in our times, no man is worthy the honored name of a 
 statesman who does not include the highest practicable 
 education of the people in all his plans of administration. 
 
 " He may have eloquence, he may have a knowledge of 
 all history, diplomacy, jurisprudence, and by these he may 
 claim, in other countries, the elevated rank of a statesman ; 
 but unless he speaks, plans, labors, at all times and in all 
 places, for the culture and edification of the whole people, he 
 is not, he cannot be, an American statesman." 
 
 Gentlemen who have discussed the bill this 
 morning tell us that it will result in great expense 
 to the government. Whether an enterprise is 
 expensive, or not, is altogether a relative question, 
 to be determined by the importance of the object 
 in view.
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 189 
 
 Now, what have we done as a nation in the 
 way of expenses ? In 1832 we organized a Coast . 
 Survey Bureau, and have expended millions upon 
 it. Its officers have triangulated thousands of 
 miles of our coasts, have made soundings of all our 
 bays and harbors, and carefully mapped the shoals, 
 breakers, and coast-lines from our northern bound- 
 ary on the Atlantic to the extreme northern 
 boundary on the Pacific coast. They have estab- 
 lished eight hundred tidal stations to observe the 
 fluctuations of the tides. We have expended vast 
 sums in order perfectly to know the topography 
 of our coasts, lakes, and rivers, that we might 
 make navigation more safe. Is it of no conse- 
 quence that we explore the boundaries of that 
 wonderful intellectual empire which encloses with- 
 in its domain the fate of succeeding generations 
 and of this Republic ? The children of to-day will 
 be the architects of our country's destiny in 1900. 
 
 We have established an Astronomical Observa- 
 tory, where the movements of the stars are 
 watched, latitude and longitude calculated, and 
 chronometers regulated for the benefit of naviga- 
 tion. For this observatory we pay one-third of a 
 million per annum. Is it of no consequence that 
 you observe the movements of those stars which
 
 190 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 shall, in the time to come, be guiding stars in our 
 national firmament ? 
 
 We have established a Light House Board, that 
 is employing all the aids of science to discover 
 the best modes of regulating the beacons upon 
 our shores: it is placing buoys as way-marks to 
 guide ships safely into our harbors. Will you not 
 create a light-house board to set up beacons for 
 the coming generation, not as lights to the eye, 
 but to the mind and heart, that shall guide them 
 safely in the perilous voyage of life, and enable 
 them to transmit the blessings of liberty to those 
 who shall come after them ? 
 
 We have set on foot a score of expeditions to 
 explore the mountains and valleys, the lakes and 
 rivers, of this and other countries. We have ex- 
 pended money without stint to explore the Ama- 
 zon and the Jordan, Chili and Japan, the gold 
 shores of Colorado and the copper cliffs of Lake 
 Superior, to gather and publish the great facts of 
 science, and to exhibit the material resources of 
 physical nature. Will you refuse the pitiful sum 
 of $13,000 to collect and record the intellectual 
 resources of this country, the elements that lie 
 behind all material wealth, and make it either a 
 curse or a blessing ?
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 191 
 
 We have paid three-quarters of a million dollars 
 for the survey of the route for the Pacific Railroad, 
 and have published the results, at a great cost, in 
 thirteen quarto volumes, with accompanying maps 
 and charts. The money for these purposes was 
 freely expended. And now, when it is proposed 
 to appropriate $13,000 to aid in increasing the 
 intelligence of those who will use that great con- 
 tinental highway when it is completed, we are 
 reminded of our debts, and warned against in- 
 creasing our expenditures. It is difficult to treat 
 such an objection with the respect that is always 
 due in this hall of legislation. 
 
 We have established a Patent Office, where are 
 annually accumulated thousands of models of new 
 machines invented by our people. Will you make 
 no expenditure for the benefit of the intelligence 
 that shall stand behind those machines, and be 
 their controller ? Will you bestow all your favors 
 upon the engine, and ignore the engineer? I will 
 not insult the intelligence of this House by wait- 
 ing to prove that money paid for education is the 
 most economical of all expenditure ; that it is 
 cheaper to prevent crime than to build jails ; that 
 schoolhouses are less expensive than rebellions. 
 A tenth of our national debt expended in public 

 
 192 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 education fifty years ago would have saved us the 
 blood and treasure of the late war. A far less 
 sum may save our children from a still greater 
 calamity. 
 
 We expend hundreds of thousands annually to 
 promote the agricultural interests of the country, 
 to introduce the best methods in all that pertains 
 to husbandry. Is it not of more consequence to 
 do something for the farmer of the future than for 
 the farm of to-day ? 
 
 As man is more precious than soil, as the im- 
 mortal spirit is nobler than the clod it animates, 
 so is the object of this bill more important than 
 any mere pecuniary interest. 
 
 The genius of our government does not allow 
 us to establish a compulsory system of education, 
 as is done in some of the countries of Europe. 
 There are States in this Union, however, which 
 have adopted a compulsory system ; and perhaps 
 that is well. It is for each State to determine. A 
 distinguished gentleman from Rhode Island told 
 me lately that it is now the law in that State that 
 every child within its borders shall attend school, 
 and that every vagrant child shall be taken in 
 charge by the authorities, and sent to school. It 
 may be well for other States to pursue the same
 
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 193 
 
 course ; but probably the General Government can 
 do nothing of the sort. Whether it has the right 
 of compulsory control, or not, we propose none in 
 this bill. 
 
 But we do propose to use that power, so effec- 
 tive in this country, of letting in light on sub- 
 jects, and holding them up to the verdict of public 
 opinion. If it could be published annually from 
 this Capitol, through every school-district of the 
 United States, that there are States in the Union 
 that have no system of common schools ; and if 
 their records could be placed beside the records of 
 such States as Massachusetts, New York, Pennsyl- 
 vania, Ohio, and other States that have a com- 
 mon-school system, the mere statement of the 
 fact would rouse their energies, and compel them 
 for shame to educate their children. It would 
 shame all the delinquent States out of their delin- 
 quency. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, if I were called upon to-day to 
 point to that in my own State of which I am most 
 proud, I would not point to any of the flaming 
 lines of her military record, to the heroic men and 
 the brilliant officers she gave to this contest; I 
 would not point to any of her leading men of the 
 past or the present : but I would point to her com
 
 194 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 mon schools ; I would point to the honorable fact, 
 that in the great struggle of five years, through 
 which we have just passed, she has expended 
 $12,000,000 for the support of her public schools. 
 I do not include in that amount the sums ex- 
 pended upon our higher institutions of learning. 
 I would point to the fact, that fifty-two per cent 
 of the taxation of Ohio for the last five years, 
 aside from the war-tax and the tax for the pay- 
 ment of her public debt, has been for the support 
 of her schools. I would point to the schools of 
 Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, and other cities of 
 the State, if I desired a stranger to see the glory 
 of Ohio. I would point to the 13,000 school- 
 houses and the 700,000 pupils in the schools of 
 Ohio. I would point to the $3,000,000 she has 
 paid for schools during the last year alone. This, 
 in my judgment, is the proper gauge by which to 
 measure the progress and glory of States. 
 
 Gentlemen tell us there is no need of this bill, 
 the States are doing well enough now. Do they 
 know through what a struggle every State has 
 come up, that has secured a good system of com- 
 mon schools? Let me illustrate this by one ex- 
 ample. Notwithstanding the early declaration of 
 William Penn,
 
 THE NATIONAL BUKEATJ OF EDUCATION. 195 
 
 "That which makes a good constitution must keep it, 
 namely, men of wisdom and virtue ; qualities, that, because 
 they descend not with worldly inheritance, must be carefully 
 propagated by a virtuous education of youth, for which 
 spare no cost, for by such parsimony all that is saved ia 
 lost ; " 
 
 notwithstanding that wise master-builder incor- 
 porated this sentiment in his " framework of gov- 
 ernment," and made it the duty of the governor 
 and council " to establish and support public 
 schools ; " notwithstanding Benjamin Franklin, 
 from the first hour he became a citizen of Penn- 
 sylvania, inculcated the value of useful knowl- 
 edge to every human being in every walk of life, 
 and by his personal and pecuniary effort did 
 establish schools and a college for Philadelphia; 
 notwithstanding the Constitution of Pennsylvania 
 made it obligatory upon the Legislature to foster 
 the education of the citizens : notwithstanding all 
 this, it was not till 1833-34 that a system of com- 
 mon schools, supported in part by taxation of the 
 property of the State, for the common benefit of 
 all the children of the State, was established by 
 law ; and, although the law was passed by an 
 almost unanimous vote of both branches of the 
 Legislature, so foreign was the idea of public
 
 196 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 schools to the habits of the people, so odious was 
 the idea of taxation for this purpose, that even 
 the poor who were to be specially benefited were 
 so deluded by political demagogues as to clamor 
 for its repeal. 
 
 Many members who voted for the law lost their 
 nominations ; and others, although nominated, lost 
 their elections. Some were weak enough to pledge 
 themselves to a repeal of the law; and in the 
 session of 1835 there was an almost certain pros- 
 pect of its repeal, and the adoption in its place of 
 an odious and limited provision for educating the 
 children of the poor by themselves. In the dark- 
 est hour of the debate, when the hearts of the 
 original friends of the system were failing from 
 fear, there rose on the floor of the House one of 
 its early champions, one who, though not a native 
 of the State, felt the disgrace which the repeal of 
 this law would inflict, like a knife in his bosom ; 
 one who, though no kith or kin of his would be 
 benefited by the operations of the system, and 
 though he should share its burdens, would only 
 partake with every citizen in its blessings; one 
 who voted for the original law although intro- 
 duced by his political opponents, and who had 
 defended and gloried in his vote before an angry .
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 197 
 
 and unwilling constituency : this man, then in the 
 beginning of his public career, threw himself into 
 the conflict, and by his earnest and brave elo- 
 quence saved the law, and gave a noble system 
 of common schools to Pennsylvania. 
 
 I doubt if at this hour, after the thirty years 
 crowded full of successful labors at the bar, before 
 the people, and in halls of legislation, the venera- 
 ble and distinguished member [Mr. Stevens], who 
 now represents a portion of the same State in this 
 House, can recall any speech of his life with half 
 the pleasure he does that, for no measure with 
 which his name has been connected is so fraught 
 with blessings to hundreds of thousands of chil- 
 dren, and to homes innumerable. 
 
 I hold in my hand a copy of his brave speech, 
 and I ask the clerk to read the passages I have 
 marked. 
 
 " I am comparatively a stranger among you, born in an- 
 other, in a distant State : no parent or kindred of mine did, 
 does, or probably ever will, dwell within your borders. I 
 have none of those strong cords to bind me to your honor 
 and your interest ; yet, if there is any one thing on earth 
 which I ardently desire above all others, it is to see Penn- 
 sylvania standing up in her intellectual, as she confessedly 
 does in her physical resources, high above all her confed-
 
 198 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 erate rivals. How shameful, then, would it be for these her 
 native sons to feel less so, when the dust of their ancestors 
 is mingled with her soil, their friends and relatives enjoy 
 her present prosperity, and their descendants, for long ages 
 to come, will partake of her happiness or misery, her glory 
 or her infamy ! 
 
 " In giving this law to posterity, you act the part of the 
 philanthropist by bestowing upon the poor, as well as the 
 rich, the greatest earthly boon which they are capable of 
 receiving ; you act the part of the philosopher bv pointing, 
 if you do not lead them, up the hill of science ; ;you act the 
 part of the hero, if it be true, as you say, that popular 
 vengeance follows close upon your footsteps. Here, then, if 
 you wish true popularity, is a theatre on which you may 
 acquire it. 
 
 " Let all, therefore, who would sustain the character of the 
 philosopher or philanthropist, sustain this law. Those who 
 would add thereto the glory of the hero can acquire it here ; 
 for, in the present state of feeling in Pennsylvania, I am 
 willing to admit that but little less dangerous to the public 
 man is the war-club and battle-axe of savage ignorance than 
 to the lion-hearted Richard was the keen cimeter of the 
 Saracen. He who would oppose it, either through inability 
 to comprehend the advantages of general education, or from 
 unwillingness to bestow them on all his fellow-citizens, even 
 to the lowest and the poorest, or from dread of popular 
 vengeance, seems to me to want either the head of the 
 philosopher, the heart of the philanthropist, or the nerve of 
 the hero."
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 199 
 
 He has lived long enough to see this law, which 
 he helped to found in 1834, and more than any 
 other man was instrumental in saving from repeal 
 in 1835, expanded and consolidated into a noble 
 system of public instruction. 12,000 schools have 
 been built by the voluntary taxation of the people, 
 to the amount, for schoolhouses alone, of nearly 
 $10,000,000. Many millions of children have been 
 educated in these schools. More than 700,000 
 attended the public schools of Pennsylvania in 
 1864-65 ; and their annual cost provided by vol- 
 untary taxation, in the year 1864, was nearly 
 .$3,000,000, giving employment to 16,000 teach- 
 ers. 
 
 It is glory enough for one man to have con- 
 nected his name so honorably with the original 
 establishment and effective defence of such a 
 system. 
 
 But it is said that the thirst for knowledge 
 among the young, and the pride and ambition of 
 parents for their children, are agencies powerful 
 enough to establish and maintain thorough and 
 comprehensive systems of education. 
 
 This suggestion is answered by the unanimous 
 voice of publicists and political economists. They 
 all admit that the doctrine of " demand and sup-
 
 200 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ply " does not apply to educational wants. Even 
 the most extreme advocates of the principle of 
 laissez-faire as a sound maxim of political philos- 
 ophy admit that governments must interfere in 
 aid of education. We must not wait for the wants 
 of the rising generation to "be expressed in a 
 demand for means of education. We must our- 
 selves discover or supply their needs, before the 
 time for supplying them has forever passed. 
 
 In his " Political Economy," l John Stuart Mill 
 says, 
 
 " But there are other things, of the worth of which the 
 demand of the market is by no means a test; things of 
 which the utility does not consist in ministering to inclina- 
 tions, nor in serving the daily uses of life, and the want of 
 which is least felt where the need is greatest. This is pecul- 
 iarly true of those things which are chiefly useful as tend- 
 ing to raise the character of human beings. The uncul- 
 tivated cannot be competent judges of cultivation. 
 
 " Those who most need to be made wiser and better usu- 
 ally desire it least, and, if they desired it, would be incapable 
 of finding the way to it by their own lights. It will con- 
 tinually happen, on the voluntary system, that, the end not 
 being desired, the means will not be provided at all, or that, 
 the persons requiring improvement having an imperfect or 
 iiltogether erroneous conception of what they want, the supply 
 
 1 Vol. ii., pp. 528, 529; American ed., pp. 573-575.
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 201 
 
 called forth by the demand of the market will be any thing 
 but what is really required. Now, any well-intentioned and 
 tolerably civilized government may think, without presump- 
 tion, that it does, or ought to, possess a degree of cultivation 
 above the average of the community which it rules, and 
 that it should therefore be capable of offering better educa- 
 tion and better instruction to the people, than the greater 
 number of them would spontaneously demand. 
 
 " Education, therefore, is one of those things which it is 
 admissible in principle that the government should provide 
 for the people. The case is one to which the reasons of the 
 non-interference principle do not necessarily or universally 
 extend. 
 
 " With regard to elementary education, the exception to 
 ordinary rules may, I conceive, justifiably be carried still 
 further. There are certain primary elements and means of 
 knowledge which it is in the highest degree desirable that 
 all human beings born into the community should acquire 
 during childhood. If their parents, or those on whom they 
 depend, have the power of obtaining for them this instruc- 
 tion, and fail to do it, they commit a double breach of duty, 
 toward the children themselves, arid toward the members 
 of the community generally, who are all liable to suffer 
 seriously from the consequences of ignorance and want of 
 education in their fellow-citizens. It is therefore an allow- 
 able exercise of the powers of a government to impose on 
 parents the legal obligation of giving elementary instruction 
 to children. This, however, cannot fairly be done without 
 taking measures to insure that such instruction shall be 
 always accessible to them, either gratuitously or at a trifling 
 expense."
 
 202 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 This is the testimony of economic science. I 
 trust the statesmen of this Congress will not think 
 the subject of education too humble a theme for 
 their most serious consideration. It has engaged 
 the earnest attention of the best men of ancient 
 and modern times, especially of modern statesmen 
 and philanthropists. 
 
 I will fortify myself in the positions I have taken 
 by quoting the authority of a few men who are 
 justly regarded as teachers of the human race. If 
 I keep in their company, I cannot wander far from 
 the truth. I cannot greatly err while I am guided 
 by their counsel. 
 
 In his eloquent essay entitled " Way to establish 
 a Free Commonwealth," John Milton said, 
 
 " To make the people fittest to choose, and the chosen 
 fittest to govern, will be to mend our corrupt and faulty 
 education, to teach the people faith, not without virtue, 
 temperance, modesty, sobriety, economy, justice ; not to ad- 
 mire wealth or honor ; to hate turbulence and ambition ; to 
 place every one his private welfare and happiness in the 
 public peace, liberty, and safety." 
 
 England's most venerable living statesman, 
 Lord Brougham, enforced the same truth in these 
 noble words :
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 203 
 
 " Lawgivers of England, I charge ye, have a care 1 Be 
 well assured that the contempt lavished upon the cabals of 
 Constantinople, when the council disputed on a text while 
 the enemy, the derider of all their texts, was thundering at 
 the gate, will be a token of respect compared with the loud 
 shout of universal scorn which all mankind in all ages will 
 send up against you if you stand still and suffer a far dead- 
 lier foe than the Turcoman suffer the parent of all evil, 
 all falsehood, all hypocrisy, all discharity, all self-seeking, 
 him who covers over with pretexts of conscience the pitfalls 
 that he digs for the souls on which he preys to stalk about 
 the fold, and lay waste its inmates : stand still, and make no 
 head against him, upon the vain pretext, to soothe your 
 indolence, that your action is obstructed by religious cabals, 
 upon the far more guilty speculation, that by playing a party 
 game you can turn the hatred of conflicting professors to 
 your selfish purposes ! 
 
 " Let the soldier be abroad if he will : he can do nothing 
 in this age. There is another personage abroad, a person 
 less imposing, in the eye of some, insignificant. The 
 schoolmaster is abroad ; and I trust to him, armed with his 
 primer, against the soldier in full uniform array." 
 
 Lord Brougham gloried in the title of School- 
 master, and contrasted his work with that of the 
 military conqueror in these words : 
 
 " The conqueror stalks onward with ' the pride, pomp, and 
 circumstance of war,' banners flying, shouts rending the air, 
 guns thundering, and martial music pealing, to drown the
 
 204 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 shrieks of the wounded and the lamentations for the slain. 
 Not thus the schoolmaster in his peaceful vocation. He 
 meditates and prepares in secret the plans which are to bless 
 mankind; he slowly gathers around him those who are to 
 further their execution ; he quietly, though firmly, advances 
 in his humble path, laboring steadily, but calmly, till he has 
 opened to the light all the recesses of ignorance, and torn up 
 by the roots the weeds of vice. His is a progress not to be 
 compared with any thing like a march ; but it leads to a far 
 more brilliant triumph, and to laurels more imperishable 
 than the destroyer of his species, the scourge of the world, 
 ever won." 
 
 The learned and brilliant Guizot, who regarded 
 his work in the office of Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tution, in the government of France, the noblest 
 and most valuable work of his life, has left us this 
 valuable testimony : 
 
 " Universal education is henceforth one of the guaranties 
 of liberty and social stability. As every principle of our 
 government is founded on justice and reason, to diffuse edu- 
 cation among the people, to develop their understandings 
 and enlighten their minds, is to strengthen their constitu- 
 tional government, and secure its stability." 
 
 In his Farewell Address, Washington wrote these 
 words of wise counsel : 
 
 "Promote, as an object of primary importance, institu- 
 tions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion
 
 THE NATIONAL BUEEAU OF EDUCATION. 205 
 
 as the structure of a government gives force to public opin- 
 ion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlight- 
 ened." 
 
 In his Inaugural Address, when first taking the 
 Presidential chair, the elder Adams said, 
 
 " The wisdom and generosity of the legislature in making 
 liberal appropriations in money for the benefit of schools, 
 academies, and colleges, is an equal honor to them and to 
 their constituents, a proof of their veneration for letters and 
 science, and a portent of great and lasting good to North 
 and South America and to the world. Great is truth 
 great is liberty great is humanity and they must and 
 will prevail." 
 
 Chancellor Kent used this decided language : 
 
 " The parent who sends his son into the world uneducated, 
 defrauds the community of a lawful citizen, and bequeaths 
 to it a nuisance." 
 
 I shall conclude the citation of opinions with 
 the stirring words of Edward Everett : 
 
 " I know not to what we can better liken the strong ap- 
 petence of the mind for improvement than to a hunger and 
 thirst after knowledge and truth, nor how we can better 
 describe the province of education than to say, it does that 
 for the intellect which is done for the body, when it re- 
 ceives the care and nourishment which are necessary for its 
 growth, health, and strength.
 
 206 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 " From this comparison I think I derive new views of the 
 importance of education. It is now a solemn duty, a tender, 
 sacred trust. 
 
 " What 1 feed a child's body, and let his soul hunger I 
 pamper his limbs, and starve his faculties ! 
 
 " Plant the earth, cover a thousand hills with your droves 
 of cattle, pursue the fish to their hiding-places in the sea, 
 and spread out your wheat-fields across the plains, in order 
 to supply the wants of that body which will soon be as 
 cold and senseless as their poorest clod, and let the pure 
 spiritual essence within you, with all its glorious capacities 
 for improvement, languish and pine ! What ! build facto- 
 ries, turn in rivers upon the water-wheels, unchain the im- 
 prisoned spirits of steam, to weave a garment for the body, 
 and let the soul remain unadorned and naked ! 
 
 " What ! send out your vessels to the farthest ocean, and 
 make battle with the monsters of the deep, in order to obtain 
 the means of lighting up your dwellings and workshops, and 
 prolonging the hours of labor for the meat that perisheth, 
 and permit that vital spark which God has kindled, which 
 he has intrusted to our care, to be fanned into a bright and 
 heavenly flame, permit it, I say, to languish and go out ! " 
 
 It is remarkable that so many good things have 
 been said, and so few things done, by our national 
 statesmen, in favor of education. If we inquire 
 what has been done by the governments of other 
 countries to support and advance public educa- 
 tion, we are compelled to confess with shame that
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 207 
 
 every government in Christendom has given a 
 more intelligent and effective support to schools 
 than has our own. 
 
 The free cities of Germany organized the ear- 
 liest school systems after the separation of Church 
 and State. The present schools of Hamburg have 
 existed more than one thousand years. The earli- 
 est school-codes were framed in the Duchy of 
 Wurtemburg in 1565, and in the Electorate of 
 Saxony in 1580. Under these codes were estab- 
 lished systems of schools, more perfect, it is 
 claimed, than the school system of any State of 
 the American Union. 
 
 Their systems embraced the gymnasium and 
 the university, and were designed, as their laws 
 expressed it, "to carry youth from the elements 
 to the degree of culture demanded for offices in 
 Church and State." 
 
 The educational institutions of Prussia are too 
 well known to need a comment. It is a sufficient 
 index of their progress and high character, that 
 a late Prussian school-officer said of his official 
 duties, 
 
 " I promised God that I would look upon every Prussian 
 peasant child as a being who could complain of me before 
 Cod if T did not provide for him the best education as a
 
 208 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 man and a Christian which it was possible for me to 
 provide." 
 
 France did not think herself dishonored by 
 learning from a nation which she had lately con- 
 quered; and when, in 1831, she began to provide 
 more fully for the education of her people, she 
 sent the philosopher Cousin to Holland and 
 Prussia to study and report upon the schools 
 of those states. Guizot was made minister of 
 public instruction, and held the office from 1832 
 to 1837. In 1833 the report of Cousin was pub- 
 lished, and the educational system of France was 
 established on the Prussian model. 
 
 No portion of his brilliant career reflects more 
 honor upon Guizot than his five-years' work for 
 the schools of France. The fruits of his labors 
 were not lost in the revolutions that followed. 
 The present emperor is giving his best efforts to 
 the perfection and maintenance of schools, and is 
 endeavoring to make the profession of the teacher 
 more honorable and desirable than it has been 
 hitherto. 
 
 Through the courtesy of the Secretary of State, 
 I have obtained a copy of the last annual report 
 of the Minister of Public Instruction in France,
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 209 
 
 which exhibits the present state of education in 
 that empire. 
 
 At the last enumeration there were in France, 
 in the colleges and lyceums, 65,832 pupils ; in the 
 secondary schools, 200,000 ; and in the primary or 
 common schools, 4,720,234. 
 
 Besides the large amount raised by local taxa- 
 tion, the imperial government appropriated, during 
 the year 1865, 2,349,051 francs for the support of 
 primary schools. 
 
 Teaching is one of the regular professions in 
 France ; and the government offers prizes, and 
 bestows honors upon the successful instructor of 
 children. During the year 1865, 1,154 prizes were 
 distributed to teachers in primary schools. 
 
 An order of honor, and a medal worth 250 
 francs, are awarded to the best teacher in each 
 commune. 
 
 After long and faithful service in his profession, 
 the teacher is retired on half-pay, and, if broken 
 down in health, is pensioned for life. In 1865, 
 there were 4,245 teachers on the pension-list of 
 France. The minister says in his report : " The 
 statesmen of France have determined to show that 
 the country knows how to honor those who serve 
 her, even in obscurity."
 
 210 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Since 1862, 10,243 libraries for the use of common 
 schools have been established ; and they now con- 
 tain 1,117,352 volumes, more than a third of which 
 have been furnished by the imperial government. 
 Half a million text-books are furnished for the use 
 of children who are too poor to buy them. It is 
 the policy of France to afford the means of educa- 
 tion to every child in the empire. 
 
 When we compare the conduct of other govern- 
 ments with our own, we cannot accuse ourselves 
 so much of illiberality as of reckless folly in the 
 application of our liberality to the support of 
 schools. No government has expended so much 
 to so little purpose. To fourteen States alone 
 we have given for the support of schools 83,000 
 square miles of land, or an amount of territory 
 nearly equal to two such States as Ohio. But 
 how has this bountiful appropriation been applied? 
 This chapter in our history has never been writ- 
 ten. No member of this House or the Senate, no 
 executive officer of the government, now knows, 
 and no man ever did know, what disposition has 
 been made of this immense bounty. This bill 
 requires the Commissioner of Education to report 
 to Congress what lands have been given to schools, 
 and how the proceeds have been applied. If we
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 211 
 
 are not willing to follow the example of our 
 fathers in giving, let us, at least, have the evi- 
 dence of the beneficial results of their liberality. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have thus hurriedly and im- 
 perfectly exhibited the magnitude of the interests 
 involved in the education of American youth ; the 
 peculiar condition of affairs which demand at this 
 time an increase of our educational forces ; the 
 failure of a majority of the States to establish 
 school systems, the long struggles through which 
 others have passed in achieving success ; and the 
 humiliating contrast between the action of our 
 government and those of other nations in refer- 
 ence to education : but I cannot close without 
 referring to the bearing of this measure upon the 
 peculiar work of this Congress. 
 
 When the history of the Thirty-ninth Congress 
 is written, it will be recorded that two great ideas 
 inspired it, and made their impress upon all its 
 efforts ; viz., to build up free States on the ruins 
 of slavery, and to extend to every inhabitant of 
 the United States the rights and privileges of citi- 
 zenship. 
 
 Before the Divine Architect builded order out 
 of chaos, he said, " Let there be light." Shall we 
 commit the fatal mistake of building up free States
 
 212 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 without first expelling the darkness in which slave- 
 ry had shrouded their people ? Shall we enlarge 
 the boundaries of citizenship, and make no provis- 
 ion to increase the intelligence of the citizen? 
 
 I share most fully in the aspirations of this 
 Congress, and give my most cordial support to 
 its policy ; but I believe its work will prove a 
 disastrous failure unless it makes the schoolmaster 
 its ally, and aids him in preparing the children of 
 the United States to perfect the work now begun. 
 
 The stork is a sacred bird in Holland, and is 
 protected by her laws, because it destroys those 
 insects which would undermine the dikes, and let 
 the sea again overwhelm the rich fields of the 
 Netherlands. Shall this government do nothing 
 to foster and strengthen those educational agencies 
 which alone can shield the coming generations 
 from ignorance and vice, and make it the impreg- 
 nable bulwark of liberty and law ? 
 
 I know that this is not a measure which is likely 
 to attract the attention of those whose chief work 
 is to watch the political movements that affect the 
 results of nominating conventions and elections. 
 The mere politician will see in it nothing valuable, 
 for the millions of children to be benefited by it 
 can give him no votes. But I appeal to those
 
 THE NATIONAL BUREAU OP EDUCATION. 213 
 
 who care more for the future safety and glory of 
 this nation than for any mere temporary advan- 
 tage, to aid in giving to education the public 
 recognition and active support of the Federal 
 Government.
 
 n. 
 
 Natumal Sto to lEtwcatum. 
 
 SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 FEB. 6, 1872.
 
 n. 
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 1 
 
 " The preservation of the means of knowledge among the 
 lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the 
 property of all the rich men in the country." JOHN ADAMS'S 
 WORKS, Vol. III., p. 457. 
 
 " That all education should be in the hands of a centralized 
 authority, . . . and be consequently all framed on the same 
 model, and directed to the perpetuation of the same type, is a 
 state of things, which, instead of becoming more acceptable, will 
 assuredly be more repugnant to mankind, with every step of 
 their progress, in the unfettered exercise of their highest facul- 
 ties." " The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte," p. 92: JOHN 
 STUART MILL. 
 
 "A /TR. SPEAKER, In the few minutes given 
 -^ -*- me, I shall address myself to two questions. 
 The first is : What do we propose by this bill to 
 give to the cause of education ? and the second is : 
 How do we propose to give it ? Is the gift itself 
 wise ? and is the mode in which we propose to give 
 
 1 The House had under consideration House Bill No. 1,043, 
 " To establish an Educational Fund, and to apply the Proceeds 
 of the Public Lands to the Education of the People." 
 
 217
 
 218 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 it wise ? This arrangement will include all I have 
 to say. 
 
 And, first, we propose, without any change in 
 the present land policy, to give the net proceeds 
 of the public lands to the cause of education. 
 During the last fifteen years these proceeds have 
 amounted to a little more than thirty-three million 
 dollars, or one per cent of the entire revenues of 
 the United States for that period. The gift is 
 not great ; but yet, in one view of the case, it is 
 princely. To dedicate for the future a fund 
 which is now one per cent of the revenues of the 
 United States, to the cause of education, is, to 
 my mind, a great thought, and I am glad to give 
 it my indorsement. It seems to me, that, in this 
 act of giving, we almost copy its prototype in 
 what God himself has done on this great conti- 
 nent of ours. In the centre of its greatest 
 breadth, where otherwise there might be a desert 
 forever, he has planted a chain of the greatest 
 lakes on the earth; and the exhalations arising 
 from their pure waters every day come down in 
 gracious showers, and make that a blooming 
 garden which otherwise might be a desert waste. 
 It is proposed that the proceeds arising from the 
 sale of our great wilderness lands, like the dew,
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 219 
 
 shall fall forever, not upon the lands but upon 
 the minds of the children of the nation, giving 
 them, for all time to come, all the blessing and 
 growth and greatness that education can afford. 
 That thought, I say it again, is a great one, 
 worthy of a great nation ; and this country will 
 remember the man who formulated it into lan- 
 guage, and will remember the Congress that made 
 it law. 
 
 The other point is one of even greater practical 
 value and significance just now than this that I 
 have referred to. It is this: How is this great 
 gift to be distributed? We propose to give it, 
 Mr. Speaker, through our American system of 
 education ; and, in giving it, we do not propose 
 to mar in the least degree the harmony and 
 beauty of that system. If we did, I should be 
 compelled to give my voice and vote against the 
 measure; and here and now, when we are in- 
 augurating this policy, I desire to state for myself, 
 and, as I believe, for many who sit around me, 
 that we do here solemnly protest that this gift is 
 not to destroy or disturb, but it is rather to be 
 used through and as a part of, and to be wholly 
 subordinated to, what I venture to call our great 
 American system of education. On this question
 
 220 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 I have been compelled heretofore to differ with 
 many friends of education, here and elsewhere, 
 many who have thought it might be wise for Con- 
 gress, in certain contingencies, to take charge of 
 the system of education in the States. I will not 
 now discuss the constitutional aspe'cts of that 
 question ; but I desire to say that all the philoso- 
 phy of our educational system forbids that we 
 should take such a course. And, in the few mo- 
 ments awarded to me, I wish to make an appeal 
 for our system as a whole as against any other 
 known to me. We look sometimes with great ad- 
 miration at a government like Germany, that can 
 command the light of its education to shine every- 
 where, that can enforce its school-laws everywhere 
 throughout the empire. Under our system we do 
 not rejoice in that, but we rather rejoice that here 
 two forces play with all their vast power upon 
 our system of education. The first is that of the 
 local, municipal power under our State govern- 
 ments. There is the centre of responsibility. 
 There is the chief educational power. There can 
 be enforced Luther's great thought of placing on 
 magistrates the duty of educating children. 
 
 Luther was the first to perceive that Christian 
 schools were an absolute necessity. In a celebrat-
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 221 
 
 ed paper addressed to the municipal councillors 
 of the empire in 1524, he demanded the establish- 
 ment of schools in all the villages of Germany. 
 To tolerate ignorance was, in the energetic lan- 
 guage of the reformer, to make common cause 
 with the Devil. The father of a family who 
 abandoned his children to ignorance was a con- 
 summate rascal. Addressing the German authori- 
 ties, he said, 
 
 " Magistrates, remember that God formally commands 
 you to instruct children. This divine commandment par- 
 ents have transgressed by indolence, by lack of intelligence, 
 and because of overwork. 
 
 " The duty devolves upon you, magistrates, to call fathers 
 to their duty, and to prevent the return of these evils which 
 we suffer to-day. Give attention to your children. Many 
 parents are like ostriches, content to have laid an egg, but 
 caring for it no longer. 
 
 " Now, that which constitutes the prosperity of a city is 
 not its treasures, its strong walls, its beautiful mansions, 
 and its brilliant decorations. The real wealth of a city, its 
 safety and its force, is an abundance of citizens, instructed, 
 honest, and cultivated. If in our days we rarely meet such 
 citizens, whose fault is it, if not yours, magistrates, who 
 have allowed our youth to grow up like neglected shrub- 
 bery in the forest? 
 
 " Ignorance is more dangerous for a people than the 
 armies of an enemy."
 
 222 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 After quoting this passage from Luther, La- 
 boulaye, in his eloquent essay entitled " L'Etat 
 et ses Limites," l 
 
 " This familiar and true eloquence was not lost. There 
 is not a Protestant country which has not placed in the 
 front rank of its duties the establishment and maintenance 
 of popular schools." 
 
 The duties enjoined in these great utterances 
 of Luther are recognized to the fullest extent by 
 the American system. But they are recognized 
 as belonging to the authorities of the State, the 
 county, the township, the local communities. 
 There these obligations may be urged with all 
 the strength of their high sanctions. There may 
 be brought to bear all the patriotism, all the mo- 
 rality, all the philanthropy, all the philosophy, of 
 our people ; and there it is brought to bear in its 
 noblest and best forms. 
 
 But there is another force, even greater than 
 that of the State and the local governments. It 
 is the force of private voluntary enterprise, that 
 force which has- built up the multitude of private 
 schools,, academies, and colleges throughout the 
 United States, not always wisely, but always 
 
 i Pp. 204, 205.
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 223 
 
 with enthusiasm and wonderful energy. I say, 
 therefore, that our local self-government, joined 
 to and co-operating with private enterprise, has 
 made the American system of education what 
 it is. 
 
 In further illustration of its merits, I beg leave 
 to allude to a few facts of great significance. 
 The governments of Europe are now beginning 
 to see that our system is better and more effi- 
 cient than theirs. The public mind of England 
 is now, and has been for several years, profoundly 
 moved on the subject of education. Several 
 commissioners have lately been sent by the Brit- 
 ish Government -to examine the school systems 
 of other countries, and lay before Parliament 
 the results of their investigations, so as to enable 
 that body to profit by the experience of other 
 nations. 
 
 Rev. J. Frazier, one of the assistant commis- 
 sioners appointed for this purpose, visited this 
 country in 1865, and in the following year made 
 his report to Parliament. While he found much 
 to criticise in our system of education, he did 
 not withhold his expressions of astonishment at 
 the important part which private enterprise 
 played in our system. In concluding his report,
 
 224 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION". 
 
 he speaks of the United States as "a nation of 
 which it is no flattery or exaggeration to say, that 
 it is, if not the most highly, yet certainly the 
 most generally, educated and intelligent people 
 on the globe." 
 
 But a more valuable report was delivered to 
 Parliament in 1868, by Matthew Arnold, one of 
 the most cultivated and profound thinkers of 
 England. He was sent by Parliament to examine 
 the schools and universities of the Continent ; 
 and after visiting all the leading states of 
 Europe, and making himself thoroughly familiar 
 with their system of education, he delivered a 
 most searching and able report. In the conclud- 
 ing chapter, he discusses the wants of England 
 on the subject of education. No one who reads 
 that chapter can fail to admire the boldness and 
 power with which he points out the chief ob- 
 stacles to popular education in England. He 
 exhibits the significant fact, that, while during 
 the last half-century there has been a general 
 transformation in the civil organization of Euro- 
 pean governments, England, with all her liberty 
 and progress, is shackled with what he calls a 
 civil organization, which is, from the top to the 
 bottom of it, not modern. He says,
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 225 
 
 " Transform she must, unless she means to come at last 
 to the same sentence as the church of Sardis : ' Thou hast 
 a name that thou livest, and art dead.' 
 
 " However, on no part of this immense task of transfor- 
 mation have I now to touch, except on that part which 
 relates to education; but this part, no doubt, is the most 
 important of all, and it is the part whose happy accomplish- 
 ment may render that of all the rest, instead of being 
 troubled and difficult, gradual and easy. . . . 
 
 "Obligatory instruction is talked of. But what is the 
 capital difficulty in the way of obligatory instruction, or, 
 indeed, any national system of instruction, in this country ? 
 It is this : that, the moment the working-class of this coun- 
 try have this question of instruction really brought home to 
 them, their self-respect will make them demand, like the 
 working-classes on the Continent, public schools, and not 
 schools which the clergyman or the squire or the mill-owner 
 calls ' my school ! ' And what is the capital difficulty in the 
 way of giving them public schools? It is this: that the 
 public school for the people must rest upon the municipal 
 organization of the country. In France, Germany, Italy, 
 Switzerland, the public elementary school has, and exists 
 by having, the commune, and the municipal government of 
 the commune, as its foundations ; and it could not exist with- 
 out them. But we, in England, have our municipal organ- 
 ization still to get : the country districts with us have at 
 present only the feudal and ecclesiastical organization of the 
 Middle Ages, or of France before the Revolution. . . . 
 
 " The real preliminary to an effective system of popular 
 education is, in fact, to provide the country with an effective
 
 226 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 municipal organization ; and here, then, is, at the outset, an 
 illustration of what I said, that modern societies need a 
 civil organization which is modern." 
 
 In the early part of 1870 a report was made to 
 the Minister of Public Instruction by Mr. C. 
 Hippeau, a man of great learning, and who, in the 
 previous year, had been ordered by the French 
 Government to visit the United States, and make 
 a careful study of our system of public education. 
 In summing up his conclusions at the end of his 
 report, he expresses opinions which are remark- 
 able for their boldness, when we remember the 
 character of the French government at that time ; 
 and his recommendations have a most significant 
 application to the principle under consideration. 
 I translate his concluding paragraphs : 
 
 " What impresses me most strongly as the result of this 
 study of public instruction in the United States is the ad- 
 mirable power of private enterprise in a country where the 
 citizens early adopted the habit of foreseeing their own 
 wants for themselves ; of meeting together and acting in 
 concert ; of combining their means of action ; of determin- 
 ing the amount of pecuniary contribution which they will 
 impose upon themselves, and of regulating its use; and, 
 finally, of choosing administrators who shall render them au 
 account of the resources placed at their disposal, and of the 
 use which they may make of their authority.
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 227 
 
 " The marvellous progress made in the United States 
 during the last twenty years would have been impossible 
 if the national life, instead of being manifested on all points 
 of the surface, had been concentrated in a capital, under the 
 pressure of a strongly organized administration, which, hold- 
 ing the people under constant tutelage, wholly relieved them 
 from the care of thinking and acting by themselves and for 
 themselves. Will France enter upon that path of decen- 
 tralization, which will infallibly result in giving a scope 
 now unknown to all her vital forces and to the admirable 
 resources which she possesses? In what especially con- 
 cerns public instruction, shall we see her multiplying, as 
 in America, those free associations, those generous dona- 
 tions, which will enable us to place public instruction on 
 the broadest foundation, and to revive in our provinces 
 the old universities that will become more flourishing 
 as the citizens shall interest themselves directly in their 
 progress ? 
 
 "To accomplish this, it will also be necessary that 
 governments, appreciating the wants of their epoch, shall 
 with good grace relinquish a part of the duties now imposed 
 upon them, and aid the people in supporting the rigid 
 regime of liberty, by enlarging the powers of the muni- 
 cipal councils and of the councils of the departments, by 
 favoring associations and public meetings, by opening the 
 freest field to the examination and discussion of national 
 interests; in short, by deserving the eulogy addressed 
 by a man of genius to a great minister of France : ' Mon- 
 seigneur, you have labored ten years to make yourself 
 useless.'"
 
 228 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 I have made these citations to show how strong- 
 ly the public thought of Europe is moving toward 
 our system of public education, as better and 
 freer than theirs. I do not now discuss the 
 broader political question of State and municipal 
 government as contrasted with centralized govern- 
 ment. I am considering what is the best system 
 of organizing the educational work of a nation, 
 not from the political standpoint alone, but from 
 the standpoint of the schoolhouse itself. This 
 work of public education partakes in a peculiar 
 way of the spirit of the human mind in its efforts 
 for culture. The mind must be as free from 
 extraneous control as possible, must work under 
 the inspiration of its own desires for knowledge ; 
 and, while instructors and books are necessary 
 helps, the fullest and highest success must spring 
 from the power of self-help. 
 
 So the best system of education is that which 
 draws its chief support from the voluntary effort 
 of the community, from the individual efforts of 
 citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which 
 they voluntarily impose upon themselves. The 
 assistance proposed in this bill is to be given 
 through the channels of this, our American sys- 
 tem. The amount proposed is large enough to
 
 NATIONAL AID TO EDUCATION. 229 
 
 stimulate to greater effort and to general emula- 
 tion the different States and the local school au- 
 thorities, but not large enough to carry the system 
 on, and to weaken all these forces by making the 
 friends of education feel that the work is done for 
 them without their own effort. Government shall 
 be only a help to them, rather than a commander, 
 in the work of education. 
 
 In conclusion, I say, that, in the pending bill, 
 we disclaim any control over the educational sys- 
 tem of the States. We only require reports of 
 what they do with our bounty ; and those reports, 
 brought here and published for the information 
 of the people, will spread abroad the light, and 
 awaken the enthusiasm and emulation of our peo- 
 ple. This policy is in harmony with the act of 
 1867 creating the Bureau of Education, and whose 
 fruits have already been so abundant in good re- 
 sults. I hope that the House will set its seal 
 of approval on our American system of educa- 
 tion, and will adopt this mode of advancing and 
 strengthening it.
 
 HI. 
 
 Suffrage anto 
 
 EXTRACT FROM "THE FUTURE OF THE REPUBLIC: ITS 
 
 DANGERS AND HOPES." AN ADDRESS DELIVERED 
 
 BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF 
 
 WESTERN RESERVE COLLEGE, 
 
 HUDSON, O., JULY 2, 1873.
 
 m. 
 
 SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 
 
 A FTER all, territory is but the body of a 
 *-* nation. The people who inhabit its hills 
 and its valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life. In 
 them dwells its hope of immortality. Among 
 them, if anywhere, are to be found its chief 
 elements of destruction. And this leads me to 
 consider an alleged danger to our institutions, 
 which, if well founded, would be radical and 
 fatal. I refer to the allegation that universal 
 suffrage as the supreme source of political au- 
 thority is a fatal mistake. When I hear this 
 proposition urged, I feel, as most Americans 
 doubtless do, that it is a kind of moral treason to 
 listen to it, and that to entertain it would be po- 
 litical atheism. That the consent of the governed 
 is the only true source of national authority, and is 
 the safest and firmest foundation on which to build 
 a government, is the most fundamental axiom of 
 our political faith. But we must not forget that 
 
 233
 
 234 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 a majority perhaps a large majority of the 
 thinkers, writers, and statesmen of Christendom 
 declare that our axiom is no axiom ; indeed, is 
 not true, but is a delusion and a snare, a fatal 
 heresy. 
 
 At the risk of offending our American pride, I 
 shall quote a few paragraphs from what is prob- 
 ably the most formidable indictment ever penned 
 against the democratic principle. It was written 
 by the late Lord Macaulay, a profound student of 
 society and government, and a man who on most 
 subjects entertained broad and liberal views. 
 Millions of Americans have read and admired his 
 History and Essays ; but only a few thousands 
 have read his brief but remarkable letter of 1857, 
 in which he discusses the future of our govern- 
 ment. We are so confident of our position, that 
 we seldom care to debate it. 
 
 The letter was addressed to the Hon. H. S. 
 Randall of New York, acknowledging the receipt 
 of a copy of that gentleman's " Life of Jefferson." 
 I quote a few paragraphs : 
 
 " LONDON, May 23, 1857. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, You are surprised to learn that I have not 
 a high opinion of Mr. Jefferson, and I am surprised at your 
 surprise. I am certain that I never wrote a line, and that I
 
 SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 235 
 
 never in parliament, in conversation, or even on the hustings, 
 a place where it is the fashion to court the populace, 
 uttered a word indicating the opinion that the supreme 
 authority in a state ought to be intrusted to the majority of 
 citizens told by the head ; in other words, to the poorest and 
 most ignorant pail of society. I have long been convinced 
 that institutions purely democratic must, sooner or later, 
 destroy liberty or civilization, or both. 
 
 " In Europe, where the population is dense, the effect of 
 such institutions would be almost instantaneous. What 
 happened lately in France is an example. In 1848 a pure 
 democracy was established there. During a short time there 
 was a strong reason to expect a general spoliation, a national 
 bankruptcy, a new partition of the soil, a maximum of 
 prices, a ruinous load of taxation laid on the rich for the 
 purpose of supporting the poor in idleness. Such a system 
 would, in twenty years, have made France as poor and as 
 barbarous as the France of the Carlovingians. Happily the 
 danger was averted ; and now there is a despotism, a silent 
 tribune, an enslaved press, liberty is gone, but civilization 
 has been saved. I have not the smallest doubt, that if we 
 had a purely democratic government here the effect would 
 be the same. Either the poor would plunder the rich, and 
 civilization would perish, or order and property would be 
 saved by a strong military government, and liberty would 
 perish. You may think that your country enjoys an exemp- 
 tion from these evils. I will frankly own to you that I am 
 of a very different opinion. Your fate I believe to be certain, 
 though it is deferred by a physical cause. As long as you 
 have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your
 
 236 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 laboring population will be far more at ease than the labor- 
 ing population of the Old World ; and while that is the case 
 the Jeffersonian policy may continue to exist without caus- 
 ing any fatal calamity. But the time will come when New 
 England will be as thickly peopled as Old England. Wages 
 will be as low, and will fluctuate as much, with you as with 
 us. You will have your Manchesters and Birminghams. 
 Hundreds and thousands of artisans will assuredly be some- 
 tunes out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly 
 brought to the test. Distress everywhere makes the laborer 
 mutinous and discontented, and inclines him to listen with 
 eagerness to agitators, who tell him that it is a monstrous 
 iniquity that one man should have a million while another 
 cannot get a full meal. In bad years there is plenty of 
 grumbling here, and sometimes a little rioting. But it mat- 
 ters little, for here the sufferers are not the rulers. The 
 supreme power is in the hands of a class, numerous indeed, 
 but select, of an educated class, of a class which is, and 
 knows itself to be, deeply interested in the security of 
 property and the maintenance of order. Accordingly the 
 malcontents are firmly yet gently restrained. The bad 
 time is got over without robbing the wealthy to relieve the 
 indigent. The springs of national prosperity soon begin 
 to flow again; work is plentiful; wages rise, and all is 
 tranquillity and cheerfulness. I have seen England three 
 or four times pass through such critical seasons as I have 
 described. Through such seasons the United States will 
 have to pass, in the course of the next century, if not of 
 this. How will you pass through them? I heartily wish 
 you a good deliverance. But my reason and my wishes are
 
 SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 237 
 
 at war, and I cannot help foreboding the worst. It is quite 
 plain that your government will never be able to restrain a 
 distressed and discontented majority. For with you the 
 majority is the government, and has the rich, who are always 
 a minority, absolutely at its mercy. The day will come 
 when, iu the State of New York, a multitude of people, none 
 of whom has had more than half a breakfast, or expects to 
 have more than half a dinner, will choose a legislature. Is 
 it possible to doubt what sort of legislature will be chosen? 
 On one side is a statesman preaching patience, respect for 
 vested rights, strict observance of public faith. On the 
 other is a demagogue ranting about the tyranny of capitalists 
 and usurers, and asking why anybody should be permitted 
 to drink champagne and to ride in a carriage while thousands 
 of honest people are in want of necessaries ? Which of the 
 two candidates is likely to be preferred by a workingman 
 who hears his children cry for bread? I seriously appre- 
 hend that you will, in some such season of adversity as I 
 have described, do things which will prevent prosperity from 
 returning ; that you will act like people in a year of scarcity, 
 devour all the seed-corn, and thus make the next year a year, 
 not of scarcity, but of absolute famine. There will be, I 
 fear, spoliation. The spoliation will increase distress. The 
 distress will produce fresh spoliation. There is nothing to 
 stay you. Your Constitution is all sail and no anchor. As 
 I said before, when society has entered on this downward 
 progress, either civilization or liberty must perish. Either 
 some Caesar or Xapoleon will seize the reins of government 
 with a strong hand, or your Republic will be as fearfully 
 plundered and laid waste by barbarians in the twentieth
 
 238 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 century as the Roman empire was in the fifth ; with this 
 difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the 
 Roman empire came from without, and that your Huns 
 and Vandals will have been engendered within your country 
 by your own institutions. 
 
 "Thinking thus, of course I cannot reckon Jefferson 
 among the benefactors of mankind." 
 
 Certainly this letter contains food for serious 
 thought, and it would be idle to deny that the 
 writer has pointed out what may become serious 
 dangers in our future. But the evils he complains 
 of are by no means confined to democratic govern- 
 ments, nor do they in the main grow out of popular 
 suffrage. If they do, England herself has taken 
 a dangerous step since Macaulay wrote. Ten 
 years after the date of this letter, she extended 
 the suffrage to eight hundred thousand of her 
 workingmen, a class hitherto ignored in politics; 
 and still later we have extended it to an ignorant 
 and lately enslaved population of more than four 
 millions. Whether for weal or for woe, enlarged 
 suffrage is the tendency of all modern nations. I 
 venture the declaration that this opinion of Mac- 
 aulay is vulnerable on several grounds. 
 
 In the first place, it is based upon a belief from 
 which few if any British writers have been able to
 
 SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 239 
 
 emancipate themselves ; viz., the belief that man- 
 kind are born into permanent classes, and that in 
 the main they must live, work, and die in the fixed 
 class or condition in which they were born. It is 
 hardly possible for a man reared in an aristocracy 
 like that of England to eliminate this conviction 
 from his mind, for the British empire is built upon 
 it. Their theory of national stability is, that there 
 must be a permanent class which shall hold in 
 their own hands so much of the wealth, the privi- 
 lege, and the political power of the kingdom, that 
 they can compel the admiration and obedience of 
 all other classes. 
 
 At several periods of English history, there have 
 been serious encroachments upon this doctrine ; 
 but, on the whole, British phlegm has held to it 
 sturdily, and still maintains it. The great voice- 
 less class of day-laborers have made but little 
 headway against the doctrine. The editor of a 
 leading British magazine told me a few years ago, 
 that, in twenty-five years of observation, he had 
 never known a mere farm-laborer in England to 
 rise above his class. 1 Some, he said, had done so 
 
 1 This statement made a deep impression upon President 
 
 Garfield's mind, and he often referred to it in speaking of the 
 
 P relative opportunities that England and America offer to the
 
 240 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 in manufactures, some in trade ; but in mere farm- 
 labor, not one. The government of a country 
 where such a fact is possible has much to answer 
 for. 
 
 We deny the justice or the necessity of keeping 
 ninety-nine of the population in perpetual poverty 
 and obscurity in order that the hundredth may be 
 rich and powerful enough to hold the ninety-nine 
 in subjection. Where such permanent classes 
 exist, the conflict of which Macaulay speaks is in- 
 evitable. And why? Not that men are inclined to 
 fight the class above them ; but they fight any artifi- 
 cial barrier which makes it impossible for them to 
 enter that higher class, and become a part of it. 
 We point to the fact, that in this country there are 
 no classes in the British sense of that word, no 
 impassable barriers of caste. Now that slavery is 
 
 boy born of a lowly condition. His own career is an impossibility 
 in England. Said his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 
 his Memorial Address, delivered at the Church of St. Mary's-in- 
 the-Fields, London, Sept. 26, 
 
 "All this was calculated to enlist our sympathy; and then 
 we were taught to trace a career such as England knows nothing 
 of, and to wonder at the mode in which great men are formed in 
 a country so like and yet so dissimilar from our own." 
 
 His Grace then gave a rapid summary of the President's 
 career, the scholar, master, student, preacher, soldier, legisla- 
 tor, and President. ^
 
 SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 241 
 
 abolished, we can truly say, that through our po- 
 litical society there run no fixed horizontal strata 
 through which none can pass upward. Our society 
 resembles rather the waves of the ocean, whose 
 every drop may move freely among its fellows, 
 and may rise toward the light, until it flashes on 
 the crest of the highest wave. 
 
 Again, in depicting the dangers of universal 
 suffrage, Macaulay leaves wholly out of the account 
 the great counterbalancing force of universal edu- 
 cation. He contemplates a government delivered 
 over to a vast multitude of ignorant, vicious men, 
 who have learned no self-control, who have never 
 comprehended the national life, and who will wield 
 the ballot solely for personal and selfish ends. If 
 this were indeed the necessary condition of demo- 
 cratic communities, it would be difficult, perhaps 
 impossible, to escape the logic of Macaulay's letter. 
 And here is a real peril, the danger that we shall 
 rely upon the mere extent of the suffrage as a 
 national safeguard. We cannot safely, even for a 
 moment, lose sight of the quality of the suffrage, 
 which is more important than its quantity. 
 
 We are apt to be deluded into false security by 
 political catch-words, devised to flatter rather than 
 instruct. We have happily escaped the dogma of
 
 242 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 the divine right of kings. Let us not fall into the 
 equally pernicious error that multitude is divine 
 because it is a multitude. The words of our great 
 publicist the late Dr. Lieber, whose faith hi 
 republican liberty was undaunted should never 
 be forgotten. In discussing the doctrine of " Vox 
 populi, vox Dei," he said, 
 
 "Woe to the country in which political hypocrisy first 
 calls the people almighty, then teaches that the voice of the 
 people is divine, then pretends to take a mere clamor for the 
 true voice of the people, and lastly gets up the desired 
 clamor ! " 1 
 
 This sentence ought to be read in every political 
 caucus : it would make an interesting and signifi- 
 cant preamble to most of our political platforms. 
 It is only when the people speak truth and justice 
 that their voice can be called the " voice of God." 
 Our faith in the democratic principle rests upon 
 the belief that intelligent men will see that their 
 highest political good is in liberty regulated by 
 just and equal laws, and that, in the distribution 
 of political power, it is safe to follow the maxim, 
 " Each for all, and all for each." We confront the 
 dangers of the suffrage by the blessings of univer- 
 
 i Civil Liberty, p. 415.
 
 . SUFFRAGE AND SCHOOLS. 243 
 
 sal education. We believe that the strength of 
 the State is the aggregate strength of its individual 
 citizens, and that the suffrage is the link that binds 
 in a bond of mutual interest and responsibility the 
 fortunes of the citizen to the fortunes of the State. 
 
 Hence, as popular suffrage is the broadest base, 
 so when coupled with intelligence and virtue it 
 becomes the strongest, the most enduring base, 
 on which to build the superstructure of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Our great hope for the future, our great safe- 
 guard against danger, is to be found in the gen- 
 eral and thorough education of our people, and 
 in the virtue which accompanies such education. 
 And all these elements depend in a large measure 
 upon the intellectual and moral culture of the 
 young men who go out from our higher institu- 
 tions of learning. From the standpoint of this 
 general culture we may trustfully encounter the 
 perils that assail us. Secure against dangers- 
 from abroad; united at home by the strongest 
 ties of common interest and patriotic pride, ; hold- 
 ing and unifying our vast territory by the most 
 potent forces of civilization ; relying upon the 
 intelligent strength and responsibility of each 
 citizen, and most of all upon the power of truth,
 
 244 PBESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 without undue arrogance, we may hope that in 
 the centuries to come, our Republic will continue 
 to live, and hold its high place among the nations 
 as 
 
 " The heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time."
 
 IV. 
 
 popular iitmcatfon. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE AND 
 
 THE INAUGURAL ADDRESS, JULY 12, 1880, 
 
 AND MARCH 4, 1881.
 
 IV. 
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION. 
 
 in importance to freedom and justice 
 is popular education, without which neither 
 freedom nor justice can be permanently main- 
 tained. Its interests are intrusted to the States 
 and to the voluntary action of the people. What- 
 ever help the nation can justly afford should be 
 generously given to aid the States in supporting 
 common schools; but it would be unjust to our 
 people, and dangerous to our institutions, to apply 
 any portion of the revenues of the nation, or of 
 the States, to the support of sectarian schools. 
 The separation of the Church and the State on 
 every thing relating to taxation should be abso- 
 lute. 
 
 But the danger which arises from ignorance in 
 the voter cannot be denied. It covers a field far 
 wider than that of negro suffrage and the present 
 condition of the race. It is a danger that lurks 
 
 247
 
 248 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and hides in the sources and fountains of power 
 in every State. We have no standard by which 
 to measure the disaster that may be brought up- 
 on us by ignorance and vice in the citizen when 
 joined to corruption and fraud in the suffrage. 
 
 The voters of the Union, who make and un- 
 make constitutions, and upon whose will hang the 
 destinies of our governments, can transmit their 
 supreme authority to no successors save the com- 
 ing generation of voters, who are the sole heirs of 
 sovereign power. If that generation comes to its 
 inheritance blinded by ignorance and corrupted 
 by vice, the fall of the Republic will be certain 
 and remediless. The census has already sounded 
 the alarm in the appalling figures which mark how 
 dangerously high the tide of illiteracy has risen 
 among our voters and their children. To the 
 South this question is of supreme importance. 
 But the responsibility for the existence of slavery 
 does not rest upon the South alone. The nation 
 itself is responsible for the extension of the suf- 
 frage, and is under special obligations to aid in 
 removing the illiteracy which it has added to the 
 voting population. For the North and South alike, 
 there is but one remedy. All the constitutional 
 power of the Nation and of the States, and all the
 
 POPULAR EDUCATION. 249 
 
 volunteer forces of the people, should be sum- 
 moned to meet this danger by the saving influence 
 of universal education. 
 
 It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those 
 now living to educate their successors, and fit 
 them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inherit- 
 ance which awaits them. 
 
 In this beneficent work sections and races should 
 be forgotten, and partisanship should be unknown. 
 Let our people find a new meaning in the divine 
 oracle which declares that "A little child shall 
 lead them ; " for our own little children will soon 
 control the destinies of the Republic. 
 
 My countrymen, we do not now differ in our 
 judgment concerning the controversies of past gen- 
 erations, and fifty years hence our children will 
 not be divided in their opinions concerning our 
 controversies. They will surely bless their fathers 
 and their fathers' God that the Union was pre- 
 served, that slavery was overthrown, and that 
 both races were made equal before the law. We 
 may hasten or we may retard, but we cannot pre- 
 vent, the final reconciliation. Is it not possible 
 for us now to make a truce with time by antici- 
 pating and accepting its inevitable verdict ? 
 
 Enterprises of the highest importance to our
 
 250 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 moral and material well-being invite us, and offer 
 ample employment for our best powers. Let all 
 our people, leaving behind them the battle-fields 
 of dead issues, move forward, and, in the strength 
 of liberty and the restored Union, win the grander 
 victories of peace.
 
 V. 
 
 STfje @tgt at tfje " Southern 
 
 REPLY MADE AT MENTOR TO A DELEGATION OP COLORED 
 
 CITIZENS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA AND 
 
 OTHER SOUTHERN 8TATES, 
 
 JAN. 14, 1881.
 
 V. 
 
 THE GIST OF THE "SOUTHERN QUESTION." 
 
 ENERAL ELLIOTT AND GENTLEMEN, 
 
 I thank you for your congratulations on 
 the successful termination of the campaign re- 
 cently closed, and especially for your kind allu- 
 sion to me personally for the part I bore in that 
 campaign. What I have done, what I have said 
 concerning your race and the great problem that 
 your presence on this continent has raised, I have. 
 said as a matter of profound conviction, and hold 
 to with all the meaning of the words employed in 
 expressing it. 
 
 What you have said in regard to the situation 
 of your people, the troubles that they encounter, 
 the evils from which they have suffered and still 
 suffer, I have listened to with deep attention, and 
 shall give it the full measure of reflection. This 
 is not the time or the place for me to indicate any 
 thing as to what I shall have to say and do by 
 and by in an official way. But this I may say : I 
 
 90S
 
 254 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 note as peculiarly significant one sentence in the 
 remarks of General Elliott to the effect that a 
 majority of citizens, as he alleges, in some portions 
 of the South, are oppressed by the minority. If 
 this be so, why is it so ? It is because a trained 
 man is two or three men in one, in comparison 
 with an untrained man ; and outside of politics, 
 and outside of parties, the suggestion is full 
 brimful of significance, that the way to make 
 the majority always powerful over any minority 
 is to make its members as trained and intelligent 
 as is the minority itself. That brings the equality 
 of citizenship ; and no law can reasonably confer 
 and maintain, in the long-run, equality that is not 
 upheld by culture and intelligence. Legislation 
 ought to do all it can. 
 
 I have made these suggestions, simply to indi- 
 cate, that, in my judgment, the education of your 
 race lies at the basis of the final solution of your 
 great question, and that that cannot be altogether 
 in the hands of the government. The govern- 
 ment ought to do all it properly can ; but the na- 
 tive hungering and thirsting for knowledge that 
 the Creator has planted in every child must be 
 cultivated by the parents of the child to the 
 last possible degree of their ability, so that the
 
 THE GIST OF THE "SOUTHERN QUESTION." 255 
 
 hands of the people shall reach out and grasp in 
 the darkness the hand of the government extend- 
 ing its help. By that union of effort, time will 
 bring what mere legislation alone cannot immedi- 
 ately bring in any locality. 
 
 I rejoice that you have expressed so strongly 
 and earnestly your views in regard to the neces- 
 sity of your education. I have felt for years that 
 that was the final solution, the final hope. Those 
 efforts that are humble, and comparatively out of 
 sight, are, in the long-run, the efforts that tell. I 
 have sometimes thought that the men who sink 
 the coffer-dam, and work for months in anchor- 
 ing the great stones that make the solid abut- 
 ments and piers, whose work is by and by en- 
 tirely flooded by the water and out of sight, do 
 not get their share of credit. The gaudy struct- 
 ure of the bridge that rests on these piers, and 
 across which the trains thunder, is the thing 
 that strikes the eye of the general public. The 
 sunken piers, the hard work, the additional 
 growth, the building-up of industry and econo- 
 my, all that can help to be the foundation of 
 real prosperity, is the work that in the long-run 
 tells. 
 
 Some Scottish poet has said, or put it into the
 
 256 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 mouth of some other prophet to say, that the time 
 would come 
 
 " When Bertram right and Bertram might 
 Shall meet on Ellengowan's height." 
 
 And it is when the might and the right of the 
 people meet, that majorities are never oppressed by 
 minorities. 
 
 Gentlemen, that you may take part in this 
 earnest work of building up your race from the 
 foundation into the solidity of intelligence and 
 industry and strength, and upon those bases at 
 last see all your rights recognized and acknowl- 
 edged, is my personal wish and hope for your 
 people.
 
 VI. 
 
 Uriatt'on at tfje National oberntnntt to 
 
 SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 FEB. 11, 1879.
 
 VI. 
 
 RELATION OF THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 TO SCIENCE. 1 
 
 "TV /TR. CHAIRMAN, I think it a misfortune 
 that so important a measure as this is, is 
 placed upon one of the annual appropriation bills. 
 I have had occasion hitherto to characterize that 
 method of legislation, and I think it is well illus- 
 trated in this case. If it could have been avoided 
 in any way, it ought, it seems to me, to have been 
 avoided here. The subject embraced in the sec- 
 tions which relate to' the surveys of the public 
 land should have been embodied in a separate bill, 
 and subjected to the most careful scrutiny. But 
 as the sections are here, and may be ruled in 
 
 1 This speech was made in the Committee of the Whole 
 upon the State of the Union, upon House Bill No. 640, making 
 appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial ex- 
 penses of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
 1880, and for other purposes. The immediate subject was the 
 sections of the bill consolidating the geological and other sur- 
 veys.
 
 260 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 order, I offer a few suggestions upon their 
 merits. 
 
 I will say, however, that one subject provided 
 for in these sections has had no other place in our 
 laws except in appropriation bills, and probably 
 cannot be ruled out on the point of order. I 
 speak of those scientific surveys which for the 
 last ten or twelve years have been supported by 
 the government. I think I am right in saying 
 that there is no independent statute touching 
 them : all the legislation hi regard to them is to 
 be found in the appropriation bills. And what I 
 shall say in the short time I propose to address 
 the committee this morning, will relate chiefly to 
 those surveys. 
 
 It is of the utmost importance that whatever 
 the United States undertakes to do in reference to 
 science shall be done upon some well-understood, 
 well-reasoned, and well-defined system. And I 
 venture to ask the attention of the Committee of 
 the Whole for a few minutes to some general 
 views on the relation of the National Govern- 
 ment to this subject. 
 
 We are accustomed to hear it said that the 
 great powers of government in this country are 
 divided into two classes, National powers and
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 261 
 
 State powers. That is an incomplete classifica- 
 tion. Our fathers carefully divided all govern- 
 mental powers into three classes : one they gave 
 to the States ; another, Nation ; but the third great 
 class, comprising the most precious of all powers, 
 they refused to confer upon the States or the 
 Nation, but reserved to themselves. This third 
 class of powers has been almost uniformly over- 
 looked by men who have discussed the American 
 system. 
 
 My attention was called to this in a striking 
 way not long since, in reading a speech of Bis- 
 marck's before the Reichstag of Germany. A 
 proposition was pending to grant some political 
 rights to the Jews in the German empire. Bis- 
 marck opposed it ; and in doing so he took occa- 
 sion to state what, in his view, was the primary 
 object of the Prussian government ; and I was 
 startled at the statement: 
 
 " All gentlemen around me will admit," said he, " that 
 the primary object of the Prussian government is to main- 
 tain and defend the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. How, 
 then, can one who disbelieves in Christ be properly admitted 
 as a sharer of power in this kingdom? " 
 
 I was struck with the fact that the great states- 
 man of Germany probably the foremost man in
 
 262 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Europe to-day stated as an unquestioned prin- 
 ciple, that the support, defence, and propagation 
 of the Christian gospel is the central object of 
 the German government. Then I considered, in 
 contrast with that, the peculiarity of our own 
 government. Our fathers, though recognizing, in 
 common with Germany and the other Christian 
 nations of the earth, the supreme importance of 
 religion among men, deliberately turned to the 
 great nation they were to establish, and said, 
 " You shall never make any law about religion ; " 
 and to the States they virtually said, " You shall 
 never make any law establishing any form of reli- 
 gion." In other words, here was an interest too 
 precious to be trusted, either to the Nation or to 
 the States. Our fathers said, " This highest of all 
 human interests we will reserve to the people 
 themselves. We will not delegate our power over 
 it to any organized government, State or National. 
 We will not even allow legislatures to make any 
 law concerning it." 
 
 To my mind, it is the sublimest fact in our 
 American system, that, in defining the boundaries 
 of delegated powers, they chose to intrust the 
 most precious of all the interests of human beings 
 on this earth absolutely to the voluntary action
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 263 
 
 of the individual people of the Republic, not to 
 be voted upon by their representatives, but to be 
 regulated, protected, and cherished by their own 
 voluntary action, leaving themselves perfectly free 
 to have no religion if they chose, or any religion 
 that they pleased. Thus they exhibited their 
 regard for liberty, their faith in the voluntary 
 action of the people, and their belief that the most 
 precious interests would be safest under the im- 
 mediate guardianship of freemen. In my view, 
 we have spent too much time in discussing State 
 sovereignty and National supremacy, and have 
 neglected to recognize and appreciate the vast 
 importance of the reserved rights of the people. 
 
 It is a safe and wise rule to follow in all legis- 
 lation, that whatever the people can do without 
 legislation will be better done by them than by 
 the intervention of the State or the Nation. 
 
 What I have said in reference to religion ap- 
 plies with almost equal force to science. In the 
 main, the framers of our government trusted 
 science to the same jurisdiction to which they 
 intrusted religion. With the single exception of 
 one clause in the Constitution authorizing Con- 
 gress to promote science by granting copyrights 
 and patents, the chief support and maintenance
 
 264 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 of science are left, and I think wisely left, to the 
 voluntary action of our people ; and this was 
 done, not in the interest of liberty alone, but in 
 the interest of science itself. 
 
 This leads me to inquire, What ought to be the 
 relation of the National Government to science ? 
 What, if any thing, ought we to do in the way 
 of promoting science ? For example, if we have 
 the power, would it be wise for Congress to ap- 
 propriate money out of the treasury to employ 
 naturalists to find out all that is to be known of 
 our American birds ? Ornithology is a delightful 
 and useful study; but would it be wise for Congress 
 to make an appropriation for the advancement of 
 that science? In my judgment, manifestly not. 
 We would thereby make one favored class of men 
 the rivals of all the ornithologists who, in their 
 private way, following the bent of their genius, 
 may be working out the results of science in that 
 field. I have no doubt that an appropriation out 
 of our treasury for that purpose would be a posi- 
 tive injury to the advancement of science, just as 
 an appropriation to establish a church would work 
 injury to religion. 
 
 Generally the desire of our scientific men is to 
 be let alone, to work in free competition with all
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 265 
 
 the scientific men of the world ; to develop their 
 own results, and get the credit of them each for 
 himself; not to have the government enter the 
 lists as the rival of private enterprise. 
 
 As a general principle, therefore, the United 
 States ought not to interfere in matters of science, 
 but should leave its development to the free, 
 voluntary action of our third great estate, the 
 people themselves. 
 
 In this non-interference theory of the govern- 
 ment, I do not go to the extent of saying that we 
 should do nothing for education, for primary 
 education. That comes under another considera- 
 tion, the necessity of the nation to protect itself, 
 and the consideration that it is cheaper and wiser 
 to give education than to build jails. But I am 
 speaking now of the higher sciences. 
 
 To the general principle I have stated, there 
 are a few obvious exceptions, which should be 
 clearly understood when we legislate on the sub- 
 ject. In the first place, the government should 
 aid all sorts of scientific inquiry that are necessary 
 to the intelligent exercise of its own functions. 
 
 For example, as we are authorized by the Con- 
 stitution, and compelled by necessity, to build and 
 maintain light-houses on our coast, and establish
 
 266 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION". 
 
 fog-signals, we are bound to make all necessary 
 scientific inquiries in reference to light and its 
 laws, sound and its laws, to do whatever in the 
 way of science is necessary to achieve the best 
 results in lighting our coasts and warning our 
 mariners of danger. So, when we are building 
 iron-clads for our navy, or casting guns for our 
 army, we ought to know all that is scientifically 
 possible to be known about the strength of ma- 
 terials and the laws of mechanics which apply to 
 such structure. In short, wherever, in exercising 
 any of the necessary functions of the government, 
 scientific inquiry is needed, let us make it to the 
 fullest extent, and at the public expense. 
 
 There is another exception to the general rule 
 of leaving science to the voluntary action of the 
 people. Wherever any great popular interest, 
 affecting whole classes, possibly all classes of the 
 community, imperatively needs scientific investiga- 
 tion, and private enterprise cannot accomplish it, 
 we may wisely intervene and help where the Con- 
 stitution gives us authority. For example, in 
 discovering the origin of yellow-fever, and the 
 methods of preventing its ravages, the Nation 
 should do, for the good of all, what neither the 
 States nor individuals can accomplish. I might
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 267 
 
 perhaps include, in a third exception, those in- 
 quiries which, in consequence of their great mag- 
 nitude and cost, cannot be successfully made by 
 private individuals. Outside these three classes 
 of inquiries, the government ought to keep its 
 hands off, and leave scientific experiment and 
 inquiry to the free competition of those bright, 
 intelligent men whose genius leads them into the 
 fields of research. 
 
 And I suspect, when we read the report of our 
 Commissioner to the late Paris Exposition, which 
 shows such astonishing results, so creditable to 
 our country, so honorable to the genius of our 
 people, it will be found in any final analysis of 
 causes, that the superiority of Americans in that 
 great exposition resulted mainly from their supe- 
 rior freedom, and the greater competition between 
 mind and mind, untrammelled by government in- 
 terference. I believe it will be found we are best 
 serving the cause of religion and science, and all 
 those great primary rights which. we did not dele- 
 gate to the Congress or the States, but left the 
 people free to enjoy and maintain them. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, leaving these general reflections, 
 I come to the special question of our geological 
 surveys. Leaving out of the account all the
 
 268 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 government works proper, such as light-houses, 
 such as the survey of our coast, such as the 
 survey of our rivers and harbors, such as the 
 surveys of the lakes, of military surveys proper, 
 leaving all these out, we have spent almost two 
 million dollars in the last twelve years for purely 
 scientific survej^s. While the results have been 
 very gratifying, while they have been exceedingly 
 interesting to men of science, and also of com- 
 mercial value to the country, I believe we have 
 spent a large part of that money upon an unwise 
 system, and in a way which has tended to dis- 
 courage the private pursuit of science by our 
 people. 
 
 We have made the government a formidable 
 and crushing competitor of private students of 
 science ; and I think we have, in some cases, gone 
 beyond the fair limit of what the government 
 ought to do in the way of scientific investigation. 
 We have had the War Department, with two or 
 three separate expeditions, exploring our Western 
 territory ; we have had two separate organiza- 
 tions from the Interior Department, also exploring : 
 and it has all been done on a system which has 
 invited and fostered a personal seeking of favor 
 from Congress. There have been good men, intel-
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 269 
 
 ligent men, scientific men, who have sought for 
 authority and aid to make scientific investigations 
 in fields which private citizens were exploring; 
 and in employing so many separate and independ- 
 ent parties, there have been many cases, if not of 
 collision, at least of overlapping and duplication, 
 in the same field of examination. It seems to me 
 it is high time for us, first, to restrict our scientific 
 work plainly and narrowly within the limits of 
 the rules I have tried to lay down ; and, second, 
 to consolidate the scientific part of our work of 
 survey under one responsible head, and, having 
 done that, with all the economy which can be 
 fairly used, let us make our outlay only in the 
 direction of public necessity. 
 
 Now, lest some one should think I am attacking 
 the geological surveys, I hasten to say that it is 
 absolutely vital to an intelligent discharge of our 
 duties as trustees, or rather as owners, of the 
 great public domain yet unsurveyed and unsold, 
 to give to our people all the light that science 
 can shed upon the character and quality of those 
 lands. 
 
 While I may doubt the propriety of making 
 at once the whole change proposed in this bill, it 
 is perfectly clear to my mind that we have reached
 
 270 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 a natural crisis in the management and disposition 
 of our public domain. We have now reached the 
 foot-hills of the great Rocky-Mountain chain ; and 
 the old plans, the old methods, both of survey 
 and of settlement, are in the main no longer 
 applicable. Of what possible use can it be to 
 checkerboard the slopes and the tops of moun- 
 tains that are full of ores with the old system of 
 sections, half-sections, and quarter-sections ? 
 
 To say that the old plan has worked well for a 
 hundred years, is to praise our past properly ; but 
 to say that the same plan will work well for the 
 next hundred years, is to say the match-locks, 
 gun-flints, the spoiitoons, and other nameless and 
 obsolete implements of war, that were in vogue a 
 hundred years ago, will be good for a hundred 
 years to come, and should not be abandoned. 
 We must not revolutionize merely for the sake 
 of change ; but we must wisely and intelligently 
 adapt our policy to the progress of events ; and 
 I believe it has been clearly shown, that, if the 
 old rectangular system is continued, it will be 
 substantially worthless in its application to most 
 of our unsurveyed territory. 
 
 Mr. KEIFER. It never was applied to them. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. We do not want it to be.
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 271 
 
 Mr. KEIFER. And it never will be. 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. But I am confining what I 
 say to-day almost exclusively to that clause of the 
 bill which relates to the scientific surveys. As 
 regards the land-surveys, I confess I have not 
 studied that subject so fully as some of the gen- 
 tlemen around me. 
 
 Mr. PAGE. May I ask the gentleman a ques- 
 tion? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. PAGE. I ask the gentleman from Ohio if 
 he is not aware that the amendment of which he 
 is now speaking is directly in violation of, or 
 changes, existing law, and makes an appropriation 
 for an additional officer not now known to the 
 law? and whether he is in favor of new legisla- 
 tion on an appropriation bill? 
 
 Mr. GARFIELD. I said in the outset of my 
 remarks, that I am opposed to that mode of 
 legislation, and that I regret for that reason that 
 this provision is here and not in a bill by itself. 
 My record is too well known to leave any doubt 
 on that subject. 
 
 I say this : Let us consolidate these scientific 
 explorations and surveys, and unite them under 
 one head, and not scatter them as we have done
 
 272 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 hitherto, and waste money, and duplicate work, 
 and make the name of science ridiculous in the 
 United States. As to the other parts of these 
 sections, let us at least make an arrangement, if 
 we do no more, by which we shall have a full and 
 complete report upon the whole subject, so that 
 we may make these changes soon if not now. 
 
 In this hurried way I have said nearly all I 
 intended to say, except to call attention to one 
 other point. Besides going too far in scientific 
 explorations, we have greatly wronged the scien- 
 tific publication societies of this country. I sup- 
 pose some gentlemen may not know that there are 
 twenty-seven voluntary scientific associations in 
 this country that publish their proceedings, be- 
 sides five or six journals specially devoted to pub- 
 lishing the discoveries of science. 
 
 These are a part of the means by which discov- 
 eries in science can find their way to the public 
 through the press ; and yet we are printing thou- 
 sands of volumes in competition with the private 
 associations of the country, and thereby injuring 
 and crippling them. I believe we ought simply 
 to confine ourselves to our own business, and not 
 needlessly travel into their field. Without very 
 much reflection, and in a manner quite unsatis-
 
 NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND SCIENCE. 273 
 
 factory to myself, I have offered these suggestions. 
 If I have stimulated any one to do the subject 
 better justice, I shall not altogether have failed 
 of my purpose.
 
 vn. 
 
 College lEtucatfon. 
 
 AN ADDRESS BEFORE THE LITERARY SOCIETIES OF THE 
 
 ECLECTIC INSTITUTE, HIRAM, O., 
 
 JUNE 14, 1867.
 
 vn. 
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 
 
 ENTLEMEN OF THE LITERARY SO- 
 CIETIES, I congratulate you on the sig- 
 nificant fact, that the questions which most vitally 
 concern your personal work, are at this time 
 rapidly becoming, indeed have already become, 
 questions of first importance to the whole nation. 
 In ordinary times, we could scarcely find two sub- 
 jects wider apart than the meditations of a school- 
 boy, when he asks what he shall do with himself, 
 and how he shall do it, and the forecastings of a 
 great nation, when it studies the laws of its own 
 life, and endeavors to solve the problem of its 
 destiny. But now there is more than a resem- 
 blance between the nation's work and yours. If 
 the two are not identical, they at least bear the 
 relation of the whole to a part. 
 
 The nation, having passed through the child- 
 hood of its history, and being about to enter upon 
 a new life, based on a fuller recognition of the 
 
 277
 
 278 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 rights of manhood, has discovered that liberty can 
 be safe only when the suffrage is illuminated by 
 education. It is now perceived that the life and 
 light of a nation are inseparable. Hence the 
 Federal Government has established a National 
 Department of Education, for the purpose of 
 teaching young men and women how to be good 
 citizens. 
 
 You, young gentlemen, having passed the limits 
 of childhood, and being about to enter the larger 
 world of manhood, with its manifold struggles and 
 aspirations, are now confronted with the question, 
 " What must I do to fit myself most completely, 
 not for being a citizen merely, but for being all 
 that doth become a man,' living in the full light 
 of the Christian civilization of America ? " Your 
 disinthralled and victorious country asks you to 
 be educated for her sake, and the noblest aspira- 
 tions of your being still more imperatively ask it 
 for your own sake. 
 
 In the hope that I may aid you in solving 
 some of these questions, I have chosen for my 
 theme on this occasion : 
 
 "The Course of Study in American Colleges, 
 and its Adaptation to the Wants of our Time." 
 
 Before examining any course of study, we
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 279 
 
 should clearly apprehend the objects to be ob- 
 tained by a liberal education. 
 
 In general, it may be said that the purpose 
 of all study is twofold, to discipline our fac- 
 ulties, and to acquire knowledge for the duties 
 of life. It is happily provided in the consti- 
 tution of the human mind, that the labor by 
 which knowledge is acquired is the only means 
 of disciplining the powers. It may be stated as 
 a general rule, that if we compel ourselves to 
 learn what we ought to know, and use it when 
 learned, our discipline will take care of itself. 
 
 Let us, then, inquire, What kinds of knowledge 
 should be the objects of a liberal education? 
 Without adopting in full the classification of Her- 
 bert Spencer, it will be sufficiently comprehensive 
 for my present purpose to propose the following 
 kinds of knowledge, stated in the order of their 
 importance : 
 
 First, That knowledge which is necessary for 
 the full development of our bodies and the 
 preservation of our health. 
 
 Second, The knowledge of those principles by 
 which the useful arts and industries are carried 
 on and improved. 
 
 Third, That knowledge which is necessary to
 
 280 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 a full comprehension of our rights and duties as 
 citizens. 
 
 Fourth, A knowledge of the intellectual, moral, 
 religious, and aesthetic nature of man, and his 
 relations to nature and civilization. 
 
 Fifth, That special and thorough knowledge 
 which is requisite for the particular profession or 
 pursuit which a man* may choose as his life-work 
 after he has completed his college studies. 
 
 In brief, the student should study himself, his rela- 
 tions to society, to nature, and to art; and above all, 
 in all, and through all these, he should study the rela- 
 tions of himself, society, nature, and art, to God, the 
 Author of them all. Of course it is not possible, 
 nor is it desirable, to confine the course of devel- 
 opment exclusively to this order ; for Truth is so 
 related and correlated, that no department of her 
 realm is wholly isolated. We cannot learn much 
 that pertains to the industry of society, without 
 learning something of the material worLd, and the 
 laws which govern it. We cannot study nature 
 profoundly without bringing ourselves into com- 
 munion with the spirit of art, which pervades 
 and fills the universe. But what I suggest is, 
 that we should make the course of study conform 
 generally to the order here indicated; that the
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 281 
 
 student shall first study what he most needs to 
 know; that the order of his needs shall be the 
 order of his work. Now, it will not be denied, 
 that from the day that the child's foot first presses 
 the green turf till the day when, an old man, he 
 is ready to be laid under it, there is not an hour 
 in which he does not need to know a thousand 
 things in relation to his body, " what he shall 
 eat, what he shall drink, and wherewithal he shall 
 be clothed." Unprovided with that instinct which 
 enables the lower animals to reject the noxious, 
 and select the nutritive, man must learn even the 
 most primary truth that ministers to his self- 
 preservation. If parents were themselves suffi- 
 ciently educated, most of this knowledge might 
 be acquired at the mother's knee; but, by the 
 strangest perversion and misdirection of the edu- 
 cational forces, these most essential elements of 
 knowledge are more neglected than any other. 
 
 School-committees would summarily dismiss the 
 teacher who should have the good sense and cour- 
 age to spend three days of each week with her 
 pupils in the fields and woods, teaching them the 
 names, peculiarities, and uses of rocks, trees, plants, 
 and flowers, and the beautiful story of the animals, 
 birds, and insects, which fill the world with life
 
 282 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and beauty. They will applaud her for continu- 
 ing to perpetrate that undefended and indefensible 
 outrage upon the laws of physical and intellectual 
 life, which keeps a little child sitting in silence, in 
 a vain attempt to hold his mind to the words of a 
 printed page, for six hours in a day. Herod was 
 merciful, for he finished his slaughter of the inno- 
 cents in a day ; but this practice kills by the sav- 
 agery of slow torture. And what is the child 
 directed to study? Besides the mass of words 
 and sentences which he is compelled to memorize, 
 not one syllable of which he understands, at eight 
 or ten years of age he is set to work on English 
 grammar, one of the most complex, intricate, 
 and metaphysical of studies, requiring a mind of 
 much muscle and discipline to master it. Thus 
 are squandered nay, far worse than squandered 
 those thrice precious years, when the child is all 
 ear and eye, when its eager spirit, with insatiable 
 curiosity, hungers and thirsts to know the what 
 and the why of the world and its wonderful furni- 
 ture. We silence its sweet clamor by cramming its 
 hungry mind with words, words, empty, mean- 
 ingless words. It asks for bread, and we give it a 
 stone. It is to me a perpetual wonder that any 
 child's love of knowledge survives the outrages of
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 283 
 
 the schoolhouse. It would be foreign from my 
 present purpose to consider further the subject of 
 primary education ; but it is worthy your profound- 
 est thought, for " out of it are the issues of life." 
 That man will be a benefactor of his race who 
 shall teach us how to manage rightly the first 
 years of a child's education. I, for one, declare 
 that no child of mine shall ever be compelled to 
 study one hour, or to learn even the English 
 alphabet, before he has deposited under his skin 
 at least seven years of muscle and bone. 
 
 What are our seminaries and colleges accom- 
 plishing in the way of teaching the laws of life 
 and physical well-being? I should scarcely wrong 
 them, were I to answer, Nothing : absolutely noth- 
 ing. The few recitations which some of the col- 
 leges require in anatomy and physiology, unfold 
 but the alphabet of those subjects. The emphasis 
 of college culture does not fall there. The gradu- 
 ate has learned the Latin of the old maxim, "Mens 
 sana in corpore sano ; " but how to strengthen the 
 mind by the preservation of the body, he has never 
 learned. He can read you in Xenophon's best 
 Attic Greek, that Apollo flayed the unhappy Mar- 
 syas, and hanged up his skin as a trophy ; but he 
 has never examined the wonderful texture of his
 
 284 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 own skin, or the laws by which he may preserve 
 it. He would blush, were he to mistake the place 
 of a Greek accent, or put the ictus on the second 
 syllable of Eolus ; but the whole circle " lib- 
 eralium artium" so pompously referred to in 
 his diploma of graduation, may not have taught 
 him, as I can testify in an instance personally 
 known to me, whether the jejunum is a bone, or 
 the humerus an intestine. Every hour of study 
 consumes a portion of his muscular and vital 
 force. Every tissue of his body requires its ap- 
 propriate nourishment, the elements of which are 
 found in abundance in the various products of 
 nature ; but he has never inquired where he shall 
 find the phosphates and carbonates of lime for his 
 bones, albumen and fibrine for his blood, and phos- 
 phorus for his brain. His chemistry, mineralogy, 
 botany, anatomy, and physiology, if thoroughly 
 studied, would give all this knowledge ; but he 
 has been intent on things remote and foreign, and 
 has given but little heed to those matters which 
 so nearly concern the chief functions of life. But 
 the student should not be blamed. The great 
 men of history have set him the example. Coper- 
 nicus discovered and announced the true theory 
 of the solar system a hundred years before the
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 285 
 
 circulation of the blood was known. Though 
 from the heart to the surface, and from the sur- 
 face back to the heart, of every man of the race, 
 some twenty pounds of blood had made the cir- 
 cuit once every three minutes, yet men were look- 
 ing so steadily away from themselves that they 
 did not observe the wonderful fact. His habit 
 of thought has developed itself in all the courses of 
 college study. 
 
 In the next place, I inquire, What kinds of 
 knowledge are necessary for carrying on and im- 
 proving the useful arts and industries of civilized 
 life ? I am well aware of the current notion, that 
 these muscular arts should stay in the fields and 
 shops, and not invade the sanctuaries of learning. 
 A finished education is supposed to consist mainly 
 of literary culture. The story of the forges of the 
 Cyclops, where the thunderbolts of Jove were 
 fashioned, is supposed to adorn elegant scholarship 
 more gracefully than those sturdy truths which 
 are preaching to this generation in the wonders of 
 the mine, in the fire of the furnace, in the clang 
 of the iron-mills, and the other innumerable indus- 
 tries, which, more than all other human agencies, 
 have made our civilization what it is, and are des- 
 tined to achieve wonders yet undreamed of. This
 
 286 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 generation is beginning to understand that educa- 
 tion should not be forever divorced from indus- 
 try, that the highest results can be reached only 
 when science guides the hand of labor. With what 
 eagerness and alacrity is industry seizing every 
 truth of science, and putting it in harness! A 
 few years ago Bessemer of England, studying the 
 nice affinities between carbon and the metals, dis- 
 covered that a slight change of combination would 
 produce a metal possessing the ductility of iron 
 and the compactness of steel, and which would 
 cost but little more than common iron. One rail 
 of this metal will outlast fifteen of the iron rails 
 now in use. Millions of capital are already in- 
 vested to utilize this thought of Bessemer's, which 
 must soon revolutionize the iorn-manufacture of 
 the world. 
 
 Another example : The late war raised the price 
 of cotton, and paper made of cotton rags. It was 
 found that good paper could be manufactured 
 from the fibre of soft wood ; but it was expensive 
 and difficult to reduce to a pulp, without chopping 
 the fibre in pieces. A Yankee mechanic, who had 
 learned in the science of vegetable anatomy that 
 a billet of wood was composed of millions of hol- 
 low cylinders, many of them so small that only the
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 287 
 
 microscope could reveal them, and having learned 
 also the penetrative and expansive power of steam, 
 wedded these two truths in an experiment, which, 
 if exhibited to Socrates, would have been declared 
 a miracle from the gods. The experiment was 
 very simple. Putting his block of wood in a 
 strong box, he forced into it a volume of super- 
 heated steam which made its way into the minut- 
 est pore and cell of the wood. Then through a 
 trap-door suddenly opened, the block was tossed 
 out. The outside pressure being removed, the 
 expanding steam instantly burst every one of the 
 million tubes ; every vegetable flue collapsed, and 
 his block of wood lay before him a mass of fleecy 
 fibre, more delicate than the hand of man could 
 make it. 
 
 Machinery is the chief implement with which 
 civilization does its work ; but the science of me- 
 chanics is impossible without mathematics. 
 
 But for her mineral resources, England would 
 be only the hunting-park of Europe, and it is 
 believed that her day of greatness will terminate 
 when her coal-fields are exhausted. Our mineral 
 wealth is a thousand times greater than hers ; and 
 yet, without the knowledge of geology, mineralogy, 
 metallurgy, and chemistry, our mines could be of
 
 288 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 but little value. Without a knowledge of as- 
 tronomy, commerce on the sea is impossible ; and 
 now at last it is being discovered that the greatest 
 of all our industries, the agricultural, in which 
 three-fourths of all our population are engaged, 
 must call science to its aid, if it would keep up 
 with the demands of civilization. I need not 
 enumerate the extent and variety of knowledge, 
 scientific and practical, which a farmer needs in 
 order to reach the full height and scope of his 
 noble calling. And what has our American system 
 of education done for this controlling majority of 
 the people ? I can best answer that question with 
 a single fact. Notwithstanding there are in the 
 United States one hundred and twenty thousand 
 common schools and seven thousand academies 
 and seminaries; notwithstanding there are two 
 hundred and .seventy-five colleges where young 
 men may be graduated as bachelors and masters 
 of the liberal arts, yet in all these the people of 
 the United States have found so little being done, 
 or likely to be done, to educate men for the work 
 of agriculture, that they have demanded, and at 
 last have secured from their political servants in 
 Congress, an appropriation sufficient to build and 
 maintain, in each State of the Union, a college for
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 289 
 
 the education of farmers. This great outlay 
 would have been totally unnecessary, but for the 
 stupid and criminal neglect of college, academic, 
 and common-school boards of education to furnish 
 that which the wants of the people require. The 
 scholar and the worker must join hands, if both 
 would be successful. 
 
 I next ask, What studies are necessary to teach 
 our young men and women the history and spirit 
 of our government, and their rights and duties as 
 citizens ? There is not now, and there never was 
 on this earth, a people who have had so many and 
 weighty reasons for loving their country, and 
 thanking God for the blessings of civil and re- 
 ligious liberty, as our own. And yet, seven years 
 ago, there was probably less strong, earnest, open 
 love of country in the United States than in any 
 other nation of Christendom. It is true, that 
 the gulf of anarchy and ruin into which treason 
 threatened to plunge us, startled the nation as by 
 an electric shock, and galvanized into life its dor- 
 mant and dying patriotism. But how came it 
 dormant and dying? I do not hesitate to affirm, 
 that one of the chief causes was our defective 
 system of education. Seven years ago there was 
 scarcely an American college in which more than
 
 290 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 four weeks out of the four-years' course were de- 
 voted to studying the government and history of 
 the United States. For this defect of our educa- 
 tional system I have neither respect nor tolera- 
 tion. It is far inferior to that of Persia three 
 thousand years ago. The uncultivated tribes of 
 Greece, Rome, Libya, and Germany, surpassed us 
 in this respect. Grecian children were taught to 
 reverence and emulate the virtues of their ances- 
 tors. Our educational forces are so wielded as to 
 teach our children to admire most that which is 
 foreign and fabulous and dead. I have recently 
 examined the catalogue of a leading New-Eng- 
 land college, in which the geography and history 
 of Greece and Rome are required to be studied 
 five terms ; but neither the history nor the geogra- 
 phy of the United States is named in the college 
 course, or required as a condition of admission. 
 Our American children must know all the classic 
 rivers, from the Scamander to the Yellow Tiber ; 
 must tell you the length of the Appian Way, and 
 of the canal over which Horace and Virgil sailed 
 on their journey to Brundusium : but he may be 
 crowned with baccalaureate honors without hav- 
 ing heard, since his first moment of Freshman 
 life, one word concerning the one hundred and
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 291 
 
 twenty-two thousand miles of coast and river 
 navigation, the six thousand miles of canal, and 
 the thirty-five thousand miles of railroad, which 
 indicate both the prosperity and the possibilities 
 of his own country. 
 
 It is well to know the history of those magnifi- 
 cent nations whose origin is lost in fable, and 
 whose epitaphs were written a thousand years 
 ago ; but, if we cannot know both, it is far better 
 to study the history of our own nation, whose 
 origin we can trace to the freest and noblest aspi- 
 rations of the human heart, a nation that was 
 formed from hardiest, purest, and most enduring 
 elements of European civilization ; a nation that, 
 by its faith and courage, has dared and accom- 
 plished more for the human race in a single 
 century than Europe accomplished in the first 
 thousand years of the Christian era. The New- 
 England township was the type after which our 
 Federal Government was modelled ; yet it would 
 be rare to find a college student who can make a 
 comprehensive and intelligent statement of the 
 municipal organization of the township in which 
 he was born, and tell you by what officers its legis- 
 lative, judicial, and executive functions are admin- 
 istered. One-half of the time which is now almost
 
 292 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 wholly wasted in district schools on English gram- 
 mar, attempted at too early an age, would be suf- 
 ficient to teach our children to love the Republic, 
 and to become its loyal and life-long supporters. 
 After the bloody baptism from which the nation 
 has arisen to a higher and nobler life, if this 
 shameful defect in our system of education be not 
 speedily remedied, we shall deserve the infinite 
 contempt of future generations. I insist that it 
 should be made an indispensable condition of 
 graduation in every American college, that the 
 student must understand the history of this conti- 
 nent since its discovery by Europeans ; the origin 
 and history of the United States, its constitution 
 of government, the struggles through which it has 
 passed, and the rights and duties of citizens who 
 are to determine its destiny and share its glory. 
 
 Having thus gained the knowledge which is 
 necessary to life, health, industry, and citizenship, 
 the student is prepared to enter a wider and 
 grander field of thought. If he desires that large 
 and liberal culture which will call into activity all 
 his powers, and make the most of the material 
 God has given him, he must study deeply and 
 earnestly the intellectual, the moral, the religious, 
 and the aesthetic nature of man ; his relations to
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 293 
 
 nature, to civilization past and present ; and, 
 above all, his relations to God. These should 
 occupy, nearly, if not fully, half the time of his 
 college course. In connection with the philosophy 
 of the mind, he should study logic, the pure mathe- 
 matics, and the general laws of thought. In con- 
 nection with moral philosophy, he should study 
 political and social ethics, a science so little 
 known either in colleges or congresses. Prominent 
 among all the rest, should be his study of the 
 wonderful history of the human race, in its slow 
 and toilsome march across the centuries, now 
 buried in ignorance, superstition, and crime ; now 
 rising to the sublimity of heroism, and catching a 
 glimpse of a better destiny ; now turning remorse- 
 lessly away from, and leaving to perish, empires 
 and civilizations in which it had invested its faith 
 and courage and boundless energy for a thousand 
 years, and plunging into the forests of Germany, 
 Gaul, and Britain, to build for itself new empires, 
 better fitted for its new aspirations ; and at last 
 crossing three thousand miles of unknown sea, 
 and building in the wilderness of a new hemi- 
 sphere its latest and proudest monuments. To 
 know this as it ought to be known, requires not 
 only a knowledge of general history, but a
 
 294 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 thorough understanding of such works as Guizot's 
 " History of Civilization" and Draper's " Intel- 
 lectual Development of Europe," and also the 
 rich literature of ancient and modern nations. 
 
 Of course, our colleges cannot be expected to 
 lead the student through all the paths of this 
 great field of learning ; but they should at least 
 point out its boundaries, and let him taste a few 
 clusters from its richest vines. 
 
 Finally, in rounding up the measure of his 
 work, the student should crown his education 
 with that aesthetic culture which will unfold to 
 him the delights of nature and art, and make his 
 mind and heart a fit temple where the immortal 
 spirit of Beauty may dwell forever. 
 
 While acquiring this kind of knowledge, the 
 student is on a perpetual voyage of discovery, 
 searching what he is, and what he may become ; 
 how he is related to the universe, and how the 
 harmonies of the outer world respond to the voice 
 within him. It is in this range of study that he 
 learns most fully his own tastes and aptitudes 
 and generally determines what his work in life 
 shall be. 
 
 The last item in the classification I have sug- 
 gested, that special knowledge which is ne.cessary
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 295 
 
 to fit a man for the particular profession or calling 
 he may adopt, I cannot discuss here, as it lies 
 outside the field of general education ; but I will 
 make one suggestion to any of the young gentle- 
 men before me who may intend to choose, as his 
 life-work, some one of the learned professions. 
 You will make a fatal mistake if you make only 
 the same preparations which your predecessors 
 made fifty or even ten years ago. Each genera- 
 tion must have a higher cultivation than the pre- 
 ceding one, in order to be equally successful ; and 
 each must be educated for his own times. If you 
 become a lawyer, you must remember that the 
 science of law is not fixed like geometry, but is 
 a growth which keeps pace with the progress of 
 society. The developments of the late war will 
 make it necessary to re-write many of the leading 
 chapters of international and maritime law. The 
 destruction of slavery and the enfranchisement of 
 four millions of colored men will almost revolu- 
 tionize American jurisprudence. If Webster were 
 now at the bar, in the full glory of his strength, 
 he would be compelled to reconstruct the whole 
 fabric of his legal learning. Similar changes are 
 occurring, both in the medical and military pro- 
 fessions. Ten years hence the young surgeon will
 
 296 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 hardly venture to open an office till he has studied 
 thoroughly the medical and surgical history of 
 the late war. Since the experience at Sumter 
 and Wagner, no nation will again build fortifica- 
 tions of. costly masonry ; for they have learned 
 that earth-works are not only cheaper, but a better 
 defence against artillery. The text-books 011 
 military engineering must be re-written. Our 
 Spencer rifle and Prussian needle-gun have revo- 
 lutionized, both the manufacture and the manual 
 of arms ; and no great battle will ever again be 
 fought with muzzle-loading muskets. Napoleon, 
 at the head of his Old Guard, could to-day win no 
 Austerlitz till he had read the military history of 
 the last six years. 
 
 It may perhaps be thought that the suggestion 
 I have made concerning the professions will not 
 apply to the work of the Christian minister, whose 
 principal text-book is a divine and perfect revela- 
 tion ; but, in my judgment, the remark applies to 
 the clerical profession with even more force than 
 to any other. There is no department of his du- 
 ties in which he does not need the fullest and the 
 latest knowledge. He is pledged to the defence 
 of revelation and religion ; but it will not avail 
 him to be able to answer the objections of Hume
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 297 
 
 and Voltaire. The arguments of Paley were not 
 written to answer the scepticisms of to-day. His 
 " Natural Theology " is now less valuable than 
 Hugh Miller's "Footprints of the Creator," or 
 Guyot's lectures on "Earth and Man." The men 
 and women of to-day know but little, and care 
 less, about the thousand abstract questions of 
 polemic theology which puzzled the heads and 
 wearied the hearts of our Puritan fathers and 
 mothers. That minister will make, and deserves 
 to make, a miserable failure, who attempts to feed 
 hungry hearts on the dead dogmas of the past. 
 More than that of any other man it is his duty to 
 march abreast with the advanced thinkers of his 
 time, and be not only a learner, but a teacher, of 
 its science, its literature, and its criticism. 
 
 But I return to the main question before me. 
 Having endeavored to state what kinds of knowl- 
 edge should be the objects of a liberal education, 
 I shall next inquire how well the course of study 
 in American colleges is adapted to the attainment 
 of these objects. In discussing this question, I do 
 not forget that he is deemed a rash and imprudent 
 man who invades with suggestions of change 
 these venerable sanctuaries of learning. Let him 
 venture to suggest that much of the wisdom there
 
 298 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 taught is foolishness, and he may hear from the 
 college chapels of the land, in good Virgilian 
 hexameter, the warning cry, " Procul 0! procul 
 este profani ! " Happy for him if the whole body 
 of alumni do not with equal pedantry respond in 
 Horatian verse, "Fenum habet in cornu; longe 
 fuge." But I protest that a friend of American 
 education may suggest changes in our college 
 studies without committing profanation, or carry- 
 ing hay on his horns. Our colleges have done, 
 and are doing, a noble work, for which they 
 deserve the thanks of the nation ; but he is not 
 their enemy who suggests that they ought to do 
 much better. As an alumnus of one which I 
 shall always reverence, and as a friend of all, I 
 will venture to discuss the work they are doing. 
 I have examined some twenty catalogues of East- 
 ern, Western, and Southern colleges, and find the 
 subjects taught, and the relative time given to 
 each, about the same in all. The chief difference 
 is in the quantity of work required. I will take 
 Harvard as a representative ; it being the oldest of 
 our colleges, and certainly requiring as much study 
 as any other. Remembering that the standard by 
 which we measure a student's work for one day 
 is three recitations of one hour each, and that his
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 299 
 
 year usually consists of three terms of thirteen or 
 fourteen weeks each, for convenience' sake I will 
 divide the work required to admit him to college, 
 and after four years to graduate him, into two 
 
 1st, That which belongs to the study of Latin 
 and Greek ; and, 2d, That which does not. 
 
 Now, from the annual catalogue of Harvard for 
 1866-67 (p. 26), I find that the candidate for 
 admission to the Freshman class must be exam- 
 ined in what will require the study of eight terms 
 in Latin, six in Greek, one in ancient geography, 
 one in Grecian history, and one in Roman history, 
 which make seventeen terms in the studies of 
 class first. Under the head of class second the 
 candidate is required to be examined in reading, 
 in common-school arithmetic and geography, in 
 one term's study of algebra, and one term of 
 geometry. English grammar is not mentioned. 
 
 Thus, after studying the elementary branches 
 which are taught in all our common schools, it 
 requires about two years and a half of study to 
 enter a college ; and of that study seventeen 
 parts are devoted to the language, history, and 
 geography of Greece and Rome, and two parts to 
 all other subjects !
 
 300 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Reducing the Harvard year to the usual divis- 
 ion of three terms, the analysis of the work will 
 be found as follows : not less than nine terms of 
 Latin (there may be twelve if the student chooses 
 it) ; not less than six terms of Greek (but twelve 
 if he chooses it) ; and he may elect, in addition, 
 three terms in Roman history. With the average 
 of three recitations per day, and three terms per 
 year, we may say that the whole work of college 
 study consists of thirty-six parts. Not less than 
 fifteen of these must be devoted to Latin and 
 Greek, and not more than twenty-one to all other 
 subjects. If the student chooses, he may devote 
 twenty-four parts to Latin and Greek, and twelve 
 to all other subjects. Taking the whole six and 
 a half years of preparatory and college study, we 
 find, that, to earn a bachelor's diploma at Har- 
 vard, a young man, after leaving the district 
 school, must devote four-sevenths of all his labor 
 to Greece and Rome. 
 
 Now, what do we find in our second, or un- 
 dassical, list? It is chiefly remarkable for what 
 it does not contain. In the whole programme of 
 study, lectures included, no mention whatever is 
 made of physical geography, of anatomy, physi- 
 ology, or the general history of the United States.
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 301 
 
 A few weeks of the Senior year given to Guizot 
 and the history of the Federal Constitution, and a 
 lecture on general history once a week during 
 half that year, furnish all that the graduate of 
 Harvard is required to know of his own country 
 and the living nations of the earth. 
 
 He must apply years of arduous labor to the 
 history, oratory, and poetry of Greece and Rome ; 
 but he is not required to cull a single flower from 
 the rich fields of our own literature. English 
 literature is not named in the curriculum, except 
 that the student may, if he chooses, attend a few 
 general lectures on modern literature. 
 
 Such are some of the facts in reference to the 
 educational work of our most venerable college, 
 where there is probably concentrated more general 
 and special culture than at any other in America. 
 
 I think it probable, that in some of the colleges 
 the proportion of Latin and Greek to other studies 
 may be less ; but I believe that in none of them 
 the preparatory and college work devoted to these 
 two languages is less than half of all the work 
 required. 
 
 Now, the bare statement of this fact should 
 challenge, and must challenge, the attention of 
 every thoughtful man in the nation. No wonder
 
 302 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 that men are demanding, with an earnestness that 
 will not be repressed, to know how it happens, 
 and why it happens, that, placing in one end of 
 the balance all the mathematical studies ; all the 
 physical sciences, in their recent rapid develop- 
 ments ; all the study of the human mind and 
 the laws of thought ; all the principles of political 
 economy and social science, which underlie the 
 commerce and industry, and shape the legislation, 
 of nations ; the history of our own nation, its 
 constitution of government and its great indus- 
 trial interests; all the literature and history of 
 modern civilization, placing all this, I say, in 
 one end of the balance, they kick the beam when 
 Greece and Rome are placed in the other. I 
 hasten to say that I make no attack upon the 
 study of these noble languages as an important 
 and necessary part of a liberal education. I have 
 no sympathy with that sentiment which would 
 drive them from academy and college as a part 
 of the dead past that should bury its dead. It 
 is the proportion of the work given to them of 
 which I complain. 
 
 These studies hold their relative rank in obedi- 
 ence to the tyranny of custom. Each new col- 
 lege is modelled after the older ones, and all in
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 303 
 
 America have been patterned on an humble scale 
 after the universities of Europe. The prominence 
 given to Latin and Greek at the founding of these 
 universities was a matter of inexorable necessity. 
 The continuance of the same, or anywhere near 
 the same, relative prominence to-day, is both un- 
 necessary and indefensible. I appeal to history 
 for the proof of these assertions. 
 
 Near the close of the fifth century we date the 
 beginning of those dark ages which enveloped the 
 whole world for a thousand years. The human 
 race seemed stricken with intellectual paralysis. 
 The noble language of the Csesars, corrupted by 
 a hundred barbarous dialects, ceased to be a living 
 tongue long before the. modern languages of 
 Europe had been reduced to writing. 
 
 In Italy the Latin died in the tenth century ; 
 but the oldest document known to exist in Italian 
 was not written till the year 1200. Italian did 
 not really take its place in the family of written 
 languages till a century later, when it was crys- 
 tallized into form and made immortal by the genius 
 of Dante and Petrarch. 
 
 The Spanish was not a written language till the 
 year 1200, and was scarcely known to Europe till 
 Cervantes convulsed the world with laughter in 
 1605.
 
 304 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The Latin ceased to be spoken by the people 
 of France in the tenth century, and French was 
 not a written language till the beginning of the 
 fourteenth century. Pascal, who died in 1662, is 
 called the father of modern French prose. 
 
 The German, as a literary language, dates from 
 Luther, who died in 1546. It was one of his 
 mortal sins against Rome, that he translated the 
 Bible into the uncouth and vulgar tongue of 
 Germany. 
 
 Our own language is also of recent origin. 
 Richard I. of England, who died in 1199, never 
 spoke a word of English in his life. Our mother- 
 tongue was never heard in an English court of 
 justice till 1362. The statutes of England were 
 not written in English till three years before 
 Columbus landed in the New World. No philolo- 
 gist dates modern English farther back than 1500. 
 Sir Thomas More, the author of "Utopia," who 
 died in 1535, was the father of English prose. 
 
 The dark ages were the sleep of the world, 
 while the languages of the modern world were 
 being bom out of chaos. 
 
 The first glimmer of dawn was in the twelfth 
 century, when in Paris, Oxford, and other parts 
 of Europe, universities were established. The
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 305 
 
 fifteenth century was spent in saving the rem- 
 nants of classic learning which had been locked 
 up in the cells of monks, the Greek at Constan- 
 tinople, and the Latin in the cloisters of Western 
 Europe. 
 
 During the first three hundred years of the life 
 of the older universities, it is almost literally true, 
 that no modern tongue had become a written lan- 
 guage. The learning of Europe was in Latin and 
 Greek. In order to study either science or litera- 
 ture, these languages must first be learned. Eu- 
 ropean writers continued to use Latin long after 
 the modern languages were fully established. 
 Even Milton's great "Defence of the People of 
 England" was written in Latin, as were also 
 the "Principia," and other scientific works of 
 Newton, who died in 1727. 
 
 The pride of learned corporations, the spirit of 
 exclusiveness among learned men, and their want 
 of sympathy with the mass of the people, united 
 to maintain Latin as the language of learning 
 long after its use was defensible. 
 
 Now, mark the contrast between the objects 
 and demands of education when the European 
 universities were founded, or even when Har- 
 vard was founded, and its demands at the pres-
 
 306 PBESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ent time. We have a family of modern languages 
 almost equal in force and perfection to the classic 
 tongues, and a modern literature, which, if less 
 perfect in aesthetic form than the ancient, is im- 
 measurably richer in truth, and is filled with the 
 noblest and bravest thoughts of the world. When 
 the universities were founded, modern science 
 was not born. Scarcely a generation has passed 
 since then, without adding some new science to 
 the circle of knowledge. As late as 1809 " The 
 Edinburgh Review " declared that " lectures upon 
 political economy would be discouraged in Ox- 
 ford, probably despised, probably not permitted." 
 At a much later date, there was no text-book in 
 the United States on that subject. The claims 
 of Latin and Greek to the chief place in the cur- 
 riculum have been gradually growing less, and the 
 importance of other knowledge has been con- 
 stantly increasing; but the colleges have gen- 
 erally opposed all innovations, and still cling to 
 the old ways with stubborn conservatism. Some 
 concessions, however, have been made to the ne- 
 cessities of the times, both in Europe and Ameri- 
 ca. Harvard would hardly venture to enforce its 
 law (which prevailed long after Cotton Mather's 
 day), forbidding its students to speak English
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 307 
 
 within the college limits, under any pretext 
 whatever; and British Cantabs have had their 
 task of composing hexameters in bad Latin re- 
 duced by a few thousand verses during the last 
 century. 
 
 It costs me a struggle to say any thing on this 
 subject which may be regarded with favor by 
 those who would reject the classics altogether, 
 for I have read them and taught them with a 
 pleasure and relish which few other pursuits 
 have ever afforded me ; but I am persuaded that 
 their supporters must soon submit to a re-adjust- 
 ment of their relations to college study, or they 
 may be driven from the course altogether. There 
 are most weighty reasons why Lathi and Greek 
 should be retained as part of a liberal education. 
 He who would study our own language pro- 
 foundly must not forget that nearly thirty per 
 cent of its words are of Latin origin, that the 
 study of Latin is the study of universal grammar, 
 and renders the acquisition of any modern lan- 
 guage an easy task, and is indispensable to the 
 teacher of language and literature, and to other 
 professional men. 
 
 Greek is perhaps the most perfect instrument 
 of thought ever invented by man, and its litera-
 
 308 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ture has never been equalled in purity of style, 
 and boldness of expression. As a means of intel- 
 lectual discipline, its value can hardly be over- 
 estimated. To take a long and complicated sen- 
 tence in Greek, to study each word in its meanings, 
 inflections, and relations, and to build up in the 
 mind, out of these polished materials, a sentence 
 perfect as a temple, and filled with Greek thought 
 which has dwelt there two thousand years, is 
 almost an act of creation : it calls into activity all 
 the faculties of the mind. 
 
 That the Christian Oracles have .come down to 
 us in Greek, will make Greek scholars forever a 
 necessity. 
 
 These studies, then, should not be neglected: 
 they should neither devour nor be devoured. I 
 insist they can be made more valuable, and at the 
 same time less prominent, than they now are. A 
 large part of the labor now bestowed upon them 
 is devoted, not to learning the genius and spirit 
 of the language, but is more than wasted on pedan- 
 tic trifles. More than half a century ago, in his 
 essay entitled " Professional Education," Sydney 
 Smith lashed this trifling as it deserves. Speak- 
 ing of classical Englishmen, he says,
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 309 
 
 " Their minds have been so completely possessed of ex- 
 aggerated notions of 'classical learning, that they have not 
 been able, in the great school of the world, to form any 
 other notion of real greatness. Attend, too, to the public 
 feelings; look to all the terms of applause. A learned man! 
 a scholar ! a man of erudition ! Upon whom are these epi- 
 thets of approbation bestowed? Are they given to men 
 acquainted with the science of government, thoroughly 
 masters of the geographical and commercial relations of 
 Europe? to men who know the properties of bodies and 
 their action upon each other ? No : this is not learning ; it 
 is chemistry or political economy, not learning. The distin- 
 guishing abstract term, the epithet of scholar, is reserved for 
 him who writes on the JEolic reduplication, and is familiar 
 with the Sylburgian method of arranging defectives in u and 
 fit. . . . The object of the young Englishman is not to 
 reason, to imagine, or to invent, but to conjugate, decline, 
 and derive. The situations of imaginary glory which he 
 draws for himself are the detection of an anapest in the 
 wrong place, or the restoration of a dative case which Cran- 
 zius has passed over and the never-dying Ernesti failed to 
 observe. If a young classic of this kind were to meet the 
 greatest chemist, or the greatest mechanician, or the most 
 profound political economist of his time, in company with 
 the greatest Greek scholar, would the slightest comparison 
 between them ever come across his mind ? Would he ever 
 dream that such men as Adam Smith and Lavoisier were 
 equal in dignity of understanding to, or of the same utility 
 as, Bentley or Heyne ? We are inclined to think that the 
 feeling excited would be a good deal like that which was
 
 310 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 expressed by Dr. George about the praises of the great King 
 of Prussia, who entertained considerable doubts whether the 
 king, with all his victories, knew how to conjugate a Greek 
 verb in /M." 
 
 He concludes another essay, written in 1826, 
 with these words : 
 
 "If there is any thing which fills reflecting men with 
 melancholy and regret, it is the waste of mortal time, paren- 
 tal money, and puerile happiness, in the present method of 
 pursuing Latin and Greek." 
 
 To write verse in these languages; to study 
 elaborate theories of the Greek accent and the 
 ancient pronunciation of both Greek and Latin, 
 which no one can ever know he has discovered, 
 and which would be utterly valueless if he did dis- 
 cover it ; to toil over the innumerable exceptions 
 to the arbitrary rules of poetic quantity, which 
 few succeed in learning, and none remember, 
 these, and a thousand other similar things which 
 crowd the pages of Zumpt and Kiihner, no more 
 constitute a knowledge of the spirit and genius of 
 the Greek and Latin languages than counting the 
 number of threads to the square inch in a man's 
 coat and the number of pegs in his boots makes 
 us acquainted with his moral and intellectual char-
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 311 
 
 acter. The greatest literary monuments of Greece 
 existed hundreds of years before the science of 
 grammar was born. Plato and Thucydides had a 
 tolerable acquaintance with the Greek language ; 
 but Crosby goes far beyond their depth. 
 
 Our colleges should require a student to under- 
 stand thoroughly the structure, idioms, and spirit 
 of these languages, and to be able, by the aid of 
 a lexicon, to analyze and translate them with 
 readiness and elegance. They should give him 
 the key to the storehouse of ancient literature, 
 that he may explore its treasures for himself in 
 after-life. This can be done in two years less than 
 the usual time, and nearly as well as it is now done. 
 
 I am glad to inform you, young gentlemen, that 
 the trustees of the institution in this place have 
 this day resolved that in the course of study to be 
 pursued here, Latin and Greek shall not be re- 
 quired after the Freshman year. They must be 
 studied the usual time as a requisite to admission, 
 and they may be carried farther than Freshman 
 year as elective studies ; but in the regular course 
 their places will be supplied by some of the stud- 
 ies I have already mentioned. Three or four 
 terms in general literature will teach you that the 
 republic of letters is larger than Greece or Rome.
 
 312 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The board of trustees have been strengthened in 
 the position they have taken, by the fact that a 
 similar course for the future has recently been 
 announced by the authorities of Harvard Uni- 
 versity. Within the last six days, I have received 
 a circular from the secretary of that venerable 
 college, which announces that two-thirds of the 
 Latin and Greek are hereafter to be stricken from 
 the list of required studies of the college course. 
 
 I rejoice that the movement has begun. Other 
 colleges must follow the example ; and the day 
 will not be far distant when it shall be the pride 
 of a scholar that he is also a worker, and when 
 the worker shall not refuse to become a scholar 
 because he despises a trifler. 
 
 I congratulate you that this change does not 
 reduce the amount of labor required of you. If 
 it did, I should deplore it. I beseech you to re- 
 member that the genius of success is still the 
 genius of labor. If hard work is not another 
 name for talent, it is the best possible substitute 
 for it. In the long-run, the chief difference in 
 men will be found in the amount of work they do. 
 Do not trust to what lazy men call the spur of 
 the occasion. If you wish to wear spurs in the 
 tournament of life, you must buckle them to your 
 own heels before you enter the lists.
 
 COLLEGE EDUCATION. 313 
 
 Men look with admiring wonder upon a great 
 intellectual effort, like Webster's reply to Hayne, 
 and seem to think that it leaped into life by the 
 inspiration of the moment. But if by some intel- 
 lectual chemistry we could resolve that masterly 
 speech into its 'several elements of power, and 
 trace each to its source, we should find that every 
 constituent force had been elaborated twenty 
 years before, it may be, in some hour of earnest 
 intellectual labor. Occasion may be the bugle- 
 call that summons an army to battle ; but the blast 
 of a bugle cannot ever make soldiers, or win 
 victories. 
 
 And finally, young gentlemen, learn to cultivate 
 a wise reliance, based not on what you hope, but 
 on what you perform. It has long been the habit 
 of this institution, if I may so speak, to throw 
 young men overboard, and let them sink or swim. 
 None have yet drowned who were worth the 
 saving. I hope the practice will be continued, 
 and that you will not rely upon outside help for 
 growth or success. Give crutches to cripples; 
 but go you forth with brave true hearts, knowing 
 that fortune dwells in your brain and muscle, and 
 that labor is the only human symbol of Omnip- 
 otence.
 
 vm. 
 
 Elements 0f Success. 
 
 ADDRESS BEFORE THE STUDENTS OF THE SPENOERIAN 
 
 . BUSINESS COLLEGE, WASHINGTON, D.O., 
 
 JUNE 29, 1868. 

 
 vni. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 T ADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I have con- 
 
 -*-^ sented to address you this evening, chiefly 
 for two reasons, one of them personal to myself, 
 the other public. The personal reason is, that I 
 have a -deep and peculiar sympathy with young 
 people who are engaged in any -department of edu- 
 cation. Their pursuits are to me, not only matters 
 of deep interest, but of profound mystery. It will 
 not, perhaps, flatter you older people when I say 
 that I have far less interest in you than in these 
 young people. With us, the great questions of 
 life are measurably settled. Our days go on, their 
 shadows lengthening as we approach nearer to the 
 evening which will soon deepen into the night of 
 life ; but before these young people are the dawn, 
 the sunrise, the coming noon, all the wonders and 
 mysteries of life. For ourselves, much of all that 
 belongs to the possibilities of life is ended ; and 
 the very angels look down upon us with less curi- 
 
 317
 
 318 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 osity than upon these whose lives are just opening. 
 Pardon me, then, if I feel more interest in them 
 than in you. 
 
 I feel a profounder reverence for a boy than for 
 a man. I never meet a ragged boy of the street 
 without feeling that I may owe him a salute, for I 
 know not what possibilities may be buttoned up 
 under his shabby coat. When I meet you in the 
 full flush of mature life, I see nearly all there is 
 of you ; but among these boys are the great men 
 of the future, the heroes of the next generation, 
 the philosophers, the statesmen, the philanthro- 
 pists, the great reformers and moulders of the next 
 age. Therefore, I say, there is a peculiar charm 
 to me in the exhibitions of young people engaged 
 in the business of education. 
 
 But there was a reason of public policy which 
 brought me here to-night ; and it was to testify to 
 the importance of these business colleges, and to 
 give two or three reasons why they have been 
 established in the United States. I wish every 
 college president in the United States could hear 
 the first reason I propose to give. Business col- 
 leges, my fellow-citizens, originated in this country 
 as a protest against the insufficiency of our system 
 of education, as a protest against the failure, the
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 319 
 
 absolute failure, of our American schools and col- 
 leges to fit young men and women for the business 
 of life. Take the great classes graduated from 
 the leading colleges of the country during this 
 and the next month, and how many, or, rather, 
 how few, of their members are fitted to go into 
 the practical business of life, and transact it like 
 sensible men ! These business colleges furnish 
 their graduates with a better education for practi- 
 cal purposes than Princeton, Harvard, or Yale. 
 
 The people are making a grave charge against 
 our system of higher education when they com- 
 plain that it is disconnected from the active busi- 
 ness of life. It is a charge to which our colleges 
 cannot plead guilty, and live. They must rectify 
 the fault, or miserably fail of their great purpose. 
 There is scarcely a more pitiable sight than to see 
 here and there learned men, so called, who have 
 graduated in our own and the universities of 
 Europe with high honors, men who know the 
 whole gamut of classical learning, who have sound- 
 ed the depths of mathematical and speculative 
 philosophy, and yet who could not harness a 
 horse, or make out a bill of sale, if the world de- 
 pended upon it. 
 
 The fact is, that our curriculum of college
 
 320 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 studies was not based on modern ideas, and has 
 not grown up to our modern necessities. The 
 prevailing system was established at a time when 
 the learning of the world was in Latin and Greek, 
 when, if a man would learn arithmetic, he must 
 first learn Latin ; and, if he would learn the his- 
 tory and geography of his own country, he would 
 acquire that knowledge only through the Latin 
 language. Of course, in those days, it was neces- 
 sary to lay the foundation of learning in a knowl- 
 edge of the learned languages. 
 
 The universities of Europe, from which our col- 
 leges were copied, were founded before the modern 
 languages were born. The leading languages of 
 Europe are scarcely six hundred years old. The 
 reasons for a course of study then are not good 
 now. The old necessities have passed away. We 
 now have strong and noble living languages, rich in 
 literature, replete with high and earnest thought, 
 the language of science, religion, and liberty ; and 
 yet we bid our children feed their spirits on the 
 life of dead ages, instead of the inspiring life and 
 vigor of our own times. I do not object to clas- 
 sical learning, far from it ; but I would not have 
 it exclude the living present. Therefore I wel- 
 come the business college in the form it has taken 

 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 321 
 
 in the United States, because it meets an acknowl- 
 edged want, by affording to young people of only 
 common scholastic attainments, and even to the 
 classes that graduate from Harvard and Yale, an 
 opportunity to learn important and indispensable 
 lessons before they go out into the business of life. 
 
 The present Chancellor of the British Ex- 
 chequer, the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, one 
 of the brightest minds in that kingdom, said in a 
 recent address before the venerable University of 
 Edinburgh, " I was a few months ago in Paris, and 
 two graduates of Oxford went with me to get our 
 dinner at a restaurant ; and, if the white-aproned 
 waiter had not been better educated than all three 
 of us, we might have starved to death. We could 
 not ask for our dinner in his language, but fortu- 
 nately he could ask us in our own language what 
 we wanted." There was one test of the insuf- 
 ficiency of modern education. 
 
 There is another reason why I am glad that 
 these business colleges have been established in 
 this country, and particularly in the city of Wash- 
 ington. If there be any city on this continent 
 where such institutions are needed more than in 
 any other, it is here in this city, for the benefit 
 of the employees of the United States.
 
 322 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Allow me, young ladies and gentlemen, to turn 
 aside for one moment to speak of what relates to 
 your business life. If I could speak one sentence 
 which could be echoed through every department 
 of the government, addressing myself not to 
 those in middle life, whose plans for the future 
 are fixed, but to those who are beginning life, I 
 would say to every young man and woman in the 
 civil service of the government, "Hasten by the 
 most rapid steps to get out of these departments 
 into active, independent business life." Do not 
 misunderstand me. Your work is honorable, 
 honorable to yourselves, and necessary to the 
 government. I make no charge on that score ; 
 but to a young man, who has in himself the mag- 
 nificent possibilities of life, it is not fitting that 
 he should be permanently commanded : he should 
 be a commander. You must not continue to be 
 the employed: you must be an employer. You 
 must be promoted from the ranks to the com- 
 mand. There is something, young men, which 
 you can command : go and find it, and command 
 it. You can at least command a horse and dray, 
 can be generalissimo of them, and may carve out 
 a fortune with them. And I did not fall on that 
 illustration by accident, young gentlemen. Do 

 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 323 
 
 you know the fact? If you do not, let me tell 
 it you, that more fortunes have been won, and 
 fewer failures known, in the dray business than 
 in wholesale merchandising. 
 
 Do not, I beseech you, be content to enter 
 upon any business which does not require and 
 compel constant intellectual growth. Do not 
 enter into any business which will leave you no 
 farther advanced mentally than it found you, 
 which will require no more ability and culture at 
 the end than it did at the beginning of twenty-five 
 years. I ask you whether your work in the 
 departments is not mainly of that kind, and 
 whether it must not continue to be of that kind. 
 If you take advantage of our magnificent libra- 
 ries here ; of the law colleges or the medical 
 colleges ; if, whatever your plans may be, you 
 complete and utilize your education by taking a 
 course in the business college ; if you hold office 
 in the departments for a few years to enable you 
 to live while you obtain a legal, medical, or busi- 
 ness education, you are doing a worthy work. 
 It always pleases me to see young men obtain 
 such places for such a purpose. But, while I 
 will cheerfully help a young man to secure such 
 a place for such a reason, I would warn him not
 
 324 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 to continue in it, but to get out of it as soon 
 as possible, and take a place of active personal 
 responsibility in the great industrial family of the 
 nation. 
 
 There is another reason, the last I shall give 
 in illustrating the importance of business colleges, 
 and that is the consideration which was so 
 beautifully and cogently urged a few moments 
 since, by the young lady who delivered the vale- 
 dictory of her class, that it is almost surplusage 
 to add a word to her discussion. The career 
 opened in business colleges, especially in this one, 
 for young women, is a most important and note- 
 worthy feature of these institutions. 
 
 Laugh at it as we may, put it aside as a jest 
 if we will, keep it out of Congress or political 
 campaigns, still the woman question is rising in 
 our horizon larger than the size of a man's hand ; 
 and some solution ere long that question must 
 find. I have not yet committed my mind to 
 any formula that embraces the whole question. 
 I halt On the threshold of so great a problem. 
 But there is one point on which I have reached 
 a conclusion ; and that is, that this nation must 
 open up new avenues of work and usefulness to 
 the women of the country, so that everywhere
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 325 
 
 they may have something to do. This is, just 
 now, infinitely more valuable to them than the 
 platform or the ballot-box. Whatever conclusion 
 shall be reached on that subject by and by, at 
 present the most valuable gift which can be 
 bestowed on women is something to do, which 
 they can do well and worthily, and thereby main- 
 tain themselves. Therefore I say that every 
 thoughtful statesman will look with satisfaction 
 upon such business colleges as are opening a 
 career for our young women. On that score we 
 have special reasons to be thankful for the estab- 
 lishment of these institutions. 
 
 Now, young gentlemen, let me for a moment 
 address you touching your success in life ; and I 
 hope the very brevity of my remarks will increase 
 the chance of their making a lodgement in your 
 minds. Let me beg you, in the outset of your 
 career, to dismiss from your minds all ideas of 
 succeeding by luck. There is no more common 
 thought among young people than that foolish 
 one, that by and by something will turn up by 
 which they will suddenly achieve fame or fortune. 
 No, young gentlemen, things don't turn up in this 
 world unless somebody turns them up. Inertia is 
 one of the indispensable laws of matter ; and things
 
 326 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 lie flat where they are until by some intelligent 
 spirit (for nothing but spirit makes motion in this 
 world) they are endowed with activity and life. 
 Do not dream that some good luck is going to 
 happen to you, and give you a fortune. Luck is 
 an ignis fatuus : you may follow it to ruin, but not 
 to success. The great Napoleon, who believed in 
 his destiny, followed it until he saw his star go 
 down in blackest night, when the Old Guard 
 perished around him, and Waterloo was lost. A 
 pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. 
 
 Young men talk of trusting to the spur of the 
 occasion. That trust is vain. Occasions cannot 
 make spurs, young gentlemen. If you expect to 
 wear spurs, you must win them. If you wish to 
 use them, you must buckle them to your own heels 
 before you go into the fight. Any success you 
 may achieve is not worth the having unless you 
 fight for it. Whatever you win in life you must 
 conquer by your own efforts ; and then it is yours, 
 a part of yourself. 
 
 Again : in order to have any success in life, or 
 any worthy success, you must resolve to carry into 
 your work a fulness of knowledge, not merely 
 a sufficiency, but more than a sufficiency. In this 
 respect, follow the rule of the machinists. If they
 
 ELEMENTS OP SUCCESS. 327 
 
 want a machine to do the work of six horses, they 
 give it nine-horse power, so that they may have a 
 reserve of three. To carry on the business of life, 
 you must have surplus power. Be fit for more 
 than the thing you are now doing. Let every one 
 know that you have a reserve in yourself, 
 that you have more power than you are now using. 
 If you are not too large for the place you occupy, 
 you are too small for it. How full our country is 
 of bright examples, not only of those who occupy 
 some proud eminence in public life, but in every 
 place you may find men going on with steady 
 nerve, attracting the attention of their fellow- 
 citizens, and carving out for themselves names 
 and fortunes from small and humble beginnings 
 and in the face of formidable obstacles. Let me 
 cite an example of a man I recently saw in the 
 little village of Norwich, New York. If you wish 
 to know his name, go into any hardware-store, and 
 ask for the best hammer in the world; and, if the 
 salesman be an intelligent man, he will bring you a 
 hammer bearing the name of D. Maydole. Young 
 gentlemen, take that hammer in your hand, drive 
 nails with it, and draw inspiration from it. 
 
 Thirty years ago a boy was struggling through 
 the snows of Chenango Valley, trying to hire him-
 
 328 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 self to a blacksmith. He succeeded, and learned 
 his trade ; but he did more. He took it into his 
 head that he could make a better hammer than 
 any other man had made. He devoted himself to 
 the task for more than a quarter of a century. He 
 studied the chemistry of metals, the strength of 
 materials, the philosophy of form. He studied 
 failures. Each broken hammer taught him a les- 
 son. There was no part of the process that he 
 did not master. He taxed his wit to invent ma- 
 chines to perfect and cheapen his processes. No 
 improvement in working steel or iron escaped his 
 notice. What may not twenty-five years of effort 
 accomplish when concentrated on a single object ? 
 He earned success; and now, when his name is 
 stamped on a steel hammer, it is his note, his bond, 
 his integrity embodied in steel. The spirit of the 
 man is in each hammer; and the work, like the 
 workman, is unrivalled. Mr. Maydole is now 
 acknowledged to have made the best hammer in 
 the world. Even the sons of Thor, across the sea, 
 admit it. 
 
 While I was there, looking through his shop, 
 with all its admirable arrangement of tools and 
 machinery, there came to him a large order from 
 China. The merchants of the Celestial Kingdom
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 329 
 
 had sent down to the little town, where the per- 
 sistent blacksmith now lives in affluence, to get 
 the best that Anglo-Saxon skill had accomplished 
 in the hammer business. It is no small achieve- 
 ment to do one thing better than any other man 
 in the world has done it. 
 
 Let me call your attention to something nearer 
 your own work in this college. About forty years 
 ago a young lad who had come from the Catskill 
 Mountains, where he had learned the rudiments of 
 penmanship by scribbling on the sole-leather of a 
 good old Quaker shoemaker (for he was too poor 
 to buy paper) till he could write better than his 
 neighbors, commenced to teach in that part of 
 Ohio which has been called "benighted Ashta- 
 bula " (I suggest " beknighted " as the proper 
 spelling of the word). He set up a little writing- 
 school in a rude log cabin, and threw into the 
 work the fervor of a poetic soul and a strength of 
 heart and spirit that few men possess. He caught 
 his ideals of beauty from the waves of the lake 
 and the curves they make upon the white sand 
 beach, and from the tracery of the spider's web. 
 Studying the lines of beauty as drawn by the 
 hand of Nature, he wrought out that system of 
 penmanship which is now the pride of our cou'n-
 
 330 PBESIDENT GABriBLD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 try, and the model of our schools. It is the sys- 
 tem you have been learning in this college, and 
 which is so worthily represented by the son of its 
 author, my friend Professor Spencer, your able 
 instructor. This is an example of what a man 
 may do by putting his whole heart into the work 
 he undertakes. 
 
 Only yesterday, on my way here, I learned a 
 fact which I will give you to show how, by attend- 
 ing to things, and putting your mind to the work, 
 you may reach success. A few days ago, in the 
 city of Boston, there was held 'an exhibition of 
 photography; and to the great surprise of New 
 England it turned out that Mr. Ryder, a pho- 
 tographer from Cleveland, O., took the prize for 
 the best photography in America. But how did 
 this thing happen ? I will tell you. This Cleve- 
 land photographer happened to read in a German 
 paper of a process practised by the artists of 
 Bohemia, a process of touching up the negative 
 with the finest instruments, thus removing all 
 chemical imperfections from the negative itself. 
 Reading this, he sent for one of these artists, and 
 at length succeeded in bringing the art of Bohe- 
 mia into the service of his own profession. 
 
 The patient Bohemian sat down with his lenses,
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 331 
 
 and bringing a strong, clear light upon these neg- " 
 atives, working with the finest instruments, round- 
 ing and strengthening the outlines, was able at 
 last to print from the negative a photograph more 
 perfect than any I have seen made with the help 
 of an India-ink finish. And so Mr. Ryder took 
 the prize. Why not ? It was no mystery : it was 
 simply taking time by the forelock, securing the 
 best aid in his business, and bringing to bear the 
 force of an energetic mind to attain the best pos- 
 sible results. That is the only way, young ladies / 
 and gentlemen, in which success is gained. These 
 men succeed because they deserve success. Their 
 results are wrought out: they do not come to 
 hand already made. Poets may be born, but 
 success is made. 
 
 Young gentlemen, let not poverty stand as an 
 obstacle in your way. Poverty is uncomfortable, 
 as I. can testify ; but nine times out of ten the 
 best thing that can happen to a young man is to 
 be tossed overboard, and compelled to sink or 
 swim for himself. In all my acquaintance, I have 
 never known one to be drowned who was worth 
 the saving. This would not be wholly true in any 
 country but one of political equality like ours. 
 The editor of one of the leading magazines of
 
 332 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 England told me, not many months ago, a fact 
 startling enough in itself, but of great significance 
 to a poor man. He told me that he had never yet 
 known, in all his experience, a single boy of the 
 class of farm-laborers (not those who own farms, 
 but mere farm-laborers) who had ever risen above 
 his class. Boys from the manufacturing and com- 
 mercial classes had risen frequently, but from the 
 farm-labor class he had never known one. 
 
 The reason is this : In the aristocracies of the 
 Old World, wealth and society are built up like 
 the strata of rock which compose the crust of the 
 earth. If a boy be born in the lowest stratum of 
 life, it is almost impossible for him to rise through 
 this hard crust into the higher ranks ; but in this 
 country it is not so. The strata of our society 
 resemble rather the ocean, where every drop, even 
 the lowest, is free to mingle with all others, and 
 may shine at last on the crest of the highest wave. 
 This is the glory of our country, young gentle- 
 men; and you need not fear that there are any 
 obstacles which will prove too great for any brave 
 heart. You will recollect what Burns, who knew 
 all meanings of poverty and struggle, has said in 
 homely verse :
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 333 
 
 " Though losses and crosses 
 Be lessons right severe, 
 There's wit there, you'll get there, 
 You'll find no other where." 
 
 One thought more, and I will close. This is 
 almost a sermon, but I cannot help it; for the 
 occasion itself has given rise to the thoughts I am 
 offering you. Let me suggest, that, in giving you 
 being, God locked up in your nature certain forces 
 and capabilities. What will you do with them ? 
 Look at the mechanism of a clock. Take off the 
 pendulum and ratchet, and the wheels go rattling 
 down, and all its force is expended in a moment ; 
 but properly balanced and regulated it will go on, 
 letting out its force tick by tick, measuring hours 
 and days, and doing faithfully the service for 
 which it was designed. I implore you to cherish 
 and guard and use well the forces that God has 
 given to you. You may let them run down in a 
 year, if you will. Take off the strong curb of 
 discipline and morality, and you will be an old 
 man before your twenties are passed. Preserve 
 these forces. Do not burn them out with brandy, 
 or waste them in idleness and crime. Do not 
 destroy them. Do not use them unworthily. Save 
 and protect them, that they may save for you
 
 334 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 fortune and fame. Honestly resolve to do this, 
 and you will be an honor to yourself and to your 
 country. I thank you, young friends, for your 
 kind attention.
 
 IX. 
 
 &amt STenfcencfes of American Education. 
 
 SPEECH BEFORE THE DEPARTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENCE 
 
 OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, 
 
 WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 6, 1879.
 
 EX. 
 
 SOME TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 
 
 ENTLEMEN, I am really not in a situation 
 *** to say any thing to this convention, for I do 
 not know where you are in the course of your 
 deliberations ; but Dr. Loring has said some things 
 that have awakened in me a very lively interest, 
 and I will " rake after his cradling," as the har- 
 vesters would say. It is a matter of great gratifi- 
 cation to me to meet gentlemen who are engaged 
 in the work of education. I feel at home among 
 teachers ; and, I may say, I look back with more 
 satisfaction upon my work as a teacher than upon 
 any other work I have done. It gives me a pleas- 
 ant home feeling to sit among you, and revive old 
 memories. 
 
 There is one thing to which I will venture to 
 call your attention ; and that is the great case, if I 
 may speak as a lawyer, which is soon to be tried 
 before the American people, the case of Brains 
 vs. Brick and Mortar. That, in my judgment, is to 
 
 337
 
 338 PRESIDENT GAR FIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 be a notable trial; and until the cause is fully 
 argued and rightly decided, we shall have no end 
 of trouble in our educational work. To insure its 
 final and rightful settlement, the friends of our 
 schools should unite to force the question to a 
 hearing, and should go to the very bottom of the 
 controversy. It has long been my opinion, that 
 we are all educated, whether children, men, or 
 women, far more by personal influence than by 
 books and the apparatus of schools. If I could 
 be taken back into boyhood to-day, and had all 
 the libraries and apparatus of a university, with 
 ordinary routine professors, offered me on the one 
 hand, and on the other a great, luminous, rich- 
 souled man, such as Dr. Hopkins was twenty 
 years ago, in a tent in the woods alone, I should 
 say, " Give me Dr. Hopkins for my college course, 
 rather than any university with only routine pro- 
 fessors." The privilege of sitting down before a 
 great clear-headed, large-hearted man, and breath- 
 ing the atmosphere of his life, and being drawn 
 up to him and lifted up by him, and learning 
 his methods of thinking and living, is in itself 
 an enormous educating power. But America, I 
 say, is running to brick and mortar. Colleges 
 and universities are constantly receiving munifi-
 
 TENDENCIES OF AMERICAN EDUCATION. 339 
 
 cent gifts which the donors require to be built 
 into walls inscribed with their names ; but the real 
 college sits starving under the stately shadows. 
 Our Smithsonian Institution over here was, for a 
 long time, engaged in this struggle between brick 
 and brains. One of the first things done by Con- 
 gress was to saddle it with a huge brick building. 
 Another impediment we fortunately got rid of, 
 the great library of the Institution, which de- 
 voured five thousand dollars a year of the income ; 
 and we are now struggling to get off our hands 
 the great museum, which costs still more. Mu- 
 seums and libraries are necessary and valuable ; 
 but the central purpose of Smithson, to encourage 
 original discovery, was in great measure thwarted 
 by the mere accumulation of materials. I hope 
 the day is not distant when the income of that 
 beneficent institution will be so liberated that 
 every American who has the requisite genius and 
 force can find there the help required for original 
 investigation. 
 
 And so, in our schools, let us put less money in 
 great schoolhouses, and more in the salaries of 
 teachers. Smaller schools and more teachers, less 
 machinery and more personal influence, will bring 
 forth fruits higher and better than any we have 
 vet seen.
 
 340 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 In this connection I will refer to the tendency 
 in our primary, schools to overcrowd the children 
 by giving them too many studies, and thus render- 
 ing them superficial in all. The professors at 
 West Point tell us that for more than forty years 
 their course of examinations of cadets for admis- 
 sion has been substantially the same, and that the 
 questions now asked in the several branches are 
 the same as those propounded in the same 
 branches forty years ago. Now, these professors 
 say that the percentage of failures to pass that 
 preliminary examination has been increasing, es- 
 pecially of late, with alarming rapidity, and is very 
 much greater than it was forty years ago. I un- 
 derstand that Professor Church says this fact does 
 not arise from worse appointments, nor from lack 
 of general information. Indeed, the young men 
 who go there now have much more general cul- 
 ture than their earlier predecessors. Many of 
 them, who have studied Latin, algebra, and phys- 
 ics, and other higher branches, utterly break 
 down in spelling, penmanship, arithmetic, and 
 grammar. In short, they know a little of many 
 branches, but are thorough in none. 
 
 There is a limit of effort in a child ; and if his 
 culture is spread over too large a surface, it will
 
 TENDENCIES OF AMEKICAN EDUCATION. 341 
 
 be thin everywhere. The ambition of our schools 
 to do too much results in doing nothing well. 
 Non multa sed multum is the old and safe rule. I 
 believe, therefore, that the two great points which 
 the educators of this country should aim at if 
 they would succeed are, first, smaller schools and 
 more teachers, remembering always that a 
 teacher who is at all fit for his work is one who 
 has the power of inspiring, who can pour his spirit 
 into the darkness of the pupil's mind, and fill 
 it with " sweetness and light ; " secondly, they 
 should cut off a large number of new studies 
 which have been forced into the earlier course, 
 and concentrate their efforts upon the old primary 
 branches until these are thoroughly mastered. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, you who are conducting the 
 educational affairs of this country cannot afford 
 to rest under this charge of failure at West Point. 
 You must answer by disproving the charge, or 
 removing the evil. Every conference among 
 educators should be directed to these questions ; 
 and when they are settled, you will have rendered 
 one of the highest services that can be rendered 
 to this country. 
 
 If I may refer to the national aspect of your 
 profession, I will say we can never escape Mac-
 
 342 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 aulay's prophecy of the downfall of the Republic, 
 unless we do it by the aid of the schoolmaster. 
 Macaulay said that a government like ours must 
 inevitably lead to anarchy ; and I believe there is 
 no answer to his prophecy unless the schoolmaster 
 can give it. If we can fill the minds of all our 
 children who are to be voters with intelligence 
 which will fit them wisely to vote, and fill them 
 with the spirit of liberty, then will we have 
 averted the fatal prophecy. But if, on the other 
 hand, we allow our youth to grow up in ignorance, 
 this Republic will end in disastrous failure. All 
 the encouragement that the National Government 
 can give, every thing that States can do, all that 
 good citizens every where can do, and most of all 
 what the teacher himself can do, ought to be 
 hailed as the deliverance of our country from the 
 saddest distress.
 
 X. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 S. JF. 53. fSorse. 
 
 AN ADDRESS AT THE MORSE MEMORIAL MEETING, HELD 
 
 IN THE HALL OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 APRIL 16, 1872.
 
 X. 
 
 S. F. B. MORSE. 
 
 grave has just closed over the mortal 
 remains of one whose name will be forever 
 associated with a series of achievements in the 
 domain of discovery and invention the most won- 
 derful our race has ever known, wonderful in 
 the results accomplished, more wonderful still 
 in the agencies employed, most wonderful in the 
 scientific revelations which preceded and accom- 
 panied its development. 
 
 The electro-magnetic telegraph is the embodi- 
 ment I might say the incarnation of many 
 centuries of thought, of many generations of 
 effort to elicit from Nature one of her deepest 
 mysteries. 
 
 No one man, no one century, could have 
 achieved it. It is the child of the human race, 
 " the heir of all the ages." How wonderful were 
 the steps which led to its creation! The very 
 name of this telegraphic instrument bears record 
 
 345
 
 346 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND J}DUCATION. 
 
 of its history, " electric, magnetic ! " The first 
 named from the bit of yellow amber, whose quali- 
 ties of attraction and repulsion were discovered 
 by a Grecian philosopher twenty-four centuries 
 ago ; and the second from Magnesia, the village 
 of Asia Minor, where first was found the load- 
 stone whose touch turned the needle forever to 
 the north. These were the earliest forms in 
 which that subtle, all-pervading force revealed 
 itself to men. In the childhood of the race, men 
 stood dumb in the presence of its more terrible 
 manifestations. When it gleamed in the purple 
 aurora, or shot dusky-red from the clouds, it was 
 the eye-flash of an angry God, before whom mor- 
 tals quailed in helpless fear. 
 
 When the electric light burned blue on the 
 spear-points of the Roman legions, it was to them 
 and their leaders a portent from the gods, beckon- 
 ing to victory. When the phosphorescent light, 
 which the sailors still call St. Elmo's fire, hovered 
 on the masts and spars of the Roman ship, it was 
 Castor and Pollux, twin gods of the sea, guiding 
 the mariner to port, or the beacon of an avenging 
 god luring him to death. 
 
 When we consider the startling forms in which 
 this element presents itself, it is not surprising
 
 S. P. B. MOESB. 347 
 
 that so many centuries elapsed before man dared 
 to confront and question its awful mystery. And 
 it was fitting that here, in this new, free world, 
 the first answer came, revealing to our Franklin 
 the great truth, that the lightning of the sky, 
 and the electricity of the laboratory, were one ; 
 that in the simple electric toy were embodied all 
 the mysteries of the thunderbolt. Until near the 
 beginning of the present century, the only known 
 method of producing electricity was by friction. 
 But the discoveries of Galvani in 1790, and of 
 Volta in 1810, resulted in the production of elec- 
 tricity by the chemical action of acids upon metals, 
 and gave to the world the galvanic battery and 
 the voltaic pile and the electric current. This 
 was the first step in that path of modern discov- 
 ery which led to the telegraph. But further 
 discoveries were necessary to make the telegraph 
 possible. 
 
 The next great step was taken by Oersted, the 
 Swedish professor, who, in 1819-20, made the dis- 
 covery that the needle, when placed near the gal- 
 vanic battery, was deflected at right angles with 
 the electric current. In the four modest pages 
 in which Oersted announced this discovery to 
 the world, the science of electro-magnetism was 
 founded.
 
 348 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 As Franklin had exhibited the relation between 
 lightning and the electric fluid, so Oersted exhib- 
 ited the relation between magnetism and elec- 
 tricity. From 1820 to 1825 his discovery was 
 further developed by Davy and Sturgeon of Eng- 
 land, and Arago and Ampere of France. They 
 found, that, by sending a current of electricity 
 through a wire coiled .around a piece of soft iron, 
 the iron became a magnet while the current was 
 passing, and ceased to be a magnet when the 
 current was broken. This gave an intermittent 
 power, a power to grapple and to let go, at the 
 will of the electrician. Ampe"re suggested that a 
 telegraph was possible by applying this power to 
 a needle. 
 
 In 1825 Barlow of England made experiments 
 to verify this suggestion of the telegraph, and 
 pronounced it impracticable on the ground that 
 the batteries then used would not send the fluid 
 through even two hundred feet of wire without a 
 sensible diminution of its force. 
 
 In 1831 Joseph Henry, now secretary of the 
 Smithsonian Institution, then a professor at Alba- 
 ny, N.Y., as the result of numerous experiments 
 discovered a method by which he produced a bat- 
 tery of such intensity as to overcome the 
 cultv spoken of by Barlow in 1825,
 
 S. P. B. MORSE. 349 
 
 By means of this his discovery, he magnetized 
 soft iron at a great distance from the battery, 
 pointed out the fact that a telegraph was possible, 
 and actually rang a bell by means of the electro- 
 magnet acting on a long wire. 
 
 This was the last step in the series of great 
 discoveries which preceded the invention of the 
 telegraph. 
 
 When these discoveries ended, the work of the 
 inventor began. It was in 1832, the year that 
 succeeded the last of these great discoveries, 
 when Professor Morse first turned his thoughts 
 to that work whose triumph is the triumph of his 
 race. He had devoted twenty-two years of his 
 manhood to the study and practice of art. He 
 had sat at the feet of the great masters of Europe, 
 and had already, by his own works of art, achieved 
 a noble name from the work of interpreting ; and 
 he now turned to the grander work of interpret- 
 ing to the world that subtle and mysterious ele- 
 ment with which the thinkers of the human race 
 had so long been occupied. 
 
 I cannot here recount the story of that long 
 struggle through which he passed to the accom- 
 plishment of his great result; how he struggled 
 with poverty, with the vast difficulties of the sub-
 
 350 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ject itself, with the unfaith, the indifference, and 
 the contempt which almost everywhere con- 
 fronted him ; how, at the very moment of his tri- 
 umph, he was on the verge of despair, when in 
 this very Capitol his project met the jeers of 
 almost a majority of the National Legislature. 
 But when has despair yielded to such a triumph ? 
 When has such a morning risen on such a night ? 
 To all cavillers and doubters, this instrument and 
 its language are a triumphant answer. That 
 chainless spirit which fills the immensity of space 
 with its invisible presence ; which dwells in the 
 blaze of the sun, and follows the path of the far- 
 thest star, and courses the depths of earth and 
 sea, that mighty spirit has at last yielded to the 
 human will. It has entered a body prepared for 
 its dwelling. It has found a voice through which 
 it speaks to the human ear. It has taken its 
 place as the humble servant of man ; and through 
 all coming time its work will be associated with 
 the name and fame of Samuel F. B. Morse. 
 
 Were there no other proof of the present value 
 of his work, this alone would suffice, that 
 throughout the world, whatever the language or 
 the dialect of those who use it, the telegraph 
 speaks a language whose first element is the
 
 S. F. B. MOKSE. 351 
 
 alphabet of Morse ; and in 1869, of the sixteen 
 thousand telegraphic instruments used on the 
 lines of Europe, thirteen thousand were of the 
 pattern invented by Morse. The future of this 
 great achievement can be measured by no known 
 standards. Morse gave us the instrument and 
 the alphabet. The world is only beginning to 
 spell out the lesson, whose meaning the future 
 will read.
 
 XI. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Sosepfj 
 
 ADDRESS AT THE MEMORIAL MEETING HELD IN THE 
 
 HAT.T. OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 TUESDAY EVENING, JAN. 16, 1879.
 
 XI. 
 
 JOSEPH HENRY. 
 
 " And who hath trod Olympus, from his eye 
 Fades not the broader outlook of the gods." 
 
 1V/TR. PRESIDENT, In the presence of these 
 fathers of science, who have honored this 
 occasion with their wisdom and eloquence, I can 
 do but little more than express my gratitude for 
 the noble contribution they have made to this 
 national expression of love and reverence. So 
 completely have they covered the ground, so fully 
 have they sketched the great life which we cele- 
 brate, that nothing is left but to linger a moment 
 over the tributes they have offered, and select 
 here and there a special excellence to carry away 
 as a lasting memorial. 
 
 No page of human history is so instructive and 
 significant as the record of those early influences 
 which develop the character and direct the lives 
 of eminent men. To every man of great original 
 power, there comes in early youth a moment of 
 
 355
 
 356 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 sudden discovery, of self-recognition, when his 
 own nature is revealed to himself, when he catches, 
 for the first time, a strain of that immortal song 
 to which his own spirit answers, and which be- 
 comes thenceforth and forever the inspiration of 
 his life, 
 
 " Like noble music unto noble words." 
 
 More than a hundred years ago, in Strasbourg 
 on the Rhine, in obedience to the commands of 
 his father, a German lad was reluctantly studying 
 the mysteries of the civil law, but feeding his 
 spirit as best he could upon the formal and artifi- 
 cial poetry of his native land, when a* page of Wil- 
 liam Shakespeare met his eye, and changed the 
 whole current of his life. Abandoning the law, 
 he created and crowned with an immortal name 
 the grandest epoch of German literature. 
 
 Recording his own experience, he says, 
 
 " At the first touch of Shakespeare's genius I made the 
 glad confession that something inspiring hovered above me. 
 . . . The first page of his that I read made me his for life ; 
 and when I had finished a single play, I stood like one born 
 blind on whom a miraculous hand bestows sight in a mo- 
 ment. I saw, I felt, in the most vivid manner, that my 
 existence was infinitely expanded."
 
 JOSEPH HENRY. 357 
 
 This old-world experience of Goethe's was strik- 
 ingly reproduced, though under different condi- 
 tions, and with different results, in the early life of 
 Joseph Henry. You have just heard the incident 
 worthily recounted; but let us linger over it a 
 moment. An orphan boy of sixteen, of tough 
 Scotch fibre, laboring for his own support at the 
 handicraft of the jeweller, unconscious of his great 
 power, delighted with romance and the drama, 
 dreaming of a possible career on the stage, his 
 attention was suddenly arrested by a single page 
 of an humble book of science which chanced to 
 fall into his hands. It was not the flash of poetic 
 vision which aroused him : it was the voice of 
 great Nature calling her child. With quick rec- 
 ognition and glad reverence his spirit responded ; 
 and from that moment to the end of his long and 
 honored life, Joseph Henry was the devoted stu- 
 dent of science, the faithful interpreter of nature. 
 
 To those who knew his gentle spirit, it is not 
 surprising that ever afterward he kept the little 
 volume near him, and cherished it as the source of 
 his first inspiration. In the maturity of his fame, 
 he recorded on its fly-leaf his gratitude. Note his 
 words :
 
 358 PBESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 " This book under Providence has exerted a remarkable 
 influence on my life. ... It opened to me a new world of 
 thought and enjoyment, invested things before almost un- 
 noticed with the highest interest, fixed my mind on the 
 study of nature, and caused me to resolve at the time of 
 reading it that I would devote my life to the acquisition of 
 knowledge." 
 
 We have heard from his venerable associates 
 with what resolute perseverance he trained his 
 mind and marshalled his powers for the higher 
 realms of science. He was the first American 
 after Franklin who made a series of successful 
 original experiments in electricity and magnetism. 
 He entered the mighty line of Volta, Galvani, 
 Oersted, Davy, and Ampere, the great exploring 
 philosophers of the world, and added to their 
 work a final great discovery which made the 
 electro-magnetic telegraph possible. 
 
 It remained only for the inventor to construct 
 an instrument and an alphabet. Professor Henry 
 refused .to reap any pecuniary rewards from his 
 great discovery, but gave freely to mankind what 
 nature and science had given to him. 
 
 I observe that these venerable gentlemen who 
 have spoken express some regret that Professor 
 Henry left their higher circle to come down to us ;
 
 JOSEPH HENBY. 359 
 
 and to some extent I share their regret. Doubt- 
 less it was a great loss to science. I remember 
 that Agassiz once said he had made it the rule 
 of his life to abandon any scientific investigation 
 so soon as it became useful. I fancied I saw him 
 and his brethren going beyond the region of per- 
 petual frost, up among the wild elements of nature 
 and the hidden mysteries of science, and when 
 they had made a discovery, and brought it down 
 to the line of commercial value, leaving it there, 
 knowing that the world would make it useful and 
 profitable, while they went back to resume their 
 original search. I do not wonder that these men 
 regretted the loss of such a comrade as Joseph 
 Henry. 
 
 But something is due to the millions of Ameri- 
 cans outside the circle of science ; and the Repub- 
 lic has the right to call on all her children for 
 service. It was needful that the government should 
 have, here at its capital, a great, luminous-minded, 
 pure-hearted man, to serve as its counsellor and 
 friend in matters of science. Such an adviser was 
 never more needed than at the date of Professor 
 Henry's arrival at the capital. 
 
 The venerable gentleman of almost eighty 
 years, who has just addressed us so eloquently,
 
 360 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 has portrayed the difficulties which beset the gov- 
 ernment in its attempt to determine how it should 
 wisely and worthily execute the trust of Smithson. 
 It was a perilous moment for the credit of America 
 when that bequest was made. In his large catho- 
 licity of mind, Smithson did not trammel the be- 
 quest with conditions. In nine words he set forth 
 its object: "For the increase and diffusion of 
 knowledge among men." He asked and believed 
 that America would interpret his wish aright, and 
 with the liberal wisdom of science. 
 
 A town-meeting is not a good place to deter- 
 mine scientific truths. And the yeas and nays 
 that are called from this desk from day to day are 
 not the supreme test of science, as the country 
 finds when we attempt to settle any scientific 
 question, whether it relates to the polariscope or 
 to finance. 
 
 For ten years Congress wrestled with those nine 
 words of Smithson, and could not handle them. 
 Some political philosophers of that period held 
 that we had no constitutional authority to accept 
 the gift at all, and proposed to send it back to 
 England. Every conceivable proposition was 
 made. The colleges clutched at it ; the libraries 
 wanted it; the publication societies desired to
 
 JOSEPH HENRY. 361 
 
 scatter it. The fortunate settlement of the ques- 
 tion was this : that, after ten years of wrangling, 
 Congress was wise enough to acknowledge its own 
 ignorance, and authorized a body of men to find 
 some one who knew how to settle it. And these 
 men were wise enough to choose your great com- 
 rade to undertake the task. Sacrificing his bril- 
 liant prospects as a discoverer, he undertook the 
 difficult work. He draughted a paper, in which he 
 offered an interpretation of the will of Smithson, 
 mapped out a plan which would meet the de- 
 mands of science, and submitted it to the suffrage 
 of the republic of scientific scholars. After due 
 deliberation it received the almost unanimous 
 approval of the scientific world. With faith and 
 sturdy perseverance, he adhered to the plan, and 
 steadily resisted all attempts to overthrow it. 
 
 In the thirty-two years during which he admin- 
 istered the great trust, he never swerved from his 
 first purpose ; and he succeeded at last in realizing 
 the ideas with which he started. But it has taken 
 all that time to get rid of the incumbrance with 
 which Congress had overloaded the Institution. 
 In this work Professor Henry taught the valuable 
 lesson to all founders and supporters of colleges, 
 that they should pay less for brick and mortar,
 
 362 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and more for brains. Under the first orders im- 
 posed upon him by Congress, he was required to 
 expend twenty-five thousand dollars a year in pur- 
 chasing books. By wise resistance he managed to 
 lengthen out the period for that expenditure ten 
 years ; and a few years ago he had the satisfaction 
 of seeing Congress remove from the Institution 
 the heavy load, by transferring the Smithsonian Li- 
 brary to the Library of Congress. The fifty-eight 
 thousand volumes and forty thousand pamphlets, 
 of rare scientific value, which are now upon our 
 shelves, have added greatly to the value of the 
 national library ; but their care and preservation 
 would soon have absorbed the resources of the 
 Smithsonian. When Congress shall have taken 
 the other incumbrance, the National Museum, off 
 the hands of the Institution, by making fit pro- 
 vision for the care of the great collection, they 
 will have done still more to realize the ideas of 
 Professor Henry. 
 
 He has stood by our side in all these years, 
 meeting every great question of science with that 
 calm spirit which knew no haste and no rest. At 
 the call of his government he discovered new 
 truths, and mustered them into its service. The 
 twelve hundred light-houses that shine on our
 
 JOSEPH HENKY. 363 
 
 shores, the three thousand buoys along our rivers 
 and coasts, testify to his faithfulness and efficiency. 
 
 When it became evident that we could no longer 
 depend upon the whale-fisheries to supply our bea- 
 con-lights, he began to search for a substitute for 
 sperm-oil; and after a thousand patient experi- 
 ments he made the discovery that of all the oils of 
 the world, when heated to 250 Fahrenheit, the 
 common, cheap lard-oil of America became the 
 best illuminant. That discovery gave us at once 
 an unfailing supply, and for many years saved the 
 treasury a hundred thousand dollars a year. 
 
 He had no such pride of authorship as to cling 
 to his own methods when a better could be found. 
 He has recently tested the qualities of petroleum 
 as an illuminant, and recommended its use for the 
 smaller lights. In instances far too numerous to 
 be recounted, we have long had this man as our 
 counsellor, our guide, and our friend. 
 
 During all the years of his sojourn among us, 
 there has been one spot in this city across which 
 the shadow of partisan politics has never fallen ; 
 and that was the ground of the Smithsonian Insti- 
 tution. We have seen in this city, at least one 
 great, high trust so faithfully discharged for a 
 third of a century that no breath of suspicion has
 
 364 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ever dimmed its record. The Board of Regents 
 have seen Professor Henry's accounts all closed ; 
 and, after the most rigid examination, the unani- 
 mous declaration is made, that, to the last cent, 
 during the whole of that period, his financial ad- 
 ministration was as faultless and complete as his 
 discoveries in science. The blessing of such an 
 example in this city ought at least to do something 
 to reconcile these men of science to the loss they 
 suffered when their friend was called to serve the 
 government at its capital. 
 
 Remembering his great career as a man of sci- 
 ence, as a man who served his government with 
 singular ability and faithfulness, who was loved 
 and venerated by every circle, who blessed with 
 the light of his friendship the worthiest and the 
 best, whose life added new lustre to the glory of 
 the human race, we shall be most fortunate if 
 ever in the future we see his like again.
 
 xn. 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 3Litt ant Character of ainufca a.-B00tfj. 
 
 AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT HIRAM COLLEGE, O., 
 JUNE 22, 1876. 
 
 TO THE THOUSANDS OF NOBLE MEN AND WOMEN WHOSE GENEROUS 
 AMBITION WAS AWAKENED, WHOSE EARLY CULTURE WAS GUIDED, 
 AND WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN MADE NOBLER, BY THE THOR- 
 OUGHNESS OF HER INSTRUCTION, BY THE WISDOM OF 
 HER COUNSEL, BY THE FAITHFULNESS OF HER 
 FRIENDSHIP, AND THE PURITY OF HER 
 LIFE, THIS TRIBUTE TO THE 
 MEMORY OF 
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH 
 
 18 AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
 
 xn. 
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 
 
 " The crown and head, 
 The stately flower of female fortitude." 
 
 . PRESIDENT, You have called me to 
 a duty at once most sad and most sacred. 
 At every step of my preparation for its perform- 
 ance, I have encountered troops of thronging 
 memories that swept across the field of the last 
 twenty-five years of my life, and so filled my heart 
 with the lights and shadows of their joy and sorrow 
 that I have hardly been able to marshal them into 
 order, or give them coherent voice. I have lived 
 over again the life of this place. I have seen again 
 the groups of young and joyous students ascend- 
 ing these green slopes, dwelling for a time on this 
 peaceful height in happy and workful companion- 
 ship, and then, with firmer step and with more 
 serious and thoughtful faces, marching away to 
 their posts in the battle of life. 
 
 And still nearer and clearer have come back 
 
 367
 
 368 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 the memories of that smaller band of friends, the 
 leaders and guides of those who encamped on this 
 training-ground. On my journey to this assembly 
 it has seemed that they, too, were coming, and 
 that here I should once more meet and greet them. 
 And I have not yet been able to realize that 
 Almeda Booth will not be with us. After our 
 great loss, how shall we gather up the fragments 
 of the life we lived in this place ? We are mari- 
 ners, treading the lonely shore in search of our 
 surviving comrades, and the fragments of our good 
 ship wrecked by the tempest. To her, indeed, 
 it is no wreck. She has landed in safety, and 
 ascended the immortal heights beyond our vision. 
 What manner of woman she was, by what steps 
 and through what struggles her character was 
 developed, to what ends her life was directed, 
 what she accomplished for herself and for us, and 
 what rich fruitage may be gathered from the trees 
 of her planting, I shall attempt to portray as best 
 I can. 
 
 . We can study no life intelligently except in its 
 relations to causes and results. Character is the 
 chief element, for it is both a result and a cause, 
 the result of all the elements and forces that com- 
 bined to form it, and the chief cause of all that is 
 accomplished by its possessor.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 369 
 
 Who, then, was Almeda Ann Booth ? and what 
 were the elements and forces that formed her 
 character and guided her life ? 
 
 Every character is the joint product of nature 
 and nurture. By the first, we mean those inborn 
 qualities of body and mind inherited from parents, 
 or, rather, from a long line of ancestors. Who 
 shall estimate the effect of those latent forces in- 
 folded in the spirit of a new-born child, which 
 may date back centuries, and find their origin in 
 the unwritten history of remote ancestors ; forces, 
 the germs of which, enveloped in the solemn mys- 
 tery of life, have been transmitted silently from 
 generation to generation, and never perish ? All- 
 cherishing nature, provident and unforgetting, 
 gathers up all these fragments, that nothing may 
 be lost, but that all may re-appear in new combi- 
 nations. Each new life is thus the "heir of all 
 the ages," the possessor of qualities which only 
 the events of life can unfold. 
 
 By the second element, nurture, or culture, 
 we designate all those influences which act 
 upon this initial force of character to retard or 
 strengthen its development. There has been much 
 discussion to determine which of these elements 
 plays the more important part in the formation of
 
 370 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 character. The truth doubtless is, that sometimes 
 the one and sometimes the other is the greater 
 force ; but, so far as life and character are depend- 
 ent upon voluntary action, the second is no doubt 
 the element of chief importance. 
 
 Not enough attention has been paid to the 
 marked difference between the situation and possi- 
 bilities of a life developed here in the West during 
 the first half of the present century, and those of 
 a life nurtured and cultivated in an old and settled 
 community like that of New England. 
 
 Consider, for example, the measureless differ- 
 ence between the early surroundings of John 
 Quincy Adams and Abraham Lincoln. Both 
 were possessed of great natural endowments. 
 Adams was blessed with parents whose native 
 force of character and whose vigorous and thor- 
 ough culture have never been surpassed by any 
 married pair in America. Young Adams was 
 thoroughly taught by his mother until he had 
 completed his tenth year; and then, accompany- 
 ing his father to France, he spent two years in a 
 training-school at Paris and three years in the 
 university at Leyden. After two years of diplo- 
 matic service under the skilful guidance of his 
 father's hand, he returned to America, and devoted
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 371 
 
 three years to study at Harvard, where he was 
 graduated at the age of twenty-one ; and three 
 years later was graduated in the law under the 
 foremost jurist of his time. With such parentage 
 and such opportunities, who can wonder, that, by 
 the time he reached the meridian of his life, he 
 was a man of immense erudition, and had honored 
 every great office in the gift of his country ? 
 
 How startling the contrast, in every particular, 
 between his early life and that of Abraham Lin- 
 coln ! The facts concerning the latter are too well 
 known to require a statement. Born to an inher- 
 itance of the extremest poverty, wholly unaided 
 by his parents, surrounded by the rude forces of 
 the wilderness, only one year in any school, never 
 for a day master of his own time until he reached 
 his majority, forcing his way to the profession of 
 the law by the hardest and roughest road, and 
 beginning its practice at twenty-eight years of age, 
 yet by the force of unconquerable will and per- 
 sistent hard work he attained a foremost place in 
 his profession, 
 
 " And, moving up from high to higher, 
 Became, on fortune's crowning slope, 
 The pillar of a people's hope, 
 The centre of a world's desire."
 
 372 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Who can tell what the results might have been 
 if the situations of these two men had been re- 
 versed? 
 
 It is often remarked, as ground of encourage- 
 ment to young men, that just such struggles as 
 these in which Lincoln engaged are necessary to 
 bring out the native force of character, and pro- 
 duce great results; and no doubt this is partly 
 true. But, where one succeeds under such cir- 
 cumstances, how many thousands fail ? 
 
 Our people frequently refer, with pride, to the 
 exceptionally prominent place which Ohio has 
 taken in all the walks of public and professional 
 life during the last twenty years. That promi- 
 nence is probably due to the fact, that those 
 citizens of Ohio who have been leaders of their 
 generation during the last twenty years are the 
 first-born of the pioneer founders of our State. 
 The inspirations of the Revolution were still act- 
 ing in full vigor upon the people of the original 
 thirteen States when the settlement of Ohio began. 
 By the law of natural selection, those only became 
 pioneers who were best fitted, by natural energy 
 and force of character, to conquer the difficulties 
 attending such a career ; and their children have 
 not only inherited a part of that energy, but have
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 373 
 
 enjoyed means of culture which were far beyond 
 the reach of the pioneers themselves. In old and 
 settled communities, we find more culture ; in 
 pioneer life, more force. And it will doubtless 
 prove true, that, in succeeding generations, Ohio 
 will produce a higher type of scholars, men of 
 arts and letters ; but it is also probable, that they 
 will lose in rugged force a part, at least, of what 
 they gain in culture. 
 
 Striking as was the difference between the two 
 examples referred to, the contrast of such condi- 
 tions is still greater when applied to the possibil- 
 ities of the culture and development of woman. 
 Man is better fitted for a rough struggle with rude 
 elements. His is a coarser fibre, his " the wrest- 
 ling thews that throw the world." 
 
 "Iron-jointed, supple-sinewed, he shall dive, and he shall 
 
 run, 
 Catch the wild goat by the hair, and hurl his lances in the 
 
 sun." 
 
 But woman's nature is of a finer fibre : her 
 spirit is attuned to higher harmonies. " All 
 dipped in angel-instincts," she craves more keenly 
 than man the celestial food, the highest culture 
 which earth and heaven can give ; arid her loss is
 
 374 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 far greater than his, when she is deprived of those 
 means of culture so rarely found in pioneer life. 
 Success in intellectual pursuits, under such condi- 
 tions, is the strongest possible test of her char- 
 acter. 
 
 With these general reflections as guides to the 
 study of the life we have met to commemorate, 
 let us inquire what were the elements and condi- 
 tions out of which that life grew. 
 
 Almeda Ann Booth 1 was a child of the pio- 
 neers, and of hardy New-England stock. Her fa- 
 ther, Ezra Booth, was born near the Housatonic 
 River, in Newton, Fairneld County, Conn., Feb. 
 14, 1792; and her mother, Dorcas Taylor, was 
 born in Great Barrington, Mass., June 30, 1800. 
 Both were swept westward, in early childhood, by 
 that tide of emigration which, in the beginning of 
 the present century, began to people the wilder- 
 ness of North-eastern Ohio. The precise date at 
 which Ezra Booth came to the West, I have not 
 ascertained. The parents of Dorcas Taylor came 
 in 1813, and found a home in the woods of 
 Nelson. 
 
 As we know the Western Reserve to-day, with 
 
 1 In the Booth family-Bible it is recorded Almedah; and she 
 followed that spelling until she was twenty years of age.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 375 
 
 its 350,000 people, its growing cities, its vast in- 
 dustries, and its thousands of comfortable and 
 elegant homes, we can hardly realize what it was 
 when the parents of Miss Booth first saw it. 
 
 At the beginning of the century it was an un- 
 broken wilderness, with but 1,302 white inhab- 
 itants. Indeed, in 1810 the whole number of 
 white inhabitants within the present limits of 
 Portage County was considerably less than the 
 population of Hiram to-day. Between 1810 and 
 1830, 17,000 pioneers had settled in this county, 
 and 70,000 had found homes in the Western 
 Reserve. They brought with them little wealth, 
 and few of the comforts of life. Patient and 
 courageous toil was the first necessity of the men 
 and women who wrought the transformation of 
 that wilderness into the beautiful and happy 
 homes inherited by their children. But the pio- 
 neers did not forget the faith and traditions of 
 their fathers. While building their homes, they 
 planted also the school and the church, and thus 
 laid deep and strong the foundations of pros- 
 perity. 
 
 In the midst of such stirring scenes, Ezra Booth 
 began his career. He was a man of more than 
 ordinary powers of mind, gentle, affectionate,
 
 376 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 impressible, and deeply religious. His early in- 
 tellectual training did not go beyond the rudi- 
 ments taught in the common schools of Connecti- 
 cut. But he was an inveterate reader of books; 
 and the armful of choice volumes that lay on the 
 shelves of his little library was probably a greater 
 number than could have been found in one house 
 out of every thousand on the Reserve. Possessed 
 of slender means, he adopted a profession which 
 rendered the acquirement of wealth well-nigh 
 impossible. He early entered the ministry of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and was assigned to 
 a circuit of nearly a thousand miles, embracing in 
 its range the township of Nelson ; and there, in 
 1819, he married Dorcas Taylor, and fixed his 
 home. 
 
 Soon after entering the ministry, he sent eleven 
 silver dollars to England to purchase a Greek 
 lexicon ; and he so far mastered the language 
 as to read the Greek Testament with ease. He 
 used to say, that, in the early days of his min- 
 istry, he and a Mr. Charles Elliott were the only 
 Methodist preachers west of the Alleghanies who 
 were able to read Greek. 
 
 In a small frame house about three and a half 
 miles eastward from this place, on the farm now
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 377 
 
 owned by Mrs. Ferris Couch, Almeda, the only 
 child of Ezra and Dorcas Booth, was born on the 
 fifteenth day of August, 1823. She inherited a 
 hardy and vigorous constitution, a clear and 
 powerful intellect, and a spirit of remarkable 
 sweetness and gentleness. These qualities of 
 mind and heart shone with clear and steady 
 light, from early childhood until her last hour. 
 
 Her life appears to fall into three very distinct 
 periods, separated from each other by marked 
 events. Indeed, she may be said to have lived 
 three separate lives. These will appear as we 
 review her history. 
 
 Her first twelve years were passed in Nelson. 
 All the traditions that have come to us from that 
 period are redolent of the fragrance of a sweet 
 and loving childhood. In her fourth year she 
 attended the district school at Nelson Centre, a 
 mile and a half distant from her home. The 
 school was taught at that time by Miss Jane 
 Hopkins, afterwards Mrs. Nathan Wadsworth. 
 How long she continued with this teacher, I have 
 not learned ; but, at the close of Miss Hopkins's 
 school, Almeda received a locket, as the prize 
 for making the greatest progress in spelling. 
 Miss Clarissa Colton was also her teacher in
 
 378 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Nelson for several terms, and was remembered 
 with great affection in after-years. I have not 
 been able to learn the names of her other teachers 
 in that place. The honored President of the 
 Board of Trustees of this college, who saw her 
 frequently when she was a little child, tells us 
 this pleasing and characteristic incident : 
 
 When Almeda was about twelve years of age, 
 she used to puzzle her teachers with questions, 
 and distress them by correcting their mistakes ; 
 and one of them (a male teacher, of course), who 
 was too proud to acknowledge the corrections of 
 a child, called upon Mr. Udall l for help and advice 
 in regard to a point of dispute between them. 
 Mr. Udall told him he was evidently in error, 
 and must acknowledge his mistake. The teacher 
 was manly enough to follow this wise advice, 
 and thereafter made the little girl his friend and 
 helper in the scholastic difficulties which he en- 
 countered. It was like her to help him quietly, 
 and without boasting. During her whole life, 
 what one of her friends ever heard an intimation 
 from her that she had ever achieved an intellect- 
 ual triumph over anybody in the world ? 
 
 In 1835 her family removed to Mantua, about 
 
 1 The President aforesaid.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 379 
 
 four miles to the north-west of this place, where 
 they resided for more than thirty years. Her 
 progress had been so great under the instruction 
 of her favorite teacher, Miss Colton, that her par- 
 ents induced that young lady also to remove to 
 Mantua. Almeda's progress as a scholar was 
 continuous and rapid. Dr. Squire, who knew 
 her well from the time she first attended the 
 district school at Mantua, in the winter of 1835- 
 36, tells us that "she was known as a thorough 
 scholar, the best speller in the district, and, 
 though dressed in the plainest style possible, 
 was the pride of the neighborhood for her 
 youthful attainments and gentleness." 
 
 Hon. A. G. Riddle, who knew her as a child in 
 Mantua, has drawn this charming picture : 
 
 "You ask me for -my recollections of Almeda Booth. 
 What I can recall of her associates her with a single spring 
 and summer, idyllic, as one long day of green foliage, 
 apple-blossoms, humming bees, and sunshine, coming from 
 nothing which preceded, and connected with nothing which 
 followed. 
 
 " There was a beautiful, secluded neighborhood in north- 
 east Mantua, where two little-travelled highways crossed. 
 In the north-west angle thus formed stood the farmhouse, 
 the homestead of Deacon Seth Harmon, my home at that 
 time. The east-and-west road in its front was filled with
 
 380 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 cherry-trees. South of this highway stood a grand old and 
 quite extensive apple-orchard, over the tops of which, and 
 two or three hundred yards away, embowered in fruit 
 and forest-trees, could be seen the roof of Almeda's home. 
 A winding foot-path led down from it to the road in front 
 of the Harmon homestead. 
 
 "I knew Almeda as an only child, a maiden of twelve 
 or thirteen years, well-grown, ruddy-cheeked, and buxom. 
 Martha Harmon, dark and slight, was of about the same 
 age. They were quite constant companions. 
 
 " About the Harmon house and grounds, in the highway, 
 along that foot-path, through the orchard, amid falling apple- 
 blossoms and humming bees, I can see and hear these two 
 laughing, light-hearted girls ; and that is all. I can connect 
 them with no incident, or any certain time. 
 
 " I have a sort of an impression, and only that, of attend- 
 ing a winter school with Almeda. 
 
 " She must have had the power of fixing herself well in 
 one's memory. I did not see 'her again for ten years, and 
 knew her at once ; and I recall the lively satisfaction I felt 
 at being remembered by her. Through all the years since, I 
 have been familiar with her name, though meeting her but 
 seldom." 
 
 There must necessarily be much loneliness in 
 the life of an only child. That Almeda felt this, 
 is evident from one of her early essays which 
 has been preserved, and in which she says, 
 "I am one of those unfortunate beings whom
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 381 
 
 Mrs. Sigourney so much pities, a person destitute 
 of brothers and sisters." And yet, for a thought- 
 ful child, such a life had its compensations. She 
 found early and sweet companionship with her 
 father in his studies, and, like him, became AO. 
 ardent lover of books. At that period few 
 juvenile books were published; and the stirring 
 works of legend and romance rarely found their 
 way to the shelves of a preacher's library. The 
 extent and character of her early reading I have 
 not learned ; but she once told me that she read 
 Rollin's " Ancient History " and Gibbon's " De- 
 cline and Fall of the Roman Empire " when she 
 was twelve years of age. I doubt if, at so early 
 an age, any person in this assembly had done as 
 much. 
 
 At the age of fourteen she had pretty thor- 
 oughly mastered the studies then taught in the 
 district school ; and, for a short time, she at- 
 tended a select school in Painesville, boarding at 
 the house of a Rev. Mr. Winans. When she was 
 seventeen, she taught her first school, in a log 
 schoolhouse, near her home in Mantua. She 
 next engaged to teach, for five months, the school 
 near what was known as the "Brick Tavern," 
 south of Mantua Centre. There, as in her first
 
 382 PRESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 school, she was very popular; but she became 
 homesick, and by the aid of friends secured a 
 change in the contract, by which the term was 
 shortened to three months. She greatly disliked 
 the custom of that time -which required her to 
 " board around the district ; " because it resulted 
 in such a waste of her time, and cut her off from 
 the opportunity of reading which she so highly 
 prized. But she conquered all the discomforts of 
 the work, and continued to teach, using for the 
 advancement of her own culture the pittance 
 then paid to a woman teacher, which sometimes 
 did not exceed four dollars per month. 1 
 
 1 Dr. Squire has furnished me with the following interesting 
 facts concerning Miss Booth's teaching in Mantua. He says, 
 "I learn from the records of the Booth school-district, that 
 Almeda taught there during the winter 1844-45. The studies 
 taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, and geogra- 
 phy. The term ended Feb. 14, 1845 ; wages, eight dollars per 
 month. The report is signed ' Almeda A. Booth.' Similar re- 
 port for the same district for the term ending March 6, 1846 : 
 wages seven dollars per month. For same district, term ending 
 Aug. 28, 1846 : average daily attendance, sixteen. Philosophy, 
 history, and botany taught, in addition to common branches : 
 wages four dollars per month. Report for term ending March 5, 
 1847 : algebra and common branches ; wages nine dollars per 
 month. The month, at that time, probably meant twenty-six 
 days of school." It will be seen that wages for summer were 
 much lower than for winter.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 383 
 
 In 1842 and 1843 she attended during several 
 terms the Asbury Seminary, at Chagrin Falls, 
 which at that time was under the charge of L. D. 
 Williams, who was afterwards a distinguished 
 professor in Meadville College. In later years 
 she frequently spoke of him in terms of the high- 
 est respect and reverence. I have not been able 
 to learn the range of her studies at Chagrin Falls ; 
 but she has left a small package of essays, written 
 as school exercises while there, which exhibit that 
 clearness and masterful force of expression so 
 characteristic of her style in later years. The 
 penmanship bears a few traces of the .formal 
 school-girl hand, especially in the construction of 
 the capital letters ; but it also shows the outline 
 of that elegant and graceful chirography with 
 which we are now so familiar. The brief mar- 
 ginal notes and criticisms of her instructors indi- 
 cate the pride and satisfaction they felt in her 
 development. One of these notes is signed " Mat- 
 tison ; " another, " H. H. Moore ; " and another is 
 in these words : " Very good. The errors are 
 few, and none of them bad ones. L. D. W." (evi- 
 dently L. D. Williams). 
 
 I have read these short essays with a deep and 
 mournful interest. Though written as formal
 
 384 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 school exercises, they are charming pictures of 
 the progress of her mind and the genuine earnest- 
 ness of her convictions. To quote them here, 
 however, would be unjust to her maturer fame. 
 Among them is a dialogue, in her handwriting, 
 between herself and Miss Elizabeth Hayden, 
 daughter of the late Rev. William Hayden. 
 Even at that early age, Miss Booth exhibited 
 unusual aptitude for that species of dramatic com- 
 position in which she subsequently developed so 
 much power. 
 
 Until she reached the age of twenty-four, her 
 life had been devoted to home duties, to study, 
 and teaching. In the family of her nearest neigh- 
 bor, she had formed the intimate acquaintance of 
 Martyii Harmon, a young man of rare and bril- 
 liant promise. Like herself, he was an enthusiastic 
 student. Ambitious of culture, he had pushed 
 his way through the studies of Meadville College, 
 and was graduated with honor. He had given 
 Almeda his love, and received in return the rich 
 gift of her great heart. The day of their wedding 
 had been fixed. He was away in Kentucky, teach- 
 ing ; while she was in Mantua, preparing to adorn 
 and bless the home of their love. On the 6th of 
 March, 1848, he died of some sudden illness, and
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 385 
 
 was buried near Frankfort, Ky. Funeral services 
 were held in Mantua, at which Almeda took her 
 place as chief mourner. Her plans of life and the 
 hopes of her earthly future seemed buried in his 
 grave. 
 
 This event closes the first period of her history. 
 It seemed for a time to end her ambition and her 
 hopes. Her heart was wedded by ties as sacred 
 as any which marriage can consecrate. From that 
 time forward she walked alone in the solitude of 
 virgin widowhood. 
 
 In her subsequent life she rarely spoke of the 
 suffering of that period ; but she never ceased to 
 cherish the memory of Martyn Harmon as that of 
 an immortal husband who awaited her coming in 
 the life beyond. Her faithfulness to him excluded 
 the -thought of marriage with any other. 
 
 After such a loss, what was left to a soul like 
 hers? To her heart, the consolations of the 
 Christian faith ; and, to her life, the power of serv- 
 ing and blessing others. It is one of the pre- 
 cious mysteries- of sorrow, that it finds solace in 
 unselfish work. Patient and uncomplaining, with 
 a spirit chastened and sweetened by her great 
 sorrow, Almeda gathered up the fragments of her 
 broken life, and devoted her powers to the work 
 of teaching.
 
 386 PKESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Making her father's home the centre of her 
 activities, she commenced teaching in the most 
 difficult and unpromising districts in her neigh- 
 borhood. Her success was such as few teachers 
 in a similar field have ever achieved. She found 
 happiness in her work, and was rewarded with the 
 admiration and love of those whose minds were 
 moulded and guided by her influence. 
 
 Besides this, she found solace and strength in 
 her old habit of reading. Her spirit, ranging 
 beyond the narrow circle of her every-day life, 
 found in books a noble companionship with the 
 good and great of other days. 
 
 I find among her papers a few pages of personal 
 reminiscences, written twenty-one years ago, which 
 probably refer to the period of her life of which 
 I am now speaking. I am sure her friends will 
 listen to her own words with more pleasure than to 
 any thing that I can say. She writes : 
 
 " Through the mists and clouds of later life, remembrance 
 brings a warm glow to our hearts, as we think of the friends 
 we loved, and the books we read. Yes, the books ! Who 
 has not some old, torn, dingy favorite of a book, that he 
 remembers with more affection than any volume he has seen 
 for many a year ? I remember one that to me, in those 
 years, was a source of never-failing delight. I fondly cher-
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 387 
 
 ish the memory of that old book, both for itself and its 
 pleasant associations. I chanced to find it in a family where 
 I was allowed to visit, into whose possession it had come in 
 payment of a debt for which nothing else could be obtained. 
 It was a bound volume of a periodical that had been started 
 in Philadelphia by some lover of literature who mistook the 
 tastes of the age ; and his magazine soon failed for want of 
 patronage. It had been bound ; but when I was so happy 
 as to make its acquaintance, its leaves had escaped from 
 their confinement, causing me no little trouble as I turned 
 over the unwieldy mass. It contained no original matter, 
 but choice selections from English and American literature. 
 Here I first read 'L' Allegro' and 'II Penseroso;' and, 
 though I was delighted with the 
 
 ' Goddess fair and free, 
 In heaven ycleped Euphrosyne, 
 And by men heart-easing Mirth,' 
 
 yet by the time I had read through to 
 
 ' These pleasures melancholy give, 
 And I with thee will choose to live,' 
 
 I usually felt like giving in my adhesion to the 'goddess 
 sage and holy.' There, too, I read 'Mazeppa,' that wild 
 ride related 
 
 ' After dread Pultowa's day, 
 When fortune left the royal Swede; ' 
 
 and I could never understand how, when 'twas done, the king 
 could have been 'an hour asleep.' There were McKenzie's 
 ' Man of Feeling ; ' Goldsmith's simple, natural, and inimit-
 
 388 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 able 'Vicar of Wakefield;' also those stories of exquisite 
 beauty and pathos, ' The Lights and Shadows of Scottish 
 Life.' And there I first found the letters of our own Dr. 
 Franklin, and his life, written by himself, fer his son, which 
 I could never sufficiently admire : it seemed so truthful and 
 honest; as he related the indiscretions of his early years, and 
 remembered his errors, one by one. But I read nothing in 
 that book with more thrilling interest than the old English 
 ballad of ' Chevy Chase.' As I read how that famous hunt 
 fell out, how noble knights and barons bold went down in 
 death, how brave Lord Percy fell, and Scotland's pride, Earl 
 Douglas, too, my enthusiasm was never chilled by a thought 
 that I was reading events ' totally fictitious,' as Spaulding 
 tells us they are. But, of all the treasures I there found, I 
 oftenest read the letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montague, 
 which have always been regarded as models of epistolary 
 composition. It is objected that she sometimes seems un- 
 amiable and unfeeling ; yet, even then, she is so witty and 
 charming, one is almost tempted to forgive her. Still, I 
 think, there is reason for this charge against her earliest 
 letters. The absurdities and follies of the gay and courtly 
 circle in which she moved appeared so ridiculous, in the light 
 of her strong understanding, that, in letters to . her friends, 
 she often hit off those she met with the severest sarcasm. 
 Addison, Pope, and other distinguished writers of that age, 
 were proud of her friendship ; but Pope quailed before her 
 peerless wit and sarcasm, and from a most ardent friend 
 turned to an implacable enemy."
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 389 
 
 After describing, at some length, the character 
 and career of Lady Montague, the manuscript 
 concludes : 
 
 " She [Lady Montague] was proficient in Greek and Latin, 
 and seems to have read almost every thing that had ever been 
 written in any language. In a letter to her daughter, in rela- 
 tion to the education of her granddaughter, she says, ' Learn- 
 ing, if she has a real taste for it, will not only make her 
 contented, but happy. No entertainment is so cheap as 
 reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.' Thus much for the 
 old book. I saw its friendly, honest face, soiled and time- 
 worn, only a few months ago ; but it is not so perishable as 
 earth's frail children. I gazed upon it with mingled emotions 
 of pain and pleasure ; for I remembered that the dear ones, 
 who in those happy hours had read from that book with me, 
 were all gone. The glad voices of seven children once rang 
 through that home ; but now every one is hushed in death, 
 and the poor, stricken parents are left alone. I remembered 
 when the father a man of uncommon tenderness of feel- 
 ing said to me, a few days before his last child was laid 
 in the grave, his voice trembling, and his eyes full of tears, 
 ' Oh ! I had hoped the Lord would spare me one child ; but 
 his will be done.' 
 
 " So that old book is very dear to me." 
 
 This charming sketch of the old book is a strik- 
 ing picture of her own mind and heart during the 
 early days of her sorrow. 
 
 But, by slow degrees, her sorrow gave place to
 
 390 PRESIDENT GABFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 ambition for larger culture. In the autumn of 
 1848 she attended a select school at Mantua 
 Centre, taught by Norman Dunshee, and, among 
 her other studies, began Latin. In the winter of 
 1849-50 she taught the school. in the Darwin- 
 Atwater district ; and, in the winter of 1850-51, 
 taught at Hiram Rapids, her last district school. 
 She is still remembered with enthusiastic affec- 
 tion by the people of that neighborhood. 
 
 Her success as a teacher was well known to 
 Charles D. Wilber, at whose suggestion President 
 Hayden secured her services to the young Eclec- 
 tic; and in the spring of 1851 she came here as 
 a teacher in the English department. Up to that 
 time no lady had taught in the Eclectic, except 
 in the primary department, which was established 
 at the opening of the institution, in November, 
 1850, and maintained for several years. Before 
 the end of her first term, the trustees found that 
 they had drawn a rich prize, in securing her ser- 
 vices in the institution. 
 
 The Eclectic was compelled to create its own 
 scholarship and culture. Very few of its early 
 students had gone beyond the ordinary studies of 
 the district school ; and a large majority of them 
 needed thorough discipline in the common English
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 391 
 
 branches. I doubt if any teacher at Hiram was 
 equal to Miss Booth in the power to inspire such 
 students with the spirit of earnest, hard work, for 
 the love of it. 
 
 In August next it will be twenty-five years 
 since I first saw her. I came to the Eclectic 
 as a student, in the fall term of 1851 ; and, a few 
 days after the beginning of the term, I saw a class 
 of three, reciting in mathematics, geometry, I 
 think. They sat on one of the red benches, in 
 the centre aisle of the lower chapel. I had never 
 seen a geometry ; and, regarding both teacher and 
 class with a feeling of reverential awe for the 
 intellectual height to which they had climbed, I 
 studied their faces so closely that I seem to see 
 them now as distinctly as I saw them then. And 
 it has been my good fortune since that time to 
 claim them all as intimate friends. The teacher 
 was Thomas Munnell; and the members of his 
 class were William B. Hazen, George A. Baker, 
 and Almeda A. Booth. 
 
 Let us pause here to consider the situation and 
 attainments of Miss Booth in 1851, at the begin- 
 ning of what we may call her second life. She 
 was twenty-eight years of age. In many respects 
 her character was fully matured. She had enjoyed
 
 392 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 somewhat better advantages than most women of 
 that period, who, born of the pioneers and un- 
 blessed by wealth, were reared in the narrow circle 
 of country life. Though she had made the most 
 of her opportunities, yet she had hardly entered 
 the circle of that larger scholarship and broader 
 culture which women enjoy in older communities. 
 
 As a means of estimating more accurately her 
 abilities and merits, let us contrast her attainments 
 at that time with those of a woman of wider fame 
 who was greatly admired by Miss Booth, and who 
 was very like her in intellectual force. 
 
 Margaret Fuller was born at Cambridge, Mass., 
 and from early life breathed the atmosphere of the 
 highest culture of New England. Her father, a 
 graduate of Harvard, and accomplished French 
 scholar, thoroughly read in general history and 
 literature, a prominent lawyer, and for many years 
 a distinguished member of Congress, early devoted 
 himself personally to the work of his daughter's 
 education. At six years of age she was able to 
 read Latin ; and soon her young imagination was 
 fired by the strong and beautiful legends of classic 
 history and mythology. Wandering at will in her 
 father's well-filled library, and gathering such food 
 as her young spirit could assimilate, she read,
 
 ALSIEDA A. BOOTH. 393 
 
 when eight years of age, " Romeo and Juliet," the 
 quaint and wonderful humor of Cervantes, and 
 the bright pictures of Parisian life portrayed in 
 the pages of Moliere. In her nineteenth year she 
 had finished a thorough course in one of the best 
 training-schools of Massachusetts. At twenty-two 
 she had mastered the German language, and read 
 its principal authors. At twenty-three she was 
 teaching the languages, and attracting to herself 
 the minds and hearts of all who came within her 
 reach. Ralph Waldo Emerson says of her at that 
 period, " She was an active and inspiring com- 
 panion and correspondent ; and all the heart, 
 thought, and nobleness of New England seemed 
 at that moment related to her, and she to it." At 
 twenty-five she was translating the correspondence 
 of Goethe, was devouring the works of Madame 
 de Stael in French, and of Epictetus in Latin ; 
 and was ranging at will through the realms of 
 English literature and philosophy. At twenty- 
 eight she became the editor of a literary journal, 
 and was assisted by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 George Ripley, and many other prominent writers. 
 Her wide acquaintance, and still wider correspond- 
 ence, placed at her command the culture and 
 literary wealth of both hemispheres. From that
 
 394 PBESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 time forward she rose rapidly from height to 
 height, until a tragic death closed her career in 
 1850. Her native powers of mind were undoubt- 
 edly great ; and she would not have remained un- 
 known in any sphere of life, however humble. 
 But it must be acknowledged that very much of 
 her success was due to her rare opportunities for 
 early culture. 
 
 Contrast with this brilliant picture the situa- 
 tion of Miss Booth at twenty-eight years of age. 
 We have followed the history of her toilful life 
 up to that period. We saw her moving in a nar- 
 row .and humble sphere, creating her own means 
 of culture, unaided by the companionship of 
 superior minds to inspire and guide her develop- 
 ment. After the light of her young life had been 
 quenched in a great sorrow, we saw her turning 
 sadly away from the wreck of her hopes, and 
 beginning the hard task of creating the new con- 
 ditions out of which she might gain a broader, 
 deeper culture, and become more useful to her 
 generation. 
 
 We found her not farther advanced in technical 
 scholarship at twenty-eight years of age, than 
 Margaret Fuller was at seventeen ; and even then 
 her further advancement depended upon what she
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 395 
 
 could accomplish for herself, while teaching six 
 or seven great classes a day, and discharging the 
 other numberless duties which fell to her lot as 
 chief lady teacher in a mixed school of two hun- 
 dred and fifty scholars. 
 
 Highly as I appreciate the character of Mar- 
 garet Fuller, greatly as I admire her remarkable 
 abilities, I do not hesitate to say, that in no four 
 years of her life did her^achievements, brilliant as 
 they were, equal the work accomplished by Miss 
 Booth during the four years that followed her 
 coming to Hiram. 
 
 I was never a member of a class that recited to 
 her, and I cannot speak of her work as a teacher 
 as seen from the stand-point of a pupil ; but I know 
 from personal observation, and from the unanimous 
 .testimony of thousands who were so fortunate as 
 to be her pupils, that her power over classes as a 
 whole, and over every member, was very great and 
 beneficent. In the earlier years of her teaching 
 here, she frequently took advanced classes in 
 grammar and arithmetic, numbering from ninety 
 to one hundred each. Without any parade of 
 authority, without appearing to govern at all, she 
 always held them in most admirable order ; and, 
 what was still more remarkable, each pupil felt
 
 396 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 that his relations to her were those of very direct 
 personal responsibility and sympathy ; and that he 
 owed her a personal apology for any dereliction 
 or failure on his part, and a debt of affectionate 
 gratitude for the largest measure of his success. 
 Her classes in botany and astronomy were always 
 filled with enthusiasm for their work, and with 
 affectionate admiration for Miss Booth. 
 
 She did not deliver formal lectures on these 
 subjects ; but she carried to almost every recita- 
 tion a memorandum of brief notes, from which, 
 during the course of the lesson, she threw out 
 fertile and striking suggestions which illuminated 
 the subject, and made every pupil feel that to be 
 absent from a recitation of her class was to suffer 
 personal loss. I have found among her papers 
 many of these memoranda, full of strong and. 
 beautiful suggestions. 
 
 Besides doing her full share of the heavy work 
 of the class-room, Miss Booth had special charge 
 of the ladies, and, from 1852 onward, devoted 
 much time to them as their confidential counsellor 
 and friend. There are hundreds of noble women 
 who have worn the royal crown of maternity these 
 many years, and some of them are present to-day, 
 whose hearts are still full of precious memories
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 397 
 
 of those familiar lectures, or rather conversations, 
 in the lower chapel, in which Miss Booth gave 
 them the benefit of her rich experience and wise 
 counsel in the conduct of life. The notes of some 
 of these conversations I have found among her 
 manuscripts. One was written out in full, in which 
 she unfolded her conception of how solemn a thing 
 it is to live, and to perform those duties which fall 
 to the lot of woman. 
 
 She aided in organizing and maintaining the 
 first ladies' literary society in the Eclectic, and 
 for several years took an active part in its pro- 
 ceedings. Her essays prepared for its meetings 
 are models of sound judgment and of finished, 
 graceful style. 
 
 I first became acquainted with her qualities as 
 a writer during the spring term of 1852, when 
 Cory don E. Fuller and I were appointed to aid 
 her in writing a colloquy for the public exercises 
 at the close of the school year. Having chosen a 
 theme founded on historical events in the time of 
 Pope Leo X., she sketched the outline of the 
 piece, assigned portions to her two associates, set 
 them to reading up the history of the period to 
 which the piece related, directed and corrected 
 their work, and adapted it to her own, cast the
 
 398 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 parts, criticised and trained those who were to 
 perform them, took .the most difficult and least 
 desirable part herself, and put the piece on the 
 stage with such skill as to surprise and delight the 
 great audience that assembled under the bower 
 built among the apple-trees north of the Seminary. 
 I esteemed myself especially fortunate and highly 
 honored in being chosen to aid her in that work. 
 My admiration of her knowledge and ability was 
 unbounded. And even now, after the glowing 
 picture painted upon my memory in the strong 
 colors of youthful enthusiasm has been shaded 
 down by the colder and more sombre tints which 
 a quarter of a century has added, I still regard 
 her work on that occasion as possessing great 
 merit. I have read again some of the pages of 
 the faded manuscript, a few of which survive ; 
 and I find that her part of it still justifies much 
 of my early enthusiasm. 
 
 To her marked success in this piece is due the 
 fact, that, during many subsequent years, an origi- 
 nal drama or, in the school dialect, a " collo- 
 quy " was the most attractive feature of com- 
 mencement-days. There are many present to-day 
 who remember these colloquies, that of 1853, 
 founded on the Book of Esther ; " Burr and Blen-
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 399 
 
 nerhassett," in 1854, when O. P. Miller and Philip 
 Burns played the heavy parts of Adams and Jef- 
 ferson, and "Rhodes, Pettibone, and Williams, the 
 less pious but more exciting rdles of Arnold, 
 Burr, and Blennerhassett ; " Lafayette," in 1856 ; 
 " Ivanhoe," in 1857, in which the stirring scenes 
 of the Crusades were revived; "The Conspiracy 
 of Orsini," in 1858 (suggested by the reading of 
 Ruffini's "Doctor Antonio"), in which Elias A. 
 Ford trod the stage as Louis Napoleon, with 
 Electa Beecher as empress, and Amzi Atwater as 
 prime minister, while White, Chamberlin, and 
 Ferry were treacherously seeking his imperial life. 
 Then there was "The Highland Chiefs," in 1859, 
 .in which Henry James and Henry White were 
 Lochiel and McAlpine, in deadly feud with Cham- 
 berlin and Dudley, Lords of Glencoe and Kep- 
 pock, mustering their clans for battle to determine 
 which of these fierce knights should win the 
 hands of Sophia Williams and Myra Robbins, the 
 Ellen and the Margaret of the hour. There was 
 " Pickwickian Politics," in 1860, with Brown and 
 Bennett as stars; and "Zenobia," in 1861, in 
 which Mary E. White was the proud Queen of 
 Palmyra, with half a score of young men as bold 
 Romans leading her away in triumph. In all
 
 400 PEESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 these pieces, the parts which were surest to touch 
 the heart, and win approval, were those written by 
 Miss Booth. They showed how varied were her 
 intellectual resources, and with what power and 
 grace she could employ them. 
 
 Occupied as she was in the daily discharge of 
 such exacting duties, one would think she had 
 small leisure for any other work. But we shall 
 see what more she was able to accomplish. She 
 saw, that, so long as she taught only the English 
 studies, the bright and ambitious pupils to whom 
 she was so strongly attached would pass out of 
 her reach by entering upon studies in which she 
 could not guide them. The desire to avoid this 
 gave a new impulse to her ambition for higher 
 scholarship ; and in the autumn of 1851 she began 
 those studies necessary to fit her for teaching in 
 the higher grades. When a class was formed in 
 any tiling she had not mastered, she arranged to 
 have it recite before or after school-hours, and 
 took her place as one of its members. Thus she 
 kept in advance of her own pupils, and abreast 
 with the foremost students of the institution. 
 
 I am not certain when she began Greek; but 
 I remember that she and I were members of the 
 class that began Xenophon's " Anabasis," in the fall
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 401 
 
 term of 1852. Near the close of that term, I also 
 began to teach in the Eclectic, and thereafter, 
 like her, could only keep up my studies outside 
 of my own class-hours. In mathematics and the 
 physical sciences, I was far behind her ; but we 
 were nearly at the same place in Greek and Latin, 
 each having studied them about three terms. She 
 had made her home at President Hayden's, almost 
 from the first ; and I became a member of his family 
 at the beginning of the winter term of 1852-53. 
 Thereafter, for nearly two years, she and I studied 
 together, and recited in the same classes (frequent- 
 ly without other associates), till we had nearly 
 completed the classical course. 
 
 From a diary which I then kept, and in which 
 my own studies are recorded, I am able to state, 
 quite accurately, what she accomplished in the 
 classics, from term to term, in the two following 
 years. During the winter and spring terms of 
 1853, she read Xenophon's "Memorabilia" entire, 
 reciting to Professor ' Dunshee. In the summer 
 vacation of 1853, twelve of the more advanced 
 students engaged Professor Dunshee as a tutor 
 for one month. John Harnit, H. W. Everest, 
 Philip Burns, C. C. Foote, Miss Booth, and I were 
 of the number. A literary society was formed, in
 
 402 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 which all took part. During those four weeks, 
 besides taking an active part in the literary exer- 
 cises of the society, Miss Booth read thoroughly, 
 and for the first time, the " Pastorals " of Virgil, 
 that is, the " Georgics " and " Bucolics " entire, 
 and the first six books of Homer's " Iliad," accom- 
 panied by a thorough drill in the Latin or Greek 
 grammar at each recitation. I am sure that none 
 of those who recited with her would say she was 
 behind the foremost in the thoroughness of her 
 work or the elegance of her translations. 
 
 During the fall term of 1853, she read one 
 hundred pages of Herodotus, and about the same 
 amount of Livy. During that term also, Professors 
 Dunshee and Hull, and Miss Booth and I, met at 
 her room two evenings of each week, to make a 
 joint translation of the book of Romans. Pro- 
 fessor Dunshee contributed his studies of the Ger- 
 man commentators De Wette and Tholuck ; and 
 each of the translators made some special study 
 for each meeting. How nearly we completed the 
 translation I do not remember; but I do remember 
 that the contributions and criticisms of Miss Booth 
 were remarkable for suggestiveness and sound 
 judgment. Our work was more thorough than 
 rapid ; for I find this entry in my diary for Dec.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 403 
 
 15, 1853 : " Translation Society sat three nours at 
 Miss Booth's room, and agreed upon the transla- 
 tion of nine verses." 
 
 During the winter term of 1853-54, she con- 
 tinued to read Livy, and also read the whole of 
 Demosthenes " On the Crown." The members of 
 the class in Demosthenes were Miss Booth, A. 
 Hull, C. C. Foote, and myself. 
 
 During the spring term of 1854, she read the 
 "Germania" and "Agricola" of Tacitus, and a 
 portion of Hesiod. 
 
 In the autumn of 1854, having secured from the 
 Board of Trustees a leave of absence for one year, 
 she entered the Senior class of Oberlin College. 
 Though she had not yet completed several of the 
 important Junior studies, yet during her one year 
 in college she not only brought up all arrears, but 
 thoroughly accomplished all the work of the Senior 
 year, and in August, 1855, was graduated as 
 Bachelor of Arts in the full classical course, rank- 
 ing among the very first in her class. Three years 
 later she received the honorary degree of Master 
 of Arts. 
 
 A student no farther advanced than Miss 
 Booth was in 1851, usually needs three years of 
 preparatory study to enter the Freshman year,
 
 404 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and four years more to complete the course, 
 But in the four years that followed her coming 
 to Hiram, she taught ten full terms, prepared her- 
 self for college, and completed with remarkable 
 thoroughness the full course of college study. If 
 any man or woman has done more in the same 
 length of time, I do not know it. It should be 
 mentioned, to the honor of Oberlin College, that, 
 but for the wise and liberal policy which opened 
 the full course of study to women, Miss Booth 
 could hardly have taken the bachelor's degree 
 anywhere in this country. 
 
 She returned to Hiram at the beginning of the 
 fall term of 1855, and for ten years, without inter- 
 mission, devoted herself to the work of teaching. 
 Each year added to her thoroughness in the class- 
 room, and increased her influence over students. 
 Besides taking a few of the more advanced 
 classes in the ordinary studies, she taught the 
 higher mathematics, and Latin and Greek, main- 
 taining her habit of making special preparation 
 for each recitation. She handled these classes 
 also with remarkable thoroughness and success. 
 I cannot speak from personal knowledge of the 
 later teachers of Latin and Greek in this insti- 
 tution ; but, during the time she was here, no
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 405 
 
 one of her associates was her superior in those 
 studies. 
 
 As the earlier teachers were called away to 
 other fields of duty, their places were supplied 
 by selection from those who had been " Eclectic " 
 students; and thus Miss Booth found herself 
 associated with teachers whose culture she had 
 guided, and who were attached to her by the 
 strongest ties of friendship. I know how apt we 
 are to exaggerate the merits of those we love; 
 but, making due allowance for this tendency, as 
 I look back upon the little circle of teachers who 
 labored here, under the leadership of our hon- 
 ored and venerable friend Mr. Hayden, during 
 the first six years of the Eclectic, and upon the 
 younger group, associated with me from 1856 
 until the breaking-out of the war, I think I 
 wrong no one of them by saying, that for gener- 
 ous friendship, and united, earnest work, I have 
 never seen, and never expect to see, their like 
 again. Enough new members were added to the 
 corps of teachers from year to year to keep alive 
 the freshness of young enthusiasm ; and yet 
 enough experience and maturity of judgment 
 was left to hold the school in a steady course of 
 prosperity.
 
 406 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 The influence of Miss Booth, especially during 
 the later period to which I have referred, was not 
 surpassed by any member of that circle. A 
 majority of her associates had been her stu- 
 dents, the children of her intellect and heart. 
 She had watched their growth with something 
 akin to maternal pride ; and she welcomed them 
 to that circle with no touch of envy, but with 
 most generous and helpful friendship. I am sure 
 that Rhodes, Everest, Atwater, Hinsdale, Miss 
 Wilson, and the rest can never forget that golden 
 age of our lives ; and all will agree with me, that 
 one light at least shone always steady and clear, 
 the light that beamed upon us from the mind 
 and heart of Almeda A. Booth. 
 
 The few spare hours which the school-work left 
 us were devoted to such pursuits as each pre- 
 ferred ; but much study was done in common. 
 I can name twenty or thirty books which will 
 forever be doubly precious to me, because they 
 were read and discussed in company with her. 
 I can still read, between the lines, the memories 
 of her first impression of the page, and her judg- 
 ment of its merits. She was always ready to aid 
 any friend with her best efforts. When I was in 
 the hurry of preparing for a debate with Mr.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 407 
 
 Denton in 1858, she read not less than eight or 
 ten volumes, and made admirable notes for me, 
 on those points which related to the topics of 
 discussion. In the autumn of 1859, she read a 
 large portion of Blacksione's " Commentaries," and 
 enjoyed, with keenest relish, the strength of the 
 author's thought, and the beauty of his style. 
 From the rich stores of her knowledge, she gave 
 with unselfish generosity. The foremost students 
 had no mannish pride that made them hesitate to 
 ask her assistance and counsel. In preparing 
 their orations and debates, they eagerly sought 
 her suggestions and criticisms. Everywhere the 
 literary life of Hiram bore abundant marks of 
 her guiding hand. 
 
 It is quite probable that John Stuart Mill has 
 exaggerated the extent to which his own mind 
 and works were influenced by Harriet Mill. I 
 should reject his opinion on that subject as a 
 delusion, did I not know, from my own experi- 
 ence as well as that of hundreds of Hiram stu- 
 dents, how great a power Miss Booth exercised 
 over the culture and opinions of her friends. 
 
 From what I have said of her influence over 
 young men, it must not be inferred that she was 
 wanting in sympathy or influence with her own
 
 408 PBESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 sex. It is true, that giddy and superficial women, 
 who care more for the adornment of their bodies 
 than for the enlightenment of their minds, were 
 not strongly attracted to Miss Booth ; but by all 
 the better class of thoughtful and earnest women 
 she was loved with ardent and enthusiastic devo- 
 tion. 
 
 The war for the Union, which broke up so many 
 happy circles, and changed the plans of so many 
 lives, wrought great changes in Hiram, and swept 
 into the fiery current a hundred of our best stu- 
 dents. Their fortunes were watched with patri- 
 otic pride and affection by those who remained to 
 sustain the institution, and promote its success. 
 During those trying years, Miss Booth stood at 
 her post of duty, always loyally faithful to her 
 associates, and more indispensable to the institu- 
 tion than ever. In one of her letters to me, writ- 
 ten August, 1861, she said, 
 
 " In all my early forecastings of your future, and that of 
 the noble men who went with you, I never counted upon 
 the possibility of war ; and I hardly know how to adjust my 
 mind to its dreadful realities. Ah, me ! to think what may 
 come ! We shall follow you all with our hearts, and do our 
 best to keep the light of the Eclectic burning. The task 
 is a great one ; but at a time of such anxiety hard work is 
 a blessing, and just now our hands are very full of it." 
 
 i
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 409 
 
 Through the darkness of the war, and into the 
 light of victory and peace, she worked on, reaping 
 each year a larger and richer harvest of results. 
 
 About the end of 1865, a new and sacred duty 
 called her to leave the field in which for nearly 
 fifteen years she had achieved such remarkable 
 success. Her parents had become old and feeble, 
 and her father had so far failed in body and mind 
 as to need those tender personal services which 
 none but she could render. Without a murmur, 
 she closed the long period of her brilliant career at 
 Hiram ; and, leaving a circle of which she was the 
 chief ornament, she removed with her parents to 
 Cuyahoga Falls, established a quiet and unpre- 
 tending home, and began a new life of uncom- 
 plaining self-sacrifice. During the first year of 
 her residence there, she was manager and sole 
 servant of her household, and with the tenderest 
 filial piety devoted herself wholly to the care of 
 her parents. In the autumn of 1866, her father's 
 health had so far recovered, that, in addition to 
 her home cares, she accepted the place of Assist- 
 ant Principal in the Union Schools at Cuyahoga 
 Falls, then under the superintendence of V. P. 
 Kline, one of her Hiram students, and a cherished 
 friend. There she continued to teach four years,
 
 410 PKESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 when she was chosen as Superintendent of all the 
 schools of the village, and for three years dis- 
 charged the duties of that position with her wonted 
 success. 
 
 Her life at Cuyahoga Falls exhibited all her 
 peculiar powers, and attracted the same enthusi- 
 astic love which she had enjoyed among the stu- 
 dents at Hiram. But her long and arduous work 
 had begun to make inroads upon her health ; and, 
 withdrawing from the superintendency of the 
 schools, she gave private lessons to select classes 
 in French and German and other advanced studies 
 during the two succeeding years. At the close of 
 1874, her health was prostrated by a dangerous 
 and painful disease which required the most 
 skilful professional treatment. Few, even of her 
 most intimate friends, knew through what a terri- 
 ble ordeal of bodily suffering she passed the last 
 year of her life. In the autumn of 1875, she de- 
 termined to remove to Cleveland, where she coiild 
 receive the more constant attention of eminent 
 physicians. 
 
 Just before leaving Ohio, in October last, I 
 called on her in Cleveland, where she was spend- 
 ing a week near her physicians, and making ar- 
 rangements for a change of residence. She showed
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 411 
 
 no signs of depression of spirits. Patient and 
 cheerful, she looked forward to the hope of re- 
 gaining her health, and finding a home near the 
 friends of her earlier life. I expressed the desire 
 that she might yet do me the very great favor to 
 train my boys for college. The tears filled her 
 eyes as she said, " I should dearly love to do that ; 
 it would seem like living our own lives over 
 again ; " and then, pausing as if in doubt whether 
 it were not self-praise, she added, " I believe I can 
 teach the classics better than I could when I was 
 in Hiram." She spoke of her friends in that 
 warm and earnest way so peculiarly her own ; and 
 I bade her good-by with the promise, and in the 
 confident hope, that I would meet her in the Cen- 
 tennial summer, and enjoy again the blessings of 
 that friendship which for nearly a quarter of a 
 century was one of the noblest and richest gifts 
 that Heaven has vouchsafed to me. But it was 
 ordered otherwise by a wisdom higher than ours. 
 She removed to Cleveland on the 10th of Novem- 
 ber last, with health apparently improving. She 
 set in pleasant order her new home, in the midst 
 of a little colony of her dear old friends. Jennie 
 Eggleston was living with her ; Harry Rhodes and 
 his wife, Henry James, and Virgil Kline, all fa-
 
 412 PKESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 miliar Hiram names, were her neighbors ; and she 
 and they looked forward to a pleasant winter, to 
 be made brighter by frequent renewals of old 
 memories ; and the re-unions had begun. 
 
 On the 8th of December she and Miss Eggle- 
 ston spent the evening at Kline's, where they 
 read and visited several hours. Almeda read 
 aloud Emerson's essay on " Compensation," and 
 appeared to be all herself again. She seemed so 
 bright and so well that her friends thought a long 
 life of health and happiness was before her. But 
 that re-union was her last. Let me repeat the last 
 half-page she ever read : 
 
 " The compensations of calamity are made apparent to 
 the understanding also after long intervals of time. A fever, 
 a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss 
 of friends, seems at the moment unpaid loss and unpayable. 
 But the sure years reveal the deep remedial force that un- 
 derlies all facts. The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, 
 lover, -which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later 
 assumes the aspect of a guide or genius ; for it commonly 
 operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch 
 of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, 
 breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or a style of 
 living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly 
 to the growth of character. It permits or constrains the 
 formation of new acquaintances, and the reception of new 

 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 413 
 
 influences, that prove of the first importance to the next 
 years ; and the man or woman who would have remained a 
 sunny garden-flower, with no room for its roots, and too 
 much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and 
 the neglect of the gardener, is made the banian of the forest, 
 yielding shade and fruit to wide neighborhoods of men." 
 
 I cannot doubt that she felt the truth of these 
 words ; for they portray with singular fidelity the 
 course of her own life. Late that night she was 
 taken ill ; and after a week of great suffering, 
 borne with uncomplaining fortitude, she died on 
 the morning of Dec. 15, 1875. 
 
 One of her friends, who stood by her at the 
 closing scene, wrote me : 
 
 " She passed quietly away. Her face was so peaceful in 
 death, no trace of pain upon it. There she lay before us, as 
 though, weary with labor, she had fallen asleep. All that 
 loving hands could do for her we did. We wreathed her 
 coffin with flowers, and bore her remains to Cuyahoga Falls, 
 where a mournful and tearful audience awaited us at the 
 church. In the hearts of her last pupils, as in the hearts of 
 her earlier ones, there was deepest grief. All felt, as we 
 stood by her grave, that no nobler, grander, purer spirit ever 
 dwelt on the earth, or went up to heaven." 
 
 Such is the story of her life, all too poorly told. 
 I have attempted to trace her long and toilful 
 progress through its several stages. We have seen.
 
 414 PEESIDENT GAKFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 that, in fact, she lived three lives in one, first, 
 the life of early struggle promising to culminate 
 in the happy contentment of a home, with the 
 companionship and love of a husband ; second, the 
 larger life, born of a great sorrow, but leading her 
 along a rugged path to the calm heights of a 
 broad and beautiful culture, a life devoted to 
 great and successful achievements, as one of the 
 very foremost teachers of her time ; and, third, a 
 life of heroic and unselfish devotion to a sacred 
 filial duty, with added years of noble and beauti- 
 ful work as a teacher. 
 
 It remains to inquire what she has left to us as 
 a legacy and a lesson. Her life was so largely 
 and so inseparably a part of our own, that it is 
 not easy for any of us, least of all for me, to take 
 a sufficiently distant stand-point from which to 
 measure its proportions. 
 
 We shall never forget her sturdy, well-formed 
 figure ; her head that would have appeared colos- 
 sal but for its symmetry of proportions; the 
 strongly marked features of her plain, rugged face, 
 not moulded according to the artist's lines of 
 beauty, but so lighted up with intelligence and 
 kindliness as to appear positively beautiful to 
 those who knew her well.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 415 
 
 The basis of her character, the controlling force 
 which developed and formed it, was strength, 
 extraordinary intellectual power. Blessed with a 
 vigorous constitution and robust bodily health, 
 her capacity for close, continuous, and effective 
 mental work was remarkable. No stronger illus- 
 tration is possible than the fact, already exhibited, 
 that she accomplished, in four years, the ordinary 
 work of ten. 
 
 It is hardly possible for one person to know the 
 quality and strength of another's mind more thor- 
 oughly than I knew hers. From long association 
 in her studies, and comparing her with all the 
 students I have known, here and elsewhere, I do 
 not hesitate to say, that I have never known one 
 who grasped with greater power, and handled 
 with more ease and thoroughness, all the studies 
 of the college course. I doubt if in all these 
 respects I have ever known one who was her 
 equal. She caught an author's meaning with 
 remarkable quickness and clearness ; and, master- 
 ing the difficulties of construction, she detected, 
 with almost unerring certainty, the most delicate 
 shades of thought. 
 
 She abhorred all shams in scholarship, and 
 would be content with nothing short of the whole
 
 416 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 meaning. When crowded with work, it was not 
 unusual for her to sit'by her lamp, unconscious of 
 the hours, till far past midnight. 
 
 Her powers were well balanced. When I first 
 knew her, it was supposed that her mind was 
 specially adapted to mathematical study. A little 
 later, it was thought she had found her fittest 
 work in the field of the natural sciences ; later 
 still, one would have said that she had found her 
 highest possibilities in the languages ; and Pro- 
 fessor Monroe tells us with what ease she fathomed 
 the depths of so severe an argument as Butler's 
 " Analogy." 
 
 Her mind was many-sided, strong, compact, 
 symmetrical. It was this symmetry and balance 
 of qualities that gave her such admirable judg- 
 ment, and enabled her to concentrate all her 
 powers upon any work she attempted. 
 
 To this general statement concerning her facul- 
 ties there was, however, one marked exception. 
 While she enjoyed, and in some degree appre- 
 ciated, the harmonies of music, she was almost 
 wholly deficient in the faculty of musical expres- 
 sion. After her return from college, she deter- 
 mined to ascertain by actual test to what extent, 
 if at all, this defect could be overcome. With a
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 417 
 
 patience and courage I have never seen equalled 
 in such a case, she persisted for six months in the 
 attempt to master the technical mysteries of in- 
 strumental music, and even attempted one vocal 
 piece. But she found that the struggle was nearly 
 fruitless : the music in -her soul would not come 
 forth at her bidding. A few of her friends' will 
 remember, that, for many years, to mention " The 
 Suwanee River " was the signal for not a little 
 good-natured merriment at her expense, and a 
 reminder of her heroic attempt at vocal and in- 
 strumental music. 
 
 The tone of her mind was habitually logical 
 and serious, not specially inclined to what is tech- 
 nically known as wit ; but she had the heartiest 
 appreciation of genuine humor, such as glows on 
 the pages of Cervantes and Dickens. Clifton 
 Bennett and Levi Brown will never forget how 
 keenly she enjoyed the quaint drollery with which 
 they once presented, at a public lyceum, a scene 
 from " Don Quixote ; " and I am sure there are 
 three persons here to-day who will never forget 
 how nearly she was once suffocated with laughter 
 over a mock-presentation speech by Harry Rhodes. 
 
 Though possessed of very great intellectual 
 powers, or, as the arrogance of our sex accustoms
 
 418 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 us to say, " having a mind of masculine strength," 
 it was not at all masculine in the opprobrious 
 sense in which that term is frequently applied to 
 women. She was a most womanly woman, with 
 a spirit of gentle and childlike sweetness, with 
 no self-consciousness of superiority, and not the 
 least trace of arrogance. 
 
 I take pleasure in re-enforcing my own views 
 of the combined strength and gentleness of her 
 character, by quoting the following letter from 
 the Hon. James Monroe, who was one of her 
 esteemed professors at Oberlin : 
 
 " HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES, WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 "May 28, 1876. 
 
 " MY DEAR GENERAL, I learn that you are preparing 
 an address upon the life and character of Miss Almeda A. 
 Booth ; and I cannot resist the impulse to write you a note 
 upon this interesting subject, thus contributing my rill of 
 memories to your broader and deeper current. 
 
 " It is among the gratifying recollections of my life that 
 Miss Booth was a pupil of mine for a considerable period of 
 time, in connection with a college class at Oberlin. Soon 
 after I began to observe the habit of her mind, I discovered 
 that she was a remarkable woman. What at first struck my 
 attention was the union in her character, in a degree very 
 uncommon, of masculine intellectual strength and perfect 
 womanly gentleness.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 419 
 
 " Her intellectual powers were such as would at once have 
 attracted attention in any undergraduate in any college. 
 She had not only great force, but force which worked with 
 evident ease, without friction and without conscious effort. 
 I shall never forget her recitations in Butler's 'Analogy.' 
 Often when one member in the class after another had failed 
 rightly to interpret some difficult paragraph, Miss Booth, 
 when called upon, would at once, without hesitation, with- 
 out self -consciousness, and with no idea whatever of being 
 superior to others, set the passage in the truest and clearest 
 light, both as to its intrinsic meaning and its relation to the 
 context. She used to recite the 'Analogy' as if she had 
 written it. I remember the pleased expression of relief 
 which passed over the faces of her classmates when she 
 extricated them from some difficulty. They all esteemed 
 and praised her, and her superiority made no one envi- 
 ous. 
 
 "Her gentleness of character was as remarkable as her 
 strength of intellect. She seemed to think well of all her 
 acquaintances, and never, to my knowledge, thought she had 
 a grievance. She was noticeably kind and helpful to those 
 who needed attention, and loved her fellow-creatures with 
 the same love which led Christ to die for them. On the 
 whole, she was as good an example of combined ' sweetness 
 and light ' as I have met with. 
 
 " After she left Oberlin you knew much more of her than 
 I did. I often regretted that I could not continue my ac- 
 quaintance with her. But I frequently heard of her great 
 usefulness, and of the high esteem in which she was held 
 wherever she resided. She was a large, strong, loving soul ;
 
 420 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 and any community which was favored with her presence 
 must have been the better for it. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "JAMES MONROE." 
 
 Though possessing these great powers, she was 
 not unmindful of those elegant accomplishments, 
 the love of which seems native to the mind of 
 woman. 
 
 In her earlier years she was sometimes criti- 
 cised as caring too little for the graces of dress 
 and manner; and there was some justice in the 
 criticism. The possession of great powers, no 
 doubt, carries with it a contempt for mere exter- 
 nal show. In her early life Miss Booth dressed 
 neatly, though with the utmost plainness, and 
 applied herself to the work of gaining the more 
 enduring ornaments of mind and heart. In her 
 first years at Hiram she had devoted all her 
 powers to teaching and mastering the difficulties 
 of the higher studies, and had given but little 
 time to what are called the more elegant accom- 
 plishments. But she was not deficient in appre- 
 ciation of all that really adorns and beautifies a 
 thorough culture. After her return from Oberlin 
 she paid more attention to the "mint, anise, an,d 
 cummin" of life. During the last fifteen y '.an.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 421 
 
 of her life, few ladies dressed with more severe or 
 elegant taste. As a means of personal culture, 
 she read the history of art, devoted much time to 
 drawing and painting, and acquired considerable 
 skill with the pencil and brush. 
 
 She did not enjoy miscellaneous society. Great 
 crowds were her abhorrence. But in a small 
 circle of congenial friends she was a delighted 
 and a delightful companion. 
 
 Her religious character affords an additional 
 illustration of her remarkable combination of 
 strength and gentleness. At an early age she 
 became a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and continued in faithful and consistent 
 relations with that organization until she united 
 with the Disciples, soon after she came to Hiram. 
 
 Her firmness was severely tested by the reli- 
 gious changes which occurred in her own home. 
 Her father's enthusiastic temperament led him to 
 study any new phases of religious opinion, with 
 a somewhat impressible credulity. The Mormon 
 movement of 1830-32 swept him, for a time, into 
 its turbulent current ; and, ten or fifteen years 
 later, he was interested in the socialistic theories 
 of the Shakers, with whom, as I understand, he 
 united for a short time. Later still, he paid much
 
 422 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 attention to the Spiritualistic philosophy. But 
 while Miss Booth thoroughly respected the sin- 
 cerity of her father's opinions, and from them 
 doubtless became wisely tolerant and liberal in 
 her opinions, she maintained firmly, but without 
 bigotry, her faith in God and in the life to come. 
 She cared little for mere differences of ecclesiasti- 
 cal form, and abhorred every species of ostenta- 
 tious and noisy piety : but her life was full of the 
 calmness and beauty of religion ; her heart was 
 filled with the charity that " suffereth long, and is 
 kind," and, still greater, that "thinketh no evil." 
 At the memorial meeting held here soon after her 
 death, the very just and striking statement was 
 made by one who had known her from child- 
 hood, that he "had never heard her speak evil of 
 any human being." 
 
 I venture to assert, that in native powers of 
 mind, in thoroughness and breadth of scholarship, 
 in womanly sweetness of spirit, and in the quan- 
 tity and quality of effective, unselfish work done, 
 she has not been excelled by any American 
 woman. What she accomplished with her great 
 powers, thoroughly trained and subordinated to 
 the principles of a Christian life, has been briefly 
 stated.
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 423 
 
 She did not find it necessary to make war upon 
 society in order to capture a field for the exercise 
 of her great qualities. Though urging upon 
 women the necessity of the largest and most 
 thorough culture, and demanding for them the 
 amplest means for acquiring it, she did not waste 
 her years in bewailing the subjection of her sex, 
 but employed them in making herself a great and 
 beneficent power. She did far more to honor and 
 exalt woman's place in society than the thousands 
 of her contemporaries who struggle more earnest- 
 ly for the barren sceptre of power than for fitness 
 to wield it. 
 
 She might have adorned the highest walks of 
 literature, and doubtless might thus have won a 
 noisy fame. But it may be doubted whether in 
 any other pursuit she could have conferred greater 
 or more lasting benefits upon her fellow-creatures, 
 than by the life she so faithfully and successfully 
 devoted to the training and culture of youth. 
 With no greed of power or of gain, she found her 
 chief reward in blessing others. 
 
 I do not know of any man or woman, who, at 
 fifty-one years of age, had done more or better 
 work. I have not been able to ascertain precisely 
 how long she taught before she came to Hiram ;
 
 424 PRESIDENT GAEFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 but it was certainly not less than fifteen terms. 
 She taught forty -two terms here, twenty-one terms 
 in the Union School at Cuyahoga Falls, and, 
 finally, two years in private classes ; in all, nearly 
 twenty-eight years of faithful and most successful 
 teaching, to which she devoted the wealth of her 
 great faculties and admirable scholarship. 
 
 How rich and how full was the measure of 
 gratitude poured out to her, from many thousands 
 of loving hearts ! And to-day, from every station 
 in life, and from every quarter of our country, are 
 heard the voices of those who rise up to call her 
 blessed, and to pay their tearful tribute of grati- 
 tude to her memory. 
 
 On my own behalf, I take this occasion to say, 
 that for her generous and powerful aid, so often 
 and so efficiently rendered, for her quick and 
 never-failing sympathy, and for her intelligent, 
 unselfish, and unswerving friendship, I owe her a 
 debt of gratitude and affection, for the payment 
 of which the longest term of life would have been 
 too short. 
 
 To this institution she has left the honorable 
 record of a long and faithful service, and the rich 
 legacy of a pure and noble life. I have shown 
 that she lived three lives. One of these, the sec-
 
 ALMEDA A. BOOTH. 425 
 
 ond, in all its richness and fulness, she gave to 
 Hiram. More than half of all her teaching was 
 done here, where she taught much longer than 
 any other person has taught ; and no one has done 
 work of better quality. 
 
 She has here reared a monument which the 
 envious years cannot wholly destroy. As long as 
 the love of learning shall here survive ; as long as 
 the light of this college shall be kept burning ; as 
 long as there are hearts to hold and cherish the 
 memory of its past; as long as high qualities of 
 mind and heart are honored and loved among men 
 and women, so long will the name of Almeda A. 
 Booth be here remembered, and honored, and 
 loved. 
 
 All who knew her at any period of her career 
 will carry her memory as a perpetual and precious 
 possession. With the changing of a single word, 
 we may say of our friend what the Poet Laure- 
 ate of England said of " Isabel : " 
 
 " The intuitive decision of a bright 
 And thorough-edged intellect to part 
 Error from crime ; a prudence to withhold ; 
 The laws of friendship charactered in gold 
 Upon the blanched tablets of her heart ; 
 A love still burning upward, giving light
 
 426 PRESIDENT GARFIELD AND EDUCATION. 
 
 To read those laws ; . . . 
 
 A courage to endure and to obey : 
 
 A hate of gossip parlance and of sway; 
 
 .... the world hath not another 
 
 (Though all her fairest forms are types of thee, 
 
 And thou of God in thy great charity) 
 
 Of such a finished chastened purity."
 
 APPENDIX.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE ARMY POST SCHOOLS. 
 
 SINCE the account of these schools given in the 
 "Introduction to Speeches" 1 was written, and 
 even put in type, I have received a mass of valuable 
 information concerning them, some parts of which will 
 be of interest here. 
 
 The law of 1866 remained a dead letter until 1875. 
 Chaplain George G. Mullins, of the Twenty-fifth In- 
 fantry, discovered the existence of the law, and began 
 to make demands upon his colonel and the War De- 
 partment that its terms and provisions be carried out." 
 Mullins's work and reports, and a report made by Gen. 
 N. H. Davis of his observations in a tour of inspection 
 in the Department of Texas, led to the organization 
 of the Board that framed the rules and regulations of 
 General Order No. 24, May 18, 1878. These rules form 
 
 1 Pp. 169-173. 
 
 ' Sect. 1,124 of the Revised Statutes mode it the duty of chaplains of 
 regiments of colored troops and of post chaplains to instruct the enlisted 
 men in tbe common English branches of education. 
 
 429
 
 430 APPENDIX. 
 
 the basis of the post-schools. Rules 1, 2, 3, and 4 pro- 
 vide for the accumulation and management of a post 
 fund. This fund comes from two sources : first, the 
 post-trader at a post is required to pay for his privilege, 
 " not exceeding ten cents a month for every officer 
 and enlisted soldier serving at the post ; " second, the 
 troops, when practicable, are required to bake their 
 own bread, and the difference between bread and flour, 
 which is thirty-three and one-third per cent in favor of 
 flour, goes to the post fund. Rule 7 names the objects 
 to which the fund thus accumulated shall be devoted. 
 In their order they are : 1. Expenses of bake-house: 
 2. Garden seeds and utensils ; 3. Post schools ; 4. 
 Post library and reading-room ; 5. Gymnasium ; 6. 
 Chapel ; 7. Fruit and shade trees ; 8. Fruit-bearing 
 vines and bushes ; 9. Printing-press. Order No. 24 
 contains minute regulations, covering the whole ground 
 of education in the army. 
 
 Chaplain Mullins was duly appointed assistant to 
 General McCook, the inspector, and he now holds the 
 office of Supervisor of Education in the Army. He is 
 enthusiastically devoted to the work, and has already 
 done much, through the means appointed by the law, to 
 foster the intelligence and morality of the soldiers. 
 In an able article entitled "Education in the Army," 
 contributed to the "United Service" magazine for 
 April, 1880, the chaplain presents the argument for 
 the schools with great force.
 
 APPENDIX. 431 
 
 The majority of the twenty-five thousand enlisted^ 
 men in the army are native-born citizens, and not for- 
 eigners. They are not hardened wretches, but hopeful 
 and adventurous young men, generally under thirty 
 years of age, the mass of whom are illiterate, the 
 larger part not being able properly to sign the muster- 
 rolls. Many of the non-commissioned officers cannot / 
 repeat the multiplication-table, know nothing of the his- 
 tory of the country, cannot study the " Tactics," and 
 are wholly unable to write, or to read written orders. 
 He points out the inevitable tendencies of such igno- 
 rance under the well-known conditions of army-life, " 
 drunkenness, idleness, shirking duty, want of self-re- 
 spect, and other vices and immoralities. The tendency - 
 of the schools to correct these evils, in great degree, is 
 stated, and well supported by facts. Then he speaks 
 of the multitude of dependent children in the army, or 
 in some way belonging to it, children of officers, en- 
 listed men, and employees, besides the children of set- 
 tlers around the posts. He supposes these to be three 
 or four thousand in number. "The majority of these 
 precious impedimenta are west of the Mississippi, at the 
 posts upon the wild frontier, far removed from schools, 
 churches, and the thousand refining influences of civil 
 life. To provide teachers, books, and papers for them, 
 to save them from heathenish darkness, to train them 
 up for lives of virtue and usefulness, ought surely to
 
 432 APPENDIX. 
 
 be counted a matter of sufficient gravity to challenge 
 the attention of the wise legislators who are doing so 
 very much in the interest of national education." He 
 then urges the strong claim of the common soldier and 
 his child for an education, and remarks upon the fact, 
 that until the post-schools were organized nothing 
 whatever was done for either. 
 
 From the annual report of the Supervisor of Educa- 
 tion in the Army, dated St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 1, 1881, 
 it appears that the approximate number of enlisted 
 men in daily attendance upon the reading-rooms for 
 the year is 4,800. The average attendance upon the 
 j schools has been, enlisted men, 912; children of 
 enlisted men, 850 ; children of officers, 224 ; children 
 of civilians, 316 : total average number, 2,302. Thus 
 far there have been built at the various military posts 
 fifty-two chapels, schools, and reading-rooms, at a total 
 cost of $60,757. Large contributions of reading 
 matter Bibles, Testaments, song- books, periodicals, 
 tracts, Sunday-school books, and miscellaneous works 
 have been received through the year from various 
 sources, as the publication societies and private indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 This fuller account of the post-schools is given for 
 three reasons : 
 
 1. The public are almost wholly ignorant of the ex- 
 istence of these schools, and of the efforts being made
 
 APPENDIX. 433 
 
 through them to increase the intelligence and moral- 
 ity of the army. 
 
 2. The schools themselves are important. Of course 
 they, and all the related appliances, are still in their 
 infancy ; but experience proves conclusively that a 
 foundation was laid in the law of 1866 for incalculable 
 good. 
 
 Both these considerations alone would not justify 
 the space here given to the subject, or even a mention. 
 But 
 
 3. In a sense, these are Garfield's schools. Speak- 
 ing of the law of 1866, he said near the close of his 
 life, "That is one of my things." He originated the 
 measure, though it was supported by General R. C. 
 Schenck, and promptly approved by House and Senate. 
 His interest in the post-schools continued to the end. 
 He indorsed Chaplain Mullins as ' ' the man for the 
 work ; " and, after he became President, told him that 
 he wished him to remove his headquarters to Washing- 
 ton. He assured the supervisor that he should have 
 the Executive's earnest co-operation in his good work.
 
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